Word: kukrit
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Thai Politician-Publisher Kukrit Pramoj 13 years ago took a respite from statecraft and journalism for a brief fling at the movies. In the film version of The Ugly American, Kukrit got surprisingly good reviews for his portrayal of the democratic Prime Minister of a mythical Southeast Asia nation called Sarkhan. The movie Prime Minister was besieged and almost overthrown by Communists, largely because of a meddling U.S. ambassador (played by Marlon Brando...
Last week, as Thailand held parliamentary elections, life exceeded reel politics. Kukrit, 65, Thailand's Prime Minister for the past year, was upset in a bid for reelection. A major reason for his loss was that once again he had run afoul of Americans. This time the issue was the U.S. military presence in Thailand. To improve relations with Thailand's two Communist neighbors-Laos and Cambodia-and reduce protests from Thai leftists, Kukrit last month ordered the U.S. to close its bases and trim personnel from the present 3,500 (down from 49,500 at the height...
...Kukrit, who heads the right-of-cen-ter Social Action Party, lost to his older brother-and political enemy-Seni Pramoj, 70, leader of the conservative Democrat Party. The Democrats swept all 28 National Assembly seats in Bangkok-including Kukrit's-and won 114 nationwide. Three military-backed parties agreed to join the Democrats in forming a Cabinet, which means that Seni will control at least 206 of the 279 seats in Parliament...
...chief defender of Thai democracy is the country's sophisticated, aristocratic, Oxford-educated Prime Minister, Kukrit Pramoj, 64. The author of 36 fiction and nonfiction books and for 22 years an acerbic, nationally known newspaper columnist, Kukrit led an incredibly complex 17-party coalition government until January, when a controversy regarding the price of rice forced him to dissolve Parliament. During the ten months he was in power, he concentrated on building up the long-neglected countryside by increasing rice and sugar price supports, requiring banks to invest in local agrarian projects and pumping $300 million in direct grants...
...discuss the coming election, Kukrit met last week with TIME Correspondent William McWhirter. Sitting on the terrace of his large open house, he talked about Thailand's growing crisis and his own hope that Thai democracy can survive. Kukrit's views...