Puey Ungphakorn was the model of a great citizen

Puey Ungphakorn was the model of a great citizen

This month is the centennial celebration of the life of Puey Ungphakorn, a great Thai intellectual, model civil servant of exceptional devotion, vision, and integrity, and, above all, commoner whose life sets an example of how one can best serve one’s country.

To this day, his clear vision on democracy, liberalism and fairness in opportunity, as well as his philosophy on life and the way he lived by it, has left many wondering what Thailand could have achieved as a country if some of his ideas and principles had been put into practice. Obviously, he was ahead of his time in regard to his vision and thinking.

On the centenary of his birth in 2016, the former governor of the Bank of Thailand was named by Unesco as a key world figure, with the following epitaph:

Puey: Wholeheartedly served country

“Dr Puey is widely considered one of the fathers of Thailand’s post-World War II economic development as well as a prominent educator and civil servant of impeccable ethics, who has had a major impact on national development. He played a central role in the shaping of Thailand’s economic development and in the strengthening of its system of higher education. His capacity to strike a compromise between what was objectively possible and morally desirable was an extraordinary accomplishment. It had a particular impact on younger people, almost all of whose models have traditionally been either successful rogues who manipulate their social environment for their own advantage or martyrs who succumb to it. Dr Puey also had a far-ranging regional impact, as evidenced by his Magsaysay Award in government service, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize. The career of Dr Puey Ungphakorn confirms that a single individual can make significant contributions to the progress of his country.”

Born in March 1916, Dr Puey was indeed Thailand’s most famous and competent economist of his era. He studied economics at the London School of Economics under Dr Friedrich Hayek, a Nobel laureate and economic professor best known for his defence of classical liberalism.

Upon his return to the motherland, he started working as a government official and used his far-sightedness and knowledge to help set up Thailand’s economic institution that laid a solid foundation for Thailand’s economic growth and present day development. He was a visionary thinker, planner and practitioner, and was instrumental for the implementation of many key policies that helped position Thailand in an era of modern economic development.

Dr Puey is unanimously regarded as the best governor of the Bank of Thailand. He was much loved by the bank’s officials. During his 12-year tenure, he was able to maintain economic stability and steer clear of any political interference.

He built and left a strong culture at the central bank that its officials have to be both smart and honest, with high professional ethics and moral principles. He was a prominent educator who saw the value of quality education and quality human resources in national development. He was a social development pioneer who wanted to raise the living standards of rural dwellers, a teacher who took pleasure in seeing his disciples progress and prosper, and a commoner who lived a simple and contented life despite the frills and elegance of high office.

To most Thais, Dr Puey is seen as an outstanding example of a good Thai who wholeheartedly served his country, and a dedicated civil servant who had the courage to stand up and speak out against wrongdoings. He expressed his frank opinion for the sake of the country, and did so without fear of the repercussions.

A widely-known example was in 1965 when, as governor of the Bank of Thailand, he delivered an annual dinner speech to bankers and top government officials. In the glare of the mass media, he read out a poem he wrote to exhort the then prime minister to recognise the inappropriateness and conflict of interest in running the country and taking a directorship at a financial institution at the same time.

This prompted the premier’s resignation from the bank the following day. This kind of value and courage is rare in Thai society where government officials and people in high places dare not speak their mind and stand by what they think is right. Such courage brought Dr Puey much praise, but also trouble, sometimes both to him and his family.

There are three valuable concepts he had developed from the reality of Thai society that he saw, and followed throughout his entire career. We can study these ideal concepts and should apply them to our way of living, to make our Thai citizenship more meaningful, both for ourselves and for our country.

The first concept is Santi Pracha Dhamma (Peace, Democracy, and Righteousness). It suggested that rulers must utilise their authority justly to create a fair society, reduce disparity, ensure public freedom and the rule of law, in order to prevent autonomous dictation by any particular interest group, and that all problem-solving processes must be conducted in a non-violent and peaceful manner.

To put simply, it is the basic principle of democracy and liberalism that respect the rights and freedom of all elements in society.

The second concept is to live simply with a sufficiency mindset and a sense of social involvement or contribution to create a peaceful society, rather than to seek excessive profit for oneself and family. This concept can be found in an article, “The Quality of life of a South East Asian: A Chronicle of Hope from Womb to Tomb”, which he wrote in 1980.

In this short essay, he advocates fairness, equitable quality of life and equal opportunities, civil and public duties through social welfare, and promotes the creation of a good society along with economic growth and development. This particular work was to inspire many social policies in Thailand thereafter.

The third concept is on integrity and ethics that focuses on a life lived on truth, sublimity, and goodness, with the congruence of thought, word and deed. The principle is depicted in a poem he wrote in 1965, entitled “A Pundit Must not Chop and Change”. It reads:

An ethical pundit should conduct him or herself thus:

Not chopping and changing, but honest;

Stable and dependable;

And thought, word and deed as one, full of honour.

It is important that Puey Ungphakorn, a commoner, be remembered as one of Thailand’s greatest citizens, whose ideals and principles have inspired hope to this day and for generations to come.


Bandid Nijathaworn is President & CEO, the Thai Institute of Directors (IOD).

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