"All the people," "When this king succeeded his elder brother, people at first hoped that he would govern peacefully." "But matters have not turned out as they hoped." "The king maintains his power above the law as before." "He appoints court relatives and toadies without merit to important positions, without listening to the voice of the people." "He allows officials to use the power of their office dishonestly, which squanders the wealth of the country." "He elevates those of royal blood to have special rights more than the people." "He governs without principle." "The country's affairs are left to the mercy of fate." "The government of the king has governed in ways that are deceiving and not straightforward with the people." "It has insulted the people, those with the grace to pay taxes for royalty to use." "It has not allowed the people to have any political voice because they are stupid." "This statement is unacceptable." "If the people are stupid, royalty are stupid too, because we're of the same nation." "You, all of the people, should know that our country belongs to the people." "Not to the king, as has been deceitfully claimed." "It was the ancestors of the people who protected the independence of the country from enemies." "Those of royal blood just reap where they have not sown and sweep up wealth..." "In 1926, the population of Bangkok numbered just a few hundred thousand." "The sweet smell of equality and egalitarianism was sweeping across the globe." "Monarchical rules in many places took turns in crumbling." "Starting with the abolition of the monarchy in the Austro Hungarian Empire." "In Russia, Lenin founded the first Communist state." "Emperor Puyi of China lost his throne and status as the son of the dragon." "Meanwhile, the social context was working against absolute monarchy." "The widening social gap was a spark." "The bureaucratic system built by the old regime brought commoners into the system." "But it still guardedly reserved the power to those with royal blood." "The transformation of the monarchical system around the world greatly influenced the idealism of a group of Thai students in France." "They drafted their plan in their dorm rooms." "Later, the group called themselves Khana Ratsadorn, or the People's Party." "Their leader was Pridi Banomyong." "In February, 1926, they had a meeting in a room on Rue de Summerard in Paris." "They agreed on a sudden transformation from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy." "Soon after, some of the members traveled to Siam to build networks for the revolution." "There were four networks:" "The Citizens, the Navy, the lowranking Army officials, and the highranking Army officials." "The time was ripe and the sky burst open." "On June 23, 1932, a rumor swept through Bangkok about an imminent coup d'etat." "Early in the morning of June 24, an outline of what was about to happen began to take shape." "Tanks, army vehicles and soldiers were mobilized to the Royal Plaza." "Friday June 24, 1932" "Military officers and citizens of the People's Party staged a coup d'etat." "And seized power from King Rama VII." "Their aim was to transform the governing system from absolute monarchy to democracy." "The next day, soldiers, naval officers and military cadets gathered at the Royal Plaza while onlookers still assumed that there was a dress rehearsal of a military parade." "When Phraya Pahol read out the Announcement of the People's Party, centuries of absolute monarchy in Siam officially came to an end." "Our transition to democracy took place not only because of the People's Party and not only because King Rama VII granted the first constitution." "But it was a negotiation." "The first three days following the coup d'etat were chaotic." "The Announcement of the People's Party" "No. 1 explicitly and harshly attacked King Rama VII." "You can see that..." "The first statement of every coup maker in Thailand attacked the government which it toppled in order to justify their action." "But I think what we should give great significance to is our first constitution." "Because it was a product of a negotiation." "I choose the term "negotiation" because" "King Rama VII had an option." "He could've chosen to fight." "It was amazing." "The 1932 Revolution was successful because the People's Party went from seven men to over a hundred." "But another key factor of the successful transition was that King Rama VII had had the intention to see about a change." "What we have to stress is that Pridi Banomyong was an idealist." "A lot of working class people fight to make a living but they're not idealists, so they never become extraordinary." "And there are idealists who have never been oppressed by social conditions and limitations." "To each his own." "But the important thing is Pridi was an idealist." "He said that when he had power, he lacked experience." "But when he had experience, he no longer had power." "To me, a man in his 20s who could mastermind such a revolution!" "Wow!" "He was only in his 20s going on 30." "And he was already the brains of the Revolution." "He didn't have to be modest about lacking experience because what he did was massive though it was full of limitations and human errors." "Not many human beings can pull off such a thing." "There was this case during the time of King Rama VI." "A Chinese man tied his boat to a pier." "The rope came loose and the boat slammed into a Royal pier." "The Chinese man was sued for damage." "No lawyers wanted to defend him - remember, it was a time of absolute monarchy." "Pridi, then a young lawyer, took the case, and became a laughingstock." "Pridi fought by citing the Ekatosarot Code everybody had forgotten King Ekatosarot, a great lawmaker." "The code stated that when the defendant has tried his best, it's beyond all means to find him guilty." "The Chinese man won, because he had tied the boat but a storm undid the rope." " So he won?" " Yes." "That means..." "Justice in those days was more just than today." "I was about to say that." "Besides calling for a constitution, the People's Party issued a six point principle:" "1." "Maintain the independence of the country 2." "Maintain public safety within the country 3." "Improve the economic well being of the people by finding employment for all and drawing up an economic blueprint" "4." "Provide the people with equal rights 5." "Provide the people with liberty and freedom 6." "Provide the people with a full education" "The six point policy drafted by Pridi Banomyong failed to pass the vote in the Parliament." "Pridi was even accused of being a communist." "Pridi believed that we had a constitution that ensured everyone's legal equality," "but a real democracy meant people also had to be economically equal." "In this country, mandarins and bureaucrats are a privileged class." "He wanted to see farmers being treated no differently from civil servants." "Civil servants had pensions once they retired, and so should farmers." "No one should be unemployed." "So