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Thailand in Transition: the Role of Oppositional Forces

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Thailand in Transition: the Role of Oppositional Forces Thailand in Transition ASIAN STUDIES AT HAWAII, NO. 32 Thailand in Transition The Role of Oppositional Forces Ross Prizzia CENTER FOR ASIAN AND PACIFIC STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS Open Access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities / Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. Licensed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 In- ternational (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits readers to freely download and share the work in print or electronic format for non-commercial purposes, so long as credit is given to the author. Derivative works and commercial uses require per- mission from the publisher. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The Cre- ative Commons license described above does not apply to any material that is separately copyrighted. Open Access ISBNs: 9780824879181 (PDF) 9780824879198 (EPUB) This version created: 17 May, 2019 Please visit www.hawaiiopen.org for more Open Access works from University of Hawai‘i Press. Copyright © 1985 by University of Hawaii Press All rights reserved Contents FIGURES AND TABLE v PREFACE vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viii 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THAILAND 7 3 THE WORKERS 28 4 CATALYSTS OF THE TRANSITION: THE THAI STUDENT MOVEMENT 40 5 THE THAI PARLIAMENT AS AN OPPOSITIONAL FORCE 93 6 THE MEANING OF THAILAND’S TRANSITION 112 NOTES 124 About the Author 133 Asian Studies at Hawaii 134 iv Figures and Table Figures 1 Location of universities in Bangkok 44 2 Structure of the NSCT 53 3 Organization of the NSCT during the five-day protest 74 Tables 1 Incidence of insurgency: 1966–1972 21 2 Danger zones 25 3 Enrollment, year of foundation, and location of Thai universities 42 4 Comparison of election results: 1976 and 1979 106 v Preface Thailand in Transition goes beyond the conventional approach to Thai politics present in most of the literature, which concen- trates on the traditional institutions in Thailand—the monarchy, the military, and the bureaucracy. The objective here has been rather to examine the more contemporary emergent opposi- tional forces struggling to play a permanent and significant role in the broader context of Thai politics. Oppositional forces in Thailand are many and varied, ranging from the outlawed Communist Party of Thailand (CPT), which seeks to overthrow the Thai government, to the Thai Par- liament, which is usually legitimized as part of the government for brief periods between military coups. This book focuses on the CPT, workers, students, and Parliament by presenting in his- torical perspective the origins, nature, and influence of each as an oppositional force in Thai politics. Special attention is given to the transitional role of these oppositional forces during and after the dramatic shifts in Thai politics precipitated by the student revolution of 1973, the military coup of 1976, the increased hostilities between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Vietnam in 1979, and the abortive coup by the Thai “Young Turk” military faction in 1981. A separate chapter is devoted to each of the oppositional forces, which have unique historical backgrounds. The histories of these oppositional forces often transcend domestic Thai pol- itics and involve ideological and other significant influences from the PRC, Vietnam, and the United States. Moreover, these oppositional forces have influenced significant periods of up- heaval in contemporary Thai politics and have also affected Thai foreign policy toward the United States, PRC, Vietnam, and to a lesser extent Japan. vi Preface It is my contention that the net effect of these upheavals, beginning with the student revolution of 1973, has been the gradual reform of traditional Thai institutions and the devel- opment of a fragile but more permanent framework for demo- cratic institutions. Most noteworthy among these democratic institutions are free and regular elections, a viable Parliament, and broad-based political parties. This struggle and potential for democracy should be of par- ticular interest to even the most casual follower of political events. In the wave of authoritarian regimes of the extreme left and right that has risen and engulfed most of the Southeast Asian countries since 1975, the Philippines included, Thailand remains at a critical political vantage point. Without the development of permanent democratic institu- tions Thailand may eventually face a fate similar to that of Laos or Kampuchea. Even with the existence of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Thai government’s various bilateral protection agreements with the United States, PRC, and