Thailand's 'Return to Democracy'

...eventually may leave the kingdom exposed...

...By allowing popular elections for house members, the door was opened for dissent...

...Indeed, one Thammasat University senior recently declared in a tone that shattered the usual polite indirection practiced in the kingdom: "We've been told to shut up for so long that we're finally tired of it...

...But it sparked far more engagement—and greater expectations—from educated Thai youth than the generals had anticipated...

...As other military regimes in Asia have learned, a taste of democracy often leads to a hearty appetite for more of the volatile brew...

...servicemen are lowering national morals...

...While Thai standards of government ethics are more flexible than those of the West, many educated Thais believe Praphas takes more than his share of outside benefits...

...You must be responsible," the police chief told the youths...

...America has provided about $1 billion in direct military and economic aid to Thailand since 1965, as well as maintaining security pledges to defend the nation against aggression and subversion...

...This is a very dangerous situation for us...

...Seni himself hardly qualifies as an anti-American...

...In addition to his government positions, Praphas serves as chairman of the Bangkok Bank, reportedly controls the capital's pork trade, and owns shares of companies ranging from construction firms and a brewery to a floating restaurant and an exclusive Bangkok key club for affluent night owls...

...Ironically, though, the most immediate results of Thailand's more open political atmosphere will cause discomfort in Washington very soon...

...The future of the country is in your hands...

...The confrontation was finally ended peacefully when the chief of police agreed to take the protesters' complaints to the Premier...

...The next day, a group of elderly politicians gathered in a Bangkok park to test its guarantee of "full liberty of speech" by making public political addresses...

...King Bhumibol, as constitutional monarch of a land that has long called itself a democracy, worked quietly but persistently behind the scenes to persuade Sarit's successors that Thais should have a voice in their government...

...But the move cannot be dismissed as merely a public relations gesture, for it represents another layer of modernization...

...The Constitution is just the beginning of democracy...

...The orators, who violated the martial law ban against speeches, were promptly arrested...

...Democracy ultimately may run deeper than its promoters planned...

...Another 10 minor parties won a total of 15 seats...

...The opposition Democrats are already pressing for an amended Constitution "to make it more democratic...

...The political process itself was supposedly limited to voting for 219 members of the National Assembly's lower house...

...Now the King holds no direct political power, but has enormous influence because of the wide popular respect he commands...

...Seni's Democrats took 57 seats, including all those representing the capital, where voters are generally the best informed and most educated...

...But his threats were ignored...

...We have a right to express our views if this is supposed to be a democracy...

...When police tried to stop them, the students angrily shouted, "This is our country as well as yours...

...Police who attempted to block their path were roughly shoved aside by the wave of student marchers...

...Opposition members of the Assembly, when they question the wisdom of harboring foreign troops, will appeal to widespread feelings that U.S...

...The thorny question of the American military presence, now totaling 50,-000 troops at six Thai bases, will become an issue for public debate and questioning...

...aid program...

...In effect, this meant that the government had to win only 29 seats in the lower house—or 13 per cent to remain in office...

...We have to use martial law...

...One of the regime's major motives in what is popularly called the "return to democracy" is to improve its international image, particularly in the U.S...

...Some people think this is adequate reason for retaliation if the North Vietnamese get it into their heads to take action...

...As the campaign progressed, the opposition Democrats accused the Army of using its government positions to prosper in business...

...As some of the most effective military dictators have learned lately, including Pakistan's Ayub Khan, restive students can generate potent political force if the regime becomes unresponsive...

...educated Thais will not be a passive audience before whom the power plays unfold, as in the past...

...The martial law regime has boosted economic growth by an average of 7 per cent annually, helped along by the presence of U.S...

...I respect students because they will be the leaders of the country...

...This year, on February 10, the generals launched Thai-style democracy by holding the first national elections in 11 years...

...Many Thais have made no secret of their uneasiness about hosting foreign forces in the never-colonized kingdom...

...While all this seems beneficial, the short-term effect will be to play upon the U.S...

...Air Force units that drop bombs in Vietnam and Laos but spend their money (more than $1 billion since 1965) near Thai bases...

