Man of The Century (Dec 5, 1999) For
more than half the century, he has become the living
symbol of unity and stability, guiding Thailand through
the uneventful period, from the Cold War, the Vietnam
War, the domestic military and political upheavals, the
struggling democracy to the economic crisis of the late
1990s. Under his reign of
constitutional monarchy Thailand has come mostly under
the military regime. There have been 17 coups, of which
seven are successful. The last one was staged in February
1992. And there have been a total of 23 prime ministers
swearing an oath of office before him and struggling to
form governments one after another. As the political leaders
may come and go, the monarch, as an institution, endures.
For the King's existence and charisma guarantee the
legitimacy of the existing social and property order. It
also renders a necessary sense of continuity of the
nation as a whole. In the face of the periodic
threats, from either the outside or the inside, to divide
the country, the King has stepped in each time, privately
or publicly, to provide the crucial leadership. In this
way he acts as a pillar of political authority, albeit in
a non-political way. And in doing so, he achieves the
delicate task of asking for all contradictory elements to
reconcile. This is the essence, if not
the mystique, of his kingship, forged through the years
of his determination to attain perfection of all the
virtues. As keeper of the Buddhist
faith, he reigns his country with the moral authority and
righteousness. Greatest
Thai of the Century Virtually, there are no
other figures in the 20th century who have come to
dominate the Thai life, the Thai institutions and the
Thai culture like King Rama the Ninth of the Chakri
Dynasty. King Rama the Fifth, who
abolished slavery and engineered the reform process that
transformed Siam into a modern state, was considered one
of the greatest Chakri kings and one of the most
admirable figures of the 20th Century. Like his father,
King Mongkut, or King Rama the Fourth, King Chulalongkorn
had to deal with the colonial powers. He guided the old
Siam through the dangerous period with shrewd diplomacy,
helping the country to narrowly escape colonisation. But, as pointed out by
David K Wyatt in his Studies in Thai History, King
Chulalongkorn, who reigned for 42 years until the year
1910, was largely a 19th Century figure, ranking among
such world leaders as Garibaldi, Bismarck, Gladstone,
Disraeli, the Meiji Emperor, Li Hung-chang, and Abraham
Lincoln. After King Chulalongkorn,
the Chakri Dynasty, founded in 1782 by Phra Phutthayodfa
Chulalok or King Rama the First, became weakened. In
1932, during the reign of King Prachathipok, or King Rama
the Seventh, a revolution was staged and successfully
toppled absolute monarchy. The Thai monarchy system,
embedded for more than 700 years successively in the long
Thai history, was in deep peril. One of the leaders of this
revolutionary movement was Pridi Banomyong, father of the
Thai democracy and another towering figure of the 20th
Century. His main problem was that he was too far ahead
of his time with his brilliant political and social
ideas. Later Pridi became a subject of a political purge
and ended his tragic life in exile. The circumstances under
which King Bhumibol Adulyadej came to the throne in 1946
were precarious. This followed the sudden death of his
brother, King Ananda Mahidol or King Rama the Eighth. It
was only 14 years after the Revolution. World War II just
ended a year before. The military virtually dominated the
political landscape. As Anand Panyarachun, a
former prime minister, told Asiaweek (Dec 3, 1999):
"The current King came to the throne soon after the
so-called revolution - the transformation of absolute
power to constitutional democracy. He was in the picture
at the most critical and sensitive times during this
transition period. He had to walk the tightrope. And he
has always delivered." King Bhumibol Adulyadej set
his sight on recreating the monarchy institution
literally from scratch. He had virtually no economic,
military or political support. But that allowed him, in
his own unique way, to render a new dimension to the
kingship he inherited. He reached out to the Thai people
directly by focusing on social and economic development.
He played a key role in introducing technology on
farmland and water resource management to help improve
the people's living conditions. His charisma immediately
earned him popular and unquestionable support from the
Thai people. It is from this stronghold
of the grass-root support that the King has gradually
strengthened his kingship and transformed it into a
pragmatic monarchy institution, unprecedented in the
modern era. In other words, he has been able to adjust
his kingship, change it with time and retain its mythical
attribute. Other institutions have found it more
difficult to go through the structural changes. Old
Traditions vs Modernity Two important events this
year exemplify how the King stands at the centre of the
two confrontational forces: the old traditions and
modernity. As part of the Sixth Cycle Celebration, the
King, on Nov 4th, revived the ancient tradition of a
royal procession down the Chao Phya River with the
glittering barges. By doing so, the King
revived the ancient tradition that dated back to the
Ayudhya period. The King set sail on the Suphannahongse
in the afternoon from the Vasukri pier to preside over
the Kathin merit-making ceremony, marking the end of the
Buddhist Lent, at the Temple of the Dawn. Thousands of Thais flocked
both sides of the Chao Phya River to witness this
spectacular and most colourful event. There were a total
of 52 barges featuring different august animals. Some had
tears brimming in their eyes when they saw their King
float by in the Suphannahongse. They almost unconsciously
held their hands in the wai position. In one of the old Thai
tradition, parents, particularly the mothers, weep with
joy when they witness their sons entering the monkhood.
