Phetsarath Rattanavongsa
Prince Phetsarath Rattanavongsa was
prime minister of
Laos from
1942 to
1945, and was the first and last
vice-king of the Kingdom of Laos.
Early life
Phetsarath was born on
19 January 1890 in
Luang Prabang, the second son of
Oupahat Bounkhong and his second wife, Princess Thongsy. One of his younger brothers was
Souvanna Phouma. Bounkong's eleventh wife was the mother of
Souphanouvong. Phetsarath went to study at the colonial
Lycee Chasseloup Laubat in
Saigon and continued on in 1905 to the
Lycée Montaigne and to the
Ecole des Affaires Coloniales in Paris. He returned to Laos in 1912, married Princess Nhin Kham Venne in 1913, and started working as an interpreter for his father.
Government service: 1914-1941
In
1914, he became a clerk at the Office of the French governor in Vientiane. Two years later he was promoted to assistant secretary to the French governor. In 1919 he was bestowed the title of Somdeth
Chao Ratsaphakhinay, a title held by his father and one of the highest ranks in the country. That same year he was named Director of Indigenous Affairs of Laos operating under the French governor.
As the country's last
oupahat, he became a leading figure of modern Laos. He established the system of ranks and titles of the civil service, promotion and pension plans, and created a Lao consultative assembly, reorganized the king's Advisory Council. Phetsarath reorganized the administrative system of the Buddhist clergy, and established a system of schools for educating monks in Pali. He created the Institute of Law and Administration to train entry level officers (Samien) who would then move up the ladder as Phouxouei, Chao Meuang, and Chao Khoueng successively. He set up rules to reward, reassign, and promote deserving civil servants, and created the judicial system, including civil and penal codes.
Lao Issara: 1941-1957
Phetsarath played a dominant role in Lao politics before and after the Japanese occupation. He was the leader of the
Lao Issara movement.
He left for
Thailand in 1946 to head the Lao Issara government-in-exile.
Return: 1957-1959
In March 1957, he returned to
Vientiane where he received a wild welcome. On
10 April 1957, he traveled to Luang Prabang by car and was received by an enormous crowd of citizens, government officials, and members of the police and the army. On
16 April he paid a courtesy call to King
Sisavang Vong and was given back his old title of oupahat of the
Kingdom of Laos. In December 1957 he visited
Samneua and
Phongsaly where Souphanouvong symbolically offered the return of the
Pathet Lao's two regrouping provinces to the Kingdom of Laos.
He was offered an official government residence in Vientiane, but preferred to stay in his villa,
Xieng Keo, in Luang Prabang with his Thai consort, Mom Aphiphorn. In early October 1959 the
Phoui Sananikone Ggvernment decided to use Phetsarath's official residence in Vientiane as the new prime minister's office. They vacated the building and shipped his personal belongings by boat to Luang Prabang, which upset him immensely. On
14 October 1959 Phetsarath was taken ill to the hospital, suffering from a severe
brain hemorrhage. A French doctor operated on him, but it was already too late. He never regained conscience and he died at the age of 69.
In part because of his popularity and in part because of his perceived
saksit power, many
Lao people hang his picture in their homes.
