Thailand's Children's Crusade

...Their actions since the uprising, however, have been less laudatory...

...If she was pleased by their initial sympathy and understanding, she was left almost speechless by what followed: They drove her to the Ministry of Agriculture, marched into the Minister's office and demanded an immediate audience...

...Although others played a greater part in planning the October demonstrations, many observers believe Saowanee's oratorical abilities were crucial in the final confrontation...

...It's useless trying to deal with them...

...Prices are rising at an annual rate of 20 per cent, and the cost of rice has gone up 50 per cent in the last year...

...One of several farmers who had formed an agricultural cooperative in her home district of Chum Saeng, some 200 miles north of Bangkok, she had traveled the better part of a day by bus to see these students...

...We could not have succeeded without popular support...

...I never would have dreamed of doing this before last October," she remarked, referring to the student-inspired ouster of the military clique that had ruled Thailand for the preceding decade...

...Officials at home have been giving me a run-around," the woman, Prathom Theerawatan, told the students...

...This trio seemed so firmly entrenched that the outcome of October's dramatic uprising surprised no one more than the victors...

...Prathom have started taking their grievances directly to top officials in Bangkok...

...You are different...

...Nevertheless, she seemed to be sure of herself and at ease among them...

...In their effort to reform a stagnant society, delegations of youths have been flocking to the countryside, informing people of their basic rights and the government services they are entitled to...

...The answer is simple," says student leader Sao-wanee Limmanonta...

...The impact of those words ultimately turned the tide...

...Now this is changing...

...The best starting point in a democracy is the people themselves...

...Two students nodded knowingly and took notes as the woman recited her story...

...In this country, students are not a separate group, isolated from the general public...

...I need your help...

...In fact, a backlash has surfaced in Bangkok against youthful elements whose behavior since October has been more hooligan than political...

...We are part of the people, and our feelings about the government were widely shared...

...But because of the political turmoil of the past five months, many agencies are in a state of near-paralysis...

...Through compromise and negotiation, government officials and university student leaders have been trying to persuade the vocational students to desist...

...On the way back to the university, she beamed and shook her head...

...Many traditionally docile Thais have responded by confronting local authorities and business interests with demands ranging from land reform and agricultural assistance to health care and wage increases, and provincial farmers like Mrs...

...It's an awful thing to see your friends lying bleeding in the streets...

...We can't have a genuine democracy until we achieve more equality," he insists...

...The students' primary goals had been to win unconditional release for 13 jailed demonstrators and to extract a pledge for the restoration of parliamentary government (revoked in 1971) within a year...

...For me it was a shattering experience...

...Though he is neither a radical ideologue nor a Communist, he believes that too great a gap exists between rich and poor in Thai society, and that appropriate measures—some of which might be termed socialistic—must be taken to reduce that gap...

...Her fanner's clothing clashed with the casual attire of the students, and her weatherbeaten face, reflecting 51 years of eking a subsistence from stubborn soil, showed signs of wonder as she watched serious-looking youths half her age bustle about on errands she could not understand...

...At an early age he learned how local officials and wealthy landlords wield power over unsophisticated, ill-educated peasants...

...Still, the students, who have the government's ear and in many instances serve as paragovernment authorities, assisting the police and Interior Ministry in controlling disturbances and taking surveys, remain confident about the ultimate course of the events they have triggered...

...The people fed us and housed us and, most important, they came into the streets with us...

...Curbing the excesses of these young students is essential because mounting unrest could lead the military to again seize power...

...Everyone knew how corrupt the system was, but nobody had the courage or the power to do anything about it...

...The most important thing I did was to state the obvious," she says...

...These are not university students so much as vocational school students, a breed apart that includes many who can be likened to young toughs...

...She was magnificent," says one Thai professor about the plumpish, 22-year-old law student who, clad in her plain coed uniform of white blouse and dark skirt, appeared continually before thousands of participants to harangue, encourage and instruct...

...We have been educating them about their rights and responsibilities, and as they exercise such privileges, problems must arise...

...They have fought each other in the streets of the capital, attacked another police station in the course of one such encounter, smashed the buses of a transport company that raised its fares, and generally disregarded the basic ground rules of civil society...

...Afterward, when we got together, you would think that we should have been overjoyed, but we weren't...

...Not surprisingly, the Thai labor movement, reinvigorated since October, has called a series of strikes and pushed the minimum wage from 60 to 80 cents a day...

...Unfortunately, by then it was too late: Events had acquired a deadly momentum of their own...

...He appointed the widely respected rector of Thammasat University, Sanya Dharmasakti, as temporary Prime Minister...

...The students stood up to the government, and they are teaching us how to make it serve the people...

...You work for justice and you care about people...

...They had so much power, and we had so little, that it didn't seem possible...

