Boworadet rebellion | |||||||
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Siamese soldiers during the rebellion |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Prince Boworadet and other royalists and his allies | Revolutionary Siamese Government (Khana Ratsadon) | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Prince Boworadet Col. Sri Sitthi Songkhram M.Gen Phraya Sena Songgram |
Luang Phibulsonggram Luang Amnuai Songkhram Phraya Phahonphonphayuhasena |
The Boworadet rebellion (Thai: กบฏบวรเดช; RTGS: Kabot Boworadet; [kà.bòt.bɔ̄ː.wɔ̄ː.rá.dèt]) was a Thai rebellion (or unsuccessful coup d'état) led by royalist Prince Boworadet (1877-1947) in 1933, in consequence of the conflicts between the previous royalist regime (those loyal to Chakri dynasty rule and King Prajadhipok) and the succeeding constitutional regime led by Khana Ratsadon, following the Revolution in 1932. The Boworadet revolt was eventually defeated by the Siamese Government.
As a historical event, it was cataclysmic in the transformation of Thai politics and government and is meaningful to understand the contemporary Thai politics and the monarchy. In the next twelve years, the constitutional government had not been seriously threatened by the royalist and conservative. Its result immediately benefits a military regime led by Phibun. In a longer term, the controversies about King Prajadhipok’s involvement are largely unknown to the public, thus his democratic credibility remains intact and is passed to the later kings in Thailand.
In 1932, People’s Party carried out a revolution (coup) overthrowing the absolute monarchy in Siam, which was regarded as a crucial turning point 20th-century Thai history. After the establishment of a new regime, a series of counter-revolutionary crisis threatening the constitutional government. The King accepted the Promoters’ constitution as a temporary one, and took part in making another “permanent” constitution. Conservative figure Phraya Manopakorn Nititada [Mano] was appointed as the prime minister who later showed a pro-royal tendency.
In March 1933, Pridi Phanomyong, a Minister of State and a member of the People's Party, was attacked verbally by the constitutional monarch King Prajadhipok (or King Rama VII) as a communist following the proposal of the Draft National Economic Development Plan, or the Yellow Cover Dossier, to the National Assembly. The Yellow Paper was a plan to arrange and provide State welfare, to distribute all land to the rural poor, to interfere in economic affairs of the private sectors and to provide rural farmers more economic subsidies. These concepts were deemed communistic (or at least socialistic) by the Monarch. This led Thawan Ritthidet (Thai: ถวัลย์ ฤทธิเดช), a private citizen, to file a lawsuit against the King, accusing him of intervention in political, state and economic affairs. The fallout over Pridi's plan divided the Cabinet. Mano took advantage of the conflicts within the People’s Party and got support of the non-reformists in the executive. After securing King Prajadhipok’s signature on the decree, he carried out a silent coup to dissolve the National Assembly on the 1st April 1933, and used emergency decrees (such as the Anti-Communist Act) to govern. Pridi was immediately exiled to France.