Word: pibul
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...last month of the campaign alone, Pibul made 150 speeches for his Seri-Manangasila (Free Stone Seat) Party, including a few on TV.* And as proof of his new convictions, he turned over to the police his treasured copy of The Technique of the Coup d'Etat...
...year and a half ago full of the wonders of democracy. Expansively he urged his countrymen to erect themselves a Hyde Park for uninhibited soapbox oratory, offered them the kite-flying ground next to the royal palace. Going his new friend Dwight Eisenhower one better, Pibul instituted weekly press conferences, forced his hapless ministers to appear and answer rude reportorial questions about their carefree handling of public funds...
Buddhas & Thunderbirds. To unsubtle Western minds this appeared a somewhat dubious concession. Thailand had had "elections" before, and in any case only half the country's 320 parliamentary seats are filled by election (the other 160 M.P.s are appointed by Pibul). The difference was that the 1957 elections were to be honest. This time, said Pibul sternly, there were to be no "fire cards" (faked ballots) and no "parachutists" (people who vote under other people's names). As a final democratic fillip, Pibul announced that he and eight of his ministers would take their first fling at running...
...this heady new atmosphere political machines sprang up like mushrooms after a rain, and in no time at all 23 parties had named 965 candidates. Most formidable of the opposition groups was the Prachathipat (Democratic) Party headed by thin, reedy-voiced ex-Premier Nai Khuang Aphaiwong, who upheld the Pibul government's staunchly pro-Western foreign policy, but damned its corruption and authoritarianism. "We live under a government of gangsters," shrilled Nai Khuang, to the delight of thousands of assembled Bangkokians...
Hardest campaigner of all was Pibulsonggram himself. An ardent admirer of U.S. political methods, the 59-year-old Premier zipped about the country in his green Thunderbird, handing out boxes of "Pibul matches" and replicas of his personal Buddha charm. Since Pibul's countrymen reckon that any man who has survived one kidnaping, two attempted assassinations by snooting and one by poisoning must have supernatural luck, the charm went over...