07/30/05

CHAPTER 10

A CRITIQUE OF PRINCE PHETSARATH'S NEUTRALITY

Because of extreme difficulties in external politics, the present Lao government under Prime Minister Souvannaphouma proclaimed itself as strictly neutral, and, as a first step, opened contacts with Red China.  Prince Phetsarath announced that he would establish ties with all countries, following a political policy of neutrality like that of Switzerland.  Although some people were sympathetic, there were many critics.  Opponents seized the opportunity to charge that Prince Phet­sarath was proceeding with a communist policy, and alleged that Soupha-nouvong, his younger brother, was a Red; that he was backed by Red China and the Viet-Minh and wanted to go down the Red path.  I, the writer of this history, should give a critique of Prince Phetsarath’s ideas and policies. Whether the right or wrong will be up to the future to decide.

There were six reasons for the Prince's pronouncement of neutral­ity:

1.  He was the mediator between his two younger brothers, one of whom was interested in democracy, the other of whom was backed by the communist side.  In such a situation, the Prince, who was like a heav­enly judge handing down verdicts, could neither proclaim himself as white nor red.  If conflicts arose between the two Princes, and he was on the white side, the other side would lose out.  If the side backed by Red China lost out, it would be charged that he sided with demo­cratic side. We can see why Prince Phetsarath could not return to Laos until the two sides had made an orderly agreement so that he could be strictly neutral.

2. The geographical situation is such that Laos has nine prov­inces which border on the territory of Red China and the Viet Minh. If the Prince proclaimed himself to be strictly white, how could the people of the nine provinces--Muang Sing, Phongsaly, Samneua, etc.--have any happiness? Only four or five other provinces have areas bordering the democratic side.  From the time of our ancestors, the livelihood of the Lao people of the nine provinces has depended on taking forest products to trade for rice, salt, and clothing from the Red side. Thus it is necessary for the Prince to maintain a policy of neutrality for the happiness of all his people.

3.  In saying that he could follow a course of neutrality like that of the Swiss, the Prince's words had deep meaning.  Superficially, Laos does not look like Switzerland because its geography is very dif­ferent.  Switzerland is not a battlefield for the great powers to test their weapons. The geography of Laos, however, makes the country open for aggression, making it necessary to proclaim neutrality first and to be humble rather than boastful. Why conduct oneself so as to goad others into testing their weapons in our villages? We should rather do good for all our neighbors so they will have compassion.  If any of our neighbors are angry with us, we will be unhappy.  How many dozens of years will it take to build ourselves and to bring happiness to our people?  We are strict believers in Buddhism.  The Prince has no desire to split our single Buddhism into separate denominations.  The Lao people believe in Buddhism and a Sangha of one sect.  They also believe with the same intensity.  They do not choose between vats or Sanghas. We have seen that the Patriarch, in the name of the Sangha, issued an invitation to the Prince to return to the country.  If the Prince were not firm in the religion and sincerely respectful toward the Sangha, the Sangha would not have been seriously concerned with inviting him back.  Given this, how could the Prince be Red?

4.  The sacred shrine of the Lao people is the That Luang, which was destroyed at the hands of the Haw, the same people as the Red Chi­nese of today.  It is engraved in our hearts that the ancestors of the Red Chinese inflicted sadness on the Lao people, and it is a reminder to all present-day Lao.  Who can be confident that the Red country will not again destroy the sacred things that the Lao people respect?

The story of the Chinese Haw destruction of the That Luang appears in the book Surveying and Exploring in Siam by James McCarthy (London, 1900).  The Lao people encountered the cruelty of the Haw people, who burned Vientiane and other regions until they were as smooth as the surface of a drum, and they did not fight back.  The history of Vien­tiane and the kingdom of Laos reminds us that since the ancestors of the Red Chinese built a monument of cruelty, the two races can never be intimately united in mind and spirit.

The Prince's neutrality proclamation, following the example of Switzerland, is not a challenge to Laos's neighbors.  It is an instruc­tion to the Prince's people with the objective of feeding and honoring them with a prosperous standard of living.  He never dreamed of saying that the Lao were a race of warriors who would fight without retreating and would all be willing to die.  In such a situation, increasing pros­perity would be difficult.  Slogans of all Thai races from ancient times aroused them to be warriors willing to die. They used to prac­tice swordsmanship instead of working.  If they follow this practice, how could they be prosperous like the rest of the world? When their ancestral blood lines have the blood of bravery, it is not necessary to awaken them to fight.  It is more beneficial to arouse them to build their country. The objective of being neutral, like Switzerland, is to improve the domestic situation. The Swiss proclaim themselves neu­tral, but they have the blood of bravery.  The Swiss army is as good as those of any of the great powers.  Consequently, the Prince's objec­tive is to instruct his three million people to lay aside their swords and take up their plows and harrows. Any people that has the blood of warriors and is aroused to bravery and pushed too far will remain troublesome, not earning a living, but becoming gangsters lording over their disapproving neighbors. This should not be allowed to happen.

