หน้า:พระปกเกล้าฯ กับ รธน ไทย (vol 2).pdf/2

จาก วิกิซอร์ซ
หน้านี้ได้ตรวจสอบแล้ว
Note
Democracy in Siam

The question whether a democratic form of government is suitable, or ever will be suitable, for Siam or not, has been discussed among the intelligentsia of Siam for a long time, and is even now being discussed by the semi-educated people, some of whom having aired their opinions in the Siamese press. The general concensus of opinion is that Siam is not at present ready to have a democratic form of government but may have to adopt it at some distant date. Some people assert that parliamentary government will never be suitable for the Siamese people, giving as reason that it is only the Anglo-Saxons who have been able to make a success of that form of government.

There is no doubt that a democratic form of government requires a high degree of development of the people to be a real success. It is even possible that there must also be certain racial qualities (which the Anglo-Saxons possess to a high degree) if democratic institutions are to be really beneficial to the people as a whole and to be really and truly democratic, not only in form, but also in fact. Too many democracies are so only in the form.

Now I am also inclined to think that a real democracy is very unlikely to succeed in Siam. It may even be harmful to the real interests of the people. One could readily imagine what a parliamentary from of government would be like in Siam and then there is no need to go into details. I shall just mention one fact, that is the parliament would be entirely dominated by the Chinese Party. One could exclude all Chinese from every political right; yet they will dominate the situation all the same since they hold the hard cash.