The Kingdom of Thailand is a fertile and well-watered land bordering on Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia, with a population of 63 million people. The growing capital city of Bangkok is now home to more than 11 million people.
Economy: Fertile agricultural land — exporting rice, sugar, rubber. Rapid industrialization has led
to a strong electronic and garment industry. Endemic corruption at every level of
society has hastened deforestation, slowed taming of drug trafficking from the ‘Golden
Triangle’ in the far northwest of the country and helped precipitate the Asian
economic crash in the late 1990s.
Politics: A kingdom since the 13th Century, and never ruled by a Western power. Constitutional
monarchy, with the popular king having a strong unifying and stabilizing role. The
powerful army dominated politics and commercial life for 60 years. Corrupt, selfish
practices of army leaders spread corruption to all levels of society and served to
protect crime, prostitution, drug-dealing and arms rackets. The army’s violent
suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1992 led to its humiliation.
Successive civilian governments have paid lip-service to purging corruption from
society, but in practice little has changed. Grass-roots and media pressure may force
through some of the desired reforms.
Religion: Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the constitution, which was modified in 1998 to
loosen ties between the State and Buddhism and increase harmony between religious
communities.