...Premier Thanom, who started out saying he would not campaign, made a last-minute appeal to voters, pleading the case for experienced government men: "A small slip, a wrong decision, the slightest negligence would bring hazards beyond correction...

...Every month, 6,000 GI's on leave from Vietnam deploy along the gaudy neon entertainment strips of Bangkok...

...One sign said, "The Constitution is so sacred that we can't use it...

...Any other course, he claimed, would give "the Communists an opportunity to carry out infiltration by political means...

...The 164 members of the Senate, or upper house, are actually hand picked by the regime, although officially appointed by the King...

...after five years in Asia...

...Precisely at 10:29 on the morning of last June 20, the auspicious time set by royal astrologers, the King sat on a golden throne in the National Assembly building and signed the new Constitution...

...To the astonishment of police, more than 2,000 students from Thammasat University staged a spirited public demonstration—the first in a decade...

...Although usually well behaved, the military visitors often offend Thai mores by holding hands in public with Thai women: It is the Thai custom to practice extreme modesty in public, even while accepting much sexual permissiveness in private...

...Indicative of the heightened tensions is a recent announcement by Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman that the American forces will be asked to leave as soon as the Vietnam war has been dampened down...

...Adapting, albeit with reluctance, to the new atmosphere, General Praphas has quietly exiled several of his political cronies whose reputations for honesty failed to meet the fairly tolerant standards of the kingdom...

...When the government party held its first large political rally in Bangkok early this year, speakers were heckled, booed and even stoned...

...Beyond anything else, it was King Bhumibol Adulyadej's private prodding of the reluctant military oligarchy that produced the Constitution...

...Opposition members plan to call the regime into account for its actions and policies, including the shadowy arrangements with Washington that have never been fully explained to Thai citizens...

...After initially balking, the government also allowed college students to serve as "neutral observers" at the polls on election day...

...Still, the broader significance of the election should not be overlooked, for its impact will come gradually in the months ahead...

...It's really like a set of false teeth—not very real, but with some bite...

...now that the bombing of North Vietnam has stopped and the negotiations have started, Thai leaders fear the U.S...

...Eventually, martial law restrictions on political activity were dropped...

...One would think that this is a charming place and that all the students are nice and harmless," he observes...

...While Americans instinctively welcome this trend toward democracy, however tame it is, tensions between the U.S...

...As minister to Washington when World War II broke and Thailand joined Japan's side, the shrewd diplomat refused to deliver his government's declaration of war against the U.S...

...After seeing the spectacle of France, where they certainly have a strong President, it seems dangerous here, too...

...An American observer with many years of experience in the kingdom pointedly warns: "There will be a much more open political climate here, and critics will be far more vocal...

...The rising criticism over the social impact of the American presence coincides with a more basic uneasiness over the risks that Thailand has taken by offering a sanctuary for American bombers...

...The voting was a reasonably honest effort to enhance the legitimacy of the existing regime—without exposing those in power to any great risks...

...A postwar premier, a leading attorney, and a distant relative of the revered King, Seni personifies His Majesty's loyal opposition...

...Sarit's move was the most recent of 26 coups that mark the country's turbulent modern political record since the absolute monarchy ended in 1932...

...That notion may be debatable, but Thais still bridle at the tangible signs of sin...

...Premier Than-om Kittikachorn, the bland, easygoing nominal head of the regime, seemed willing to go along...

...The Thais are relatively passive in politics, yet in the long run they are likely to take democracy more seriously than the generals do...

...This awakening after a decade of political hibernation suggests that many educated Thais may not be satisfied indefinitely with only a token step toward representative government...

...Actually, the regime's best insurance policy against losing power was the carefully constructed Constitution itself...

...Beneath the newly simmering surface, opposition leader Seni sees the sort of restlessness among youth that is evident in nearly every country these days...

...The generals also hedged their chances for victory with another clever election maneuver...

...We are going to have some new problems...

...presence for domestic political purposes...

...Moreover, the government can be brought down only by a no-confidence vote that carries the majority of both houses voting together...

...and Thailand will undergo new stresses...

