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Thailand Phibun's Experiment with "Democracy"
The struggle for control of the Thai government continued,
meanwhile, and Phibun attempted to offset Sarit's advantage among
the military by generating popular support for himself. In 1955
he toured the United States and Britain and, on his return to
Thailand, articulated a policy of prachathipatai
("democracy"), which he stated he was giving to the country as a
gift. Encouraging the public to feel free to criticize his "open
regime," he set aside a portion of a central park near the royal
palace in Bangkok for public debate, in emulation of Hyde Park in
London, and gave the press free rein in covering the dissent
expressed there. Criticism, especially as it appeared in the
press, was outspoken and often extreme in its attacks on the
government. In addition to encouraging criticism, Phibun halted
the anti-Chinese campaign, made plans to increase the
responsibilities of local government, and again permitted
political parties to register. Phibun intended more to convey the
appearance of democracy, however, than to allow for its
functional development.
Phao and Phibun devoted much effort to ensuring a government
victory in the general election scheduled for February 1957. Phao
headed a newly founded government party, the Seri Manangkhasila,
which was the largest and best funded of the twenty-five parties
that had sprung up in response to prachathipatai. Sarit,
on the other hand, kept out of the campaign and, after the
election, dissociated himself from the disappointing results,
which gave the Seri Manangkhasila a bare majority but saw half of
the incumbent party members defeated. Sarit and others questioned
even these returns and accused the government party of stuffing
ballot boxes. When university students came out in great numbers
to protest the government's handling of the elections, Phibun
declared a state of emergency and shelved prachathipatai.
Data as of September 1987
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