Kukrit Pramoj

Kukrit Pramoj (1974)

Mom Rajawongse kukrit pramoj ( Thai : ... ร ว ม คึก ฤทธิ์ ปราโมช , RTGS : Khuek-rit Pramot spoken [ kʰɯk.rít praːmôːt ] * 20 April 1911 in In Buri District ( province of Sing Buri , Thailand); † October 9, 1995 in Bangkok ) was a Thai politician, publicist and writer. From 1975 to 1976 he was brief prime minister of the country.

As the editor of the Siam Rath newspaper, Kukrit helped shape public opinion in the country. In addition, he wrote non-fiction books, including about history and politics, as well as novels and short stories. In 1946 he was involved in founding the Democratic Party , and in 1974 in the Social Action Party (SAP). From 1973 to 1974 he was President of Parliament, a year later he became head of government for 10 months. He also played a role alongside Marlon Brando in the film The Ugly American .

family

Kukrit's parents were Prince Kamrob, who was the commander of the Second Army and later General Director of the Police, and Mom Daeng Bunnag . He was a great-grandson of King Rama II. His minor nobility title, Mom Rajawongse , reflects this distant descent from the royal family. Seni Pramoj was his older brother.

Education and professional career

He attended the renowned Suankularb Wittayalai School . He then studied in Great Britain , first at Trent College economics and then at Queen's College of Oxford University the course philosophy, politics and economics , which he graduated with an honors degree in 1933 .

Kukrit in 1946

After returning to Thailand in 1933, he worked in the country's highest financial authority and then at the Thai central bank . Then he became secretary to the Treasury Secretary's advisor . He left the civil service to work for the Siam Commercial Bank in Lampang . In 1938 he married Mom Rajawongse Pakpring Thongyai, with whom he had two children, from whom he later separated. During World War II he served as a private in the Thai army . After the war, he worked as head of the central administration and as head of the credit department of the newly established Bank of Thailand . He also taught banking at Thammasat and Chulalongkorn Universities . A little later he became managing director of the Bangkok Commercial Bank .

Beginnings in politics and work as an author

In 1945, while his brother Seni was Prime Minister for a few months, he founded the conservative-royalist “Progress Party” and won a parliamentary seat in Bangkok for it. In 1946 the party became part of the Democratic Party , which he and his brother were also instrumental in founding. After the coup in 1947 and the election victory of the Democrats in 1948, Kukrit became finance minister. After a few months, however, the military took over again and the Democrats went into opposition. From 1950 he was editor of the daily newspaper Siam Rath , which he founded , which also pursued a conservative and royalist editorial line. As a political writer, he was known for his sharp wit and feared by his opponents. Kukrit became one of the main representatives of the country's intellectual elite.

In 1953 he published his most important historical novel, Si Phaendin ("Four Lords "), which tells the story of a family at the Thai court under four kings from the late 19th century to the 1940s. The work reflects Kukrit's basic royalist conviction in social and political issues. In 1954 he published the novel Phai Daeng ("Red Bamboo") in weekly episodes in his newspaper Siam Rath . It was essentially a transfer of the stories about Don Camillo and Peppone by Giovannino Guareschi , in which he humorously targeted communist ideas.

Kukrit Pramoj in the 1950s

When the anti-aristocratic prime minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram (Phibun) accused the newspaper Siam Rath in 1955 of supporting the king, Kukrit countered that anyone who did not show the king “devotion and loyalty” had a “perverse attitude”. After the rigged elections in 1957, he attacked not only Phibun and Police General Phao Siyanon , but also the United States Ambassador , Max Bishop, who was very supportive of the Thai government at the time. He compared this with a gangster and accused him of having taught Phao and Phibun how to fraud. For this, Kukrit was sentenced to a month's imprisonment, which was however overturned in the professional court.

Kukrit justified Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat's coup in 1957 and its establishment of an authoritarian system a year later. He described this as a "form of government of the Thai type". At that time, Kukrit did not see free democracy based on the western model as the right solution for Thailand, since only politicians driven by self-interest would rule in Thailand. In 1963 he supported the film adaptation of the political novel The Ugly American , which is set in the fictional Southeast Asian country of Sarkhan , as a cultural advisor . He also played the role of Prime Minister of this country, where the main character played by Marlon Brando is the American ambassador.

After the popular democratic uprising in 1973 , which ended military rule, King Bhumibol Adulyadej temporarily appointed a National Legislative Assembly. Kukrit became president of this body. In 1974 he participated in the formation of the Social Action Party , which he chaired until 1985. Although this was still royalist and was supported by a group of bank managers, it also pursued an ambitious reform program and was therefore rated as comparatively progressive.

Term of office as Prime Minister

In the January 1975 election, Kukrit won a seat in parliament . The Democrats, led by his brother Seni, had won most of the seats, but Seni's coalition government did not last and he lost a vote of confidence shortly after his appointment as prime minister. As a result, Kukrit formed a coalition to which more than a dozen parties belonged. Among them, in addition to his SAP, were the right-wing military-related parties Chart Thai and “Social Justice” ( Tham Sangkhom ).

