🏛️ The Declaration
On the morning of June 24, 1932, an officer climbed onto a tank in Bangkok's Royal Plaza and read out a proclamation. The Khana Ratsadon — the People's Party — had ended seven hundred years of absolute monarchy. King Prajadhipok was playing golf at his seaside palace in Hua Hin.
Three days later, a constitution was promulgated. It had been drafted in advance by People's Party leader Pridi Phanomyong. Its first sentence read: The supreme power in this country belongs to all the people.
When the king returned to Bangkok and received the People's Party delegation, he stood up. In Siamese culture, the king always remained seated when subjects paid their respects. "I rise to honor the Khana Ratsadon," he said. Seven hundred years of absolute monarchy ended like that.
⚔️ The First Coup
Less than a year after the revolution succeeded, the same army drove out the elected prime minister. That was 1933. The precedent of revolution became the precedent of the coup.
In 1938, Plaek Phibunsongkhram eliminated his rivals, aligned with fascism, and brought Siam into the Second World War on Japan's side. In 1947, the military toppled an elected government again. In 1951, Phibun staged a coup against his own government to restore the 1932 constitution. In 1957, Sarit Thanarat ousted his own superior. In 1958, Sarit staged a second coup and completed a dictatorship.
The military governed from 1947 to 1973 — twenty-six years.
🩸 1973 and 1976
In October 1973, students took to the streets. Hundreds of thousands demanded democracy. The military opened fire. When the crowds still would not go back, the military finally relinquished power. Thailand's first genuinely democratic government took office.
It lasted three years.
On October 6, 1976, the military massacred student protesters. The official death toll was forty-six. A coup followed, and democracy was erased again.
🔄 Repetition
1977, 1991, 2006, 2014. The coups continued. The pattern was nearly always the same. When an elected politician came into conflict with Bangkok's entrenched elite, the military intervened. In 2006, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in New York for the UN General Assembly when the coup happened. In 2014, his sister Yingluck was removed the same way.
Not one coup leader was ever punished. Those who succeeded became prime ministers; those who failed went into exile or received pardons. Throughout the Cold War, the United States supported Thailand's military governments in the name of stopping communism.
📜 The Constitution
Since 1932, Thailand has rewritten its constitution twenty times. Each time a coup succeeded, the constitution was scrapped and a new one drafted. The constitution did not limit power. Power wrote the constitution.
🪙 The Missing Plaque
In the Royal Plaza where the 1932 revolution was proclaimed, a commemorative plaque had been set into the ground — engraved with the words of that day's declaration. One day the plaque was gone. No one has been held accountable for its disappearance.
🗳️ Now
In May 2023, a relatively free election was held. As of 2025, a territorial dispute with Cambodia has revived fears of another coup.
The first sentence of the constitution promulgated on June 24, 1932 is still there. The supreme power in this country belongs to all the people.
No comments:
Post a Comment