The Monarchy
Under Sarit, the public role of the Thai monarchy, which had been restricted by Phibun, was allowed to resume. Sarit arranged for King Bhumibol Adulyadej to attend public ceremonies, visit the provinces, patronise development projects and personally present diplomas to Thailand's government university graduates, helping to bring the monarchy closer to the people and raising the stature of the king to that of high reverence. The practice of prostrating with the head touching the ground before royal audiences, banned decades earlier by King Chulalongkorn, was reinstated in some circumstances.
Sarit introduced a new generation of economically liberal technocrats to governing, encouraged private and foreign direct investment, launched major rural development projects, and rapidly expanded educational facilities, which, despite his despotic rule, made Sarit generally popular with the Thai public.
Read more about this topic: Sarit Thanarat
Famous quotes containing the word monarchy:
“People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy.”
—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)
“A monarchy is like a man-of-war—bad shots between wind and water hurt it exceedingly; there is a danger of capsizing. But democracy is a raft. You cannot easily overturn it. It is a wet place, but it is a pretty safe one.”
—Flavius Josephus Cook (1838–1901)