Pridi Phanomyong was a former Prime Minister and a Senior Statesman. He was a writer of the first Thai Constitution (fig.), which in 1932 changed Thailand, then named Siam, from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.

One of his legacies is his refusal to sign the declaration of war against Britain and the US, issued in January 1942 by the then Prime Minister, Field Marshal Phibun Songkram. In 2000, he was posthumously named by UNESCO as one of the world's great personalities for his roles in politics, administration, economics and education.