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The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XII, 2020

Issue Editors’ Note

This issue of the IJRST includes five regular articles and five invited
articles on the theme of inequality. The five regular articles are as follows.
H.E. Georg Schmidt argues in 70 Years Old and Still Going Strong: A Look at
Germany’s Constitution 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, how a provisional
text, the 70-year-old Grundgesetz, born under provisional circumstances could
become the best constitution Germany has ever had.
In The Painting of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, King Rama IX,
Wibul Leesuwan shows that King Rama IX was talented not only in the field
of music, but also in painting, in three phases: still life, feelings and abstract.

In A Modern Siam under Constitutional Monarchy – King Prajatibok,
A Siamese “Honourary Diplomat” in Europe in 1934, Pornsan Watanangura
analyses that “The semi-official and ‘incognito visits’ to 9 European countries
in 1934, two years after the revolution which replaced the absolute monarchy
with a constitutional one, allowed King Prajatipok and Queen Rambai Barni
to successfully present the new democratic and “modern” Siam and contribute
to its acceptance in the world as “Honourary Diplomat”.

Kittisak Prokati suggests in Alexander von Humboldt’s Legacy Today,
that Alexander von Humboldt as the great explorer and symbol of liberal
spirit, deserves to be better known in Thailand today.

In Thai Language 4.0, Nitaya Kanchanawan explores how the Thai
language has changed over time in its characteristics, usage and methods of
teaching and studying with technology playing a more important role.

Recently, the world has paid much attention to the issue of growing
inequality which has affected the development of different countries and the
global community. The IJRST 2020 presents five articles on the theme of
inequality.

In The Value of Land in Thailand Today, Francis Cripps reconstructs the
history of private land ownership in Thailand from 1960 to the present. These
estimates indicate how unequal the land distribution has been both in terms
of size and value.

In Land Governance and Inequality in Thailand: The Need for Context,
Philip Hirsch explores different meanings and dimensions of inequality in
agricultural land. He argues that a proper study of the subject requires publicly
accessible data and a knowledge of context.

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