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1 results

  • 7 - The Passing of the Gentleperson

  • Patrick Jory, University of Queensland
  • Book:
    A History of Manners and Civility in Thailand
    Published online:
    18 December 2020
    Print publication:
    07 January 2021, pp 221-241

  • Summary

    This chapter argues that since the October 1973 student-led demonstrations which overthrew the military regime, the consensus surrounding the ideal of the gentleperson (phu di) has broken down. The political instability of the period since 1973, with repeated coups, bloody crackdowns, wild swings from relatively liberal, open government to reactionary conservative military regimes, and the frequent ripping up of constitutions and drafting of new ones, reflected the entry of the middle class and the rural and urban lower classes onto the political scene and the challenge they posed to the political domination of the military, bureaucracy, and the monarchy. Just as there was no consensus over how the country was to be governed, in the period following October 1973 there was great contention over appropriate conduct. Changes in government were typically followed by official moral and behavioural campaigns. The long-reigning King Bhumibol came to represent the ideal of the gentleperson. His death in 2016 symbolized the passing of a particular kind of civility.