This year, many celebrations at Thammasat University and around the Kingdom honor the centenary of Ajarn Puey Ungphakorn (1916-1999). The TU Libraries own a number of books by and about Ajarn Puey which is natural, since the TU campuses honor this dedicated educator and economist in many ways. Ajarn Puey served as dean of the Faculty of Economics and rector of Thammasat University, while also working as governor of the Bank of Thailand for 12 years. During this time, he always preferred to be called Dean rather than any other honorary title, showing how important education was for him. The TU Libraries also have books in English by him, specifically about education and economics. TU’s Graduate Volunteer Institute has recently been renamed the Puey Ungphakorn School of Development Studies; the main library on Rangsit campus and the Faculty of Economics library at Tha Prachan campus were likewise named after Ajarn Puey. And a special area of the Pridi Banomyong Library at Tha Prachan is named Puey’s Corner for South-East Asia and ASEAN studies.
These much-deserved honors do not fully explain the widespread affection and admiration felt for Dr. Puey Ungphakorn. His honesty, willingness to work tirelessly against corruption, refusal to seek accept cabinet positions or business deals that would have increased his income, were some of his traits frequently mentioned by those who knew him. Last year, Thammasat University rector Dr. Somkit Lertpaithoon announced that Dr. Puey Ungphakorn had been named a key world figure by UNESCO for his achievement in helping Thailand’s economic development as well as being a prominent educator and civil servant of impeccable ethics, the rector explained.
To get to know the person who managed all these achievements, his writings are a good starting place. For Thai readers, one of Ajarn Puey’s best-loved texts is The Quality of Life of a Southeast Asian, subtitled A chronicle of hope from Womb to Tomb. Originally printed as an appendix to Thoughts on Southeast Asia’s Development for 1980, delivered at a seminar on Southeast Asian development goals, in plain speech he evoked everyday experiences, showing a firm understanding of what was important for most people. Excerpts:
…I don’t care whether my father and mother are formally married, but I need them to live together in reasonable harmony.
I want good nutrition for my mother and for me in my first two or three years when my capacity for future mental and physical development is determined.
I want to go to school, together with my sister, and to learn a trade, and to have the schools impart social values to me. If I happen to be suitable for higher education, that opportunity should be available.
When I leave school I want a job, a meaningful one in which I can feel the satisfaction of making a contribution.
I want to live in a law and order society, without molestation. I want my country to relate effectively and equitably to the outside world so that I can have access to the intellectual and technical knowledge of all mankind, as well as the capital from overseas. […]
As a human being, I would like inexpensive newspapers and paperback books, plus access to radio and TV (without too much advertising).
I want to enjoy good health, and I expect the Government to provide free preventive medical service and cheap and readily available good curative service.
I need some leisure time for myself, and to enjoy my family, and want access to some green parks, to the arts, and to traditional social or religious festivities. I want clean air to breathe and clean water to drink…
After these, and other similar thoughts, Ajarn Puey concluded:
These are what life is all about, and what development should seek to achieve for all.
Serious educational goals and high standards.
In The Role of Ethics and Religion in National Development, a lecture in Chiang Mai in 1969, Ajarn Puey stated:
University students can be considered elite. They must learn a wide range of subjects, learn to take the responsibility of leaders, and must have a profound knowledge of their own subject. At whatever level of education, we adults have the obligation of inculcating in our youngsters the knowledge of good and evil and the correct moral values… We adults must set them good examples by our own behaviour, thus showing them the right sense of values. Good examples are called for from parents, teachers, and famous public figures. The bad behaviour of children and youth is always caused by the immorality of adults.
In addition to such stern and sincere advice, Ajarn Puey was also noted for his lively wit. In The Society of Siam, a speech to commemorate the 70th anniversary of The Siam Society in 1974, he remarked, among other trenchant comments about Thai social customs and habits:
Our wedding ceremonies look charming and full of meaning and purpose in their original, simple forms i.e. an intimate affair for family and close friends. Nowadays this ceremony has gone out of hand and has become grandioser and grandioser. If you cannot invite the whole cabinet, the whole bureaucracy, the whole Bangkok business community, the diplomatic corps to your son’s or daughter’s wedding, then you will die of shame. It does not matter whether the cabinet ministers, privy counsellors, high officials, bankers, millionaires, businessmen and their wives have ever heard of the young couple or their parents; it does not matter if some of your guests are notorious crooks; it does not matter how much and for how long you submit bride and bridegroom and the queuing guests to the utmost inconvenience and discomfort; it does not matter if this superb wedding causes traffic jams for half of the Bangkok streets, this is the custom and one has to conform. Worse still, Thai couples are only allowed to get married in certain months of the year. The rest are taboo. And during those allowable months only certain days are superbly auspicious, others mildly auspicious, yet others unauspicious. Of course everybody has to plump for the superbly auspicious dates and times. Result: guests, i.e. the whole of Bangkok’s elite, have to jump like monkeys from one wedding to five other weddings, and traffic jams spread all over the great metropolis.
The wedding ceremony is only one example of the abuse of good customs, and of the urge for conformity. I leave you to imagine other instances: housing, clothing, drinking, and eating habits, golfing, etc. Talking about clothing, I wish, Mr. President, that you would not have told me to come here in a lounge suit. While parking my car tonight outside this hotel, I discovered that I had lost my top shirt button. If my necktie now sways to the left or to the right, I can assure you that this is no reflection on my personal political affiliation.
Small wonder that Professor Thomas Henry Silcock, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Malaya, Singapore, noted about Ajarn Puey in his 1968 book, Proud and serene; sketches from Thailand:
This surprising man is also a literary artist, not only in prose, but also in verse…I know that two of his speeches to the Thai Bankers’ Association were made entirely in verse – elegant, graceful verse with plenty of wit and verbal playfulness, clearly the work of a man who is at home in the medium…Once I congratulated him on the fact that he had produced these speeches in verse, and wondered whether he was the only Central Bank Governor in the world who would either think of doing such a thing or have the talent to do it. He smiled his charming deprecatory smile.
By reading these writings, we can better understand the permanent charm of his personality and virtues, more appreciated than ever on his centenary.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and puey-ungphakorn.org)