For the mothers believe that they can hang on the yellow
robe of their sons to enter heaven after their death. In this similar metaphor
and imagery, the Thai people held their King at once as a
symbol of a profound religious experience. The pictureque
procession of the barges was almost surreal, like a mural
painting that had been brought alive. Travelling from the
Vasukri pier to the Temple of the Dawn, the King
symbolically led the Thais from the realm of the world to
the realm of the sacredness as part of the aim to attain
supreme tranquility. This royal ritual
established a sense of identity, offering a
transcendental experience into which the future and the
past unite. Another event was the
commission, Nov 25th, of the Pasak Jolsid Dam, which
provides irrigation and feed thousands of Thai families
in the Pasak River Basin. The project, of which the King
is so proud, covers Lopburi and a part of Saraburi. Under his reign, the King
initiated thousands of reservoir projects, mostly small
and medium scale. But the Pasak Jolsid Dam is one of the
large-scale projects, which can hold a maximum water
level of 960 million cubic metres. The commission of this
dam reinforces his readiness to employ modern technology
to help improve the quality of life of his people. About 70 per cent of the
Thai are living in the agricultural sector, which however
accounts for only 12 per cent of the country's gross
domestic product. It is this sector of the population
that he so cares about. In 1993 the King made it known
that he would like the dam built. Then he issued a
prophetic note. He said by the time the dam was completed
in 1999, he would be 72 and that he would go to Lopburi
to open it if his health permitted. His wish has
been fulfilled. "One-Reign"
Subjects When King Bhumibol
Adulyadej ascended to the throne in 1946, there were only
20 million Thais. Now the Thai population has mushroomed
to 62 million. Assuming that half of the 20 million born
before his Coronation Year passed away, this means that
some 52 million Thais are proud to claim that they are
"one-reign" subjects, born in 1946 or
thereafter. Still, most of the now
surviving 10 million of the 20 million must have been
very young at that time. They have no way of remembering
or can hardly recall how the Ninth Reign began. In this
respect, the Ninth Reign has been embedded in the
consciousness of the living Thais since the very
beginning. His pictures are placed on
the walls practically in all the Thai homes. It is an
enduring image, like the image of the omnipresent Buddha
that all Thais grow up with. It was the late MR Kukrit
Pramoj, a former prime minister and a staunch royalist,
who expounded how the Thai people identify their life
span with the reign of the Thai kings, not with any other
particular epochs. (Bill Clinton, the US president,
identifies himself as a generation of baby-boomers born
after World War II.) In his classic novel, The
Four Reigns, Kukrit chronicled a life of a Thai lady,
Ploi, whose life spanned between the reign of King Rama
the Fifth and King Rama the Eighth. Ploi witnessed
changes in the different reigns, from which she formed
her frame of mind and values. It was an order that kept
the Thai life together. The fiction, based on a
true story, ended by Ploi's receiving the news of the
sudden demise of King Ananda Mahidol. She was completely
shattered with the loss of this old order, could not cope
with it and passed away shortly afterward. The Four
Reigns is one the crown jewels of the Thai literature. In the same spirit of The
Four Reigns, the King Bhumibol has continued to provide
the order for the Thai life through his longevity and the
length of his reign. King Bhumibol Adulyadej is
well on his way to surpass King Rama the First in
longevity. King Rama the First demised when he was 73
years old. Today, King Rama the Ninth observes his Sixth
Cycle Celebration - each cycle comes with 12 years - or
72nd Birthday. For the Thais, each cycle
marks significant transformation of their life. When you
reach 12, you are entering puberty. When you are 24, you
are about to reach full adulthood and get ready for a
marriage. When you are 36, you are at the height of your
career and strength. When you are 48, your life is fully
mature. When you are 60, you reach retirement. When you
are 72, you are a complete man. The year 1995 marked the
50th reign of His Majesty the King. But it was not until
1996 that he celebrated his Golden Jubilee. Now he is
ending his 54th year of his reign and looking forward to
the 55th year in the first year of the new millenium, or
2543 in the Thai Buddhist calendar. King Bhumibol has
already surpassed King Chulalongkorn in the length of his
reign. He has become the longest reigning monarch of the
Chakri Dynasty. BY THANONG
KHANTHONG |
