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2 Jackson, Peter A., ‘Semicoloniality, translation and excess in Thai cultural studies’, South East Asia Research, 13, 1 (2005): 8–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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4 Kasian, Commodifying Marxism, p. 4.

5 Ibid., pp. 196–7.

6 Reynolds, Craig J., Thai radical discourse: The real face of Thai feudalism today (Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program [hereafter SEAP], Cornell University, 1987)Google Scholar; Reynolds, Craig J., ‘Feudalism as a trope for the past’, in Reynolds, Seditious histories: Contesting Thai and Southeast Asian pasts (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2006)Google Scholar. See also Reynolds, Craig J. and Hong, Lysa, ‘Marxism in Thai historical studies’, Journal of Asian Studies, 43, 1 (1983): 77–104CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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8 Connors, Michael Kelly, Democracy and national identity in Thailand (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, rev. and updated 2007Google Scholar; orig. pub. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003). Arguably, possible translations of prachathipatai span a wide, incoherent spectrum ranging from ‘quasi-absolute monarchy’ to ‘republic’.

9 Gerring, John, ‘Ideology: A definitional analysis’, Political Research Quarterly, 50, 4 (1997): 957–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Eagleton, Terry, Ideology: An introduction (London: Verso, 1991)Google Scholar.

10 Abercrombie, Nicholas, Hill, Stephen and Turner, Bryan S., ‘Determinacy and indeterminacy in the theory of ideology’, in Mapping ideology, ed. Zizek, Slavoj (London: Verso, 1994), p. 164Google Scholar.

11 Slavoj Zizek, ‘Introduction: The spectre of ideology’, in Zizek, Mapping ideology, p. 19.

12 Knight, Kathleen, ‘Transformations of the concept of ideology in the twentieth century’, American Political Science Review, 100, 4 (2006): 619–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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14 Ibid., p. 980.

15 In this article, I will deliberately leave the Thai term udomkān untranslated. Where the English term ‘ideology’ appears in Thai text that I have translated into English, I am quoting the original Thai source where the term appears in upper-case letters in roman script.

16 Samudavanija, Chai-anan, Udomkān thāng kānmư̄ang [Political ideology] (Bangkok: Bannakit Printing House, 1973), p. 1Google Scholar.

17 Ēkahitānon, Suthī, Photčhanānukrom Thai–Angkrit [Thai–English dictionary] (Bangkok: Kritsanapakō̜n Printing House, 1958), p. 88Google Scholar.

18 Phontrī Pračhāowō̜rawongthœ̄ Krommamư̄n Narāthipphongpraphan, , Witthayathat Phraong Wan Witthayathat Phra'ong Wan: khrop 110 pī wan prasūt 25 Singhākhom 2544 [The academic views of Prince Wan: On the 110th anniversary of his birth on 25 August 2001] (Bangkok: Narāthip Praphanphong-Wō̜rawan Foundation, 2001), p. 313Google Scholar.

19 Nimitmongkol Navarat, The dreams of an idealist: A victim of two political purges; and The emerald's cleavage, trans. Smyth, David (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2009)Google Scholar.

20 Asonchinonda, Sō̜, ‘Mū'a nakudomkatī klap bān’ [When an idealist returns home], Mahāchon, 111 (1947)Google Scholar.

21 He wrote, ‘Aksnsān will still include works of entertainment. This is because we organised the work plan as such. However, after we were able to consider printing works of fiction, it appeared that this kind of collection would be appropriate for the udomkān of Aksnsān’. See Sirimānon, Suphā, Čhotmāi čhāk bannāthikān [Letters from the editor] (Bangkok: Čhindā Sirimānon: Ngān Dī Phūčhatčhamnāi, 1988), p. 38Google Scholar. On Aks nsān itself, see Kasian, Commodifying Marxism, pp. 160–76.

22 Chāokhananitisat, [Faculty of Law People], ‘Raingankhananitisat’ [Report of the Faculty of Law], Thammačhak, 4, 1 (1952): 118–21Google Scholar.

23 Sisuwan, Udom, Chanthimathorn, Sathīan and Sawatsī, Suchāt, Chīwit kap khwāmfaifan [Life and Dreams] (Bangkok: Dō̜k Yā, 1978), p. 15Google Scholar. He further describes the qualities of ideologues: ‘Udomkhatī or dreaming … those who consume udomkhatī are the kind who are unconventional and like performing religious ceremonies’ (p. 20).

