Page 10 - kpi15431

1.
Principles
and
Rationale

Currently there are 29 countries in the world governed with

monarch as head of state. In today’s society, monarchies exist by virtue
of their morality and the principles of good governance. This corresponds
to the concept of “Dharmarãjã” or “king who makes people happy by

dhamma”. This Buddhist concept of good governance originated over
2000 years ago with the Emperor Ashoka, who ruled the Indian

subcontinent during 270 B.C. to 331 B.C. Ashoka was the prototype
Buddhist king, who first used the principle of Dharmarãjã as the
foundation for politics and government. This is done by using dhamma or

goodness as the tool for governing, applied at three levels: firstly, the
the king or ruler must behave virtuously, for example by following the

Ten Moral Precepts of a Righteous King; secondly, the king must
persuade his people to be virtuous; thirdly, other countries must only be
conquered with dhamma or dhamma vijaya, not with weapons. Since

Thailand adopted the Buddhist faith, principles, the Dharmarãjã concept
has served as the principle of royalgood governance, from the Sukhothai

era to the present.

The idea of Dharmarãjã in Buddhism is comparable to the idea of

a philosopher king in Western political thought. Plato described
philosopher kings as “rulers who use their knowledge to govern fairly.”
Therefore, philosopher kings are people with ability, knowledge and

virtue. Compare that with the professional, specialized rulers of today
who use knowledge from multiple disciplines to solve social problems.

Such rulers must use their abilities to rule with peace and without
allowing corruption to occur. They must also acting with fairness and
transparency. However “Dharmarãjã” or virtue of kings in the West is

somewhat different from that of kings in the East, because of their social
context. But the common feature is: “Dharmarãjã is for the benefit and

happiness of the people”.

King Rama VII was Thailand’s last absolute monarch, and he was
the country’s first king presiding over a democratic regime. He adhered
to the practice of Dharmarãjã throughout his reign. For example, he

chose to grant a constitution rather than fight with the People’s Party in