Pridi proposed his economic blueprint." "Tom:" "And he was accused of being a communist." "His economic idea was the same as what the Labor Party in the UK used after World War II." "Pridi was 20 years ahead of them." "We have to look back to see where that accusation came from." "At that time, even King Rama VII accused Pridi of being a Bolshevik." "You have to understand that some terms and ideologies didn't have the same implications as they do now." "For example, the ruling class in those days, both royalty and citizens, were openly pro Fascist." "In today's context, Fascism is totally unacceptable." "But such ironfistedness was viewed as necessary back then." "It put Italy in order at least for a while." "So they viewed Pridi through a certain lens, but Pridi wasn't even a Bolshevik." "He was more of a Britishstyle Socialist." "Even the word "Marxist" wasn't as horrible then as it is now." "Pridi wasn't a Bolshevik, but once he was perceived as slightly "red", those who loathed and feared him branded him a communist." "I think Pridi's idea came from a mixture of influences." "From a Buddhist concept of compassion and the Solidarity of friendship." "It also had Socialist elements in it, such as the idea of co-operatives." "But was he a communist?" "I don't know." "Pridi's thinking seemed to change over the years." "Extreme left, sometimes slightly left;" "he even veered to the right." "After the Revolution, Pridi invited Phraya Mano to be prime minister." "Phraya Mano wasn't in the People's Party." "It was believed that he would be a neutral force that could bring about unity between supporters of the old regime and the agents of change." "The first sign of misjudgment had materialized." "Pridi saw Phraya Mano as a progressive who wasn't afraid of the monarch." "So he asked him to lead the new government." "The People's Party wanted to make it clear that they seized power not for themselves but for the people." "Pridi wanted to take up the post of Parliamentary Secretary to promote the new system." "He refused to take any cabinet post." ""The monarchy is in a slump and has lost the trust of the citizens..." ""The Royal Coffers are almost empty..." ""The government was corrupt, the governing in disarray."" "This is how historian Prince Damrong summarized the aftermath of the 1932 Revolution." "The immediate ramification of the Revolution is the Temporary Charter." "Despite its provisional status, the constitution decreed in the first article that the supreme power of the country belonged to the people." "And yet because of the limitations of the citizens due to lack of education to the need to build the political infrastructure and to inculcate the new governing system in the citizens" "Thai democracy was to be rolled out in three installments." "First, all members of the Assembly of People's Representatives were to be appointed by a committee." "They would represent the people for 6 months." "In the second phase, the Assembly would be divided into two wings." "One elected, the other appointed." "Every candidate running for a seat had to be approved first by the People's Party." "Third, the law to stipulate a full democratic representation under the Parliamentary system would be passed either after 10 years, or after half of the populace had completed their entry level education." "Depending on which came first." "But the Temporary Charter lasted only for a matter of months." "At the end of the year, the first Constitution of Kingdom of Siam was completed, with a more compromising content." "King Rama VII affixed the Royal Stamp and the Constitution became effective on December 10, 1932." "What followed has been an eternally open-ended question:" "Did democracy and the fateful event in 1932 come too soon or too late?" "I'll use a coin to answer that question." "The coin has two sides, head and tail." "You see an image on the head, and you see the coin's value on the tail." "The perspective is not complete from looking at just one side." "What happened 80 years ago on June 24, 1932, has to be perceived from both sides." "If you look from the head side, it was a case of picking the fruit before it was ripe." "The People's Party were too rash." "King Rama VII was about to grant a constitution anyway but we were in a mess because the Party snatched it from him." "But if you look at it from the tail side, perhaps the monarch was too slow." "The fruit had already been ripe - so ripe that it was about to rot." "Tom:" "Because?" "World history had already moved on at that point." "Monocracy and Absolute Monarchy could no longer survive." "There had already been a revolutionary movement in 1912." "Two years after King Rama VI ascended the throne." "The coup-makers wanted a radical change." "Not just to Constitutional Monarchy but to make Siam a republic." "It was even more progressive than the 1932 move in terms of political configuration because it was based on an international model." "The question of whether we were "ready" or not isn't based on fixed criteria." "The people are more ready and less ready at different points in history." "I'd like to ask those who ask that question if they know the criteria themselves." "And whether they're really ready." "I'd argue with those who believe that they're ready because they probably still haven't grasped a lot of things." "Simply put, you can't expect one million people to be ready or not ready at the same time." "That's my first point." "And let me elaborate it..." "The people who took part in all the world's great revolutions, from democratic revolutions," "Socialist revolutions or antislavery revolutions in so many places..." "Were they ready or did they understand it?" "No!" "No democratic revolutions took place because of the people's deep understanding of the essence of democracy." "They understand aspects of it - in Thailand, we understood that we wanted a constitution." "Some countries understood that the best thing for them was to abolish monarchy." "Other countries might understand that the right to vote was good for them." "Understanding comes in different forms." "Is this wrong?" "No, it's not." "Is it complete?" "Well, I'll have to ask back what is "completeness"?" "There's no such thing." "Our understanding grows little by little." "This is to answer whether the Revolution was premature - there are no fixed criteria." "So the question about "readiness" is a way to shift the blame to the people." "A question deployed to accuse the people." "Because whenever you ask that question, the answer you'll always get is no, they're not ready." "They're never ready because we never know what this "readiness" is, right?" "In academic terms, this is a faulty question." "Every answer is right and every answer is wrong." "If you have certain criteria, every answer is wrong." "If you have a different set of criteria, every answer is right." "It's a faulty question." "It's useless." "The second point is... if I'm talking too much you can edit me down." "Ek:" "Please go on." "Ready or not ready, let me ask those who think they know what "readiness" means." "If the people weren't ready, why were they not?" "The usual culprit is the lack of education, which is a valid point." "But this is what card sharks call a "joker" because you can blame everything on it." "The cause of every problem in Thailand is the lack of education." "In philosophy, we call this a false explanation." "Because it's always true, so it's pointless." "I'm not saying it's wrong." "When problems arise we blame the education, that's not incorrect." "But the dilemma is, since it's always true, there's no point arguing about it." "And what caused this "nonreadiness" that led to the "premature Revolution"?" "The answer they've always over looked is the ruling class." "They're an obstruction that prevented the people from being "ready"." "Okay, let me say it again." "First, blaming it on the lack of education is invariably true, so it's pointless." "Second, the elite class was a hindrance that prevented the people from being "ready" for the Revolution." "In this explanation, it means that the ruling class had to look back at themselves." "They were the obstruction, but they accused the people of not being ready." "They said the people weren't ready and shouldn't have demanded democracy." "But it was them who made the people not ready, wasn't it?" "This leads to the third point that we often overlook." "Instead of asking, "Are we ready for democracy?"" "And if not, the Revolution was premature." "I think the right question to ask is:" "How much longer could the people have endured the old regime?" "Every revolution came about because the people could no longer stand the old regime." "Another nonsensical contention is that the people weren't part of the 1932 Revolution." "That it was the act of just a handful of people." "No revolution in the world ever happened because the majority of the people took to the streets." "The American Revolution came about from a few people." "The French Revolution came about from a handful of people." "The Maoled Revolution, too, happened from a few people." "Sun Yatsen and a handful of people overthrew the Qing dynasty." "Because if a mass of people took part in a revolution, heads would roll." "The old regime would go after you and intimidate you, because they need to defend themselves." "One year after the Revolution, the country was plagued by constant chaos." "In June 1933, the first counterrevolution took place, led by Phraya Pahol, who seized power and installed himself as prime minister." "And while the nation found its back against the wall, the Boworadet Coup erupted." "Prince Boworadet mobilized troops loyal to him and attempted a coup d'etat to overthrow the government." "He demanded the resignation of the cabinet and planned to restore King Rama VII to the throne." "Appointed by the government," "Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsongkram overcame the rebels." "Prince Boworadet went into exile and would remain in Indochina for the next 15 years." "If we study the Boworadet coup in detail..." "Prince Boworadet didn't intend to rewind the clock and return Siam to Absolute Monarchy." "He wanted to see a system in which the king was really under the constitution." "So we have to analyze the circumstances in 1933 to see what the problems regarding constitutional monarchy were." "Because one side saw that it was constitutional monarchy, but the other didn't." "Ake:" "So after the 1932 Revolution it was all chaotic." "The victory belonged to the People's Party after Prince Boworadet's failed coup." "Because King Rama VII abdicated." "December 16, 1938" "Field Marshal Plaek replaced Phraya Pahol as prime minister not long after Germany invaded Poland and World War Two broke out in Europe and spread to Thailand." ""Trust your leader, and the nation will avoid danger", Plaek told the people as he took Thailand into the war by entering an alliance with Japan." "But war raged both from within and without." "The conflicts between Plaek and Pridi blurred the line that once defined their friendship." "Between 1938 and 1947, those conflicts could easily blind us to the fact that the two men were the original musketeers of the People's Party." "The military inevitably had to function as a pillar of politics during our momentous transition and especially in the context of the war." "Field Marshal Plaek was head of government during World War Two and the military played a crucial role throughout that period." "Plaek was power crazed." "At one point he wanted to own the Scepter of Supreme Commander that belonged to King Rama VI." "Pridi was regent then and he refused to allow Plaek to have it." "Pridi told him that if he wanted the Scepter, he should have a new one made." "In short, Plaek showed every sign of an ambition to command absolute power." "The power that would've dwarfed that of the king's, or done away with the king altogether." "He wouldn't have objected had the revolutionaries wanted to take it that far." "His actions were enough to confirm that." "During World War Two there was a rift within the People's Party between Field Marshal Plaek and Pridi." "Plaek sided with Japan, but Pridi didn't agree with him." "Eventually we came through World War Two without becoming losers because of the Free Thai Movement." "Who were the Free Thai Movement?" "The members in England were royalty who fled Siam after the 1932 Revolution." "There were others too, of course, such Puay Ungpakorn [and Pridi]." "Pridi had to enlist the help of the expatriate royalty, and in effect he revived them." "But he had no choice because he wanted to counter Plaek and the Japanese." "The leader of Free Thai Movement in the US was MR Seni Pramoj a member of the royal family." "Pridi had to work with royalty in order to found the Free Thai Movement." "He needed political leverage in his fight against Plaek and the Japanese." "I once asked Pridi..." "Does a snake charmer often die of snake bites?" "He said yes." "In 1946, Pridi vowed that he would try to bring full fledged democracy to the country." "But the constitution of that year was written amidst unusual circumstances." "It was right after the war." "He rushed to draft it with the aim of making it a genuine democratic constitution." "But the major hitch of that time was a disagreement among different groups." "For instance," "Pridi's chief goal was to have elections for both House and Senate members." "That was a problem." "And don't forget that he was operating under so many postwar difficulties." "Inflation shot up to 200 percent." "Unemployment hit the roof, soldiers were discharged without compensation." "People lived in extreme hardship." "Then came the most devastating problem, the death of King Rama VIII." "It was our fate that our first complete constitution had such a short life, just one year." "In 1947 there was another coup d'etat." "It proved that our politics wasn't ready for the elections of both Houses." "When Pridi was regent after King Rama VIII ascended the throne, he invited a young monk Buddhadassa Bhikku who had just founded Suan Mok Monastery." "They talked for 4 days and 4 nights at Tha Chang Palace." "The subject was how to apply Buddhism to democracy." "Pridi knew that the democracy he had adopted was a Western product." "He wanted a Thai compatible version." "Four days and four nights the two men talked, and it was hard work lost." "Soon after, King Rama VIII returned to Thailand from Europe, and Pridi resigned from all posts." "The death of King Rama VIII set off waves of political turbulence and power swings." "Pridi couldn't even stay on as rector [of Thammasart University]." "Later Pridi had to resign." "After that, Thamrongnawasawat became prime minister." "His could be called a "nominee government" because he was close to Pridi." "The power remained on his side." "But more and more the rumor from the other side was blown up into something worse." "And it led to a coup d'etat on November 8, 1947 by Lt. Gen. Pin Chunhawan." "It was the first coup in Thai history that was followed by the abolishing of the charter." "It was the start of a tradition of coup-makers tearing up the existing constitution." "The protocol of a coup or seizure of power is to issue a series of Announcements." "Believe it or not, almost always it was the 3rd Announcement that revoked the existing constitution." "Throughout our history it has always been the 3rd." "When the coup of September 19, 2006 happened, I was listening to the Announcements." "I had my TV on and waited to hear when they'd terminate the 1997 Charter." "They did it in the 3rd Announcement, as I had expected." "Why's that?" "Because they all copied the pattern of their predecessors." "The coup-makers of 2006 copied the coup-makers of 1991." "The coup-makers of 1991 copied the coup-makers of 1977." "The coup-makers of 1977 copied Field Marshal Thanom, who led the coup of 1972." "Thanom also copied the pattern of Field Marshal Sarit's coup in 1958." "I kept tracing it back." "All the Announcements by different coup-makers have been written almost verbatim." "They just changed the names and the dates - even the sequence is the same." "I traced the origin back to Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, who initiated this model:" "After a coup, issue a series of Announcements, and in the 3rd, abolish the existing constitution." "The good thing about a coup is that it wakes people up." "It shows us real darkness." "We realize that darkness is real, that everything is black!" "Any coup defines itself as light, but actually it's darkness." "Tom:" "That's a not a good thing." "It's a good thing." "Now you know what darkness is." "It's like when we raise our kid but we never teach him to know the ugly side of life." "But there's a price to pay." "The darkness that wakes people up is a bonus, not the goal." "The good thing that comes with a coup is a windfall, not the end product." "I'm not pro coup." "But when a problem is thrown at us, we have to get something out of it." "We can't just throw the problem back." "We have to learn something from it." "In 1947, the Charter of 1946 was revoked and the so called "Water Jar Constitution" was drafted." "The temporary "Water Jar" or "Red Water Jar" Charter of 1947." "That Water Jar Constitution was said to have been written by Luang Kard." "Come on, Luang Kard couldn't have written anything like that." "Proof has just come to light that the person who wrote it... was MR Seni Pramoj." "Ake:" "Excuse me, can I put that in the film?" "Sor:" "There's evidence." "Ake:" "What you just said is a major historical revision." "A document has emerged." "Seni Pramoj wrote the Water Jar Constitution with Prince Dulyapak Chooman." "That constitution brought back Absolute Monarchy." "The King had the power to appoint all senators." "The conflict between 1932 to 1947 was a wrestle to protect the regime that each side championed as guided by belief, devotion, faith and preference." "Between 1947 to 1952, things were intense because it was an eye for an eye." "If you seize my power, I'll do the same to you." "And the crackdown swept up every group and faction." "The conflict ran deeper to the point that in the Manhattan Coup, the Army and the Navy turned against each other." "Because after you'd defeated other factions, what remained were the four branches of the military." "The Army and the Navy had been designed to balance each other since the time of King Rama V." "But after 1947, the Army grew more powerful." "The Navy wanted to do the same, but they were defeated." "To say that it was the beginning of a vicious cycle of endless rebellion isn't true." "For more than 10 years there was no coup." "It began after 1947, from then a coup happened once every two or three years." "One of the tragedies of humankind has to do with revolution." "Fidel Castro was a serious ideologue." "An intellectual too." "After the Cuban Revolution, the US put pressure on him." "Castro had to protect the revolution." "That meant he had to do things that eventually led him to become a dictator." "I don't know what Castro was actually thinking." "He was swept into the system and from then on the whole movement began to degenerate as he was struggling to protect the revolution." "He had to keep the revolution alive." "Because Cuba was an American lackey before Castro came along." "He overthrew the old regime and gave voice to the people." "But the US put pressure on him, and he needed to protect the revolution." "He consolidated power, censored newspapers, etc." "It's a degeneration." "It's a paradox." "What's the Thai word?" "A paradox is like when you're trapped." "The Sandinista in Nicaragua went down the same road." "They began as idealists that wanted change." "The US hammered them, and the Contra groups emerged." "Their human instincts showed." "They became paranoid and autocratic." "They consolidated power, or in other words..." "The military faction in the revolution grew more powerful and finally... the revolution degenerated." "Let's get back to post Revolution Thailand." "Pridi was an idealist but he had to fight against the military wing of the People's Party." "When the Boworadet Coup happened, who defeated the rebellion?" "Field Marshal Plaek." "I'm not saying that Plaek had no ideology." "But he became a key figure because he commanded the military power." "Because he was the one who could beat the counter Revolutionary efforts." "He had to protect the Revolution." "If he hadn't, it would've been fatal." "Heads would've rolled, and all the changes would've been reversed." "So he needed to protect the Revolution." "The consequence was that the military wing in the leadership of the Revolution grew stronger." "Policies, ideas and organization became more militaristic." "This is what I call "degeneration" for understandable reasons." "Now let's look at it this way." "1932 is heralded as the birth of Thai democracy." "But for the conservatives, the Royalists and even of certain liberals who went through Oct 14, 1973" "In the eyes of these people, 1932 was the beginning of military dictatorship." "I used to believe that too." "Now I don't." "But consider this: 1932 was the birth of democracy and the beginning of military dictatorship." "It's paradoxical." "I tell my students, is it possible that they're both true?" "The incident on Oct 14, 1973 carries a significant historical weight." "I don't want to repeat what has been said by many people." "I'd like to talk about something else." "The point is, how can we change Thailand in a realistic way?" "This country has no other options but democracy." "Even if we disagree with it," "Thai people have become the owner of the country since June 27, 1932." "If we want a government that's transparent, open to scrutiny and that allows people's participation, that's only possible in a democratic system." "I put out a magazine called Social Science Review between 1962 to 1963 the last year of Field Marshal Sarit's dictatorial rule." "The magazine was widely read by young people." "We organized meetings where students came together to talk." "This was when a gathering of 5 people could get you arrested." "I had to ask the abbot of Wat Bowornivet for the use of his temple." "It was a Royal temple and the police wouldn't dare barge in." "The abbot kindly let us use the premises for our meetings." "Ake:" "Was Wat Borownivet the Royal temple for our meetings." "Of King Rama IV?" "The king was the abbot there for 14 years." "That was where we had our discussions." "Later, there was the "coffee assembly" at Kasetsart University." "Then the assembly at Thammasart University." "All these gatherings of young people led to the Oct 14 uprising when the student movement rose up to defy state authority." "Ake:" "Is democracy worth fighting for?" "At this age... almost 40 years after Oct 14." "I think it's fine for us to have our goals." "But we shouldn't fight because our goals are different." "Tom:" "That's what's happening now." "While we're preoccupied with choosing words or defining terms while we try to protect what we've created in our own imaginations, we're not going anywhere." "We're too busy looking up at the sky while our feet don't move at all." "Field Marshal Sarit and Thanom ruled as dictators for a long stretch of time." "Sarit seized power on October 20, 1958." "His authoritarian rule placed him as the center of power." "His infamous Article 17 allowed him to execute people arbitrarily without court trial." "That's absolutely dictatorial." "When Sarit died in 1963, Thanom took over." "The authoritarian rule continued until 1973." "With a short exception between 1969-1971, when Thanom allowed an election before he took power again." "Thanom had his own Article 17 to ensure his absolute power too." "In 1972, students from 11 universities came together." "A medical student called Kamjadsone Julasamai from Chulalongkorn invited student leaders from 11 other universities to set up the Student Center of Thailand." "The idea was that, since education was funded by taxpayers' money, we had to be more socially engaged." "Teerayuth Boonmee was the Secretary General of the Center." "We agreed that the movement would focus on economic issues, not political issues." "Because there was still the law prohibiting a gathering of 5 people." "No one would want to risk it, so we focused only on economic problems." "First, we organized an anti Japanese goods campaign." "Because Thailand had a huge trade deficit against Japan, and a lot of people turned up." "The students felt more motivated." "Then we campaigned for made in Thailand products, and some students started wearing traditional clothes." "When Thanom's government enforced Announcement no.299 - we called it the Black Ribbon Law." "Which legalized the government's interference into the judiciary." "The Center rallied against the law, and Thanom backed out." "That was our training ground for rallying people for political demands, which we hadn't had before." "Then came the case in Thung Yai, when the army took celebrities aboard a helicopter on a hunting trip." "The chopper crashed." "Some students made a satirical cartoon calling Thanom's assembly "the wild beast assembly"" "and Sak Pasukhirun sacked 9 students from their universities." "The Student Center came out to protest in large numbers." "Thanom reinstated the 9 students and Sak resigned." "But the protest continued." "The Center then announced that it would rally for a constitution in six months." "The wave of demands kept coming." "And they were about so many different things." "In general, we were upset at the way the authorities were running the country and forbade the people to voice their opinions." "Soon it was intolerable - it was a match thrown into a haystack, because the frustration kept growing." "Ake:" "What did the students demand?" "The interesting thing is, we didn't demand the government to fix any of the problems either economic ones or freedom for students." "What we demanded was a bullet to the head." "We demanded a constitution." "Look at what happened carefully." "After Field Marshal Plaek seized power... he made sure no one would contest him by pitting Pao and Sarit against each other." "But Plaek was too indecisive." "Sarit rebelled and kicked him out." "That was 1957." "Then Sarit followed Plaek's tactic by pitting Thanom and Prapas against each other." "Let the two fight so he could rule forever." "Anybody who grew up in the decade after 1957 would remember... that it was a period of dictatorship." "It lasted over 10 years and deprived people of the sense of freedom." "The rulers exploited their power and there was so much injustice." "There were underground student movements." "But the Student Center of Thailand was the first open movement." "It came to represent all the students in the country." "It had sizable support and eventually played a big part in demanding changes for the country." "Tom:" "Did you know what they were thinking?" "On those critical one or two nights, what were the authorities trying to do?" "Partly, I think, they were alarmed that we went to Chitralada Palace." "It played into our hands though, because they wouldn't dare open fire." "The palace was right there." "But after we were dispersed in the morning what happened next remains a mystery until today.," "We were going home!" "But the soldiers fired tear gas and beat up people until they had to scramble into the moat." "It's a big mystery why." "Tom:" "Maybe it's not a mystery." "Maybe they just wanted to flex their muscles after two nights of inaction." "The first explanation is inexperience." "The soldiers saw people breaking out in droves and had to defend themselves by firing tear gas." "That was the drill." "They're trained not to let anything get too close." "It was a lack of experience in crowd control strategy." "An alternative explanation is the internal conflicts between the army and the police, perhaps they didn't get along." "We students didn't care who