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[BANGKOK] Thailand’s reform movement recently scored a small victory with the passing of the Community Liquor Bill by the 500-member Lower House with 414 votes in its favour, comprising both government and opposition members of parliament.

The Bill will still need to clear the Senate where a favourable outcome is expected, and then be promulgated and published in the Royal Gazette before going into effect.

While the new legislation passed on Jan 15 was pushed by government lawmakers, it was in fact the legal handiwork of Taopiphop Limjittrakorn, a 35-year-old MP from the opposition People’s Power Party.

“I have been fighting for this law for the past eight years, ever since I was arrested for illegal beer brewing,” said Taopiphop, a lawyer by training and a craft beer brewer by preference, in an interview with The Business Times at his pub – Taopiphop Bar Project – in Bangkok.

He first joined the Future Forward Party in 2018 before it was disbanded and later moved to the Move Forward Party, which was dissolved in 2024.