1980s: Decline
In 1980 the Thai government adopted a government order, "66/2523", encouraging CPT cadres to defect. Former cadres were eventually granted amnesty.
In March 1981 the Socialist Party of Thailand broke its relation with the CPT, claiming that CPT was controlled by foreign influences.
In April 1981 the CPT leadership proposed the Thai government to initiate peace talks. The Thai government responded that the CPT fighters had to demobilize before any talks could be initiated. In a declaration on October 25, 1981 Major General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the director of the Thai Army Operations Department, said that the war against CPT armed forces was approaching its end as all major bases of the PLAT in the North and North-East had been destroyed.
In 1982 the government, under the then-Prime Minister General Prem Tinsulanonda, issued another executive order, 65/2525, offering amnesty to CPT/PLAT fighters.
In 1982-1983 CPT experienced mass defections of its cadres, and its military potential was severely reduced. Many of those that defected in the early 1980s were the students and intellectuals that joined CPT after the 1976 massacre. The defectors generally rejected the Maoist ideological positions of the CPT, arguing that Thailand was emerging as an industrial nation and the peasant war strategy had to be abandoned.
At the time, the arrests of two high-profile CPT leaders occurred. Damri Ruangsutham, influential politburo member, and Surachai Sae Dan, a leading figure of the party in southern Thailand, were captured by state forces.
There have been no reports of CPT activity since the beginning of the 1990s. However, the exact fate of the party is not known, and it remains banned to this day.
Read more about this topic: Communist Party Of Thailand
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