was fighting who to claim the power." "Our duty was to raise our voice against injustice, our intention was pure." "So there might be some internal conflicts." "Nevertheless, when things flared up that morning what followed was a riot." "Tempers ran high and some men destroyed traffic lights." "Others burned down the Lottery Building." "The helicopters came and started firing." "We didn't know what the authorities were doing in their offices." "Maybe they were arguing about the best way to put down the protests." "We didn't know anything, we only knew we had to run." "Tom:" "Where were you when they started firing tear gas?" "I was near Chitralada Palace with [student leader] Seksan." "We heard a noise and we thought the protest was over." "A woman came by in car and offered us a ride." "We got in, because Seksan was about to pass out." "He'd been Hyde-Parking nonstop for five, six days." "As the car drove off we heard a thudding sound but we had no idea what it was." "We got some rest and a few hours after that we heard the announcement on the radio about the riots on Rachadamnoen." "The state warned people not to come out." "Then the communist charge was slapped on us." "Tom:" "Jiranan Pitpreecha told me about what happened on the morning of Oct 14" "In her view, it was inexperience on both sides." "The students had never done anything like that before, and the soldiers had never dealt with a riot before." "It was the shock that turned into violence." "It's all right." "You can decide after you've heard from many people." "Tom:" "Maybe I don't even have to decide..." "After Oct 14, Prasarn Marukapitak came to see me." "You know Prasarn right?" "He was in the student leadership during Oct 14." "He was a Senator and is now running again." "His family has always been in politics." "He came and asked me, Was Oct 14 worth it?" "I said no." "A lot of my students died." "He said, some people had to die for democracy." "I said everyone believed we had democracy after Oct 14." "But we didn't." "People who've heard the number of deaths during the transformations in the US, UK, France or Germany think the fatalities in Thailand were small." "Only two-digit numbers of deaths, not even three-digit." "650,000 Americans died for democracy, so we still have many more to go!" "Yes, it's true that every momentous event that transformed a country began with bloodshed." "There were a lot of deaths, certainly." "But what I have to add is this:" "There was also plenty of bloodshed that didn't bring about any changes." "That was more often the case." "There was also a lot of bloodshed that eventually ruined countries." "The times when bloodshed had succeeded in changing something are outnumbered by the times when it didn't." "So don't ever think that bloodshed is necessary." "Not every country can be transformed by bloodshed as the US, UK, France or Germany were." "There are countries in Africa and Latin American that were destroyed by internal bloodshed." "What's more interesting is that after World War Two... there have been more changes, usually in Europe, that came about without any violence." "The Berlin Wall came down without a single death." "The Cold War ended without a single death." "The German Unification took place without anyone killed." "So don't believe that we need bloodshed before we can change something." "Change is possible without violence." "I think we've had enough deaths after our 4 incidents." "A clear pattern that we've seen since Oct 14 is that in the subsequent coup d'etats the coup-makers didn't stay in power very long." "They seized power and soon returned it to the people." "It happened after Oct 6, 1976." "It happened after Black May in 1992." "Even the Sept 19, 2006 coup-makers stayed in power only briefly." "They didn't dare cling to power, that's what they learned from Oct 14, 1973." "Ake:" "After Oct 1973 we had a constitution, but from my research, it seemed like we went through what some people called "Democracy Overload"." "It can be understood this way:" "People had been repressed by the dictatorship for over a decade." "Labor was oppressed and exploited." "If I remember correctly, the daily wage was a dozen baht." "Workers marched out and held over 1,000 protests in a year." "It was an explosion that followed extreme pressure." "Farmers who were exploited on land deals and those who had no land formed several protest groups." "Democracy was in bloom." "There were so many movements coming out from the dark." "Everybody wanted to stand up against the repression, that was the atmosphere back then." "[Students] became extreme leftists, and we disapproved of everything." "Even teachers who used to be our intellectual mentors began to distance themselves." "Why?" "Because we started criticizing the old-school intelligentsia who studied in the US as lapdogs of imperialism." "It was exactly what Pol Pot was saying." "If you're not with the revolution, land reform, farmers' and labor's uprisings, then you're just "intellectual capitalists"." "There were terms that cropped up to label people." "If someone wore a necktie, he was branded capitalist scum." "It was the revolutionaries taking the moral high ground." "Tom:" "Why was that?" "Because you were young and got carried away by all those books you read?" "Yes, and also the Cultural Revolution in China." "Oct 6, 1976 was a defeat." "Dictatorship returned and the students fled into the jungle." "There were differences between Oct 14, 1973 and Oct 6, 1976." "The first was a victory - the people claimed victory." "But in 1976, the students couldn't bring the people to their side and they were crushed." "They didn't have the power of the masses, so they were defeated." "And the dictatorship returned to power." "The movement of Oct 6 was led by the banner of leftist ideology." "But the Oct 14 movement was neither left nor right." "The core leaders of the Oct 6 movement were under the sway of the left." "The right felt that that justified their move to crush them on the charge of being communists." "We [the student movement] only complained about how we were harassed." "But what had we done before we were treated like that?" "We isolated ourselves from the power that was ready to support us to the end." "The power of the middle-class in the city." "The student movement cut themselves off from the people." "Next, the radical right gathered its force to destroy us." "Some of us were shot at bus stops." "We were threatened" " I was too." "Almost 20 leaders of the farmers' movements were murdered in Chiang Mai." "All the leaders were targeted." "We had a choice though." "All the prominent leaders who were in the headlines had two options." "First, we could quit and return to live a normal life." "I could've gone back to finish my study and become a pharmacist." "But if we wanted to keep fighting and stick to the ideal, we couldn't stay here." "After Oct 6, 1976 you had to flee into the jungle and be with the communists." "Or if you had a chance, you went abroad." "I was