Phuket History

Struggle For Democracy

Phuket History - Struggle for Democracy - King Rama VII In June 1932, during the reign of King Prajadhipok Rama VII (1893-1941), a small group of Thai military and political leaders organized a successful revolt against the government, until then an absolute monarchy. The insurgents, led by Pridi Phanomyong and Colonel Phibul Songgram, proclaimed a constitutional monarchy. In March 1935 Rama VII abdicated in favor of his nephew, Prince Ananda Mahidol (1924-46).

In 1932 Phuket Island was made a separate province The new government was very nationalistic and became an active supporter of Japanese initiatives that promoted "Asia for Asians" as a foreign policy. In 1933, Thailand abstained from voting on a motion to condemn Japan for occupying Manchuria. One of its first parliamentary acts was to invalidate all treaties with foreign nations, and greatly enhance the budgets for the army and navy. In September 1939 Thailand declared its neutrality but continued to openly side with Japan. In June 1940 Thailand signed non-aggression pacts with Britain and France.

In September 1940 with Japanese encouragement and support, Phibul's government made demands on occupied France, to return territory ceded in and after 1893. In November 1940 the Thai army attacked and occupied parts of Laos and Cambodia. The dispute was settled, with Japanese mediation, in January 1941. By the terms of the settlement, Thailand received part of western Cambodia and all of Laos west of the Mekong River. There was in Thailand great rejoicing in reasserting control over this territory and the relations between Japan and Thailand became increasingly friendly thereafter.

On December 8, 1941, a few hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan demanded the right to move troops across the country to the Malayan frontier. The Japanese landed at Bangkok and at several locations along the east coast of southern Thailand. The Thai army put up a nominal resistance for some six to eight hours before determining it would be impossible to defend the kingdom from the Japanese and granted them free passage. On December 21, 1941, Thailand and Japan signed an alliance with a secret protocol wherein Tokyo agreed to help Thailand get back territories lost and Thailand undertook to assist Japan in her war against Allied forces. Japan made a pledge to respect the sovereignty and independence of Thailand. On January 25, 1942 Thailand declared war on the United States and Great Britain.

The Thai version of history during WWII is largely at variance with the facts, and is usually summarized with a few very short sentences in Thai history books. Regarding war crimes committed in Thailand during the war there is near total amnesia. Thailand allowed the Japanese to move Allied POWs (prisoners of war) to central Thailand where they were forced to work on a railroad link with Burma (made famous with the movie ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’). At least 16,000 Allied POW’s, and 100,000 plus Asian workers were starved and worked to death on Thai soil and are buried outside of Kanchanaburi. In May 1944 Allied planes intensified the bombing campaign on Bangkok and targets throughout Thailand. In July 1944 with the war going badly for the Japanese, Phibul's pro-Japanese government was voted out by the Thai parliament. Under the new prime minister, and with the support and leadership of pro-western Pridi Phanomyong considerable sympathy for the Allied cause developed among the Thai people.

After the war ended, Thailand was in an awkward position it that it was neither an occupied country nor a liberated one. Thailand was allowed to nullify its declaration of war against the United States, sparing Thailand the ignominy of becoming part of the defeated Axis alliance. Thailand over the objections of several neighboring countries and Britain avoided prosecution for war crimes. To prevent Thailand from gaining any territory from its duplicity during the war, Thailand was obliged to conclude a treaty with Great Britain and India, renouncing, among other things, its claims to Malayan and Burmese territory obtained during the war. In November 1946 Thailand reached an agreement with France providing for the return to France of the territory obtained in 1941.

A civilian government under Seni Pramoj led the nation between 1945 and 1946. Meanwhile, on June 9, 1946, King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) was killed under mysterious circumstances. A regency was appointed to rule until his brother (the current king) and successor, King Rama IX, came of age. Thailand was admitted to the United Nations on December 15, 1946, becoming the 55th member.

Phuket History - Struggle for Democracy In 1947 a bloodless military coup brought General Phibul Songgram back to power. Except for a brief period early in 1948, Phibul retained control of the government until 1957. His regime, essentially a dictatorship, based its foreign policy on maintaining close relations with the U.S. and Great Britain. On November 29, 1951, a group of army officers seized control of the government in a coup d'état and reestablished the authoritarian constitution of 1932. Phibul was retained as premier. In September 1957, Phibul's government was overthrown by a military coup d'état led by General Sarit Thanarat, commander in chief of the Thai armed forces. A coalition government was formed in January 1958 under the premiership of General Thanom Kittikachorn. Another coup in October 1958, again headed by General Sarit, overthrew the General Thanom government. The constitution was suspended, a state of martial law was proclaimed, and all political parties were banned. A permanent constitution was promulgated in June 1968 (it lasted a little over three years) and parliamentary elections were held in February 1969. In November 1971 the military, led by General Thanom, abolished the new constitution and dissolved Parliament. In December 1972 a new constitution was proclaimed.

General Thanom was replaced in 1973, after a series of student-led demonstrations against the military government initiated public demand for demographic reforms. In late 1974 a new constitution was approved, and a freely elected government was formed in early 1975. Stability, however, remained elusive, and new elections in April 1976 made little difference. In September of that year the return of former Prime Minister Thanom from exile in Singapore led to bloody battles in Bangkok between students and his right-wing supporters. In early October, as disorder was spreading, a military group led by Admiral Sa-ngad Chaloryu seized control of the country and installed a conservative government. A year later, however, that government also was brought down by Sa-ngad and his group, who charged a new cabinet with trying to bridge the divisions of Thai society and improve relations with the neighboring Communist regimes. Yet another constitution was promulgated in December 1978, and in April 1979 elections were held for a new house of representatives. The military-installed government, however, remained in power for another year, when it was faced with a vote of no confidence and resigned. A new cabinet, headed by General Prem Tinsulanonda, took power in March 1980. Gen. Prem Tinsulanonda, the new prime minister, survived attempted coups in 1981 and 1985 and remained prime minister following elections in 1981 and 1986. Invited to remain in office after elections in 1988, Prem unexpectedly refused and ex-General Chatichai Choonhavan became prime minister.

