Bangkok (Lonely Planet) - Andrew Burke [9]
In October 1973 the Thai military brutally suppressed a large prodemocracy student demonstration at Thammasat University in Bangkok, but Rama IX and General Krit Sivara, who sympathised with the students, refused to support further bloodshed, forcing Thanom and Praphat to leave Thailand. Oxford-educated Kukrit Pramoj took charge of a 14-party coalition government and steered a leftist agenda past the conservative parliament. Among Kukrit’s lasting achievements were a national minimum wage, the repeal of anticommunist laws and the ejection of US military forces from Thailand.
The military regained control in 1976 after right-wing, paramilitary civilian groups assaulted a group of 2000 students holding a sit-in at Thammasat. Officially, 46 people died in the incident, although the number may be much higher, and more than a thousand were arrested. Many students fled Bangkok and joined the People’s Liberation Army of Thailand (PLAT), an armed communist insurgency based in the hills, which had been active in Thailand since the 1930s.
Bangkok continued to seesaw between civilian and military rule for the next 15 years. Although a general amnesty in 1982 brought an end to the PLAT, and students, workers and farmers returned to their homes, a new era of political tolerance exposed the military once again to civilian fire.
In May 1992 several huge demonstrations demanding the resignation of the next in a long line of military dictators, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, rocked Bangkok and the large provincial capitals. Charismatic Bangkok governor Chamlong Srimuang, winner of the 1992 Magsaysay Award (a humanitarian service award issued in the Philippines) for his role in galvanising the public to reject Suchinda, led the protests. After confrontations between the protesters and the military near the Democracy Monument resulted in nearly 50 deaths and hundreds of injuries, Rama IX summoned both Suchinda and Chamlong for a rare public scolding. Suchinda resigned, having been in power for less than six weeks.
A mere 13 sq km in 1900, Bangkok grew to an astounding metropolitan area of more than 330 sq km by the end of the 20th century. Today the city encompasses not only Bangkok proper, but also the former capital of Thonburi across Mae Nam Chao Phraya to the west, along with the densely populated ‘suburb’ provinces, Samut Prakan to the east and Nonthaburi to the north. More than half of Thailand’s urban population lives in Bangkok.
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THE RECENT PAST
The Crisis and the People’s Constitution
Bangkok approached the new millennium riding a tide of events that set new ways of governing and living in the capital. The most defining moment occurred in July 1997 when – after several months of warning signs that nearly everyone in Thailand and the international community ignored – the Thai currency fell into a deflationary tailspin and the national economy screeched to a virtual halt. Bangkok, which rode at the forefront of the 1980s double-digit economic boom, suffered more than elsewhere in the country in terms of job losses and massive income erosion.
Two months after the crash, the Thai parliament voted in a new constitution that guaranteed – at least on paper – more human and civil rights than had ever been granted in Thailand previously. The so-called ‘people’s constitution’ fostered great hope in a population left emotionally battered by the 1997 economic crisis.
Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, whose move to float the baht effectively triggered the economic crisis, was forced to resign. Former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai was then re-elected, and proceeded to implement tough economic reforms suggested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). During the next few years, Bangkok’s economy began to show signs of recovery.
Thaksin Shinawatra: CEO Prime Minister