The so-called “coalition of united parties” actually acted as if there were at least three “small governments”. Each of the main coalition partners had their own agenda. The part of the government led by Kukrits SAP tried to develop the backward interior of the country and fight poverty. To do this, she bought rice from farmers at a guaranteed minimum price, introduced minimum wages and built public housing. It also pursued a policy of decentralization. Kukrit urged rich landowners to voluntarily give up land or sell it at low prices to the government so that they could distribute it to landless farmers.

Kukrit announces the withdrawal of US troops from Thailand, with Foreign Minister Chatichai Choonhavan next to him (1976)

He was also responsible for the establishment of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA), which bought the licenses from the various private bus providers and still organizes the capital's local public transport to this day . Kukrit urged the United States to announce that it would withdraw its troops stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War within a year. He established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and reunified Vietnam, and even intended to abolish the Thai anti-communism law.

His conservative coalition partners, however, rejected several of these projects and prevented their implementation. The military also repeatedly threatened coups. The voluntary land reform failed because no landowners took part in it. Compliance with minimum wages was not enforced. Due to rivalries between the coalition parties, Kukrit's government was very unstable. In January 1976, after less than 10 months, it broke. Kukrit dissolved parliament and called new elections in April. In these, Kukrit lost his parliamentary seat in a constituency in which many military lived, to Samak Sundaravej from the right wing of the opposition Democrats.

"Elder Statesman"

Kukrit's house on Soi Suan Phlu

After the election, the Democrats under Kukrit's brother Seni formed the government again. Kukrit returned to his journalistic activities. He also showed exceptionally slight political differences with King Bhumibol. While Kukrit expressed his horror in his column about the return of the exiled military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn to Thailand, the king showed benevolence towards him. Following the massacre at Thammasat University , the military returned to power. Kukrit retired to the role of an "Elder Statesman" and preferred to act from the background than to take on public office again. He occasionally criticized the military's interference in politics, as well as the takeover of government by the army chief Prem Tinsulanonda in 1980.

In 1985, Kukrit finally gave up his office at the Social Action Party and withdrew completely from active politics. However, he kept his Soi Suan Phlu (after the alley in which his house stands) headed column in the Siam Rath , in which he regularly took a clear position on political events. In 1987 he sharply criticized General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's proposal to elect the prime minister directly. Kukrit asked what role the king would then remain and implicitly implied Chavalit that he wanted to abolish the monarchy. This was temporarily discredited. 1988 Kukrit was honorary to Major General of the Royal Life Guards transported. In 1994 he sold Siam Rath, which had meanwhile become loss-making .

Kukrit Pramoj, who suffered from severe diabetes and had heart disease, died on October 9, 1995 at the age of 84 in Bangkok.

Supplementary literature

• Robert Rochlen: Conversations with Kukrit Promoj
• MR Kukrit Pramoj: His Wit and Wisdom. Writings, Speeches, and Interviews. Edited by Vilas Manivat and Steve Van Beek.

Web links

• Kurzbiografie (English)
• History of Thai Prime Ministers

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chris Baker , Pasuk Phongpaichit: A History of Thailand. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0521-767-682 , pp. 297 f.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Thanet Aphornsuvan: Kukrit Pramoj. Royalist Democrat. In: Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara CA 2004, pp. 749-750.
3. ^ Charles F. Keyes: Thailand. Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation-State. Westview Press, 1987, p. 188.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Kevin Hewison, Kengkij Kitirianglarp: 'Thai Style Democracy'. The Royalist Struggle for Thailand's Politics. In: Saying the Unsayable. 2010, pp. 185-186.
5. ^ Daniel Fineman: A Special Relationship. The United States and Military Government in Thailand, 1947–1958. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu 1997, ISBN 0-8248-1818-0 , p. 236.
6. ↑ Michael Kelly Connors: Thailand. In: The Southeast Asia Handbook. Fitzroy Dearborn, Chicago / London 2001, p. 41.
7. ↑ Erik Kuhonta: The Institutional Imperative. The Politics of Equitable Development in Southeast Asia. Stanford University Press, 2011, p. 154.
8. ↑ Erik Kuhonta: The Institutional Imperative. The Politics of Equitable Development in Southeast Asia. Stanford University Press, 2011, pp. 157-159.
9. ↑ Somporn Sangchai: Some Observations on the Elections and Coalition Formation in Thailand, 1976. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 1976, p. 13
10. ^ Roger Kershaw: Monarchy in South East Asia. The Faces of Tradition in Transition. Routledge, 2001, p. 232.
11. ↑ Surin Maisrikrod: Thailand's Two General Elections in 1992. Democracy Sustained. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 1992, p. 9.

Note on Thai names : This article addresses people by their first name.