Thanin Kraivichien

Cabinet formation

Thanin insisted on selecting his cabinet himself and rejected most of the military junta's nominations, with only the positions of deputy prime minister and deputy minister of defence being occupied by members of the military. Thanin led the first Thai cabinet in which several women, including Wimolsiri Chamnarnvej and Lursakdi Sampatisiri, held ministerial posts.^[12]

As Thanin mostly selected “his close friends and confidants or others who had worked with him before” as ministers, his resulting cabinet was widely regarded as severely underqualified, with opponents describing its members as “inexperienced amateurs.” For instance, Samak Sundaravej (later to himself become the Prime Minister of Thailand), a right-wing extremist who opposed the free press and whose radio station was partially responsible for the 6 October 1976 massacre, was appointed as Minister of the Interior. Likewise, Dusit Siriwan, who had been Thanin’s television co-host and was reportedly “obsessed with the evils of communism,” was appointed as Minister to the Office of the Prime Minister.^[11]

Domestic policy

The primary goal of the Thanin government, according to Thanin himself, was to lead the Thai people—otherwise “not yet ready for full liberal democracy”—through a twelve-year program of guided democracy split into three four-year segments, after which the House of Representatives would return to being a fully elected unicameral legislature.^[13] To do so, the National Administrative Reform Assembly (NARA) was established as an advisory, quasi-parliamentary body with members appointed by the junta. A new constitution, one of the shortest in Thailand’s history, was hastily promulgated, with its defining feature being Section 21, which gave the prime minister “the power to order or do anything” in the name of national security, making Thanin a de facto dictator.

Thanin was seen as honest and intelligent, but also eminently ideological and politically extreme.^[5] To suppress dissent, he sent police special forces to notoriously liberal book shops, and ordered the confiscation and burning of 45,000 books, including those written by Thomas More, George Orwell, and Maxim Gorky.^[14] Strict censorship was imposed upon the press, and Thanin’s administration closed multiple newspapers for publishing articles critical of the government, with Minister of the Interior Samak Sundaravej ordering the expulsion of foreign correspondent Norman Peagam and the closure of Kukrit Pramoj’s supposedly “untouchable” Siamrath Daily.^[15][9]

The labour movement was also suppressed. The government banned strikes and all organized trade unions, breaking a planned February strike at a jute mill by arresting ten workers.^[16] Though 3,000 “suspected subversives” were likewise detained following the military coup, by 1977, there were only around 100 students who remained in custody, mostly under charges of “communist activism.”^[17][15] Foremost among these were the Thammasat 18, a group of students and trade union leaders charged with inciting violence in October 1976.^[18]

Thanin's crackdown on trade unions, progressive students' organizations, and farmers' associations drove activists into the underground structures of the Communist Party of Thailand. Instead of weakening the communists, it fuelled their armed struggle against the government.^[19]

Downfall

In March 1977, a group of younger army officers known as the "Young Turks", who had an interest in political matters, tried to topple Thanin. Their attempted coup failed. On 20 October 1977, however, Admiral Sangad again seized power and pressed Thanin to resign. The military justified their intervention because Thanin's government had divided the country and had virtually no public support, the economic situation had worsened, and people in general disagreed with such a long-term suspension of democracy.^[20]