Democratic constitution and military junta.

The 24th of June, 1932 was a turning point in the history of Thailand. A revolution was launched by the People's Party led by Dr Pridi Phanomyong which consisted of intelligentsia and a few military men. This ended the monarchical reign for seven centuries, and established the constitutional monarchy. Although there was tremendous change in the political structure, "democratic rights" was still a new concept to the majority of the Thai people, and was in fact limited to the minority. The democratic experience of Thailand in the past forty years were merely coup d'etat one following the other drafts of constitutions and then abolishments at last. Except for the eight years of civilian regime, the remainder of the forty years are all military junta, "democratic constitution" only stand for the "minority rule".

Between 1938 and 1957, except for chaotic civilian government between 1945 and 1948 the political regime was in the hand of Field Marchal Plag Philboonsongkram, a military man. During the 2nd World War, Thailand was invaded by the Japanese, and was forced to join the Axis of Germany, Italy and Japan. There were several coup d'etat after the war. In 1955, Plag's government announced the decree of legitimate registry of political party and suggested the "Hyde Park" style of freedom of opinion in politics. Immediately 25 political parties were formed and the democratic atmosphere for a time seemed to have flourished. However, the corruptions in the 1957 election once again proved that parliamentary democracy was only a beautiful cloak.

September, 1957, General Sarit Thanart launched a military coup d'etat, appointed his deputy as Prime Minister, abolished the parliament, constitution and all the political parties, instigated the military dictatorship under the name of "revolutionary parliament", and launched forth the first five years plan between 1960-65 in economics as well as borrowing loans and induced foreign investments to make a spur in the economic development of Thailand.

In December 1963, Sarit Thanart died, Field Marshal Thanom succeeded the dictatorship. Prapass was the Vice-Prime Minister. After the 1969 election a new cabinet was formed, Thanom maintained his position as the Prime Minister. In November, 1971, in order to suppress the opposition force in the parliament and to reinforce his own political regime, Thanom launched the Self Coup D'etat, once again he abolished the constitution. Under the control of the military junta, the democratic constitution was once again strangled. Thanom self-announced as the President and Prime Minister of the "National Executive Parliament", together win Prapass (Vice Prime Minister) and Narong (son of Thanom, son-in-law of Prapas), started the regime of military junta dictatorship of the Tyrant Trio, under the control of the American imperialism on one hand, grasped the military and economic rights of Thailand on the other This is the political situation of Thailand before October 1973.

October 1973 was another turning point in the political history of Thailand, the fight for democratic constitution movement launched by intelligentsia and students rapidly got the mass support. On the 14th of October, about 400 thousand students and people gathered together in Bangkok to hold a demonstration. Thanom ordere soldiers and tanks to suppress the mass, about 70 people were brutally killed. Finally, under the angry roar of the people page 11 and due to the internal strife among the ruling class, the Tyrant Trio was kicked out of Thailand. This great victory showed a ray of light to democratic constitution. However, for the past three years, the fundamental problems of the country still remained unsolved. The civilian government faced innumerable political crises. At the same time, the exile military men were reluctant to leave the historical arena the Tyrant Trio had tried many times to return back to Thailand. Shortly after Than om had returned back to Bangkok on October 6, a bloody coup d'etat again took place, the democratic constitution is agin put to penalty.

History showed, that Thailand was nominally implementing a democratic constitutional system, in reality it was the militia who grasped power. Their influence was entrenched deeply in the political structure in Thailand. A seat in the parliament meant no guarantee for democracy, instead it was the gun-barrel of the militia which mattered most. In front of gun and bullets, all democratic measures would became powerless. Many students were sacrificed. So long as the weapons remained in the hands of the military junta how could the masses resist with bare hands? How could the people have genuine democracy?