“In any country, there are some people who are good, and others who are not so good.
It is impossible to make everyone good. The task of bringing peace and happiness to
the country is not about making everyone good. But it is about promoting good people,
enabling them to govern the country, and about preventing people who are not so good
from obtaining positions of power.”

His Majesty made that pronouncement in 1969. It echoed the historic oath he had made
earlier at his coronation in 1950 in which he pledged : “We will reign with righteousness,
for the benefit and happiness of the Siamese people.”

While His Majesty’s thoughts are essential to his prestige, what he has done for his people
over the past 50 years may better explain the devotion he enjoys. His Majesty’s best known
acts are the interventions of October 14, 1973, and May 20, 1992, which saved the country
from disaster. It was in May 1992 that His Majesty intervened by appealing to the rivals--
Chamlong Srimuang, leader of the pro-democracy demonstrators, and Prime Minister
Suchinda Kraprayoon--to “turn towards each other” in an audience at Chitralada Palace
that was televised nationwide.

Most of His Majesty’s efforts to improve the lives of his people have focused on remote
areas of the country, most in need of assistance. And for over 50 years, His Majesty has
tirelessly travelled to these areas, said Dr Sumet Tantivechakul.

His Majesty’s 22-day trip to the Northeast in 1955, the first by a Thai monarch to that part of
the country, and during which he was accompanied by Her Majesty The Queen, was particularly
successful. Since then, His Majesty has travelled to all 76 provinces in the country, dispensing
essential help in food and medicine, as well as advice on people’s livelihoods. These visits also
came at a time of communist insurgency and His Majesty demonstrated his belief that saving
ordinary people from poverty and injustice was the best way to defeat the insurgents,
said Dr Sumet.