BANGKOK (AP) — Thanin Kraivichien, an anti-communist judge who became Thailand’s prime minister after a 1976 military coup but was ousted by another coup a year later because of his hard-line policies, has died at age 97, his family announced.
A notice dated Sunday and posted online by his family did not give a cause of death for Thanin, who served as Thailand’s 14th prime minister after his 1976 appointment by the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej,
Just two months after being ousted as prime minister in 1977, the king appointed Thanin to his advisory Privy Council, where he served for almost 40 years.
The current prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, posted condolences on the X social network, calling him a notable figure.
Thanin had become prime minister after a tumultuous three-year period of liberal democracy that followed decades of military rule. The social conflicts that surfaced under democracy and the communist takeover of Thailand’s three eastern neighbors — Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia — destabilized the country and set the stage for a right-wing comeback.
On Oct. 6, 1976, right-wing vigilantes assisted by security forces besieged Bangkok’s Thammasat University where an anti-dictatorship protest was being held. Guns and grenades were fired into the campus and students lynched by the mob. The official death toll was 46 but many scholars believed it was more than 100.
The violence served as an excuse for the army to seize power, and two days later Thanin, a Supreme Court judge and staunch royalist, was appointed prime minister by the new ruling junta, on the advice of the king.
“Although Thanin had not previously taken part in politics nor had he ever held a Cabinet post, he quickly asserted himself forcefully," according to Thailand: A Country Study, compiled by American University as a U.S. Government publication.
“Ironically, it turned out that this man, a civilian and a lawyer, was more authoritarian and repressive than any of his military predecessors," the late historian David Wyatt wrote in his “Thailand: A Short History."
“Rigid censorship was imposed, labor unions silenced, the ranks of bureaucrats and teachers purged of dissidents and required to undergo anticommunist indoctrination.”
Thanin proposed that at least 12 years of political education would be needed until full democracy could be restored, a headline-grabbing timeline that dismayed many Thais, including those in the military who believed that his anti-communist crusade was actually strengthening support for the jungle-based Communist Party of Thailand and its guerrillas.
In retrospect, he has been given credit for attacking the drug trade and corruption, two longtime scourges of Thai society, as well as appointing Thailand's first female Cabinet members.
On October 20, 1977, the same generals who staged the 1976 coup ousted Thanin from office.
The country study said the official explanation was that Thanin's authoritarian regime had led to disunity in the government, economic deterioration, delay in the democratic transition and popular discontent. There was evidence, however, that Thanin's tough actions against corruption undercut his support from powerful figures both in the government and outside.
Thanin was born in Bangkok on April 5, 1927, the son of a major pawnshop owner. He received a law degree from Thammasat University in 1948 and then studied law in London, where he was admitted to the Bar in 1953. While in England he met his Danish wife, Karen Andersen. She died in 1995.
The Associated Press
