lution that overthrew the absolute monarchy in Thai- land Although it is as yet necessary to maintain the form of government with absolute power, that absolute power needs to be very liberal in order to preserve itself But as time has gone by, there will be increasing number of educated people. We have therefore to get prepared to cope with the demand for emancipation (sic) that will keep arising (Thai National Archive, R.7 RL 6/3, Minutes of the Privy Council Meeting, 11 April, B.E. 2470 (1927) Quite apart from political foresight, the observation about human yearning for emancipation has its own relevance here. The fact is that growth and development of human rights and thus democracy has its roots in human nature itself, Western or non-Western. Human aspiration for freedom is indeed part and parcel of social and political life. It iscertainly notfor nothing when great philosophers like John Locke and JJ. Rousseau, some three centuries ago, found it vitally important to assert that men were born and by nature free, equal, and independent. The same insight is being repeated, as you all know, in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with interesting elaboration: