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Journal of Contemporary Asia

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Transcript of an address by Dr Puey Ungphakorn, October 14, 1976 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London
Dr Puey Ungphakorn Available online: 02 Apr 2008

To cite this article: Dr Puey Ungphakorn (1976): Transcript of an address by Dr Puey Ungphakorn, October 14, 1976 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 6:4, 497-500 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00472337685390651

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Documents
Transcript of an address by Dr Puey Ungphakorn, October 14, 1976 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
Dr Pltey Ungphakorn, former Governor o f the Bank o f Thailand, was Rector o f Thammasat University Bangkok until the recent coup.
I think you have heard the Chairman explain in brief what has happened in Thailand. There are two or three highlights that 1 would like to present to you. One is this: now almost everybody in Thailand forgets what this is all about. That is to say the retum of Field Marshal Thanom, the former dictator, who went to Singapore and who came back on 19 September. The past coup and the violence in Thammasat University, and the rumours of the impending counter-coup (not really countercoup but second coup or third coup), made, 1 think, everybody forgetful in Bangkok of what the role of Field Marshal Thanom will be. That is one thing. Second thing is that the rightist faction of our society, namely the military and the police, seized as a pretext for the violence in Thammasat University something that they got out of the thin air. That is to say upon tile return of Field Marshal Thanom there were quite a lot of demonstrations up and down the country. The students were waiting for the government to do something about it but the government at that time could not decide what to do, so the students went into the streets at night to put posters up to tell the people that Field Marshal Thanom was not wanted and he should be sent back or else dealt with according to the law. Those students were attacked by hooligans (of course) hired by the army to attack them. There was one Thammasat University student ~vho was seriously injured during the night, and two other Thammasat students who were attacked but not seriously injured. Then following these events, in Nakorn Hlathom some 60 kilometres from Bangkok, two employees of the electricity authority who were activists went out to put up posters condemning Field Marshal Thanom. One morning they were found hanged. And it was established, it was declared by the police themselves and by the government on Tuesday, 5 October, that the people responsible for these deaths were five local police of Nawaphon, apparently now under arrest. Well, this event of people killed by the police in Nakom Phathom led to the demonstration in Thammasat University on Monday, 4 October. Members of a Student Union of Thammasat University belonging to tile dramatic society dressed up as student activists and pretended to be hanged in Thammasat University. There were two of them, one of them has a likeness to the Crown Prince, but there was no intention to call attention to this I am sure because many faculty members who have seen him said that his face was not made-up or disguised in any way and that he put up a very good performance, in fact. Then the armoured division radio station which had been against the students for some time, particularly against Thammasat University, picked up a touched-up photograph of the student, printed by one of the newspapers, the Siam Star. That newspaper had touched-up the photograph so that the student would look like tile Crown Prince. Using this as a pretext, the at-

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moured division radio station began to stir up mass hysteria, pouring out propaganda from about six o'clock in the evening o f Tuesday the 5th until dawn of Wednesday the 6th of October. They called up all the village scouts; they called up the Nawaphon, a right-wing group; they called out particularly the "red gaurs" (wild buffaloes, kathing daeng) vocational students who had used violence in the past and who are seemingly immune from police arrest. So they picked something out of thin air and made a story of it. So the government of Seni Pramoj was frightened. Seni Pramoj called an emerge.cy meeting over this affair on Tuesday night, and decided to declare that the government would investigate this matter. In the meantime the armoured division had been successful in getting vocational students and vigilantes to fire at Thammasat University from one o'clock in the morning until seven o'clock when the police went into Thammasat. They went in allegedly in order to arrest a student leader and the young man who looked like the Crown Prince. But the student leader and the man resembling the Prince had already gone to the Prime Minister's house, in order to explain to him that there was no intention at all of mocking the Crown Prince or destroying the monarchy. They in fact escaped the onslaught in Thammasat because they went. The Prime Minister at that time had already left his house for the Government House, and upon receiving a telephone call informing him that the students had gone to his house, he called the chief of police to tell him to go and arrest those people. Perhaps small mercy, otherwise those people would have been dead now. Small mercy, perhaps, but I dread to think what happened to them in the hands of the police, because other people who were arrested afterwards were attacked brutally and some o f them even tortured. But nevertheless that shows that the theatrical hanging was really innocent, and if the Prime Minister had, instead of using the police to get the students involved, been talking to me as Rector of Thammasat I could have produced them without the police interfering. This again is a great mistake on the part of the Prime Minister Seni Pramoj. In fact I had talked to him on the telephone about 11 o'clock in the night of Tuesday but there was no mention of this matter, there was no request that I should produce the student leader from the demonstration. The rest of the story you know. Now I want to dwell on another matter that has not been in the press in this country. While the armoured division and the press, some of the regiment of press, had been telling people that those students at Tharamasat must be killed (that is the word they use, "they must be killed") because as one of the right.wing priests, Kittiwutho, said, "Killing a Communist is not a sin". Therefore the armoured division radio took that up and said those people in Thammasat must be killed. But that is one thing. The other thing that the armoured division had done on that evening was to protest against the new government. As you know the new government formed by Seni Pramoj was sworn in, in the presence of the King, on Monday the 4th. On that day Seni failed to appoint two ministers that the armoured division wanted; two right-wing ministers, Somboon Siridhara and Samak Sunthornvej, both fomler Deputy Ministers of Interior. Well Somboon and Samak (particularly Somboon) had been in with the military all the time during the last election, even before. When the government resigned a few weeks earlier the armoured division took the opportunity of

