Pridi Phanomyong (Thai: ปรีดี พนมยงค์; Chinese: 陳家樂; May 11, 1900 – May 2, 1983) was a Thai politician. He was a former Prime Minister and Senior
Statesman of Thailand, and named one of the world great
personalities of the century by the UNESCO in 2000.
Biography
Early life
Pridi Phanomyong was born in 1900 to a well to do Chinese rice merchant father[1] and a Thai
mother[2] in the province of Ayutthaya. He received a government scholarship to study law and
political economy at the Sorbonne, and returned to Siam in
1927 to work for the Ministry of Justice. He quickly rose to the rank, and was granted the honorary royal title of Luang
Praditmanutham. During this period Pridi gradually and secretly built up a group consisting of fifty civilian officials who
wished to put an end to the absolute monarchy by installing the constitutional
monarchy.
People's Party
On June 24 1932, "Khana Ratsadon", the People's Party, with Pridi as the leader of the civilian faction, carried out a lightning
revolution that abruptly ended 150 years of absolute monarchy under the Chakri
Dynasty.
In 1933, Pridi went into voluntary exile when his radical economic plans, which called for the nationalisation of land and labour, were violently rejected
by many as extreme and allegedly communist in nature.
Statesman
He returned in 1934 to found Thammasat University, before assuming the posts of
Minister of the Interior the same year, Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1937, and Minister of Finance in 1938.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1935 to 1937, Pridi successfully signed treaties revoking the extraterritorial rights of 12 countries.[3] With these treaties, Thailand was able to regain complete independence with regard to legal
jurisdiction and taxation for the first time since
unequal treaties were first signed since King Rama
IV's[4] reign.
Although he had been friends with Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram during the early
days of the People's Party, the two had fallen out during the following years. Pridi was violently anti-Japanese as well as a socialist, and therefore opposed
many of Phibun's militaristic policies.
Free Thai movement
On 8 December, 1941, Imperial Japan launched its attacks on Southeast Asia and the
Allied possessions in the region, which resulted in the full development of the
Pacific War. This included several amphibious landings in Thailand. The Thai government quickly agreed to let the Japanese
pass through and utilise its military bases in order to strike other Allied possessions in the region, including commencing the
Battle of Malaya.
Pridi refused to sign the declaration of war against Britain and the United States in 1942 and, as a result, was
effectively demoted by Phibun to take on the figurehead role of Regent. In this capacity, Pridi built up the anti-Japanese
underground Free Thai Movement ("Seri Thai") network in Thailand. Codenamed "Ruth",
he established contact with the Allies and the parallel organisations based in Britain and the United States. As the war progressed and the fortunes of the Japanese had turned, public dissatisfaction
grew and Phibun was forced to resign as prime minister in 1944.
Khuang Abhaiwongse, the liberal lawyer and a member of the Seri Thai, was chosen to be prime minister due to "his ability to dissemble with the Japanese" to
shield the growing Seri Thai movement while at the same time to improve surface relations with the Japanese.
With the end of the war and the Japanese surrender, the Seri Thai-dominated government immediately acted to "restore the
pre-war status quo". As regent, Pridi termed "the declaration of war illegal and null, and void, and repudiated all agreements
made with Japan by Phibun".
When he visited Bangkok in 1945, Lord Mountbatten, the Supreme Commander, South East Asia, recorded a
tribute to Pridi in which he said that there had existed a unique situation wherein "the Supreme Allied Commander was exchanging
vital military plans with the Head of a State technically at war with us".
Post-war years
Pridi retired from the regency when the King returned in December 1945, and was formally named Senior Statesman (Ratthaburut
Awuso), and subsequently served as a respected advisor to the post-war, civilian governments under Tawee Boonyaket and Seni Pramoj.
In March 1946, Khuang, who had earlier been elected Prime Minister in January, resigned, and Pridi took the Premiership in an
attempt to stabilise the political situation which was spiralling out of control. It was during the first months of the Pridi
government that the war crimes trial against Phibun was dismissed on a legal technicality.
On June 9 1946, the young King Ananda Mahidol was found dead in his bed. Ananda's death resulted from a gunshot to the head, while in
his bedroom in the Baromphiman Palace in the Grand Palace.
In October 1946, a Commission of Inquiry reported that the King's death could not have been accidental but that neither suicide
nor murder was satisfactorily proved.[1]
After a general election, Pridi resigned as Prime Minister, resumed his status of Senior Statesman, and left on a world tour,
visiting Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek and US-President Truman along the way.
