William J. Klausner
- Former professor teaching at Chulalongkorn and Thammasat University.
- Advisor, consultant, and governing board member of a wide range of Thailand foreign foundations and institutions, including Thai World Affairs Center
- President of the James H.W. Thompson Foundation |
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 His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej: An Appreciation |
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I first heard of Thailand’s monarchy and its long list of illustrious Kings
in the early 1950s while studying at Yale Graduate School in the field of Southeast
Asia Studies. We were instructed in the various conceptions of Thai Kingship:
the Phracao Maha Sommutti Khatiyarat, King of Righteousness, the Great Elect;
the Cakavatti, World Conqueror, World Turning Monarch; the Dkammaraja, the just,
virtuous and wise King, possessing the ten kingly virtues and ruled by the Dharma.
We learned of the coronation and assumption to the Throne of His Majesty King
Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX, on May 5, 1950 and of his being conceived of as
the nation’s soul and its symbol of unity. However, no amount of academic research
and study could prepare me for the actual reality of the Thai monarchy and the
dynamic role it plays as a central pillar of the Thai body politic. I came to
a greater appreciation and understanding of that reality when I arrived in Siam
in mid 1955 to undertake ethnographic research in a small northeastern Thai
village, some sixteen kilometers from the provincial capital, Ubol. In every
village house there were pictures of their Majesties. While politicians in the
capital often questioned the allegiance of the Isan pleasantry to the Thai nation,
the villagers themselves had no such doubts. Though they spoke proudly of their
Lao cultural heritage, their political antennae were turned, not towards Laos,
but towards their King, Rama IX. Their patriotism found meaning and expression
in their unquestioned loyalty and allegiance to their grounds of the Ubol Provincial
Hall that I felt the full emotional, as well as intellectual, impact of the
citizenry’s reverential devotion to their King. In the late 1955, the King accompanied
by the Queen, visited Ubol in the first of What were to be countless up-country
royal visits to the remote regions of the Kingdom. I was seated amongst a crowd
of thousands who had patiently waited hours, oblivious to the heat and dust,
for Their Majesties’ arrival. I could not help but share in crowd’s indefinable
frisson of awe as His Majesty slowly walked up a path lined with his devoted
subjects. He graciously accepted their gifts of local fruits and handicrafts,
talked with them and stepped on the white handkerchiefs laid beneath his feet.
These bits of cloth, now imbued with his sacred presence, were then reverentially
displayed in a place of honor in their homes. This visit dramatically affirmed,
if such a testament was needed, His Majesty’s preeminence in the hearts and
mind of all his subjects throughout the land.
Over the next four and a half decades, I have observed Prime Ministers come
and go; innumerable constitutions promulgated and abolished; Thai culture and
society in the throes of an often dizzying transition. But, in the midst of
all this change, there has been one constant and that has been the King and
the continuing reverence, loyalty and devotion of the Thai public that I first
observed in Ubol some forty-five years ago. Over the years, Thai society has
often been said to be in state of “controlled chaos”. It has been His Majesty
who have so artfully and tirelessly provided the “control” in this socio-political
ambiance of crises, tensions and conflicts. It has been the Siamese monarchy,
embodied in the august personage of the King, which may be perceived as safeguarding,
enabling and energizing the body politic until the political system of parliamentary
democracy is sufficiently mature to do so itself. It has been his Majesty who,
over recent decades, has single-handedly interceded to defuse armed confrontation
between democratic and authoritarian groups and encouraged the peaceful resolution
of the conflicts and the consequent resumption of some semblance of social and
political stability. Western scholars have marveled at the ability of His Majesty
to retain a seemingly inexhaustible and undiminished charismatic balance, so
necessary to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, even though he must momentarily
descend from the lofty heights where he stands as a symbol of unity beyond the
fray below. By his finely tuned and timely interventions, he has effectively
provided parliamentary democracy with the political time and space to develop
and ultimately affirm its own political bona fides and credentials and hopefully
reach its full potential.
His Majesty has further promoted the progressive development of the Thai nation
through his advice, counsel, constructive criticism and exhortations, given
both publicly and privately, relating to a variety problem areas affecting the
livelihood and quality of life of his subjects eg. in the fields of irrigation,
flood control, alternative cropping, farm management, conservation of national
resources, primary health care, traffic, environmental pollution etc. In more
than 2000 innovative government funded Royal projects in the above fields which
he has initiated and with which he is closely identified, His Majesty has provided
community development models for all to emulate and follow.
The Thai citizenry knows His Majesty will never waver in his protection, encouragement
and support. However, all must also heed His Majesty’s injunction for his subjects
to come to their own decisions, to persevere and, through a subsistence economy,
to prosper both materially and spiritually. If they do so and if community and
national interests come before personal interests, then His Majesty’s vision
will be realized.
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Note: His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej: An Appreciation,
Transforming Thai Culture, 5th ed. Bangkok: Amarin Printing
and Publishing Public Company Limited. pp. 17-20.
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| Keywords : King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thai monarchy, William J. Klausner |
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