Chit Phumisak, the Che Guevara of Thailand

Chit Phumisak – Photo: Wikimedia

The turbulent sixties in the Netherlands, the somewhat older readers of this blog undoubtedly remember the anarchist Provo movement with, among others, Roel van Duin, the student riots in Amsterdam culminating in the occupation of the Maagdenhuis. In many countries, the youth rebelled against the established order, the “flower power” reigned supreme.

Also among the youth Thailand people began to think socially critically, about which little is known abroad. What is known is the crushing of demonstrators by the right-wing clique in collaboration with the army. Between 1973 and 1976 there were some major massacres, but relatively little is known about the background. How could it come to these outbursts of violence. How was it possible that the repression of the state smothered that critical thinking, so much so that it seems that to this day there are no “critical” youth left in Thailand.

Because while at that time journalists in the West wrote their fingers blue about the elegant and friendly Thai royal couple, Queen Sirikit and King Bhumibol, in the West there was absolutely no interest in the many puddles of blood on the streets in Bangkok or on the country. Dozens if not hundreds of intellectuals fell victim to these massacres. It was the time of the Cold War and reporting on “left-wing” movements was “not desirable”.

Chit Phumisak was the idol of many Thai students at the time, who died much too soon. He was born on September 25, 1930 in a simple family in Prachinburi province, which borders Cambodia. He went to the temple school in his village, then to a public school in Samutprakan, where his talent for languages ​​was discovered. Chit spoke Thai, Khmer, French, English and Pali. He later successfully studied linguistics at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. There he joined an academic discussion group suspected by the authorities.

The first time he was able to express his socialist ideas as a student was in 1953. He was hired by the American embassy in Bangkok to translate Marx's Communist Manifesto into Thai with an American, William J. Gedney. This action was intended to instill more fear in the Thai government for the communists, so that appropriate measures could be taken against communism, which was mainly intended to impress the common people.

In 1957, Chit Phumisak was appointed as a university lecturer in Phetchaburi, but a year later, on October 21, 1958, he and many other intellectuals were arrested for alleged communist sympathy. The reason was his anti-nationalist and socially progressive writings, especially Chomna Sakdina Thai, published in 1957. Loosely translated, the title could read “The true face of Thai feudalism”. The book was never fully translated into a Western language.

He wrote this certain anti-feudal work under the pseudonym of Somsamai Sisuttharaphan and the equally corrupt and strongly anti-communist pro-American government Sarit Thanarat, who was himself a multimillionaire with a lot of real estate, and was legally married to fifty (50) women , saw this as a serious threat.

Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok

Chit had already spent six years in prison until he was acquitted in December 1965 on the grounds of proven innocence. However, he was not left alone and was constantly threatened.

He went into hiding and joined the outlawed Communist Party of Thailand in the Phu Phan mountains of Sakon Nakhon. On May 5, 1966, according to the official version of 'villagers', he was shot dead in the village of Nong Kung, Waritchaphum district by a para-military group hired by a local mayor.

Chit Phumisak – Photo: Wikimedia

It was not until 1989 that his remains were exhumed and enshrined in a Buddhist ceremony in a stupa on the grounds of the nearby Wat Prasit Sangwon. The temple is now a memorial.

Chit Phumisak has left behind a surprisingly large number of publications in his short life. The list on his Thai Wikipedia page includes a large number of books in prose and poetry, linguistic history and general historical works, and song lyrics. He always had to publish under a pseudonym, such as Kanmueang Kawi (= “political poet”) and Kawi Si Sayam. (Kawi = poet; Mueang = Country, State, Sayam = “Siam”). His best-known scientific work, which appeared posthumously in 1977 and ran for 4 editions, is 'Khwam pen ma khong kham Sayam, Thai, Lao lae Khom' („The Origin of the Concept of Siam, Thai, Lao and Khom“). Even before his arrest, 'Sinlapa phuea chiwit, sinlapa phuea prachachon' ('Art for life, art for the people') was published in 1957.

For the students of the 1970s, as the singer and bandleader Nga Kharawan once said, Chit Phumisak became a kind of "Che Guevara of Thailand".