lucky, I could go abroad." "Otherwise you took off into the jungle." "[Student leader] Seksan went into the jungle but he left when he realized how fucked up it was in there." "They all left sooner or later after seeing how fucked up the Communist Party was." "I had known it all along how fucked up they were." "They didn't believe me, they called me a feudal prick." "It's fine." "The commies were assholes, the elites were also assholes." "They're all assholes." "We have to do this carefully, we have to argue within the democratic framework." "We must not drag the monarchy into the conflict." "Let me remind you that we once slaughtered each other on Oct 6, 1976 because of a lese majeste allegation." "That was when the radical right stormed Thammasart University and killed the students." "Two-thirds of the deaths on that day were caused by beating, stabbing and strangling." "Only one-third were caused by the authorities' weapons." "Two-thirds were killed by being clubbed or strangled." "Meaning, the majority were killed by citizens who attacked the university, not by the police." "It all began when the students put on a play that led to a charge of lese majeste." "Around that time, Gen Thanom was about to return to Thailand as a novice monk." "Gen Thanom had been the prime minister during the Oct 14 uprising three years back and he went into exile." "Two mechanics went around putting up posters protesting Gen Thanom's return." "They were found hanged." "The students put on a play on Oct 4 to demand justice for the dead mechanics." "That spurred the accusation that the students were communists that wanted to overthrow the monarchy." "In the morning of Oct 6, people stormed Thammasart and killed 46 students that's the official number." "We had gone at each other's throats because of this before." "The media played a big part in that conflict." "What they published was also responsible for the killings on oct 6." "Ake:" "Why was that?" "Because it was fabricated." "Oct 14 was a turning point." "But the ramification wasn't fully visible because there was another passage." "That was the rule of Gen Prem." "After that we saw the influence of the private sector in politics." "The proportion of highly educated people grew larger and larger." "At the same time the economy was on the rise." "We had to stress that regardless of the government's competence or incompetence, the economy was consistently expanding." "It stopped, however, in 1997." "It was a critical setback." "The Charter of 1997 had both good and bad sides." "The Charter threw open the door for anybody to enter politics with minimum cost." "Through what?" "The Party List system." "We borrowed it from Germany." "But in Germany, the candidates on the Party List had to prove their honesty for years." "Here, anybody could put their names on the list and businessmen could easily become cabinet members." "Once in the cabinet, they mixed business interests with politics." "In the past decade, business interests and politics became inseparable because of the Charter of 1997." "Particularly because of the Party List system." "The system also distracted academic arguments because it was the first time in Thai history that anybody could enter politics and became cabinet members." "Gen Prem came to power after Gen Kriangsak [in the 1980s]" "Gen Prem was PM for eight-and-a-half year." "It was a period that Thailand's economy was continually expanding." "Simply put, it was the boom years." "In 1989, Gen Chatchai Choonhawan was the leader of Chart Thai Party." "He got enough support to form a government and he asked Gen Prem to serve as PM again." "It had been a tradition that after any election" "Gen Prem would be invited to head the government." "But that time, Gen Prem told Gen Chatchai:" ""You take it." "I've had enough."" "Gen Chatchai was stunned because that meant he would suddenly become PM." "That also meant democracy was in full bloom again." "After years of having military PMs, now we had one who was elected." "But that brought back the old devil:" "The abuse of power by politicians." "The government of Gen Chatchai was called "Buffet Cabinet"." "It was a corrupt government that took advantage of several mega-projects." "Gen Chatchai went full throttle for economic expansion." "It was the boom period for property and land value." "The economy was red hot during that time." "Despite the coup in 1991 and the Black May Incident in 1992 [another uprising]" "The economy kept on expanding." "When Anand Panyarachun became PM in 1994, he approved a special policy that freed up the financial sector." "It was trade freedom, then there was money market freedom." "And then came the policy on a new sector, telecommunications." "In the past, people got rich from selling tangible, visible stuff." "But with the new sector, people could get rich from selling cellular and satellite signals" "The riches were in the air." "I call him the ice cream man." "Before him, Parliament would hand down the ice cream." "The ice cream would pass from the parliament to the ministry, to the province." "From the province it would continue to the district, then to the village." "Along the way, everyone had a few licks of it." "When the ice cream finally reached the villagers, it was all gone." "What's left was just the stick." "People had had their shares and the ice cream was gone." "Thaksin changed that - look at the Village Fund project for instance." "Did you see when he pressed the button?" "He set up accounts for villages and he just pressed the button." "Since then, the ice cream is sent through to the villagers electronically." "There is no need for the middle-men." "The villagers have the authority to manage the funds by themselves." "They're trusted to do that, to handle the money." "Or look at the SML Village project." "He set up the funds and let the villagers decide what to do with them." "Stimulus campaigns such as the Miyazawa Plan were once centralized." "The government controlled everything." "But the people have wised up, the government can't keep doing that." "Thaksin made all these visible changes." "Thaksin Shinawatra is a product of several influences." "He's a product of modern liberalism." "A product of capitalism." "A product of the IT revolution." "All these have become the key factors in modern Thai politics." "To begin with, Thaksin looked at the entire structure." "I agree with him on this, like when he set industrial targets." "Second, he realized the importance of the grassroots sector." "His policies have made visible impact on it, and this is his strength." "But at the same time it could also be his blind spot." "The idea should be to develop long term competitive ability for the grassroots." "Not just to do things to get more votes." "Tom:" "But the detractors said that the ice cream has poisoned the people." "They said villagers used the money to buy motorcycles and other products." "That's an oppressive attitude." "I used to work with hill tribe people in the North." "Motorcycles