On November 8 1947, army troops seized various government
installations in Bangkok. The coup, led by Lieutenant General Phin Choonhavan and
Colonel Luang Katsongkhram, ousted Luang Thamrong's government. It marked the
return to power of Phibun. At the same time, armoured cars arrived in front of Pridi's riverside residence. However, when the
troops entered, they found that Pridi had already escaped. Pridi spent a week hiding with the Navy at Admiral Sindhu Songkhramchai's headquarters. On November 20, the senior
statesman was spirited out of the country by British and American agents to Singapore.
Phibun arrested King Ananda's secretary Senator Chaleo Patoomros and two of his pages under
charges of conspiracy to kill the King. Rumours were spread among the public that Pridi was part of a conspiracy involved in the
regicide, and that he had plans to turn Thailand into a republic. After a farcial trial, during which the entire defence counsel
resigned and two members of a subsequent counsel were arrested under charges of treason, the judges ruled that none of the
accused could have fired the fatal shot. However, it did convict one of pages, Chit Singhaseni,
of being a party to the crime. Chit appealed his conviction. The Appeal Court later dismissed Chit's appeal and, undeterred by
the legal doctrine of double jeopardy, found the other page, But Pathamasarin, guilty too. The Supreme Court upheld the convictions, and convicted Chaleo as well. All
three were later executed.
According to biographer William Stevenson, King Bhumibol has said that he does not believe that Pridi was involved in the
murder.[5]
Permanent exile
Pridi secretly returned in 1949 in order to stage a pro-democracy coup d'état against Phibun's dictatorship. When it failed,
Pridi left for China, never to return to Thailand.
Pridi died on May 2 1983, at his Antony Home in the suburbs of
Paris.
Legacy
During the military era Pridi was cast as a monarchy-destroying communist, a demon designed to frighten off anyone who might
be tempted by liberal ideas. Relentless unto death to destroy Pridi’s reputation, in his later years Seni sought to promote the
idea that he had single-handedly saved Thailand from a British colonial enslavement that his rival had been willing to accept.
The writings of Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian, which portray Phibun.[6] in a favourable light and see his wartime downfall as a result of ambitious scheming on Pridi’s part,
exemplify another line of anti-Pridi analysis. The author Nigel Brailey treats the Free Thai movement as largely a sham and casts
doubt on Pridi’s part, arguing that “it appears questionable whether Pridi committed himself personally to the Allied cause much
prior to August 1942, if even then,” suggesting that “his eventual anti-Japanese stance was a consequence primarily of his
hostility to Phibun.”[7]
There is no question that Pridi wanted to elbow Phibun aside and that the war offered an opportunity. However, there also
should be no question that Pridi recognised well before the war that Thailand’s alignment with the Axis powers would work to
Phibun’s advantage and enable him to further strengthen his dictatorship. Even the Japanese recognised Pridi’s orientation, which
is why he was shoved out of the cabinet in December 1941. It was also reason why every knowledgeable person on the Allied side,
from fellow Thais like Seni Pramoj and Prince Suphasawat, a chief organiser of the movement in Great Britain, to former British
Minister Crosby, anticipated that Pridi would be the person to emerge at the head of a domestic resistance movement.
One time conservative monarchist Sulak Sivaraksa, displaying the zeal of a convert,
has emerged as Pridi’s most ardent champion. A prolific, audacious critic of the Thai status quo, Sulak, in addition to praising
the achievements of the Pridi-led Free Thai in its role in saving Thailand’s sovereignty, has skewered Seni and his political
party for complicity in the military’s return to power in 1947.
Sulak-led efforts to rehabilitate Pridi have recently achieved some significant results. Two Bangkok streets now bear his name
(one his own name, the other his official title under the old monarchy), and in 1997 the Thai government dedicated a Bangkok
part. On August 16, 2003, a library/museum, built as a replica
of Pridi’s wartime residence, opened there.
For Pridi and his murdered colleagues, it was a sorry reward for their successful effort to unshackle Thailand from a doomed
Japan and ensure its post-war sovereignty and independence.
On 30 October 1999 UNESCO
(United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) included Pridi Phanomyong's name in the calendar of
Anniversaries of Great Personalities and Historic Events Calendar as a belated tribute to not so much his achievements, but his
ideals and character integrity.
Further reading
References
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