24 Craig J. Reynolds, personal communication, 7 Nov. 2008 [for the phrase ‘old term invested with new meaning(s)’].

25 See Tongprasert, Chamnong, Pasā thai kai kan [The Thai language explained] (Bangkok: Phraepittiya Printing House, 1985), pp. 11–12Google Scholar or http://www.royin.go.th/th/knowledge/detail.php?ID=1187 (last accessed 22 June 2011).

26 หลักการที่วางระเบียบไว้เป็นแนวปฏิบัติเพื่อให้บรรลุเป้าหมายที่กำหนดไว

27 Waithayakon, Wan, Chumnumphraniphon khong than wan pontri krommœnthiphongphrapan [Collected essays of Prince Wan] (Bangkok: Phadungsưksā Printing House, 1965), p. 304Google Scholar. In the late 1950s, Prime Minister Sarit Thanarat asked that the name of the National Socialist Party no longer be translated in English as ‘National Socialist’ because it was not socialistic. Keyes, Charles F., Isan: Regionalism in northeastern Thailand (Ithaca, NY: SEAP, Cornell University, 1967), p. 50Google Scholar. The use of this name is still banned by the Electoral Commission of Thailand. By 1950, ‘progressive thought’ (ความคิดก้าวหน้า) was accepted as a euphemism for Marxism. Somsak Jeamtheerasakul, ‘The Communist movement in Thailand’ (Ph.D. diss., Monash University, Melbourne, 1993), p. 323.

28 Wan, Chumnumphraniphon khong than wan pontri krommœnthiphongphrapan [Collected essays of Prince Wan], pp. 298–9.

29 Phontrī Pračhāowrawongth Krommamn Narāthipphongpraphan, Witthayathat Phraong Wan [Academic views of Prince Wan], p. 291.

30 Intharāyut, (Atsanī Phonlačhan), ‘Sinlapa læ wannakhadī’ [Art and literature, a translation of Mao Tse-tung's lectures], Aksō̜nsān, 1, 11 (1950): 62–81Google Scholar.

31 Saipradit, Kulab, ‘Thrisadī kanmūang: ton latī sochlīt’ [Political theory: The period of socialist doctrine], Aksō̜nsān, 1, 12 (1950): 44–51Google Scholar.

32 Somsak Jeamsatheerakul, ‘The Communist movement in Thailand’, p. 108. Latī socialism was associated with utopian or ‘Phra Sri Arya’ connotations since King Vajiravudh's 1912 satirical essays on socialism (see Kasian, Commodifying Marxism, pp. 14–17).

33 See Althusser, Louis, Essays on ideology (London: Verso, 1984), p. 32Google Scholar.

34 On the significance of the Social Science Review, see Reynolds and Hong, Marxism in Thai historical studies, p. 86; Phetprasert, Narong, Čhāk aksō̜nsān thưng sangkhomsāt parithat [From Aks nsān to the Social Science Review] (Bangkok: Political Economy Studies Centre, 2006)Google Scholar; and Flood, Thadeus, ‘The Thai left wing in historical context’, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 7 (1975): 61Google Scholar.

35 Interview, Sulak Sivaraksa, Bangkok, 15 Oct. 2009.

36 Kasian Tejapira, personal communication, 27 Dec. 2010.

37 Interview, Nalinee Tantuvanit, Bangkok, 19 Oct. 2009.

38 See Murashima, Eiji, ‘The origin of modern official state ideology in Thailand’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 19, 1 (1988): 80–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Reynolds and Hong (Marxism in Thai historical studies) translate the book's title as Thai ideology and society.

40 Udomkān kap sangkhomthai [Ideology and Thai society], ed. Nartsupha, Chatthip (Bangkok: Social Science Association of Thailand, 1972), pp. 1–2Google Scholar.

41 Ibid., p. 2.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid., p. 65.

44 Ibid., p. 37.

45 Ibid., p. 51.

46 Ibid., pp. 80–1.

47 They are often referred to as ‘aristocratic intellectuals’ (ปัญญาชนขุนนางor ขุนนางนักวิชาการ). Surapong Jayanam discusses Gramsci's concept of organic intellectuals in ‘Wā duay panhā udomkān [On Thai ideology's dilemma], Social Science Review, 3, 11 (1973): 43Google Scholar.

48 See Warin Wonghanchow, ‘Udomkān kap sangkhom thai [Review of Ideology and Thai society], Social Science Review, 3, 11 (1973): 52–7Google Scholar. He pokes fun at ideology by coming up with his own brand of ‘liberal nubism’.

49 Chai-anan, udomkān thāng kānm ang [Political ideology], p. 4.

50 Ibid., p. 20.

51 Chai-anan Samudavanija, ‘Udomkān thang kanmūang khong thai’ (The political ideology of Thailand), in Udomkān kap sangkhomthai [Ideology and Thai society], pp. 14, 94.

