Serendipity Missed: Report on the Parliamentary Elections in Thailand 1975

Abstract

It almost resembles tales from Serendip whose princes were gifted with the faculty of finding happiness, good luck, and fortune unexpectedly: During the past two years which saw the suppression of parliamentary democracy in many a country various groups of firmly determined intellectuals in Thailand as well as the vast majority of her ruling elite led by Their Majesties King Bhumiphon and Queen Siri- kit set out in search of a “society in which there should be unity without forced uniformity; there should be room for the non-conformist..;material and spiritual welfare should be available for all, not for the few; human dignity are each individual’s sacred due”. Encouraged by the successful uprisal against the oppressive National Executive Council which eventually led to the exiling of the so-called ‘Trio’ — Prime Minister Field Marshall Thanom Kittikhachon, Deputy Prime Minister General Prapad Charusathien, and Colonel Narong Kittikhachon — visions of a better future were enhanced; strategies and tactics of democratic mass participation were developed; occupational, professional, and student groups publicly urged democratization thus providing grounds for direct political action in support of textile factory labourers’, hotel workers’, or farmers' economic demands. After both the appointment of the care-taker Government headed by Prime Minister Sanya Dharmasakdi and the convocation of a National Legislative Assembly by H. M. the King a Constitution was started being drafted in view of fervently desired general elections to be held.