Pridi Banomyong

Prime Minister of Thailand

11 May 1900 Ayutthaya, Siam

2 May 1983(1983-05-02) (82) Paris, France

24 March 1946 – 23 August 1946

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Pridi Banomyong" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2018 ) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Pridi Banomyong (Thai: ปรีดี พนมยงค์ , RTGS: Pridi Phanomyong , pronounced ; 11 May 1900 – 2 May 1983), also known by his noble title Luang Praditmanutham (Thai: หลวงประดิษฐ์มนูธรรม ) was a Thai politician and professor.:13 As a Thai Regent, prime minister and senior statesman of Thailand, he also held multiple ministerial posts. He was a leader of the civilian wing of Khana Ratsadon, founder of University of Moral and Political Sciences and the Bank of Thailand. Born to a poor family of farmers in Ayutthaya Province, he nonetheless received a good education, becoming one of the nation's youngest barristers in 1919, at the age of nineteen. In 1920, he won scholarship to study in France, where he graduated from University of Caen with a master's degree, and completed his doctorate from University of Paris in 1927. In the same year, he co-founded Khana Ratsadon with like-minded Siamese overseas students. After returning to Thailand, still called Siam at the time, he worked as a judge, judicial secretariat, and professor. In the aftermath of 1932 Siamese Revolution, he played an important role in drafting two of the country's first constitutions and proposing a socialist economic plan. His plan was ill received, and Pridi went into a short period of political exile. On his return, he took many ministerial posts in Khana Ratsadon's governments. His significant contributions include modernizing Thai legal codes, laying the foundation for Thailand's local government system, negotiating the cancellation of unequal treaties with the West, and tax reform. Pridi diverged from Plaek Phibunsongkhram after the latter's apparent tendencies for dictatorship in the 1930s, marking the beginning of the long rivalry between the two Khana Ratsadon leaders, and Pridi made a regent during 1941 to 1945, a powerless post at the time. Shortly thereafter, he became leader of the domestic Free Thai Movement during World War II. His move to legitimate Plaek's declaration of war against the Allies proved fruitful and after the war, and the King thought of him as a senior statesman. He briefly became Prime Minister for a brief period in 1946, but his political opponents painted him as the mastermind behind the mysterious death of King Ananda Mahidol, and a coup in 1947 cost him his political power. An attempt to stage a counter-coup in 1949 failed and Pridi continued to live in exile since. He died in Paris in 1983, and his ashes were brought back to Thailand three years later. His image ranged from that of an anti-monarchist democrat to a republican. The branding of Pridi as a communist and a mastermind of King Ananda's death has since been regarded as politically motivated, which his opponents continued to use even after his death. However, Pridi won every libel lawsuit in Thailand filed against those who promoted such views. He became a symbol of resistance against military dictatorships, as well as a symbol of liberalism, and Thammasat University. The centenary of his birth was celebrated by UNESCO in 2000.