52 Chai-anan, Udomkān thang kanmūang [Political ideology], p. 21.

53 Ibid., p. 24.

54 Ibid., pp. 22–3.

55 Ibid., pp. 144–59.

56 Ibid., p. 156.

57 Ibid., p. 157.

58 Sirimanond, Supha, Khambanyai khaepitalit bot wikro sangkhom setthakit amerikan [Lectures on capitalism: Analysis of American socioeconomy] (Bangkok: Social Research Institute Book Project, Chulalongkorn University, 1951), p. 13Google Scholar. When I began teaching at Thammasat University in the early 2000s, I noticed that my students still employed the term ‘communist’ in a way different from Supha's ‘socioeconomics word form’ translation. ‘Hitler was a khommiunit,’ they would tell me.

59 Brown, Ian, ‘Economic thought in early twentieth-century Siam’, in Thai constructions of knowledge, ed. Chitkasem, Manas and Turton, Andrew (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1991), p. 95Google Scholar. See also Somsak, ‘The Communist movement in Thailand’, pp. 39, 120.

60 Brown, ‘Economic thought in early twentieth-century Siam’, p. 93.

61 Murashima, Eiji, ‘The making of modern Thai political parties’, in Democracy and the development of political parties in Thailand 1932–1945, ed. Murashima, Eiji (Tokyo: Institute of Developing Economies, 1991), p. 24Google Scholar.

62 Lysa Hong, ‘Warasan Setthasat Kanmu'ang: Critical scholarship in post-1976 Thailand’, in Thai constructions of knowledge, p. 99, emphasis added.

63 Samudavanija, Chai-anan, Prachathipatai sangkhomniyom khommiunit [Democracy, socialism, communism] (Bangkok: Piknet Publishing, 1976), p. 239Google Scholar.

64 Ibid., p. 241.

65 Ibid., p. 290.

66 Ibid, p. 299.

67 Ibid., p. 301.

68 Kasian, Commodifying Marxism, p. 83.

69 Social Science Review, 11, 3 (1973)Google Scholar.

70 Tejapira, Kasian, ‘Surapong Jayanama chak Marx læ sangkhomniyom su kng thap kap prachāthippatai’ [Surapong Jayanama: From Marx and socialism to the military and democracy], Matichon, 8 Aug. 2008, p. 6Google Scholar.

71 Jayanam, Surapong, ‘Krai ben sāi [Who is a leftist?]’, Social Science Review, 3, 11 (1973): 110Google Scholar.

72 Ibid.

73 Ibid., p. 115.

74 Ibid., p. 112.

75 Ibid., p. 116.

76 Kasian Tejapira, ‘Surapong Jayanama’, p. 6. Both Chai-anan and Surapong became intellectual godfathers of the People's Alliance for Democracy.

77 Social Science Review, 3, 11 (1973): 104Google Scholar.

78 Ibid.

79 Nartsupha, Chatthip and Chenvidyakarn, Montri, ‘Wīwattanākan udomkan nai sangkhom thai’ [The evolution of ideology in Thai society], in Setthasat kap prawatsat thai [Economics and Thai history], ed. Nartsupha, Chatthip (Bangkok: Sangsan Publishing, 1981), p. 231Google Scholar.

80 See Reynolds, ‘Feudalism as a trope for the past’, and Reynolds and Hong, ‘Marxism in Thai historical studies’, on the terms sakdina and saktina.

81 Hong, ‘Warasan Setthasat Kanmu'ang’, p. 101.

82 Ibid., p. 105. Nearly 30 years later, Kasian groups Phichit along with those former Octobrists who joined Thaksin's camp. Tejapira, Kasian, ‘The disintegration of Octobrist ideology’, Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, 8 (2007)Google Scholar, http://kyotoreviewsea.org/kasian.htm (last accessed 29 Oct. 2008).

83 Tejapira, Kasian, ‘Sen thang kwamkhit khong krabuankān naksu'ksa thai nai rop thotsawat 14 tula: kanpatīwat krabuanthat song khrang’ [The intellectual path of the Thai student movement in the decade of 14 October: Two paradigmatic revolutions], Journal of Political Economy, 3, 3 (1984): 43Google Scholar.

84 Kǣothēp, Kānčhanā, ‘Udomkān: Naewkhīt læ naewwīkro’, Journal of Political Economy, 3, 3 (1984): 2Google Scholar. Udomkān is spelled without the karan.

