Thailand in 1932

After centuries of absolute monarchy, a bloodless coup was led by westernized

bureaucrats and military to overthrow the king as the head of state and change
from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy. The westernized students
named the government as corrupt and ineffective. They made a negotiation with
King Rama VII after occupying government buildings and ministers in Bangkok on
June 24th 1932. The end of absolute monarchy led to the first general election in
Thailand where women were allowed to vote, noting the start of “democracy” in
Thailand. However, the people of the country, despite the efforts of other
previous kings, are not educated enough to understand. The change from the old
royalist-military system brought in a lot of issues as western democracy is very
different to military rule which has been ruling the country for centuries earlier.

1973 - 1976

Thailand was under military junta and the students and intellectuals demanded
democracy back to the country. The students, from Thammasat University got
blessings from the King to fight for democracy and the leaders of the junta fled
to America. Thailand was unable to make democracy function smoothly in the
country and the elections in 1976 turned out the same. One of the major
problems was in 1974, where oil prices peaked and recession hit Thailand made
it harder for politics. More rights were given to the media to criticize the
government and the politicians although issues of communism from the
neighboring countries were a concern in 1975 with the communist insurgency in
the provinces. In 1976, the students were accused of being “communists” and
socialism became more popular between the intellectuals and the social working
class. On October 6th 1976, paramilitaries were unleashed to end the situation by
torturing and killing students. A coup was staged in the evening and students
fled to the north and north –east of Thailand to joined the communist party.

These are the two things I read about ;)