Administrative Duties | Thai | Home Home
 
At that time, the Ministry of Interior was the largest ministry which had jurisdiction in the areas of administration, education and public health nation-wide. Pridi assumed the post of Minister of Interior from 29 March 1933 to 9 August 1937.

Upon his assumption of this post, Pridi set up municipalities throughout the country in accordance with the Municipality Act which he drafted and which the cabinet later proposed to the House of Representatives. The goal was to make local government the bedrock of the democratic system in Thailand.

Pridi expressed his determination to expand municipalities by stating: " We want to set up municipalities throughout the country and not just in important provinces as was the intention in previous Acts to establish local sanitation administrations in some areas only. In this connection, this process will be undertaken in a manner similar to those already done by other countries such as France and Japan."

The important point is that the Municipality Act raised the status of sub-districts to municipalities which will serve as an administrative unit having a distinct legal personality. The municipality is organised into two parts namely

  1. the municipal assembly has powers defined by the municipality
  2. the municipal council is the administrative unit which will exercise its powers in a manner as approved by the municipal assembly.

One can therefore see that the system of municipal administration is a means of decentralising administrative power in a stable manner and allows for the replication of administration from the national level to the local level. Pridi's intention to bring the fruits of democracy to all levels of Thai society was instrumental in making more difficult the return of dictatorial rule than in the past. Therefore, even though Pridi left Thai political circles after only 15 years, his legacy can perhaps be seen in various events in Thai history when the people rose to resist what they perceived as a dictatorship such as during the events of 14 October 1973 and 6 October 1976
Role in Education | Thai | Home
 
To fulfill the last of the six stated government's pledges on comprehensive education to all Thai citizens and in order to disseminate the principles of democracy to all Thai, Pridi proposed that the creation of the University of Moral and Political Sciences. Believing that the prevailing system of higher education was not open to the majority of the public and did not help to prepare the individuals as the backbone of the new political system.

Therefore, the new University became a educational institution for the people, a marketplace of ideas, where disciplines such as law, economics and others in the social and moral sciences were taught. When this university was established in accordance with the Act of the University of Moral and Political Sciences of 1933 which was drafted by Pridi, the University began to expand its activities in accordance with the guidelines set by Pridi, its first Rector.

What was important was that Pridi enabled the University to promote academic freedom over all state interference. Since its inception, the University did not rely on any Government budgetary allocation, but only on student fees from all over the country and from interest paid by the Bank of Asia for Commerce and Industry which Pridi established, the University holding 80 percent of the shares.

During Pridi's tenure as Rector, the University became a driving force for the promotin of democracy in the country. In addition, the University played an important role against the war and supporting peace when it became the centre for the Free Thai Movement (Seri Thai) in which many professors and students participated.

Following Pridi's departure from the University and the Thai political scene, subsequent military dictatorships took over control of the University and deleted the word "Political Science" from the University's title in order to prevent students from being involved in politics. Stocks held by the University were sold until it could no longer sustain itself financially. In the end, the University, renamed the University of Moral Sciences (Thammasat University), had to rely of budget allocations from the government and came under its control. Nevertheless, the democratic spirit of this University remains, intact. The general public is well aware that the University's students, teachers and alumni have played an outstanding role in resisting dictatorship in all eras and remains the key players in the front-line for the promotion of genuine democracy in Thailand.
Foreign Relations | Thai | Home
 
One of the prime motivations of Pridi in bringing about the political change was the first of sex pillars which deals with national independence, namely, the return of all sovereign rights in the judicial, commercial and economic fields by removing all commitments which were obstacles to the national development and progress. After the laying of a secure foundation in the Ministry of the Interior, Pridi assumed the portfolio of Minister of Foreing Affairs (from 9 August 1937 to 15 September 1938) to undertake a task of immense importance to revise the unequal treaties in the form of Treaties of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, signed between Siam and 12 countries as follows:
  1. United States of America (1920)
  2. Japan (1923)
  3. France (1925)
  4. The Netherlands (1925)
  5. Great Britain (1925)
  6. Spain (1925)
  7. Portugal (1925)
  8. Denmark (1925)
  9. Sweden (1925)
  10. Italy (1925)
  11. Belgium (1926)
  12. Norway (1926)

The two main principles which needed to be rectified in these unequal treaties are:

  1. Extraterritoriality whereby the subjects of foreign governments could not be brought before Siamese courts, an encroachment to its judicial sovereignty.

  2. Restriction of Import tax to 3% on foreign goods which resulted in loss of revenue, an encroachment on Siamese economic sovereignty.

Pridi terminated all unequal treaties with various governments and presented them for consideration the new draft which would give Siam full independence and sovereignty. Pridi painstakingly negotiated with each one by ensuring the principle of "balance of power" until all agreed to conclude the new treaty in which Siam regained full political, judicial and economic sovereignty.

Furthermore, Pridi negotiated with the British Government for return of part of territory which Britain took from Siam under the 1868 Boundary-Delimitation agreement, in the Pak Nam Chan area between Ranong province and Victoria Point and in the Maesai River area of Chiengrai province.

Finance | Thai | Home
 
Failing to persuade the government to approve his economic restructuring plan, Pridi was still determined to enhance the principles of economic well being of the people, equality and liberty of the six cardinal principles proclaimed by the People's Party

Under absolute monarchy, the social inequality was evident in the unfair tax collection. Tax revenue mainly came from farmers who owned the least properties, and not from wealthy people in proportion of their economic ability to pay. The most unfair tax was the Head tax which the people were required to pay.

When Pridi was Minister of Finance (20 December 1938- 16 December 1941) he undertook the following measures to bring fairness to the tax collecting system :

  1. Abolition of the Head tax
  2. Abolition of the tax on the paddy field which farmers had to pay to the supreme landowner, all the land in the realm being considered as the property of the Head of the society.
  3. Establish the revenue code for the first time in Thailand to ensure fairness in the tax collection under democratic rule, adopting direct taxation which required that a person be taxed in proportion to his ability to earn and to consume.

Another financial measure which Pridi pushed to achieve after the revolution was the drafting of a budget bill, in oder to ensure a proper and most beneficial use of the national budget. Pridi explained that "endeavour had been sought to provide a different form to the budget. Instead of one single article indicating the total revenue and expenditure which allow no opportunity to Parliament to consider the bill thoroughly. The new budget bill would detail both the public revenues and expenditures of each department of the Administration for the scruting of the Parliament."

During the period when Pridi was Minister of Finance, which was close to the second World War, the country's monetary and fiscal stability was said to be the most secured. Pride's farsightedness had resulted in the bath stability. As the second World War was imminent, Pridi predicted that the pound sterling would depreciate, and sold the pound sterling of the country's foreign reserve to buy 1 million ounces of gold to be kept in the Finance Ministry's vault.

In additon, ther were another amount of gold which Pridi demanded from the Japanese in exchange of the bath currency prior to the outbreak of the East Asia war. There were also other amount of gold which Pridi, as leader of the Free Thai movement, requested the Kuang Abaiyawongse Government in exhange of the baht loan required by Japan during the war that Japan to be earmarked of from the Japan's Central Bank for the Thai government. The allies returned those gold deposit to the Thai government after the second World War.

Furthermore, Pridi was able to conclude new agreements with various countries abolishing thier special rights in Siam including the tobacco monopoly. When Pridi became Finance Minister, he successfully nationalized tobacco industry of the British-American Companies before Japanese invaded Thailand, otherwise the industry would have been captured as enemy assets by the Japanese which would have deprived Thailand of that enormous revenue during and after the secong World War. [Next]
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