failed to gai n support from the royalists and t h e royal
family. Dissati sfact ion w i t h Phibun's regime led to a
coup d1 etat in 1957, engin eered by Field M a r sh all Sarit.
Sarit's rule was also a m i l i t a r y dictatorship. Unli ke
Phibun, however, he sought to legitimate his own rule and
authori ty th rough a restorat ion of the sacral p o w e r of
Thai kingship:
Mo s t of all, the Revolut ion holds t ha t the king and the Thai nation are inseparable. In Thai history, the k ing has been the symbol of national unity, and b e l o ved b y the peop le since the beginning. The Rev olu t i o n a r y Party will secure the instit ution of kingship w i t h all its power, will do anythi ng to p r o m ote the sacred and v e ne rabl e status of the king, and will not a llow any w r o n g action toward the king, his royal family, and the royal custo ms7w h i c h the Thai nati on has always hig h l y respected.
Sarit's loyalty to the king and the royal family
encouraged royal activities and reassured t h e i r safety
outside the palace:
Aft er Sarit's 1957 coup, the king, queen, p r i n cess mother, and others in t h e royal family b e g a n to travel w i d e l y throughout the country, and to p a r t i c i pate in m a n y religious and secular ceremonies in B a n g k o k .
Sarit's political ideology followed that of Rama VI
in the attem pt to secure and protect three Thai insti
tutions: the nation, the religion, and the king. And,
for Sarit, t he most da ngerous enemy of thes e institutions
was communism. Throu ghout the entire per iod of his rule,
martial law wa s in effect to control comm unist activities
in the coun try and to prevent any attempt to undermine
nation, religion, and king:
Between Oct o b e r 1958 and J une 1963, 1080 persons w e r e arre sted on charges of b e ing communists. This g r o u p included m a n y student leaders w h o ha d p a r t i c i p a t e d acti vely in the prote st against Phibun. The p r i m e m i n i s t e r m a d e e xtensive u s e of the p ow er v e s t e d
in A r t i c l e 17,-executing several political leaders w i t h o u t trial.
M a n y of Sarit's p olicies w er e founded on his concern
about a communist invasion. In one of his declarations,
he a s s ert ed that the communists t r ied various w ays to in
fluence Thai political, economic, and social life, that
the y u s e d all kinds of cunning metho ds and a large amount
of m o n e y both covertly and ope nly to unde rmine the country,
to ov e r t h r o w the throne, to abolish Buddhism, and to des- 7 6
tro y all b e l ov ed Thai institutions. Out of this fear,
Sarit p r o h i b i t e d the t r a d e and use of opium and her o i n
because, as he claimed, they we r e the tools of communism
* * 77
to unde r m i n e the Thai economic and national solidarity.
Moreover, he issued th e Sangha A c t of 1963 in order to
p r e v e n t a c ommunist t a k eo ver of t he Sangha. As a c o n s e
quenc e of t his Act, democr atic features of t he Sangha
we r e abolished. A d m inis trati ve p ower was in the hands of
the Su preme Patriarch. The Council of Elders functioned
m e r e l y as an advisory body; and the cabinet system, the 78 eccle siast ical courts and the a ssembly w ere abolished.
Wh a t b o t h e r e d Sarit w a s the communists' propaganda w hich
shar ed the same doctrine, and that those who believed in
c o mm u n i s m could ga i n the same religious benefits as those
w h o b e lieve d in Buddhism. Sarit argued that communist
doctr ine wa s d i f feren t from Buddhist doctrine because
c o mm u n i s m aime d at the eradication of all institutions.
In particular, comm unism taught that religion was an opiate 79
and thus useless to a society. In order to protect
B uddh ism and kings hip from the danger of communist ideolo
gy, Sarit revived some Thai ceremonies which promoted the
sacred role of the king and religion, e.g., the ceremony
of raek na (the First Ploughing) in whi c h the king or his
r e p r es entat ive p l ou ghed the land and sowed rice seeds 80 alon g the w a y in the beginning of the rainy season.
During the tim e of Sarit, various political leaders
also advoca ted an anti-communist policy. Seni P r a m o j ,
later to be ele cted Prime M i ni ster of the country, held
t h a t c ommu nist d o ct rine adhered to a ma teria list ic w o r l d