The First Steps to Reform

From all over Thailand they came. Farmers, folk singers, hill-tribe leaders, journalists, lawyers, businessmen and provincial officials streamed into Bangkok and filled the capital's plush hotels. They were among the more than 2,300 delegates called to a National Convention by King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He had complained that "the good people in Thailand don't want to take the power, and the bad people do." To remedy that and to help fill the political vacuum that has existed since the military-dominated regime was overthrown after a bloody student revolt last October, the King convened the meeting.

The delegates, many of them obviously uncomfortable in the ill-fitting Western suits that they rented for the occasion, met in the grandstand of the Royal Turf Club. They elected 299 of their number to form a new National Assembly, which will approve a new constitution and oversee new national elections. The Assembly's members represent the most democratic political cross section in the country's history. Military and police officers have only about one-tenth of the seats, compared with two-thirds in the old Assembly. Now civil servants, academics, journalists and farmers sit side by side. The Assembly even includes a samlor driver, who intends to park his three-wheel, smoke-belching minitaxi at the National Assembly building next to the shiny Mercedes-Benzes driven by some of his wealthier colleagues.

The new constitution is being drafted by a committee of 19 experts. It could lead to badly needed social and economic changes for Thailand, including land reform, pensions for farmers, and direct election of local government officials (instead of appointment by Bangkok). The constitution is also expected to end formally the dictatorial and arbitrary rule that characterized the military's 41-year domination of the country's political life.

The military is now in such disgrace that even the Minister of Defense wears a business suit in public, rather than his general's uniform. Nonetheless, competent civilians still hesitate taking power, because they have long viewed participation in politics with distaste. In fact the Thai language uses the idiom "to play at politics" rather than "to go into politics." Thus even Sanya Dhamasakti, the popular civilian who has been temporary Prime Minister for the past three months, wants to return quickly to his job as rector of Bangkok's Thammasat University.

Tedious Regimen. Much of the success of the new system will at first depend on King Bhumibol, 46, who avoided politics until recently. He used to spend his days touring his kingdom, opening hospitals, awarding diplomas and visiting villages. Reports TIME Correspondent Barry Hillenbrand: "It is precisely this tiring, often tedious regimen that has made Bhumibol so unreservedly loved throughout the country. His travels also made him aware of the disfavor felt toward the military regime and the need to bring farmers and laborers into the National Assembly. Since last October's student revolt, the King has distinguished himself as an adroit political operator, and he has acted as a catalyst for change." Speaking at the Turf Club to the delegates to the convention, Bhumibol declared: "This is the beginning of democracy."

The King's support could enable the emerging reformist regime to weather expected turbulence on several fronts. Consumers are angered by inflation; since last January, prices have risen more than 17% and rice prices alone have soared 50%. The students remain restless because they feel that the reforms have not yet gone far enough to end the corruption and injustice in the kingdom. The Thai labor movement, which has just won a boost in the minimum wage from 600 a day to 800, has flexed its new muscle by calling 142 strikes, most of which were settled quickly.

The King's activism worries some of his supporters. One high Western diplomat, for example, fears that Bhumibol might tarnish his image as an individual above politics, and thus deprive the Thais of "the one thing they have going for them: the stability that the King provides." In that case, unrest and turmoil could mount and lead to a return of military rule. As one member of the constitutional-drafting committee puts it: "The military has the guns and planes. All we have to stop them is the constitution and our idealism." For the moment, at least, idealism in Thailand is ascending.

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