Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej (ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช) was born 5 December 1927. He was the ninth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri Dynasty.
Coronated on 9 June 1946, he was, at the time of passing, the world's longest-serving head of state, and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history; serving a total of 70 years and 126 days.
In this post we look back at his life through a series of 9 wonderful videos that show exactly why he was, and continues to be, a shining light throughout the lives of the Thai people.
Ken says
Ever since the absolute monarchy came to an end in 1932 it seems like the Thai government has been in a constant state of flux and coups seem to occur with about the same regularity as the phases of the moon. During these times of political unrest however the King seems to have always been a stabilizing influence. So my question is this; are you worried about possible further political instability now that the King is dead? That is assuming you are comfortable even answering such a question from within Thailand.
At this point I honestly don’t care who is running things as long as there is some stability to the government. In other words, I really wish the Thai people would either just shit or get off the pot. Just pick a team and stick with it! Having any kind of democratic system means that once someone is elected, even if that person was not your choice, you still respect the office. That is the only that a Democracy can work. And relatively minor levels of corruption are no need to start over from scratch. Or, to put it another way, you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water. Sometimes the overall stability of the system is more important than relatively minor indiscretions on the part of our leaders. And if you feel you were somehow duped into voting for the wrong person you should just bite your tongue until the next election comes around. You do not try and overturn the entire system because you feel like you got gypped.
Where politics are concerned the Thai people sometimes remind me of two chefs running a kitchen together who have very differing views on how the food should be prepared. And rather than coming to a consensus so that they can get the food out to their customers they just stubbornly become deadlocked and start throwing food at one another while everyone in the restaurant either starves or walks out. And on the rare occasion that some food actually reaches the customer’s table one chief will take it away mid meal because he found out that the other chief used an ingredient that he did not personally approve of. Eventually of course the police have to be called in to try and resolve the matter. Obviously this is no way to run a business – nor is it a good way to run a country.
There is an old military credo which states that “any plan, if boldly executed, if better than no plan at all” and I have always applied this to my own life whenever choosing a course of action. I just wish more of our politicians and more of our citizens would adopt such a policy and would compromise when necessary to keep the wheels turning.
In any case, Thailand is a fairly modern industrialized nation with the second largest economy in South East Asia so it should not really be experiencing these types of third world political problems at this late stage in the game. It just doesn’t make any sense.
I guess the Thai people are just lucky that their military leaders are fairly levelheaded blokes who are very loyal to the crown. Otherwise Thailand could have easily ended up like Burma, with some tin pot dictator in charge of the country. But I guess the big worry now is what will happen when the new King comes to the throne. Will the military now be less likely to intervene in future political disputes? Or worse, will they continue to intervene? I’m personally very optimistic that everything will work out fine, but it’s a scary thought nonetheless.
Oct 21, 2016 at 10:36 am
TheThailandLife says
I’m no expert when it comes to Thai politics, and I won’t make any comment on the Royal Family (as per the terms and conditions of this blog) but having been here through the 2010 protests and 2014 coup, I would say the Thai people have had enough of violence and disruption to the economy and welcome stability. I think inroads are being made to stopping corruption, but it is not going to happen overnight, that’s for sure.
Thai people are generally peaceful and accommodating of each other and others, and I’m quite sure the passing of the King will bring people together and make the country stronger.
I hope the next government will work towards the welfare state plans that Abhisit had in place but never started, as that is something Thailand will need as the rich-poor divide increases. In terms of tourism, I hope improvements can be made in safety standards, as this will benefit everyone all round. Again, it takes time and needs patience. It isn’t just about making plans; it’s about changing attitudes.
The outlook is very good though. The Baht is strong and market experts say it is undervalued. They may even consider devaluing it to encourage more European tourists, although the strong dollar makes Thailand even more appealing for Americans, which makes up the shortfall. I think a lot of British expats will begin to consider their future here, as imported and organic foods and appliances etc are way more expensive here now than back in the UK. It’s only rent that remains cheaper, but then not always — like in central Bangkok per sq metre, it’s not.
Oct 21, 2016 at 8:31 pm
Ken says
Well, as I said before, I share your optimism. I also agree that the Thai people are generally peaceful and accommodating. But frankly this fact only makes their history of political unrest even harder to fathom than it already is. Let’s face it, Thailand is somewhat of an anomaly, and anomalies have always bugged me. They are like a puzzle that I simply MUST solve, and I tend to be rather obsessive when it comes to solving puzzles.
Perhaps I should explain what I mean by an “anomaly”. If you were to look up “coups in the 21st century” you would get a list of 16 countries. And if you were to show this list to a classroom full of students and ask them what does not belong with the other things on this list, the correct answer would be “Thailand”. Why? Because Thailand is the only newly industrialized nation on that list. The rest are all developing nations (third world nations). Furthermore, the only other countries besides Thailand to have actually had TWO coups in this century are all in Africa and are all pretty much the least developed nations on the entire planet. Basically seeing Thailand on this list is kind of like showing up for high school detention and seeing that the well mannered hard working brainiac is there as well. Kids like that simply do not end up in detention. And in the same vein, countries as developed as Thailand do not end up being this politically unstable. Yet Thailand has dissolved parliament so many times that it literally makes ones head spin. In fact, of all the two dozen or so nations with a constitutional monarchy I’m pretty sure that Thailand has been by far the least politically stable of the lot – at least in this century. By all rights, Thailand should be at least as politically stable as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Yet in reality it is much more similar in politically instability to Burma, Laos, and Cambodia – countries with which it also shares a common religion incidentally (Theravada Buddhism).
So just what is responsible for all this? And what causes the Thai people to periodically resort to bloodshed over political scandals that the people of most other nations would consider rather tame? Actually, I’m not sure that most of these would even be impeachable offenses here in the United States. And in any event, even back during the Watergate scandal the protesters did not go around shooting people or tossing grenades around. Still, we got Nixon to resign just the same.
However, if you are constantly kicking your fairly elected leader out of office before they even get halfway through their terms then eventually the whole system breaks down and you have nothing left but chaos. And this is why even if Trump is somehow elected over here we are not going to take to the streets with guns and start shooting people in violent protests. We will just have to grin and bear it for 4-years.
You said that the Thai people had had enough of the violence but I wonder how many people who expressed this view were actually protesters at one time or another. The fact of the matter is these protesters have had unprecedented success in constantly ousting elected officials that they do not care for. And when a particular strategy or plan of action has a proven history of success you do not simply abandon it. In other words, by giving into their demands so often in the past the Thais have pretty much assured that the same thing will happen again sometime in the near future.
You were correct, by the way, when you said it’s all about changing people’s attitudes. Unfortunately however I’m afraid the current attitudes are deeply ingrained into the cultural psyche of the nation and therefore are not going to change anytime soon. The problem is that, while Thailand has grown and matured tremendously from an economical and technological standpoint over the past 50 years, it has not really matured much at all psychologically during this period.
Oct 22, 2016 at 1:29 pm