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Thailand November 1951 Coup
By 1951 Phibun had begun to share political power with two
associates who had participated with him in the 1947 coup that
overthrew the civilian regime. One of these was General Phao
Siyanon, director general of police and a close associate of
Phibun since the original coup of 1932. The other, more junior,
partner was General Sarit Thanarat, commander of the Bangkok
garrison. As time passed, Phibun's stock within the military
declined as a result of the plots against him. Phao and Sarit
grew more powerful than Phibun, who was able to retain the prime
ministership only because of their rivalry for the succession.
In November 1951, military and police officers announced in a
radiobroadcast that the 1949 constitution was suspended by the
government and that the 1932 constitution was in force. The
reason given for restoring a unicameral parliament with half its
membership appointed by the government was the danger of
communist aggression. Shortly after the government-engineered
coup, King Bhumibol Adulyadej was called back to Thailand, and
for the first time since 1935 an adult monarch resided in the
palace in Bangkok. A revised constitution was promulgated in
February 1952, and an election was held for seats in the new,
single-house legislature, half of the members of which were to be
appointed. Nearly all the appointed parliamentary members were
army officers.
The Phibun-Phao-Sarit triumvirate continued to operate along
the policy lines of the previous five years. In November 1952,
the police announced the discovery of a communist plot against
the government and began a series of arrests of Chinese. Many
Chinese schools were closed and Chinese associations banned. The
campaign against communists, with its anti-Chinese emphasis,
gathered momentum throughout 1953.
In 1954 Thailand participated in the Manila meeting that
resulted in the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, of
which the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was the
operative arm
(see Foreign Affairs
, ch. 4). The next year SEATO,
which made its headquarters at Bangkok, was offered the use of
military bases in Thailand. Relations with the United States
continued to be cordial during this period, and substantial
amounts of American economic, technical, and military aid were
provided.
In 1955 the Thai government had imposed a restrictive export
tax on rice--the controversial rice premium--and required that
traders purchase rice export licenses. The ultimate goal of this
tax was to nurture Thailand's developing industries and to
discourage rice production. The government hoped the tax on
tonnage of rice exported would drive the price of Thai rice in
the world market beyond a competitive level, thus discouraging
exports. The government then purchased the rice that could not be
sold abroad to create a public rice reserve and sold it on the
domestic market at artificially low prices.
By providing low-cost rice, the government hoped to hold down
the cost of living in urban areas and prevent demands for higher
wages, thereby making Thai industrial production more competitive
on world markets. It also argued that the rice policy would
encourage diversification in the agricultural sector as
traditional rice farmers in the central plain turned to other
cash crops--maize, sugarcane, and pineapple. Export controls had
no effect however, on rice farmers in the North and Northeast,
who produced glutinous rice for local consumption only.
Introduction of the rice premium fundamentally altered the
liberal policy toward free trade that had been in place since the
Bowring Treaty, and it cast the Thai government in an activist
economic role, such as that advocated by the nationalists since
1932
(see Mongkut's Opening to the West
, this ch.).
Opponents of the rice policy charged that the rice premium
was an excessive tax that ultimately placed the heaviest burden
on small farmers in the central plain engaged in growing rice for
export, who were deprived of an increase in real income and were
prevented from sharing in the benefits of Thailand's economic
boom in the 1960s. Lacking incentive to increase their
production, farmers planted less and refrained from introducing
improved seeds or using costly fertilizers. Government officials,
however, predicted that as rice production increased abroad,
world and domestic prices would come together and end the need
for the rice premium.
Data as of September 1987
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