Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [17]
While the military was moving to protect its privileged position in the state, the coup received the assent of the Bangkok business community and the educated class, who were repelled by the money politics of provincial business people–politicians. Anand Panyarachun, a former diplomat turned businessman, was appointed prime minister and worked for liberal economic reforms. Soon the generals’ abuse of power for personal benefit raised criticism. In the elections of March 1992, the pro-military party, which included former Chat Thai members, won the largest number of seats and prepared to form a government, only to have their candidate for prime minister discredited by charges of drug trading. General Suchinda Kraprayoon, the leader of the coup, then stepped in as the new prime minister, a development quite unacceptable to Bangkok’s middle class. Led by Chamlong Srimuang, on 17 May 1992 around 200,000 protestors launched a mass demonstration in Bangkok. They were dubbed the ‘mobile phone mob’ – their phones identifying them as members of the rising urban, educated class. In three nights of violence, armed soldiers of the military tried to suppress the demonstrators, as the Thai and international press published full reports of the events. On the night of 20 May, King Bhumibol summoned Chamlong and Suchinda to the palace and ordered them to stop the violence. Anand returned to lead an interim government.
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The Democrat Party (‘Phak Prachathipat’) was founded in 1946 and is the longest surviving political party in Thailand.
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After the ‘Black May’ events, democracy activists fervently demanded constitutional reform, balance of power between the state and civil society, freeing of the electronic media from military control and democratic decentralisation.
For most of the 1990s, the parliament was dominated by the Democrat Party, which represented the hopes of business and the urban middle class that Thailand would successfully adapt to the globalising economy. Its major support came from the southern Thai urban population of old port towns and a tourism- and export-oriented economy (rubber, tin and fishing). On the other side of the spectrum were the former pro-military politicians based in the central plain and the people of the agrarian northeast in new provincial towns who focused on state-budget distribution to their provinces.
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Within months of the 1997 crisis, Thai currency devalued swiftly from 25B to 56B per US$1.
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The Democrat-led government under the leadership of Chuan Leekpai returned to the traditional system of compromise between bureaucrats and politicians. Reforms were hardly implemented. The depletion of natural resources, especially in the use of land by government agencies for bureaucratic and private benefit, provoked protests among local people. The Democrats lost their popularity. However, the two subsequent governments led by the Chat Thai and New Aspiration parties were unable to protect Thailand from the devastating effects of the 1997 Asian economic crisis.
From 1985 to 1996, Thailand’s economic growth averaged over 9% per year. However, in 1997, the country’s economy, already plagued by the burdens of foreign debt, was aggravated further by financial overextension in the real-estate sector. The Thai government failed to defend the baht against massive international speculation and was forced to float the currency. The weakened currency resulted in a devalued stock market and falling prices of other assets. Mushrooming debt in the private sector was coupled with massive layoffs and personal tragedies. The crisis immediately spread through Asia. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), while imposing conditions of financial and legal reforms and economic liberalisation, initiated a rescue program, using more than US$17 billion to stabilise the Thai currency.
In the aftermath of the crisis, the Democrats returned to