Thailand in 1979: A Year of Relative Stability

Abstract

The year 1979 will be remembered as one of the most eventful years of the decade which is drawing to an end. Thailand constantly found itself in the headlines in world news. It had to play host to hundreds of thousands of uninvited 'guests' from neighbouring coun tries, plus, from faraway places, hundreds of spect?tors who purposely came to watch a tragic drama, rarely witnessed, unfold. Many obscure, previously unheard of, Thai districts and villages have become famous, drawing worldwide attention as daily reports, dispatched from these spots, reveal the tragic episode involving masses of helpless people, mostly women and children, being driven away from homes which have turned into battlefields. Although these people were not Thais, they looked towards Thailand for salvation. After all, the traditional bond between these people and the Thais can be dated back to the dawn of Southeast Asian history. Aranyaprathet, the Thai border district through which most of the Kampuchean refugees crossed into Thailand, is today as well known as Pun Mun Jom of the 38th Parallel at the end of the Korean War a few decades earlier. The large influx of refugees into Thailand was only one aspect of the whole tragic drama. Another aspect connected with the incident was a potential threat to Thailand's security: the presence of 200,000 Vietnamese troops in Kampuchea, along the eastern Thai border. The Vietnamese were there to help the new political r?gime in Phnom Penh clear up armed resistance on the part of the ousted Pol Pot Government in the jungles. Although Hanoi repeatedly declared that it had not the slightest intention of invading Thailand, the presence of its huge army near the border was understandably of serious concern to Thailand. In response to the situation, the Thai army moved to the border in preparation for any eventuality. The border crisis created an uneasy situation for Bangkok which promptly alerted the outside world with a report of the event and sought international assistance, as the burden of hosting the refugees was apparently beyond Thailand's ability to shoulder alone. While discussions, debates and conferences were going on in international forums with fruitful results, for the world had been moved by the Kampuchean tragedy, within Thailand itself there was growing restlessness with the increasing economic hardship, unrelated to what was happening at the border. The year 1979 brought to Thailand numerous economic problems, in addition to the already gigantic ones, the handling of which heavily taxed the energy and efforts of a new government which took office after the April general election. These economic problems ranged from a sharp rise in the cost of living which reduced real income, to the tight money situation which hampered business activities. On the macro level, while the rates of economic growth and export expansion were considered satisfactory, the country's trade imbalance continued to grow with adverse effects on the balance of pay ments. Unable to cope effectively, the government under General Kriangsak Chomanand was gradually losing public confidence. Adding to these economic griev ances was the problem of internal security which grew in intensity, as was reflected by