Beauty's Comeback

The softest, roundest and loveliest of Thais is a girl named Abhasra Hong-skul, 17, who goes by the nickname of "Pook"--which in Siamese means soft, round and lovely. That at least was the decision in Bangkok last week where Pook was proclaimed Miss Thailand of 1964. Drums rolled, bugles blared, balloons soared madly into a velvet sky, and the commanding general of Thailand's First Army announced in martial tones the winner of the coveted gold cup. But the exuberant Bangkok crowds were cheering much more than a one time drum majorette who packs 116 Ibs. into a 35-22-35 frame, punctuated by a pair of eyes that outglimmer the Emerald Buddha. For Pook's crowning marked a watershed in the painful process of forgetting Thailand's late Dictator Sarit Thanarat.

Sarit valued lovely women more than the rarest jade or the whitest elephant. For all that, no beauty contests were permitted during his rule, and as a result, his country had not named a Miss Thailand in ten years. The reason was simple: before he took power, Field Marshal Sarit had pursued beauty-contest winners with the same zeal he later applied to Communists. Embarrassed by Sarit's extraterritorial demands, the government simply banned the contests, and when Sarit seized government control through a military coup in 1957, he decided it would look better if the ban stayed in force. This did not keep him from personally conducting a kind of unofficial and continuing beauty contest, with himself as the prize--a distinction won, according to latest count, by at least 100 young women.

Now, with everyone gradually calming down about the revelations of Sarit's equally acquisitive financial dealings (TIME, July 17), his successor, avuncular General Thanom Kittikachorn, felt free to revive the competitions. The choice of the new Miss Thailand was almost painfully pure, with a member of the royal family sitting on the jury and each contestant's moral background under scrutiny--several girls of dubious vocation were hurriedly disqualified.

Premier Thanom also eased another Sarit repression: out of Lardyao Prison came 15 Thai journalists who had been jailed for far-left political sympathies. Thanom can afford to be confident. Thailand today is Southeast Asia's stablest country, both politically and economically. A "constituent assembly" is currently drafting a new constitution, and Thanom is planning to hold parliamentary elections some time next year to set up a new civilian regime. Whatever the election outcome, to most Thais the voting will be an anticlimax after the election of Pook.

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