"While the peasants already face various natural hardships such as crop diseases, drought and flooding, as well as illness and cattle theft, the landowners show no compassion, They insist on collecting rent on time and in full, which drives the peasants deeper into poverty. When the peasants cannot honour their obligation, their assets, including whatever rice they have, is confiscated."

Moreover, "the many other aspects of poverty and hardship borne by the peasants clearly showed that they received no assistance from the government. Yet they had to pay tax. If they could not, they would be conscripted to hard labour for 15-30 days annually, and still they had to pay paddy land tax if thay wished to cultivate the land."

Pridi's assessment of the problems facing Siamese society in his youth was not far from reality. Dr. Carl C. Zimmerman of Harvard University was commissioned by the Siamese Government to conduct its first economic survey in 1930. An excerpt of Dr. Zimmerman' s report reads:

"The middleman profits in many ways from the peasants' indebtedness, which created buying and selling methods that deviated from economic principles, With their economic superiority over the peasants, the rice buyers can grade rice and set prices to suit themselves. These shortcomings make it painfully difficult to attain and progress in the agricultural sector".

when he subscribed to Law School, Pridi learnt of what is known as "extraterritoriality" which the lecturer defined as foreigners having special rights above Siamese jurisdiction. This made Pridi realize that Siam had lost her judicial sovereignty. Later, Pridi spoke in an interview of the social experiences he encountered in his youth:

"I have already spoken about the Thai social conditions which I saw myself. the people are economically deprived because they do not have political freedom of equality, and are under the influence and domination of several capitalist countries, I resolved even before I came to stydy in France that I would do extensive research and study to find ways to improve the living conditions of the people."

Like many other students with exceptional academic records, Pridi won a Ministry of Justice scholarship to study law in France between 1920 - 1927. However, he never abandoned his ideals and awareness of the social and economic problems which beset his homeland, On the contrary, these experiences spurred him to stydy law as well as advanced Western economics with the aim of applying them one day to improve Siam's condition. While studying abrosd, Pridi also came to realize the importance of changing the Siamese governmental system to democracy. This he believed would provide a basis for a new life, a new culture which would turn his country into a civil society in consonance with others. He was convinced that democracy was an indispensable basis for human civilization in the new era.

This inspiration, in conjunction with the realities of the world community, propelled him to become a leading figure in the People's Party, which introduced and established democratic rule with the King as the constitutional head of state, in turn allowing democracy to flourish in Thailand up to the present day.

Pridi sought to change the administrative system not only for the sake of political democracy. It was also clear that he intended to move the country towards economic, social, and educational democracy. Above all else, he wished for democratic rule to set guidelines for the development of a small nation such as Siam, so that it may stand proud and independent among the civilized nations of the modern world community. His democratic aspirations were evident in the 6 principles of the Proclamation of the Peole's Party, which he drafted as a declaration on the day of the coup on 24 June 1932. The six cardinal principles were as follow:

1. To maintain and secure all forms of independence, such as political, judicial, and economic independence...
2. To maintain domestic safety and drastically reduce crime...
3. To promote the economic well-being of the people; the new government shall find employment for every citizen, plan the national economy, and keep the people from poverty and hunger...
4. To provide citizens with equal rights...
5. To provide citizens with liberty and freedom...
6. To provide citizens with the fullest education.

Other than these six aspirations, the most distinctive and controversial of Pridi's ideas was the National Economic Plan, which showed that Pridi attached great importance to the country's economic system. In his own words, "this change of administration is not merely a coup d'etat but an economic revolution," He incorporated this objective into Section 1 of the Economic Plan which he drafted: "I remain resolute on this subject, and am of the view that if the government devises an appropriate national economic plan, finding employment for every citizen will not be beyond us. The improvement of the people's welfare is one of the primary goals in the reform of the system. Never was there an intention to transform the political system from a monarchy to an oligarchy which would attempt to be a democracy in name only. I focussed on the substance, namely, nourishing the welfare of the people, The constitution became the key to open the door of opportunity for the ordinary people to have a voice in the country's administration according to their needs and aspirations. Once this door has been opened, it is the duty of the government to lead the people through this door into a new land of prosperity.-"

Even though Pridi's ideas on a state guided economic ststem had its weak points which were open to criticism, such a system also had a social revolution component. As an individual who received the Diplome d'Etudes Superieurs d'Economic Politique, Pridi realised that the ecnomic system is merely a mean to raise the people's standards of living. This thinking is reflected in his ramarks on the economic structure that, "those who read the economic plan with a negative frame of mind would coclude that the government's attempt to run the economic system would dehumanise peoples into animals..I took great caution to prevent such dehumanisation; on the contrary, my desire was to help make people more human by eliminating the dangers to personal welfare brought about by economic factors.

Pridi was the first politician to provide social assurance to the people by the government, This ws clearly enunciated in section 3 of the Draft Economic Plan. It is indeed a pity that such ideas were perceived as being communist in nature, It was only 60 yeats later that Thailand was able to accept such a social assurance policy.

The ideas of the Draft National Economic Plan had no affiliation with communism as was alleged at that time. Rather, Pridi stated that his policies were a mixture of socialism and liberalism." The Draft Plan guarantees private ownership in Sections 1 and 5 and calls for the establishment of a Central Bank (Section 7) which are elements in every liberal economic system.

Even though the Draft Economic Plan was not accepted by the various cabinets during that era while Pridi was subsequently exiled on charges of being a communist, the Economic Plan became a model for a systematic planning of economic and social development. Many of the ideas in the Economic Plan were eventually implemented with good results both during the time when Pridi was in charge of the country's administration and thereafter. These ideas included the establishment of the Bank of Thailand, a progressive taxation system, reform of the civil service administration to reflect the new political system and social assurance for all people. [Next]