Name Changes from Siam to Thailand

During this authoritarian time, the chinese entrepreneurial class was suppressed - but along with it the rest of the peasantry - in the regime's effort at depoliticization. The state-authorized version of nationalism (that actually BUILT UPON King Rama VI's work, and not a supplantation of it) was distributed through various mass-media means whereby the citizenry, which not even a century ago consisted of various ethinicities with no unified national sentiment, was succesfully united under the new-born construct of a "Thai" nation. On May 8, 1939 the Cabinet decided on the name change for the country from "Siam" to "Thailand", with only 3 ministers not in full support - Luang Pradit (Preedee Panomyong, one of the prominent leaders of the People's Party and Pibul's major rival), Luang Thamrong, and Jao Praya Sritammatibet. Preedee commented that Siam had been used since King Narai's time by Europeans and Luang Thamrong argued that there were many races in Siam not just the Tai race. But all in all the historic decision to change took 10 minutes to make! The activities of the state during Pibul's time -- the suppression of the chinese entrepreneurial class, and the state-authorized nationalism -- resulted in, intentionally or not, the delay of the development of a progressive and independent middle class, and in the creation of an extra-political, extra-bureaucratic class of 'influential people' (Chai-anan Samuddavanija). The power these people weild today is formidable, and destructive to the democratic process in Thailand. The task of spreading this power more democratically is a daunting one that every Thai person must come together to bear. Pibul's brand of nationalism, among other things, involved an irredentist movement, a pan-Thai expansion, and a racist program against the ethnic Chinese. The country's name change worked well with the attempts at a Pan-Thai expansion scheme that included such stints as invading Burma and Southern China to try to reclaim the land and the Tai ethnics who were living there. The irredentist movement was made against the French who were supposed to have taken the lands that were Thai's during their colonial expansion. Pibul and his main propagandaist, Luang Wichiwattakran, took a lot of ideas from Hitler, from Musolini, and from the Bushido of Japan. Pibul's rival, Preedee Panomyong, had a vision of a more egalitarian politics. To attack the old regime on the economic front, Preedee proposed a socialization of the agricultural land and an inheritance tax, both of which were met with fierce opposition by the royalty and the aristocrats. On the education front, Preedee opened his own university, Thammasat University, to prepare the budding citizens with economic, bureaucratic, legal and social science skills needed for a new nation. He also allied himself with the business front: he renegotiated the old treaties with the West, laid foundations for a modern monetary system, supported joint governement/private businessesm, etc. Politically he allied himself with politicians from the Northeast who resented Pibul's tightly-gripped centralized power. On the international front, the country was led, under the leadership of Pibul, into alignment with Japan in 1942. Preedee left the government when Japan invaded to become a regent for the then young King Rama VIII, and he and a royalist, Senee Pramoj, formed a resistant group called Seree Thai. With the World War, the two rivals, Pibul and Preedee, became absorbed into a bigger international picture: Preedee's civilian side of the People's Party came to be subsumed under a socialist faction, and ironically Pibul's military side came to be subsumed under a royalist faction. When the war ended, Preedee's group was launched into a favourable position thanks to its alignment with the winners of the World War: Preedee came to power. He changed the country's name back to "Siam", and in this time of postwar chaos, attempted to open up political doors for players from both extremes of the political spectrums: the anti-communist law was repealed, and the royalty who came under severe restriction under Pibun was allowed back into politics. The latter move proved detrimental for Preedee: the royalty quickly turned against him and his policies which they deemed way too radical. A rapproachment was formed instead between the royalist and old Pibun. In 1946 King Rama VIII died mysteriously of a gun shot wound to the head in his bed in the palace. A massive campaign was moved to accuse Preedee of the crime, and a coup was successfully launched to overthrow him. He fled the country, never to become involved in politics ever again -- he died in exile. After Preedee's ouster, Pibun, upon his return to power in 1947, changed the name of the country back to Thailand again, and the name remains until this day. WORK CITED Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. "Thailand: Economy and Politics", New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Reynolds, Craig J. (editor) "National Identity and its Defenders", Melbourne: Monash Papers on Southeast Asia No.25, Center of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1991. Skinner, G. William. "Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History", Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1957.