85 Althusser, Louis, Udomkān læ konkai thāng udomkān khō̜ng rat [Ideology and ideological state apparatuses], trans. Kǣothēp, Kānčhanā (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn Social Research Institute Book Project, 1986)Google Scholar.

86 Ibid, p. 35.

87 Ibid.

88 Wongyannava, Thanes, ‘Wathakam: The Thai appropriation of Foucault's “discourse”’, in The ambiguous allure of the west: Traces of the colonial in Thailand, ed. Harrison, Rachel V. and Jackson, Peter A. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009), p. 160Google Scholar.

89 Michael K. Connors, Democracy and national identity, p. 135.

90 Samnakngān sœ̄msāng ēkkalak khō̜ng chāt, , Udomkān khong chat [National ideology] (Bangkok: Khana Anukammakān Udommakān khō̜ng Chāt, 1983), p. 12Google Scholar.

91 Ibid., pp. 29–30, emphasis added.

92 Ibid., p. 30.

93 Sangkhom Srirat, ‘Udomkān–Udomkatī’ [Ideology–idealism], in Udomkān khong chāt [National ideology] (Bangkok: Khana anukammakān udomkān khong chāt nai khanakammakan soemsang ekkalak khong chat [Subcommittee on National Ideology, National Identity Board], Samnakngān naiyok rathamontri [Office of the Prime Minister]), pp. 98–9. It is this conception of udomkān that is reflected in the seminar proceedings collected in the volume Udomkānniyomthai [Popularising Thai ideology], also published in 1983 by the Subcommittee on National Ideology.

94 Turton, Andrew, ‘Limits of ideological domination and the formation of social consciousness’, in History and peasant consciousness in Southeast Asia, ed. Turton, Andrew and Tanabe, Shigeharu (Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, 1984), p. 54Google Scholar.

95 Interview, Chai-anan Samudavanija, Bangkok, 10 Mar. 2010.

96 However, see Somsak, ‘The communist movement in Thailand’ for a discussion of left-wing support for Sarit (p. 21) and left-wing Free Democrat Party member support for Thanom's party (p. 81).

97 The Choonhavan clan was part of a larger political clique called the Soi Rachakru group. Although it initially dominated the Chart Thai Party, another Choonhavan relative, Korn Chartikavanij, is a member of the Democrat Party, as is Kraisak. For those who would label the Democrat Party as essentially conservative, it is interesting to recall that Chuan Leekpai and Surin Masadit were accused of being communists and that half of the Communist Party of Thailand's (CPT) members were Southerners; Samudavanija, Chai-anan and Morell, David, Political conflict in Thailand: Reform, reaction, revolution (Cambridge, MA: Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain, 1979), p. 330Google Scholar.

98 Phatharathananunth, Somchai, ‘Isan political tradition’, in Radicalising Thailand: New political perspectives, ed. Ungpakorn, Ji Giles (Bangkok: Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, 2003), p. 152Google Scholar. See also Ji, ‘Challenges to the Thai N.G.O. movement from the dawn of a new opposition to global capital’, in Radicalising Thailand, p. 218.

99 Political Science Student Committee, Chulalongkorn University, Pak kanmūang [Political Parties] (Bangkok: Aksorn Sampan Printing House, 1974)Google Scholar.

100 Ibid., p. 172.

101 Ibid., p. 173.

102 Ibid.

103 Hongkrailert, Preecha, Rabop kanmūang læ panhā pak kānmư̄ang thai [The political system and the problems of Thai political parties] (Bangkok: Democrat Party, 1980)Google Scholar.

104 Ibid., p. 34.

105 Ibid.

106 Ibid., p. 36.

107 Ibid., p. 37.

108 Ibid., p. 91.

109 Dantrakul, Supot, Phochananukromkanmuang chabap chao bān [Popular dictionary of politics] (Bangkok: Santhitham Printing House, 1985)Google Scholar. The CPT newspaper Mahāchon in the late 1940s ran a column called ‘Vocabulary Notes’ giving definitions of communism, imperialism, feudalism (Somsak, ‘The Communist movement in Thailand’, p. 267).

110 Supot, Phochananukromkanmuang chabap chao bān [Popular dictionary of politics], p. 300.

111 Traimas, Chaowana, Krop nayobai maebot khong phak kanmūang thai yuk mai [Policy framework for a new generation of political parties] (Bangkok: Institute for Policy Studies, Chulalongkorn University Book Centre, 1998), p. 15Google Scholar.