are essential to their livelihood." "Land is necessary and so are motorcycles." "The hill tribe had been driven off the mountains to live on the plains." "They make a living as day laborers working in construction or in agriculture." "And they work in different villages or areas from where they live." "They have to have motorcycles to travel around." "Why do people in Bangkok think motorcycles are something cool and fun?" "It's ridiculous." "I'm sorry, I'm disgusted by this kind of attitude." "This dumb accusation about motorcycles." "Do you think it's like when you buy a motorbike for your son to show off?" "Motorcycles are factors of production for villagers, they don't have the subway like we do!" "EK:" "Like they need cell phones to contact their employers." "That cell phone thing is even more insensitive." "There was an Information and Technology minister under the coup appointed government." "He said in an interview that he disagreed with making cell phones cheap." "The reason was his maid was on the phone all day." "He said the technology that sustained our telecommunications age was so advanced that we should maximize its potential instead of letting maids call each other." "It's sickening to hear this." "Why?" "Poor people don't have the right to use cell phones?" "Look at the social structure in the rural areas." "Young people have to leave home to work in the city." "They work in factories." "The elders stay home to raise the kids - that's how they live." "You won't let them talk on the phone?" "They're poor so they don't have that right?" "The way he took over political parties was the same as when he took over businesses." "Thaksin did with politics the same thing he had done when he ran business." "And he knows how best to use marketing." "I'd say he's the country's first accomplished political marketer in history." "Thaksin took his authority to the limit." "He saw what he was permitted to do, and he tested the boundaries of his power by maxing it." "He did it purposefully." "He used every tool, every mechanism given to him to drive his policies." "That's the main thing." "That kind of drive was so shocking because we'd never seen an elected PM who exercised his power to such an extreme." "He's obsessed with results, he's work-nuts." "That made him impatient." "He was enjoying the power of his magic wand." "He tested it, like, "Oh, I can unleash laser beam!"" "He pointed and things happened, things materialized." "So he kept pointing his wand." "But he forgot." "As I said before, before this country had Thaksin, there had been someone else." "What I'm more concerned however..." "is that Thaksin would have limitless power." "There are no checks and balances." "His power will keep growing and growing through his tricks - by tricking groups of people." "Part of this problem is because our opposition party is so useless." "Tom:" "That's not Thaksin's fault..." "But Thaksin controlled the media, he controlled the democratic organizations that the system needed." "During his first term, he exercised control over independent organizations that were set up to exercise checks and balances to his power." "But he dominated them all, that was a danger to democracy." "He wants to rule." "That's obvious." "Tom:" "He believes he's still got a shot?" "If he hadn't, he wouldn't have kept interfering." "He still believes he has a chance!" "Believe me, your movie shouldn't waste so much time on Thaksin." "History is rewritten every day." "But history also awaits rediscovery and reexamination." "It may be two schools of thought." "Or two ways of interpretation." "Or two sets of truth converging at the crossroads and becoming one narrative about our history of democracy." "Democracy..." "An endless struggle fought by various characters." "It's confusing, sometimes it's true and sometimes false." "All mixed up." "But that's natural in every struggle..." "Every struggle fought by men." "It's a testament that democracy isn't something that could slip effortlessly into our hands." "Our democracy is right here - it's with the people at the bottom." "The people at the bottom have known democracy since time immemorial." "But we think they're stupid." "They know democracy because their lives are deeply attached to the temple." "Monks have taught them to be democratic." "They live close to the land, the water." "They make their living from the ground." "They rely on themselves, they practice traditional medicine." "We forgot all about them." "They don't go to school, so they're not brainwashed." "They only look up to their ancestors." "They stick to tradition, they practice local wisdom." "That's where the strength of Thailand is." "Say, I give you 10 baht to buy a 3 baht worth of goods." "How much change will you get?" "(7 baht)" "Correct." "But are there any other answers?" "What if you have 2 five-baht coins?" "How much change will you get?" "(Still 7 baht)" "No, only 2 baht." "You have two five-baht coins so you use only one." "Now what if you have 10 one baht coins, how much change will you get?" "No change." "What if you have 5 two-baht coins?" "You'll get 1 baht change." "So you have 4 correct answers to the same question." "It depends on what kind of coins you have." "The great divide in our society is caused by those who get 7 baht change becoming angry with those who say they don't need any change since they have one baht coins." "They get angry because they think the only correct answer is 7 baht." "It can't be 7 baht of change for everyone because each person carries different coins!" "We're at each other's throats because some vote for the government party and others vote for the opposition." "It's all because of these different answers." "We're all Thai, each of us has 10 baht in our pockets." "But we have different kinds of coins." "Some have a ten-baht coin, others have 5 two-bath coins." "Some have 2 five-baht coins, others have 10 one-baht coins." "We carry different coins." "So we have different answers to the same question." "We're in a situation where the people aren't allowed to grow up politically." "It's become the chicken-and-egg riddle." "The rulers say the people haven't grown up." "Or it's them who refuse to let the people grow up." "I don't know which came first - the chicken or the egg." "But the various stripes of authoritarianism and repression are instrumental in stunting the people's growth." "Growing up means we must be allowed to go through trial and error." "Everyone in society should be allowed to learn through peaceful means." "Democracy is the only system that allows us to be right, to be wrong, even to suffer." "But the country will stand, and we don't have to kill each other." "They talk about a system that relies on morally upright people who can lead the country to glory..." "That's a fantasy - that system doesn't exist." "It's the fantasy cooked up by authoritarianism." "It tries to convince us that a morally upright person can lead us to the light." "No way, that's a fairytale."