Word: sarit
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Perched on gold-brocaded teakwood couches flanked by elephant tusks, the two men made an incongruous pair. But, as lanky Lyndon Johnson said, Texas fashion, "Now is the time to separate the men from the boys" in Southeast Asia. And in the squat, stern person of Premier Sarit Thanarat, 52, Thailand had a man. After he seized power in a bloodless coup in 1957, Field Marshal Sarit posed the problem for himself. "Anybody can stage a revolution," he said. "The snag, once the revolution is staged, is to win public approval." He has succeeded remarkably well...
...boss who had once shocked a dinner party at a Western embassy by slapping a bottle of cognac on the table and swigging from it all evening, explaining that his host's liquor was lousy. His sideline was running the lucrative national lottery. But after ousting Strongman Pibulsonggram, Sarit went off the bottle and then to work, house-cleaning Thailand from top to bottom. In La Guardia fashion, he roams the streets, checking on police and garbage men, dropping in on sidewalk cafés for a chat, handing out fines for tossing fruit peelings on the street...
...result, says one of his aides, Sarit's decisions "are not carried out the next day but immediately." A few months ago, when a pork shortage sent prices up, Bangkok's mayor at first tried persuasion; then Sarit went on the radio one night to announce that pork prices would be cut by 25%. Next morning they were. "He doesn't have to enforce his orders," explained one Bangkok citizen. "Sarit says the word and everybody obeys...
Efficient Aid. Sarit has cut the price of rice, bus fares and school fees, while boosting exports to $400 million and spurring a healthy 5% annual growth in the national production. U.S. aid, $300 million of it military and $241 million economic, has built a crack 100,000-man army, four main highways, 500 bridges and countless other projects, such as the $14 million power plant that Lyndon Johnson inaugurated last week. Sarit's Cabinet, mostly civilian, is probably the most efficient that the country ever had. Last year Sarit allocated as much money for education as for defense...
Northern Threat. Still, like everywhere else where living standards are low, Thailand has its problems. During the last few years before he seized power, Thai politicians were junketing off to Red China, and Bangkok newspapers showed a pronounced affection for Communism. No man to take chances, Sarit jailed the suspect politicians and muzzled the press but puts his faith in his economic program to deprive the Communists of the discontent on which they batten...