Modernization in remote areas at present has resulted from the attempts made by Sarit Thanarat’s government to encourage the people’s support to the government legitimacy, authority and stability of the country as a whole. The Sarit Thanarat’s government had anticipated that the poor conditions in those areas and the distant relationships between officials and the rural people would create grievances among people. Such a condition would provide good opportunities for insurgency infiltration and operation in Thailand. For the government stability, Sarit Tanarat’s government therefore, started modernization in remote areas with the hope that the areas would become developed in all aspects and the people would have better standards of living and at the same time would develop greater faith and trust in the government. At the beginning stage, the [operations] of Sarit Thanarat’s government were in the form of short-term help and solutions to urgent problems. However the Sarit Thanarat’s government had engineered long-term projects for future self-development of the people with the aids from the government in the form of funds, technical advice, materials and equipment. The main purpose of this research is to study and [analyze] the motivations for modernization in remote areas during the Sarit Thanarat’s Administration. This includes the study of its planning and programs as well as its outcome. This research’s finding is that, the modernization in remote areas has not reached the goal set by Sarit Thanarat’s government which aimed at progress in those areas and at the capacity for self-development of the people. It is obvious that nowadays the procedure is still only in the form of short-term help and occasional solutions of urgent problems. The conditions of starvation and scarcity still remained.