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bringing people in to express public opinion, and the opinion expressed by those people was that while Seni Pramoj ought to be asked to be Prime Minister again, some of his ministers ought to be discarded. This was the opinion expressed by the people in their broadcast. But the armoured divisioh radio was not referring to Somboon and Samak at all, they were referring to the left-wing elements (if such a thing could be identified) of the last ministry. But Seni turned the table, and this time left Somboon and Samak out of his cabinet. That is why the armomed division was very angry. You see, instead at naming other people as ba~t rammers, Seni was acting as if he considered Somboon, Samak and their allies, to be the bad ministers. So the armoured division on that Tuesday night, called upon the rightwing groups, to demonstrate and protest against the non-inclusion of Somboon and Samak, and this started at 9 o'clock in the evening. When Thammasat had already been vanquished rite demonstration continued against the government. Seni Pramoj in the end agreed to yield to the pressure and said that he would reconsider his Parliament. Of course an hour later a coup d'etat was organized by unknown persons with Admiral Sangad the former Commander-in-Chief as (I think) figurehead. Well, this is what happened. In the new set-up Samak was called in and appointed as one of the members of the press censorship committee, but that is another matter. Everybody in Bangkok at this moment is afraid of a second coup. Whoever organised the present coup has enemies, enemies in the army itself. In other words the army is divided, and those people who were not included in the Council of 24 or 25 are dissatisfied. The armoured division's radio station and those people who are responsible for it hoped that their people would be included in the council of 25, but it was not so, and therefore the armoured division decided not to publish the names of the 25 members of the council. That shows how they behave. The latest news is that a General, General Chalard, had been dismissed from the army. He did not report to duties and was suspected of plotting and was therefore dismissed. General Chalard was one of the closest associates of Field Marshal Thanom and a great supporter of Narong, the son of Thanom who had been responsible for the carnage in 1973. So there exists a faction consisting of General Chalard and Field Marshal Thanom. Another faction is perhaps CIA inspired; a General Vitoon cooperated with the CIA in operations in Lads while that war was in progress. An ambitious man, Vitoon did not hesitate to push Field Marshal Thanom out three years ago. ! do not think that General Vitoon is in league with General Chalard. At this moment Vitoon serves as deputy Chief of Staff of the Army. A third faction consists of the "Chart Thai" political party. In this confusion one never knows where it sides but the fact that the "Chart Thai" political leaders have not been named among the Council indicates something. In fact, if you remember the history of Thailand during the period after the second world war you will remember a dictator called Field Marshal Phibun Songkram. Under him were two people who were fighting each other, Field Marshal Sarit and General Phao, the ruthless police chief. General Phao is dead now but the "Chart Thai" party is his legacy and is a faction which must be reckoned with. So at this moment we don't know precisely what happened, we only know that

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there is dictatorship. That there is another group of would-be dictators who might plot another coup seems clear. 1 don't think that there would be any counter-coup from the so-called left, for some time anyway, but the bitterness that was engendered during the massacre in Thammasat University and also the fear of the dictatorship might have the effect of driving intellectuals, students and labourers into the jungle. That is the only place to hide. And therefore that might increase the strength of the communist or non-communist insurgency in Thailand. And I myself am afraid thht that struggle will go on and go on more intensively. And who is going to suffer? The ordinary man in the field will suffer, as in Vietnam, as in Laos. This is why I am worried about my country. I am also worried about my country in many other ways apart from the political or military coup. What is going to happen to Field Marshal Thanom. Will he come out of priesthood and try to unify the army? As often happens in the history of Thailand, in the past, in the Ayuthaya time, in the Bangkok time, those people who wanted power and could not have it often went into the priesthood and when opportunity arises they come out of the priesthood very conveniently, to become King or Prime Minister or whatever. Well, that is something that one has to watch. I am worried about the economic and social system o f m y country. I think parliamentary tlemocracy whatever happens, whatever its imperfections, still can represent the causes of the common people in the fields and in the towns, the labourers and the peasants. Now with the disappearance o f democracy, with the intention of the Prime Minister designate to carry on dictatorship at least for 12 years, the gap between the rich and the poor will widen. The people who are in power desire nothing save the accumulation of personal wealth. The rest of Thailand's people are being left to their fate. This happened before, during Field Marshal Sarit's dictatorship, this happened during Thanom's period as Prime Minister, and when he was chief of the "Revolutionary Party", and this attitude will persist, I can assure you under the present regime. Their policy consists of the accumulation of wealth for themselves and their friends, legally and illegally, morally and immorally, and as a consequence of this policy the economic and social problems of my country will become more and more acute. Secondly, I think that the chance to develop genuine friendship with our neighbours will not materialise. The military dictatorship will certainly try to make it impossible for Thailand to make friends with Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Of course, if this goes beyond a certain poirJt, I am afraid that there might even be external war as well as civil war. I hope that this will not occur, but the likelihood has increased. And that is not very nice for Thailand. So, in short, even before the dust settles down, even before we can see clearly what is going to happen, ! am rather pessimistic about my country. 1 think there will be in-fighting among the army factions. I think that insurgency will grow, because the insurgents will be strengthened by students, teachers, intellectuals, labourers. I believe that the economic and social conditions of the common man will worsen and that the problems of the country will intensify. And I also believe that there is more risk of our coming into conflicts with our neighbours. 1 think 1 will stop there and hope that there will be more optimistic views expressed in this hall.

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