...How could a children's crusade, armed mainly with political ideals and mimeograph machines, rout a tough military clique supported by troops and tanks...

...After eight tumultuous days of demonstrations, the regime finally bowed to its young opponents' demands...

...Precisely how the blood letting began will never be fully determined, but there ensued a pitched battle with police and soldiers that did not end until 66 persons were killed, another 800 were wounded, and the government had collapsed...

...The first draft of the document has already received Cabinet approval and is now before the new National Assembly...

...A rather meek, loosely organized group until last year, their reformist fervor and unity grew as their demands for a long-promised constitution and greater social justice generated increasingly repressive and heavy-handed responses from the ruling triumvirate: Premier Thanom Kit-tikachorn, his ambitious son Nar-ong, and the broad-beamed strongman Deputy Premier Prapas Char-usathira—collectively dubbed by some critics as "the Father, the Son and the Wholly Gross...

...But for the moment at least, the moderating role assumed by King Bhumibol is providing the social stability necessary for the establishment of the new government...

...Saowanee, however, tends to downplay her role in the uprising and is embarrassed by the widespread public adulation she now receives because of it...

...Says 25-year-old Sudathip In-thorn, a psychology instructor at Bangkok's prestigious Thammasat University who has studied in the U.S.: "When we heard that Thanom and Prapas had resigned, we couldn't believe it...

...And given the nationalistic fervor of this never-colonized land and the yet untarnished idealism of its youth, the prospects for Thai democracy look favorable...

...I couldn't do it," Kris said later...

...They won widespread acclaim last fall for bearing the brunt of the battle against the forces of the old regime...

...Prathom—in her peasant garb of long dark blouse, black baggy trousers and rubber sandals—received not only a courteous hearing, but also a high-level pledge that her group's case would be investigated promptly and appropriate action would soon follow...

...We can't expect to remake this society overnight, but we have to begin somewhere...

...Student leaders then proclaimed the confrontation over and urged massed crowds of supporters, numbering well in excess of 200,000, to disperse...

...Midway through Bloody Sunday, as October 14 is now known here, key Thai generals decided they could no longer order their troops to fire upon their fellow citizens...

...Sanya, an unassuming, reflective man of 66, with no political ambitions, immediately proceeded to fill his Cabinet with career civil servants, not military officers, and promised to produce a new constitution...

...We were too shocked and saddened by what we had been through...

...The nationally revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose sympathies and behind-the-scenes support for the students figured significantly in October's events, moved quickly to set up a caretaker government...

...At the same time, the government has come under heavy fire for being too "soft," particularly for yielding to strident demands by student groups who seem primarily interested in seeing how disruptive they can be...

...They lie, they shuffle papers, they speak double-talk...

...MOVING TOWARD DEMOCRACY Thailand's Children's Crusade BY ARNOLD ABRAMS Bangkok Sitting in the large campus meeting room, identified by its doorsign as the office of the National Student Center of Thailand (NSCT), the peasant woman was obviously far from home...

...Its loan application had been submitted last spring, but no action had been taken and the cooperative's members were growing anxious...

...Furthermore, wildcat strikes, unruly demonstrations and occasional violence have led to mounting demands for restoration of law and order, as well as to deepening fears of a military retakeover...

...They feared that possibly because local authorities had not been slipped sufficient "tea money"—as bribes are known in this country-or perhaps because the bureaucrats simply could not untangle the red tape that snarls such matters, the farmers' repeated inquiries had produced no response...

...Most Thai students, coming from the middle class, are equally pragmatic and have the same relatively moderate goals...

...Sombat, a broad-shouldered, 22-year-old agricultural student, grew up with 11 brothers and sisters on a modest farm in Phetchabun Province, about 300 miles north of Bangkok...

...I told everyone that, if the soldiers dared to open fire on us, they would be shooting not at Communist subversives, as the government claimed, but at their own children...

...Arnold Abrams regularly reports in these pages from Southeast Asia...

...In one sensational escapade, they commandeered a fire truck, filled it with gasoline, hosed down Bangkok's central police station, and turned the building into an inferno...

...She used marketplace language to make people laugh when they most needed it, and she kept it up long after most people were dead tired and growing very frightened about being attacked by the Army...

...In accordance with Thai law, she explained, her group was seeking financial assistance from the government...

...There was nothing romantic about our revolution...

...I didn't have the heart to kill more Thais...

...The interim government—which is scheduled to be replaced by a duly elected one before the end of summer—has adopted a policy of compromise in trying to stabilize a society sorely beset by conflicting needs and inflationary pressures...

...While Narong and Prapas desperately sought reinforcements, Army Chief Kris Sivara blocked his superiors' moves and told his men to withdraw...

...Difficulties are inevitable when great changes are taking place," says Sombat Thamrong Thanyawong, NSCT secretary-general and one of Thailand's most influential student leaders...