other countries, the Thais still face the threat of Vietnamese military forces poised along the borders between Thailand and Kampuchea and Laos. In the last analysis, the Thais cannot take much comfort from recent statements of government officials from Singapore and Malaysia who were quoted in various newspapers as saying that Malaysia and Sin- gapore “stand ready to fight the Vietnamese communist forces to the last Thai.” ROSS PRIZZIA vii Acknowledgments The author would like to sincerely thank the following people for reviewing various sections of this book: Boonrak Boonyaketmala of the School of Journalism at Thammasat Uni- versity, Dr. Robert Scalapino, chairman of the Political Science Department at the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Ben Kerkvliet, professor of political science at the University of Hawaii, Dr. Walter Vella, professor of Thai history at the Uni- versity of Hawaii, and Dr. Frank Darling, chairman of the Poli- tical Science Department at DePauw University. Special thanks go to Dr. Seymour Martin Lipset, professor of government at Harvard University, who made several useful suggestions re- garding the presentation of the first four chapters, and to Dr. Narong Sinsawasdi, professor of political science at Thammasat University, who assisted in the preparation of Chapter 4. viii 1 Introduction Transition, as it is implied here, encompasses the important liberalizing changes of the new political environment which emerged in the aftermath of the student revolution of October 1973. Hence transition means more than the relatively liberal provisions and other changes of the new Thai constitution. Con- stitutional change is not new to Thailand, but the prevailing civilian awareness and attitude toward socialism, as well as the increasing demands by well-organized groups of students, teachers, workers, and farmers, do represent a significant de- parture from all previous attempts to achieve democracy in Thailand. Successful strikes by workers in Bangkok and grass- roots movements in the provinces have characterized the new emerging forces in Thai politics since the October student revolt of 1973. These political events occurred at a rate never before experienced by the Thais. Moreover, unlike previous protests, these movements gained broad-based support from diverse sectors of Thai society. Thailand’s experiment with democracy after 1973 became not only the promotion of democratic in- stitutions but a new determination on the part of previously neglected and suppressed sectors of Thai society to achieve permanent enfranchisement. Transition, in the context of po- litical developments since 1973, is related to three main areas of concern: bureaucratic reform, emerging social forces, and changes in domestic and foreign policy. CHANGE ON SEVERAL FRONTS After the 1973 student-led overthrow of the Thanom military regime, Thailand’s domestic policies became more involved with socialistic programs representing a new policy approach. 1 Introduction Related to this new approach in domestic affairs was the bu- reaucratic reform which had taken place at various levels of the Thai bureaucracy. The traditional Thai bureaucracy has persisted in a con- ventional mold with few exceptions since Prince Damrong in- stituted the reforms of King Chulalongkorn the Great. This bureaucracy has been described by many scholars of Thai pol- itics (among them F. W. Riggs, W. F. Vella, J. L. Sutton, and W. Siffen) as being one of the most adaptable and, at the same time, the most durable systems of civil service in Southeast Asia. Formed on Confucian principles of civil service and hier- archy of authority that owed its origins and legitimacy to the monarchy, this system has continued almost unchanged since the 1932 coup which legally shifted the bureaucracy from the monarchy to civilian and military control. In the aftermath of the bloodless coup of 1932, power shifted to a slightly broader based decision-making apparatus, but rule by various dominant cliques at the highest level of this new power base still per- sisted. In comparison, reforms after October 1973 differed from previous reforms in that the new changes were instigated from below and addressed the process of selection in various sectors of the Thai bureaucracy. Several stabilized positions in the bu- reaucratic hierarchy of some of the ministries, which were nor- mally based on upward advancement via seniority, became in- creasingly rotative due to reform-minded Thai intellectuals and the liberal atmosphere in the aftermath of the October revolt. In some cases, a new democratic elective process replaced the traditional appointments. These innovations were tried, began to be accepted at various levels of the government bureaucracy, and became particularly evident in the educational institutions. Although the universities witnessed the most change,
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