112 Ibid., pp. 22–3.

113 Ibid., back cover.

114 Hewison, Kevin and Rodan, Garry, ‘The ebb and flow of civil society and the decline of the Left in Southeast Asia’, in Political oppositions in industrializing Asia, ed. Rodan, Garry (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 61Google Scholar.

115 Askew, Marc, Performing political identity: The Democrat Party in southern Thailand (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2008), pp. 42, 347Google Scholar.

116 Ibid., p. 239.

117 Ibid.

118 Ibid., p. 302.

119 Ayutthaya, Adis Israngkura Na, ‘How does democracy shape economic policies in Thailand?’, TDRI Quarterly Review, 22, 4 (2007): 10–14Google Scholar.

120 Ibid., p. 11.

121 Ibid. Emphasis added.

122 Interview, Adis Israngkul Na Ayutthaya, Bangkok, 16 Oct. 2009.

123 This is not to downplay the role of the Thaksin administration in fundamentally changing the nature of money politics and patronage networks by re-centralising them.

124 Sarika, Khaen (pseud.), Khontula tāi lǣo [The Octobrists are dead] (Nonthaburi: Sarika Publishing House, 2007)Google Scholar.

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126 Khaen, Khontula tāi laew [The Octobrists are dead], p. 36.

127 Winichakul, Thongchai, ‘Somreutphonniyom (PRAGMATISM) khng panyāchon thai kap kan ratthaprahan 19 kanyayon por sor 2549’ [The pragmatism of Thai intellectuals and the 19 September 2006 coup], Krungthep Thurakit, 8 Nov. 2006Google Scholar.

128 Ibid.

129 Pongsawat, Pitch, ‘Udomkān nayobai læ prachathipatai’ kānmang bǣp prachāthipatai’ [Ideology, policy, and democratic politics], Kom Chat Lưk, 5 Nov. 2009Google Scholar.

130 Somsak Jeamtheerasakul, ‘Chaichana panyāchon 14 tula’ [The triumph of the 14 October intellectuals], http://somsakcouppostings.blogspot.com/2006/09/14-2-2-14-2547-2-14.html (last accessed 5 Feb. 2010).

131 Mai, Niramit (pseud.), ‘Wiphak “sai thi iang khwa” wa duai sakdina thi mai sakdina’ [A critique of right-wing leftism: On non-feudal feudalism], Nation Weekend, 15 Aug. 2008Google Scholar.

132 The discourse of amat versus prai could be interpreted as a contemporary form of the sakdina trope. See Tejapira, Kasian, ‘Prai kap amat: Pīsātwatthakam’ [Commoner and aristocrat: Discourse demon], Matichon Daily, 4 Apr. 2010Google Scholar, http://www.matichon.co.th/news_detail.php?newsid=1270363289&grpid=&catid=02 (last accessed 5 Apr. 2010).

133 Limthongkul, Sondhi, ‘Udomkān mai kuey plian: mithi tī faengren khng rabop thaksin’ [Their ideology has never changed: The hidden dimension of the Thaksin system], Manager Daily, 11 Sept. 2006Google Scholar.

134 Ibid.

135 Ganjanakhundee, Suphalak, ‘Kwa thai’ [The Thai right], Samesky, 6, 2 (2008): 30Google Scholar.

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137 ‘Khondūantula phor sor nī dern naew thang pathīwat ru pathīrup’ [Do the Octobrists this year choose revolution or reform?], Nation Weekend, 14–20 Oct. 1999Google Scholar.

138 Tositrakul, Rossana, ‘Who's kidding whom?’, Bangkok Post, 13 Mar. 2008Google Scholar.

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141 Kasian, ‘The disintegration of Octobrist ideology’.

142 Ibid.

143 Sampat Yukti Mukdāwičhit: khon sū’a daeng kap thaksin nai tana ‘pasa’ thāng udomkān [Interview with Yukti Mukdawichit: The Red Shirts and Thaksin in terms of ideological language], Prachatai, 17 Dec. 2009Google Scholar, http://www.prachatai.com/journal/2009/12/27028 (accessed 12 Jan. 2011).

144 Bangkok Post, 14 Nov. 2010, emphasis added.

145 Quote by ‘one prominent figure’, in Mezey, Michael L., ‘The 1971 coup in Thailand: Understanding why the legislature fails’, Asian Survey, 13, 3 (1973): 309CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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147 Interview, Chai-anan Samudavanija, Bangkok, 10 Mar. 2010.

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149 Yuthawong, Yongyuth, ‘Anurakniyom nai thatsana khng num’ [Conservatism in the eyes of a young person], Social Science Review, 2, 8 (1970): 54. Emphasis addedGoogle Scholar.