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Thailand Pridi and the Civilian Regime, 1944-47
The new government was headed by Khuang Aphaiwong, a civilian
linked politically with conservatives like Seni. The most
influential figure in the regime, however, was Pridi, whose antiJapanese views were increasingly attractive to the Thai. In the
last year of the war, Allied agents were tacitly given free
access by Bangkok. As the war came to an end, Thailand repudiated
its wartime agreements with Japan.
The civilian leaders, however, were unable to achieve unity.
After a falling-out with Pridi, Khuang was replaced as prime
minister by the regent's nominee, Seni, who had returned to
Thailand from his post in Washington. The scramble for power
among factions in late 1945 created political divisions in the
ranks of the civilian leaders that destroyed their potential for
making a common stand against the resurgent political force of
the military in the postwar years.
Postwar accommodations with the Allies also weakened the
civilian government. As a result of the contributions made to the
Allied war efforts by the Free Thai Movement, the United States,
which unlike the other Allies had never officially been at war
with Thailand, refrained from dealing with Thailand as an enemy
country in postwar peace negotiations. Before signing a peace
treaty, however, Britain demanded war reparations in the form of
rice for shipment to Malaya, and France refused to permit
admission of Thailand to the United Nations (UN) until
Indochinese territories annexed during the war were returned. The
Soviet Union insisted on the repeal of anticommunist legislation.
The government set up an agency to manage the delivery of
rice as part of Thai war reparations. These reparations were
initially to total 1.5 million tons, or approximately 10 percent
of the annual yield, but the figure was adjusted downward, and
the reparations were paid off within two years. However, the
government retained the policy of regulating the rice trade as an
income-producing device.
The Seni government survived only until the peace treaty with
Britain was signed in January 1946. Public discontent grew--the
result of inflation, the reparation payments to the British, the
surrender of territorial gains that many Thai considered to have
been legitimate, and mismanagement at every level of government.
Pridi restored Khuang to office for a time but in March 1946 was
obliged to assume the prime ministership himself in an effort to
restore confidence in the civilian regime.
Pridi, who argued that the strength of any civilian regime
depended on a functioning parliament, worked with his cabinet to
draft a new constitution that established parliamentary
structures. The constitution, promulgated in May 1946, called for
a bicameral legislature. The lower house the House of
Representatives, was elected by popular vote; the upper house,
the Senate, was elected by the lower house. This constitution was
tailor made for Pridi's purposes, ensuring him a parliamentary
majority that would support his programs.
The 1946 election, which had in fact preceded enactment of
the constitution, was the first in which political parties
participated. Two coalition parties--Pridi's own party, the
Constitutional Front, and the Cooperation Party--won a large
majority of seats in the lower house and, in turn, sent a proPridi majority to the upper house. Parliamentary opposition was
led by the Democrat (Prachathipat) Party, headed by Seni and
Khuang.
Pridi's prestige suffered permanent damage two weeks after
the election of the upper house, however, when Ananda Mahidol,
who had returned from Switzerland a few months earlier, was found
dead in his bed at the palace, a bullet wound through his head.
Although the official account attributed the king's death to an
accident, there was widespread doubt because few facts were made
public. Rumors implicated Pridi. Two months later, in August,
Pridi resigned on grounds of ill health and went abroad, leaving
Luang Thamrongnawasawat as prime minister.
The late king's younger brother, nineteen-year-old Bhumibol
Adulyadej (Rama IX, 1946- ), was chosen as successor to the
throne. The new king had been born in the United States, had
spent his childhood in Switzerland, and had gone to Thailand for
the first time in 1945 with his brother. He returned to
Switzerland to complete his schooling and did not return to
Bangkok to take up his duties until 1951.
Data as of September 1987
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