In February 1991, the military overthrew the Chatchai government in a bloodless coup, and handed power to the newly formed National Peace-Keeping Council (NPKC) led by General Suchinda Kraprayoon. It was Thailand’s 19th coup attempt and one of ten successful coups since 1932 however it was only the second coup to overthrow a democratically elected civilian government. At the time of the coup General Chatchai had served longer than any elected prime minister in Thailand’s’ history 2 year and seven months. Charging Chatchai’s civilian government with corruption and vote-buying, the NPKC abolished the 1978 constitution and dissolved parliament. Whether or not Chatchai’s government was guilty of vote-buying, one of his major mistakes was his appointment of General Chaovalit Yongchaiyuth (who is the current Prime Minister) as defense minister. He was considered the enemy of the generals who engineered the coup General Suchinda a group of Class 5 members. (Graduates of the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy are grouped into year groups that tend to bond them together as a fraternity for the rest of their careers. The infamous Class 5 graduated in 1958). The Chatchai government had been encroaching into areas of foreign policy traditionally reserved for the military, most specifically relations with Burma, Laos, and Cambodia, and the generals may have feared that the prime Minister would attempt to replace them.

Following the coup, the NPKC appointed a hand-picked civilian prime minister, Anand Panyarachun, former ambassador to the USA and the UN to dispel public fears that the junta was planning a return to military rule. Anand claimed to be his own man, but like his predecessors --elected or not-- he was allowed the freedom to make decisions only insofar as they did not affect the military. In spite of the obvious constraints, many observers felt Anand’s temporary premiership and cabinet were the best Thailand had ever had. In December of 1991, Thailand’s national assembly passed a new constitution that guaranteed an NPKC-biased parliament, 270 appointed senators in the upper house stacked against 360 elected representatives. Under this constitution, regardless of who is chosen as the next prime minister or which political parties fill the lower house, the government will remain largely in the hands of the military.

A general election in March 1992 ushered in a five party coalition government, led by pro-military parties. When the new prime minister designee was linked to Thailand’s drug trade, the military sought to defend the honor and integrity of the new Thai government by immediately replacing him with General Suchinda. The NPKC promised to eradicate corruption and build democracy.

In May 1992, several huge demonstrations demanding Gen. Suchinda’s resignation led by the charismatic Bangkok Governor Chamlong Srimuang rocked Bangkok and larger provincial capitals. In a bloody encounter reminiscent to many with the military put-down in Beijing’s Tian’an Men Square. Street confrontations in Bangkok between protesters and the military resulted in at least 50 deaths and hundreds of injuries. The brutal suppression of the demonstrations by the army forced prime minister Suchinda to resign after less than six weeks as premier. The king reinstated Anand Panyarachun as interim prime minister for a four-month term, once again winning praise from most people for his even-handed and efficient administration.

Pro-democracy parties who won a slim majority in the September 1992 elections squeezed in veteran Democrat Party leader Chuan Leekpai. A food vendor’s son and a native of the southern Thailand province of Trang. The new premier did not fit the mold of past Prime Ministers, as he was neither a general, a tycoon, nor an academic. Though well regarded for his honesty and high morals, the Chuan administration hampered by coalition partners accomplished little in the areas of major concern. The Chuan government was brought down by a land scandal that was centered on the Phuket Island. A land-reform program that was devised to give ownership of land to the poor was discredited when it was publicly disclosed that rich owners of property were the largest recipients of the program.

From June 1995 to June 1996, the country celebrated the 50th anniversary of the rule of King Rama IX. Banharn Silpa-archa became prime minister after elections in July 1995. Plagued with accusations of graft and corruption from the first day in office the Barnhan government was forced to call for elections in the November of 1996 after only 16 months in office. The elections in November were among the "dirtiest" in the short history of democracy in Thailand. It is widely accepted that at least twenty five billion baht was spent buying votes from the rural areas of the country. The National Aspiration Party (NAP) lead by Chaovalit Yongchaiyuth and a coalition of five parties formed a government. The new government walked into an economic buzzsaw for which it was ill prepared to deal with. The banking and finance sector of the economy was being crushed under the weight of bad loans. As internationl banks and investors became more suspicious of the veracity of the figures and projections being made by the banks and government officials it set off the "mother-of-all" capital flights from the country. So much money left the country so fast the IMF had to be called in to prevent a complete collaspe of the Thai economy. The stock market crashed as the true amount of borrowed money invested in un-productive segments of the economy became apparent and the currency lost over half of its value in just six months. When the end results of decade of spectacular economic growth in Thailand were laid bare for the world to examine; it ignited the Asian economic crisis that is on-going today.

With it's already tiny credibility shattered and the economy in tatters the Chaovalit government stepped aside in November of 1997 and let the Democratic Party led by Chuan Leekpai again assume the reigns of power. Widely regarded as the most honest polictian in Thailand the Chuan II Government has its work cut out. To date the Chuan government is widely popular and appears poised and able to continue making the tough decisions that are required to restore international credability in the Thai economy.