Nascent Nationalism
Vajiravudh
succeeded his father as Rama VI. He,
like many of his brothers, was educated in Europe. It is not surprising then that his reign is
remembered for taking the first steps toward defining the Thai “nation”. But, as so many other countries experienced
during the early 20th century, the elite classes were beginning to
embrace not only the idea of nationalism but also democratic and/or republican
reforms. It can be said that the
monarchy wanted to have it both ways: continued emphasis on hierarchy with
limited reforms to serve the “national” interests. What Vajiravudh and his successors were to
find was that Siam was progressively less willing to accept change in
everything but its political institutions.
What was the Sixth Reign’s idea of
the nation? Ideally, it was part of the
triumvirate of nation, religion and monarch (chat-satsana-phramahakasat). The nation could be seen to be composed of
similar people who were unified in their desire for the good of the many. It was something that its members should be
willing to defend even with their lives.
Not surprisingly, during this period the issue of ethnicity assumes
greater importance, as it did around the world.
Another worldwide phenomenon that
touched the Thai at this time was xenophobia.
If it is a common identity that is the primary unifier of those within
the nation, those who are different can be a threat. Although in fact Thailand was, as we have
seen, long home to different ethnic and language groups, the Chinese, by virtue
of their numbers and importance in trade and bureaucracy, attracted the most
negative attention. Rama VI himself
wrote an infamous pamphlet called “The Jews of the East”. In it he accused the Chinese of being
disloyal, entitled and overly reverential of wealth while clinging to their
ethnic identity. Their relationship to
Siam’s economy was compared to “so many vampires who steadily suck dry an
unfortunate victim’s life blood.”
This was one of the lower points in
Thai history. However, it’s useful to
examine it not only to understand internal Thai relations, but also Siam’s role
in the larger world. As repugnant as it
is to modern readers, anti-Semitism was a popular political and social
orientation in early 20th-century Europe, particularly among the
aristocratic elite. Further, the British
and other European nations saw the Chinese as a commercial threat. By the 19th century, Europe had
made so many breakthroughs in technology and conquest that they perceived
themselves to be the ascendant leader into the future and China as the decadent
symbol of a failed past. Many of the
Thai nobility and royal family, including the king, would have been educated
with these people from a young age, and it follows that many of them adapted
this world view to their special circumstances.
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| Vajiravudh aka Rama VI |
If in many ways his father and
grandfather were the right monarchs for their time, Vajiravudh may have been
the wrong one for his. His extravagance,
homosexuality and Western style made him seem in some ways too foreign to many
of the people he governed; ironic, given his promotion of national unity. He also seemed, at times, more interested in
the arts than affairs of the state.
Further, he appointed some of his favorites, many of whom came from the
common class, to positions of importance in his cabinet. This was a break with the precedent his
father had established in which his well-educated uncles and brothers would
normally have filled the majority of the top posts. Although many questioned the motivations
behind these appointments, these helped to establish an example that was later
used in subsequent reigns to allow commoners access to government
positions.
The country was still smarting over
the losses of 1893 when World War I broke out.
Many of Vajiravudh’s advisors opposed his decision to declare war on
Germany and send a token force to fight for the Allies (which included Great
Britain and France) in 1917. However,
this ended up yielding important rewards.
Not only were they able to alter their treaties with Britain and France
to their advantage, they also earned a seat at Versailles and became a founding
member of the League of Nations.
Those achievements are best
appreciated in hindsight. Post-World War
I contemporaries found Vajiravudh increasingly more of a burden than an asset
to Thailand. He was not the first
extravagant- or homosexual- ruler.
However, in light of the post-WWI Depression, his continued lavish
expenditures did nothing to endear him to a population that was already
beginning to question the utility of an absolute monarchy.
After the war, the demand for rice
and silver, two of Bangkok’s primary exports, declined. The steps taken to address the fall off led
to deficits and borrowing. In addition,
some of the promises the royal family had made in the years before the war were
beginning to look thin. Although
education was a stated priority, it took only 3% of the budget; 23% went to
military spending and more than 10% to royal expenditures under the auspices of
the Privy Purse and the Ministry of the Palace.
Political tensions were rising as
well as the ideology of nationalism that began to take hold in Southeast Asia. While the Malay and Lao populations in
Bangkok were easily controlled, the larger and more influential Chinese were
not. They were angered over Japanese activities
in China and staged anti-Japanese boycotts and protests. At this time Bangkok also became a focus of
Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian and Burmese nationalist activity against their European
colonizers. The Thai government was
sympathetic, but they were leery about alienating the European nations.
Thai students who returned from
abroad- particularly France- were increasingly dissatisfied with Bangkok’s
progress towards modernization. Two such
student leaders, Pridi Phanomyong and Plaek Phibun Songkhram, were to play
important roles later in Thai history.
© Suzanne Nam.
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Want to read more? Please check out Moon Thailand (Moon Handbooks) by Suzanne Nam
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