The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

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his list, well over half of them were born and reared outside Bangkok.
Phillips gives pen portraits of half a dozen or so leading intellectuals; he
classifies his list into broad categories of "Royal Traditionalists", "Social
Technicians", ''Panel Discussants" and so on, claiming (but again this
will no doubt be rectified) that they tend to be "literati'' elaborating on
the acceptable, rather than ''intelligentsia", implying the dissenting or
heretical innovators.
Finally, what is the relevance of these findings to the current
situation? To my mind they give rise to a series of questions. Are the
traditional norms of patron-client relations cited by Akin-deference and
service on the one hand, protection and assistance on the other-being
eroded by Western material values'? Just as, for example, the formal
patron-client ties of the early nineteenth century were eroded by the
informal ties? More specifically, are the "new men", the financial, industrial
and commercial magnates, the technocrats, the Western-educated
professionals and officials, are they effectively displacing the old-style
military-bureaucratic leaders?
Are the "modernising" values of
entrepreneurial society-rational, calculating, impersonal, thrusting,
competitive, resourceful, experimental-are these de-stabilising values
beginning to prevail over traditional norms of behaviour, i.e. as a reflection
of the growth of industry, the inflow of foreign capital, increased
mechanisation of agricu I ture, wider use of fertiliser and insecticides, and
the innovative response of farmers, all of which indicate tbe shift to a
more differentiated and developed economy?
The case of Chinese
immigrants to Thailand suggests one answer: given the need to make
good in a strange land and the opportunity to do so, sons of poor peasants,
fishermen and artisans were certainly not inhibited by traditional Chinese
values of attachment to the land, occupational status and social
obligations.
Students after 1973, too, in spite of continuing ambivalence
in regard to traditional values, have demonstrated on certain issues a
remarkable change in attitude from one of deference, respect, pragmatism