Anand Panyarachun

His father studied in England on a king's scholarship, and later oversaw all royal schools and thereafter a successful businessman in the 1930s.

His paternal grandfather built an ethnic Mon monastery in Ratchaburi called Wat Khao Chon Phran.

According to Anand, he inherited his Chinese heritage from his maternal grandmother, whose surname was Lau.

Anand Panyarachun (อานันท์ ปันยารชุน,, ; born 9 August 1932) is a Thai retired politician who was Prime Minister twice: once in 1991–1992 and again during the latter half of 1992.

Anand attended Dulwich College and later read law at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with honours in 1955.

Anand spent 23 years in the foreign service, serving at times as the Ambassador of Thailand to the United Nations, Canada, the United States, and West Germany.

In January 1976 he was appointed Permanent Secretary of the foreign ministry, and played a leading role in ensuring the US military withdrawal from Thailand.

Following that year's October coup, Anand was branded a communist by the military during the subsequent political witch hunts, presumably for the Foreign Ministry's role in the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Thailand and the People's Republic of China.

Although the civil service panel set up to investigate the allegations cleared him of any wrongdoing, Anand was put into relatively unimportant posts and in 1979 left the public sector for the private.

He became the Vice-Chairman of the Saha-Union Group in 1979 and the Chairman of the Board of Directors in 1991.

He has been a Director of Siam Commercial Bank since 1984.

On 23 February 1991, a military coup led by General Sunthorn Kongsompong, supreme commander of the armed forces, and General Suchinda Kraprayoon, the commander-in-chief of the army, imprisoned Chatichai Choonhavan, the democratically elected leader.

As in previous Thai coups, the military formed a National Peace Keeping Council (NPKC) to run the country.

To shore up its image and gain the trust of King Bhumibol, the NPKC appointed Anand as interim prime minister.

Anand, closely linked to the palace and held in respect by both the bureaucracy and the business community, proved acceptable to the people and the international community.

He was regarded as being astute and disciplined, and had never been associated with any financial scandals.

Upon accepting the position of prime minister, Anand was quick to declare that he did not agree with everything the junta had done and that he intended to follow an independent course.

He angered the NPKC by suggesting that Chatichai be released immediately upon a cabinet being appointed.

The interim constitution that was promulgated on 1 March 1991 reconfirmed the intention of the NKPC to retain substantial control.

However, Anand was allowed relative freedom to select his own cabinet members.

For the entire period of his premiership Anand faced constant pressure from the junta leaders, who tried to influence government decisions in order to gain financial benefits.

Anand filled his cabinet with well-known academics, technocrats, and ex-bureaucrats with proven records.

Various commentators, ranging from the president of the Thailand Development Research Institute to the mass-circulation newspaper Thai Rath, described the cabinet as the most impressive Thailand had ever had.

The strong guiding hand of privy councillor Prem Tinsulanonda could be seen.

Amongst those selected by Anand were Prem's previous finance minister and economic advisor.

A senior diplomat during the years Prem served as prime minister became foreign minister.

The technocratic orientation of the cabinet substantially diminished the fears of foreign investors.

Anand's administration proved harder-working than his predecessors.

The administration worked on its task of implementing a long list of much-needed reforms.

Its emphasis on education, public health, exports, agriculture, industry, environment, and improvement in living conditions, met with widespread approval.

In a Bangkok poll in late-July 1991, 61 percent of respondents felt that the Anand government was more honest than previous administrations.

Arguably the most significant of the reforms was a restructuring of the taxation system, which saw the introduction of a value added tax (VAT) and a reduction in corporate and income taxation.

Several measures were taken to free up the flow of funds into and out of the country.

Thai nationals were allowed to invest abroad without the approval of the Bank of Thailand.

Regulations were altered for foreign banks to open branches and the ceiling on bank interest rates was lifted.

He was effective in initiating economic and political reforms, one of which was the drafting of Thailand's "People's Constitution", which was promulgated in 1997 and abrogated in 2006.

Anand received a Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 1997.

Anand was the youngest of twelve children of a wealthy family of Mon heritage on his father's side and Thai-Chinese (Hokkien ) on his mother's. His father, Sern was a son of a high-ranking official of Mon ancestry.

His Chinese ancestors came to Thailand in the mid-18th century and eventually became one of the country's most prominent Chinese families.

He is distantly related to Korn Chatikavanij through this branch of his family.