Talk:Seni Pramoj

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I already put this on Kukrit's Talk page, and now I'm putting a copy of it here. Lee 13:00, 15 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I can't fix them, but the articles on Kukrit, Seni, and their predecessor, Sanya Dharmasakti, do not do the times justice, and I cannot do else but Talk. Sanya Dharmasakti was appointed PM 1973-75 when I was with the US Air Force Strategic Air Command on Guam. He had been dean of Thammasat University when a riot by its students, precipitated by the King's youngest daughter, then also a student there, caused the Dictatorship of the Terrible Trio to mis-read the situation as a planned coup, and to flee the country on whatever aircraft were about to take off from Don Muang, thus landing them in three different countries and leaving Thailand with no government. The King called Sanya and made him PM on the grounds that it was his students who had caused the problem. Sanya soon declared the country ungovernable and resigned, only to have the King appoint him back again. The next time Sanya resigned, he immediately shaved his head and wrapped himself in monk's robes. A hasty election gave Seni's Democrat Party a slim majority, with Kukrit heading a faction that held just five seats. Seni formed and presented his government to the King, who accepted it, but Parliamentarians, jealous of their prerogatives, returned a vote of 'no confidence' when Seni subsequently presented it to them. Thailand once again faced a situation of no government, but rather than go through the considerable expense to everybody involved of calling new elections, Seni's younger brother, Kurit, with his five seats was allowed to cobble together a coalition to form a government. "[C]onsidered by many to be one of the great statesmen" of Thailand, not the least because Kukrit was the PM who ordered the US military out of Thailand as all of the dominoes were falling down. The actual situation was such that the US military wanted to leave while the US State Department wanted us to stay, with the situation being exactly the reverse on the Thai side; though Kukrit's decision on ordering us out was based on our flouting of Kukrit's understanding of International Law and his own orders with regard to the military assets of the crumbling regime in Saigon then in US hands in Thailand. Kukrit found Thailand to be as ungovernable as had Sanya before him, and dissolved Parliament in a call for early elections. Under most parliamentarian systems, a politician can stand for election in any district he chooses, and Kukrit chose to stand for election on a military post at a time when the Thai military had its own political party, thus insuring his honorable defeat. Seni's Democrat Party again won a majority, but his next government fell when the Police, seeking revenge for the earlier student riot when the kids burned down the brand-new Police Headquarters, staged a "student revolt", using paid agents from among Bangkok's many vocational schools, who always raise general Hell on general principles, anyway. The Police then 'framed' Thammasat University students in what came to be called the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_October_1976_Massacre. Seni tried to put down what was a Police revolt by riding on top of a pickup truck with a loud hailer, appealing to all sides for Jai Yen-Yen, cool hearts.Lee 11:15, 15 June 2007