Pridi: demonisation to reconciliation
08 May 2000
Pridi Banomyong was just 27 when he called six friends together in Paris to plan the overthrow of the absolute monarchy and the modernisation of Siam.
He was in his 30s when, after the 1932 revolution, he initiated a host of liberal and modernising reforms -- drafting the first constitutions, rewriting law codes, founding Thammasat University, revising colonial treaties, reforming taxes, installing a proper budget process, building hospitals, laying the foundations for a central bank.
Pridi belonged to the same generation as other great Asian leaders of the 20th century like Nehru, Sukarno, Aung San and Ho Chi Minh. He shared many of their ideas, and he had as big an impact on his country during his active years from 1932 to 1949. But the other great leaders fought colonialism. They either became martyred heroes in the anti-colonial struggle, or builders of new post-colonial nations. Pridi's fate was different. In 1949, Pridi was forced to flee from Thailand after a military coup. He never returned. And his legacy has been very unsettled.
The conservatives who took power in this coup killed many of Pridi's allies, jailed his son, tore up his constitution and overturned many of his liberal democratic reforms. They also turned Pridi into a demon. They accused him of being a communist, and of being responsible for the mysterious death of King Ananda Mahidol, which happened on June 9, 1946, when Pridi was prime minister.
The Pramoj brothers, Seni and Kukrit, took a big part in this campaign of demonisation. Both were active in politics and journalism in the late 1940s and 1950s. When Pridi fled after the coup, Seni wrote: "This makes ordinary people think that Pridi escaped abroad because of the regicide case." When Pridi went to China, Kukrit wrote: "Before the communists accept someone, they will investigate that person's past behaviour and opinions. Pridi has a lot in his past to make him acceptable to the communists, including the regicide case which is like his certificate." Phra Phinit, who led the police investigation of the regicide, was later found to have bribed a witness to implicate Pridi. Phra Phinit was the brother-in-law of Kukrit and Seni.
In the early 1950s, the US began to support Thailand's military dictators as part of its plan to defend Southeast Asia against communism. They joined in the demonisation of Pridi. They spread the idea that Pridi was about to lead a Chinese army down to capture Thailand for communism. This misinformation was part of a crude bit of psychological warfare to get Thai support for America's Cold War strategy to make Thailand an "anti-communist bastion". At the Bandung conference in 1954, the Chinese leader, Chou En Lai, talked to Prince Wan Waithayakon, the head of the Thai delegation, and told him not to believe this nonsense.
Why was Pridi demonised? He stood for democracy, social equity and human rights. The military dictators and their American patrons wanted to suppress such ideas. In 1964, when a book casting doubts upon Pridi's part in the regicide appeared, one of Pridi's old enemies reacted fast to head off any rehabilitation. He called Pridi a "cold-blooded fanatic" who had headed a "regime of the iron fist" under which "many innocent people who had the courage to speak out their sincere opinion were liquidated." Pridi was cast as a monarchy-destroying communist, a demon designed to frighten off anyone who might be tempted by liberal ideas.
Over the two decades of military dictatorship, Pridi's name was scarcely mentionable in any positive light.
Then things began to change. In May 1970, Pridi left China and moved to Paris. Three years later, the military dictatorship came crashing down in the student revolt of October 1973. Several students and young journalists went to Paris to talk with Pridi. They were attracted to him because of his record of fighting against dictatorship. These interviews were published in Bangkok in newspapers and booklets. After the October 1973 revolt, Pridi sent an enthusiastic message calling for everyone to "Uphold the Aim for Full Democracy of the Heroes of 14 October".
But in the end, Pridi was not radical enough for the 1970s students. They were fascinated by Marxism. Pridi liked Marxism for historical analysis. But his interest in law, liberty, rights and constitutions came from the tradition of European liberalism. The students lost interest in Pridi and seized on the martyr and polymath Jit Phumisak as a much more suitable left-wing hero.
Yet the possibility that Pridi might return to Thailand and might become a hero for the students, prompted another round of demonisation. Seni and Kukrit Pramoj were now at the height of their political careers. Both served as prime ministers from 1975 to 76. Kukrit's paper, Siam Rath, carried articles recalling the regicide case and warning the government not to invite Pridi back to Thailand. Kukrit also instigated a rumour that Pridi was planning to return and set himself up as president. Others suggested Pridi was still part of a Chinese plan to capture Thailand by stirring up the communist insurgency.
Pridi died in Paris on May 2, 1983. His ashes were brought back to Thailand. But the reconciliation was more muted than in the case of other exiles, and the official response less enthusiastic than usual for past premiers.
Pridi had gone into lifelong exile in the wake of the 1947 coup. His disciple, Puey Ungphakorn, suffered a similar fate after the coup of 1976. Both men had played hugely creative roles in shaping twentieth-century Thailand. But the effect of their long exile was that they tended to be remembered as old, powerless, and remote
The best-known quote from Pridi, given in one of his last major interviews in 1979, unfortunately highlights the powerlessness and frustration of his later life, and helps to undermine the achievements of his early years: "In 1932, I was 32 years old. We had a revolution but I was inexperienced. When I had power, I had no experience and when I had more experience, I had no power."
Gradually, many people worked to rehabilitate his memory. Thammasat, the university which Pridi had founded and proudly served as rector, erected a statue to Pridi in 1984 and arranged part of the campus' most prominent building as a museum in his memory. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, several of Pridi's writings were republished. His anti-war novel, "The King of the White Elephant", was reprinted and the film was rediscovered. "The Revolutionist", a Brechtian play about Pridi and the events of 1932, was first staged in 1987.
The approach of Pridi's birth centennial (on May 11, 1990) saw moves towards a more full-hearted reconciliation with Pridi's historical legacy. This signified a lot more than nostalgia. The 1990s have been an intense period of political debate about constitutional reform, the rule of law, strengthening parliament, bureaucratic reform, educational reform, human rights, decentralisation, social welfare, economic policy -- all issues which were part of Pridi's vision of Thailand's progress sixty years earlier.
At the inaugural ceremony for the centennial project, Dr Prawase Wasi delivered a speech on "The Monarchy and Senior Statesman Pridi Banomyong".
He argued that 1932 had not weakened the Thai monarchy, but enabled it to survive and strengthen. He went on:
"There have been people intent on creating an image that he -- Pridi -- was an enemy of the monarchy. But researching the various documentary records shows that the truth was quite the opposite . . . Thai society should get over the kind of thinking, which is child-like rather than adult, that to love one person means not loving another person. Thinking that divides people into sides, into groups (phuak) has already done too much damage to Thai society."
----------------------
Adapted from "Pridi by Pridi: Selected Writing on Life, Politics, and Economy by Pridi Banomyong", translated and introduced by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, and published by Silkworm Books for the centenary of Pridi's birth. It includes a new translation of the "Outline Economic Plan" of 1932, and the first-ever English translations of Pridi's most important writings about the 1932 revolution, the Seri Thai movement, the monarchy, and his contemporaries.
BY CHRIS BAKER and
PASUK PHONGPAICHIT
The Nation / Editorial Opinion