The Pridi-Phoonsuk Banomyong e-Library and www.pridi-phoonsuk.org have been launched to provide the public with access to works and material relevant to the 1932 revolutionary Pridi Banomyong and his wife Phoonsuk.

On May 26, at the Pridi-founded Thammasat University, Dr Charnvit Kasetsiri, as Chair of the working group on the e-library and co-organizer of the 110^th anniversary of the late statesman, due in 2010, said that the e-library and website were part of an attempt to restore Pridi Banomyong.  Literary works of Pridi and his wife and relevant audio and visual materials have been electronically restored and are provided for the public to access via the internet.

‘The process of “unearthing, recovering and restoring” Pridi Banomyong is an ongoing task, like other ideological struggles throughout the political history of Siam, which has always excluded commoners.  This project is another attempt to restore Pridi and the history of this country,’ said Charnvit.

He said the website contained literary works, photographs with captions, audio and video files, important documents and analytical texts relevant to the lives of both persons, and the database would be continually developed.  Websites for other prominent persons such as Puey Ungpakorn, Kularb Saipradit and Jit Pumisak, who are not mentioned in school text books and official histories, will be produced as well.

Thanapol Ewsakul, editor of Fah Diew Kan magazine and a staff member of the project, said that the website also includes biographies of Pridi and Phoonsuk, the content of Pridi’s 100^th anniversary exhibition, Pridi’s thesis manuscript, books written by Phoonsuk, and audio clips of interviews they gave to the media, including a BBC interview with Pridi on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the 1932 revolution.

Thanapol said that audio clips of Tee Srisuwan making a confession to the late Panyananta Bhikku in 1979 for having framed Pridi in the case of King Ananda’s death were also available on the website.  A newly found document which contains former Prime Minister Rear Admiral Thamrong Navaswat’s conversation with an American diplomat about the regicide in 1947 will be posted soon, together with a collection of documents related to the case.