New Ideas

During that period, Major Minister Luang Praditmanutham (Pridi Phanomyong), as the Head of the Civil Faction and the Vice Leader of Khana Ratsadon wanted to change the government system in Siam. Khun Pridi received a government scholarship to study law and political economy in Paris, France, and returned to Siam in 1927 to work for the Ministry of Justice. After he came back, he rapidly rose in rank and he was given the royal title of “Luang Praditmanutham (หลวงประดิษฐ์มนูธรรม). During that time, he started to put together a group of 50 civil servants who wanted to change the government system from an absolute monarchy with a constitutional monarchy. When he went to France, he saw the way the other countries developed so it gave him an idea. During that time, France was already a constitutional monarchy and Pridi wanted Thailand to become a constitutional monarchy so that the people in Siam can have a voice and so that everyone in the country can have the same rights. 

In 1933, Pridi went to straight to King Rama 7th to share his idea. Pridi told him that he wrote an economic program to help change Siam into a constitutional monarchy. Pridi wrote a book called “Yellow Cover Dossier” or “สมุดปกเหลือง” in Thai. This book outlined his idea for the country the plan of the Siam’s financial, economic, and social structure. In his own words, he wrote that “this change of administration is not merely a coup d'état but an economic revolution” (Pridi, Yellow Cover Dossier). Even though this book was presented to the King after the revolution, Pridi started writing it in 1932 and starting gathering ideas back then to produce the book. 

In the book, Pridi tried to express and share his idea about the new government system by suggesting many collective ideas mainly about distributing different wealth and land to the poor, national health, national fortune, national happiness, government guided economy, money for countryside farmers, and taxing system/ social assurance/safety for the poor. Pridi stated that his suggestions were a way to try to raise the standard of living for the poor. Later, he stated that  "Those who read the economic plan with a negative frame of mind would conclude that the government's attempt to run the economic system would de-humanise peoples into animals… I took great caution to prevent such de-humanisation; on the contrary, my desire was to help make people more human by eliminating the dangers to personal welfare brought about by economic factors…." (Pridi, Yellow Cover Dossier). The book was basically a mixture of liberalism and socialism. Liberalism is the open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values. Socialism is a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. Pridi’s plan makes sure that there is a right of private property. This is stated in section 1 and 5 in his book. The plan also stated the creation of a central bank.

Pridi’s book influenced the Siamese revolution of 1932 because it is about how he found out about the constitutional monarchy in France and how he wanted to make Siam use that government system as well. The King not agreeing to his ideas made this the main reason for the revolution and made this book have a lot of inspiration to have the revolution.