...General Praphas grumbled ominously about the charges, suggesting that some military men might get angry and critical candidates could get hurt...

...In the rural areas upcountry, an increasing number of Thais are beginning to ride Honda motor scooters, own transistor radios and wear mod clothes...

...Defying pleas and threats from club-carrying cops, the youths paraded down major avenues bearing placards with bitter slogans...

...Most college graduates are absorbed into the ranks of the official bureaucracy or hired by business enterprises that usually have a few generals on their boards of directors...

...Tawdry rows of bars and houses of prostitution have sprung up in once-somnolent towns near the Thai air bases hosting American troops...

...Thailand's 'Return to Democracy' By Louis Kraar For the past decade, Thailand (literally "land of the free") has been run by a military oligarchy that sweetens its firmness with amiable touches of benevolence...

...The government's United Thai People's party put up candidates for all 219 seats in the lower house, and ran dozens of "independents" who were selected by General Praphas...

...Then the demonstrators gathered in front of the National Assembly building, facing a tight line of several hundred police and two riot control hose trucks thoughtfully provided by the U.S...

...Last year the generals proudly added to the capital's modern veneer by opening a Royal Thai Army color television station in Bangkok, which also offers the largest array of bars, night clubs and massage parlors in Southeast Asia...

...Politics, completely outlawed until now, will no longer simply be the business of the government...

...This guarded against mishaps, particularly since Thai political parties have no fixed following and voters tend to choose by personality rather than ideology...

...The Thais, despite the restraints of ingrained traditions developed during six centuries of independence, accept modernization with remarkable eagerness...

...now, President Suharto carefully provides the students with seats in his Parliament as a legal—and safely limited—outlet for dissent...

...Sf.ni Pramoj, leader of the opposition Democratic party, has already foreshadowed the issue, saying: "We joined hands with America, and Thailand committed itself to the extent of allowing bases to be set up here...

...The remaining 72 seats were captured by "independents," most of whom will join the regime on any crucial vote...

...And newspapers, which have long muted any criticism they dared make, are beginning to inveigh more loudly against rural administrators who deal with villagers "like masters" rather than public servants...

...Subsequendy, the regime placated'' the students with promises...

...A Thai newspaper recently argued that "the only way to prevent 'red-haired' babies [the local term for children fathered by Americans] from being born is for all foreign soldiers to be castrated before entering Thailand...

...A day before the King signed the new Constitution last June, Seni told me about his hopes for an eventual return to genuine civilian rule and for a more potent parliament...

...In Indonesia, General Suharto appreciated student power and mobilized youth in the streets to help depose Sukarno...

...The tough, activist General Praphas insisted that martial law must continue, regardless of the Constitution...

...Instead, he organized an anti-Japanese underground movement, which considerably helped the Thais end the War on the Allied side...

...usathien...

...But I've been with the young people a long time—teaching, camping with them, talking, and I do feel that the pent-up violence is great...

...In other words, no Cabinet minister had to risk his job to the uncertainties of the electorate...

...The regime agreed to accept the U.S...

...College students in Bangkok overcame their reputation for docile obedience and political indifference to the point of demonstrating against the regime...

...It is important that our people enjoy themselves," explains the regime's strongman, General Praphas Char-Louis Kraar, who is spending this year at the Council on Foreign Relations, has recently returned to the U.S...

...The late Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat suspended the previous Constitution in October 1958, when he seized power in a coup...

...Thai students thus demonstrated a toughness and determination the generals simply could not ignore...

...Not surprisingly, because the Thais are a cautious people, the same group of Army officers is still running the government...

...The tough, squat professional soldier, whose pencil-line moustache makes him look like a sinister movie heavy, holds the multiple positions of Deputy Premier, Interior Minister and Army Commander-in-Chief...

...Even that limited charter ran into stiff resistance from the military strongman, General Praphas, who distrusts democracy as much as he enjoys his present power...

...Air Force, largely because it was seen as the best means for ending the Vietnam war...

...Despite his election eve effort, the government party won only 75 seats and thus failed to gain a working majority in the lower house...

...It forbids elected members of the Assembly from serving as ministers...