5.  Furthermore, Laos has been a monarchy for hundreds of years, from the time of the Kingdom of Nan Chao, and has respected its royalty like fathers and mothers.  From ancient times to the present, we have referred to our king as "Lord of Life." Of the terms used, "Lord of the Land" and "Lord of Life," the latter carries more weight.  Is there a king of any country in the world who has become a communist?

How could the Lao become a people who respect the doctrine of those who have destroyed vats? People like Prince Phetsarath and all of   the  statesmen of  Laos   remember   the   same  things,   just  as   the Thai still   remember   the  burning  of Ayuthia  or  what  the  French did   in   1893. If  the Thai people do not  forget,  we  can believe  that the Lao  and Prince  Phetsarath will   not  forget  these   issues,   either.

6.     When Prince Phetsarath's  grandfather was  Viceroy,   he   fought against   the  Haw army,   the  ancestors  of Mao Tse-tung.     The  Haw  sur­rounded  him and  the Thai   army  was  unable  to  come  and help   in  time. The Haw  soldiers  captured him but were  unable  to  injure  him with  their swords   because he had a  firm belief  in the arts  of magic and his   tough skin was   invulnerable.     The Haw then  stretched  him out  and   impaled him with  a  spear until  he  died under  their  cruel  hands.     Who  among  this royal ministerial  family of politicians,  who are his  descendants,  could forget   their  anger  and  join  the  descendants  of  the  Haw?

Neither Laos nor any other small country has the power to with­stand the strength of communism if no one will help.     If other coun­tries want  to help  such small countries  to  remain free from the  bamboo curtain,   then  it   is  necessary   for  them  to  give   serious  aid.     Aid that is hesitant or haggling will have the harmful  effect  of just  lowering the bamboo  curtain of communism.     Even  if  those  seeking  aid do not  like gangsters  but  cannot  find anyone  else  to  give  them  serious  help,   they will  necessarily become dependent like Prince Souphanouvong,   the  lion of the  Sip Song Chu Thai.     If Mr. Stanton or Mr.   Donovan had given aid  according  to our petitions  in their  time,   I,   the writer,  would not  have a very  long story to tell.     The joining of hands with the Viet Minh was a necessity, which accords with the saying that "necessity knows no virtue."

In the future,   if we carefully consider aid to Laos  from the great powers,   it  is best to have a  single creditor.    No one likes to have many creditors.

In its close relations with countries at present, independent Laos has memories of the Phra That Sisongrak. In our history, King Phra Maha chakraphat, the King of Ayuthia, and King Setthathirath, the King of Sisattanakhanahut (LanXang), entered into friendly relations and in 1560 began building a memorial  stupa   (that) in Dan Sai district, Loei Province,   halfway between  the Nan  and the Mekong rivers.  It was finished in 1563, equivalent to the year of the pig, 5^th of the decade, on Thursday, the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the sixth month, 391 years ago. The two kings made the following vow:

In the year [Mahasakarat]  1482  [A.D.  1560], Year of the Monkey, 2nd of the decade,   .   .   .  the two kings, Phraya Dhammikaraja, king of Candapuri  .   .   .   [Vientiane,  i.e.,  Laos], and Maha Cakkavatti .   .   .   , King of Sri Ayudhya .   .   .   [Siam], having in view the happiness and benefit of their countries, resolved to conclude a treaty of friendship.    They convoked with them their heirs apparent, represen­tatives of the Sangha, and the great officers of each country.   .   .   .

The kings brought holy water in crystal ewers, the heirs apparent in golden ewers, and the officers in silver ewers.    The monks first intermingled the waters from the royal ewers, adding water from Pegu; then the water of the heirs apparent, and finally that of the offi­cers.

Next they pronounced the vow that Their Majesties the kings of [Laos] and Ayodhya, with their families and their officers,  [thereby] contracted friendship through the union of their families… for  the happiness and benefit of the Sangha,  brahmans, teachers,  and all their common subjects,   and that all  their descendants might   live  in peace, one with the other, until the sun and the moon fall upon the earth.   .   .   .