Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO,
Dr. Arief Sadiman, Director of SEAMEO Secretariat,
Members of Diplomatic Corps, and Representatives from
the United Nations Units,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is indeed a great honour and a privilege for me to be here this morning to join all of you in the celebration of Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary. As we are well aware, UNESCO has acclaimed His Excellency as a world great personality on the occasion of his centenary in 2003.
May I express my heartfelt appreciation to Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO for honouring us with his presence and participation in the ceremony, and especially for the support that UNESCO and the SEAMEO Secretariat have given to this important event. The Royal Thai Government, through the Ministry of Education has allocated 5.99 million baht for the renovation of this building as part of the Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary Celebration, and rename it in his honour.

Gathered here at this ceremony are some of the relatives and former students of His Excellency Mom Luang Pin Malakul, officials of the Ministry of Education, guests and friends from within the country and outside, who cherish many fond memories of His Excellency Mom Luang Pin Malakul. We remember him not only as a former Minister of Education, but more importantly as an outstanding educator who devoted his long life and career to the cause of education. Among some of His Excellency Mom Luang Pin Malakul’s major focuses and achievements were: equal access and quality, development of rural teachers, and international cooperation in education, sciences, and culture.

His Excellency Mom Luang Pin Malakul was an active and well-recognized leader at many UNESCO fora. In 1949, he served as the director and coordinator for the International Seminar for Rural Adult Education for Community Action organized by UNESCO in Mysore, India. In 1950, he chaired the ECAFE-UNESCO Working Group in Bangkok. He attended many International Conferences of UNESCO such as the International Conference of Education at IBE, Geneva in 1951 and one year later, because of his active leadership, was elected to the UNESCO Executive Board for two consecutive terms.

At the regional level, he chaired the Minister of Education of Asian States Meeting on Education and Economic Planning Meeting twice, in 1962 and 1965, during which he held informal consultations with Ministers of Education of Southeast Asian Countries. He became instrumental in founding the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization, better known as SEAMEO. He contributed significantly to the establishment and development of many SEAMEO Regional Centers of Excellence, hosted by various Member Countries, as well as the establishment of the Secretariat of SEAMEO, hosted by the Government of Thailand.

Within his own country, His Excellency Mom Luang Pin Malakul is remembered nation-wide with great respect and love, as a teacher at Chulalongkorn University, founder of countless primary and secondary schools both in Bangkok and in the provinces. Founder of Chiang Mai University, Silpakorn University Sanamchandra Palace Campus, and Srinakharinwirot University. During his long service in various posts at the Ministry of Education, he was particularly concerned about the quality of rural teachers, and made important efforts to establish many Teacher Colleges in remote provinces such as Chiang Rai and Mahasarakam, and the Community Teacher College at Jom Bueng, Rachaburi, all of them have now become Rajabhat Institutes. He also promoted the development of the Teachers Council and founded the Association for the Summer Study of Teachers under the Teachers Council.

Mom Luang Pin Malakul had an excellent command of both Thai and English, and had authored more than 200 literary works, comprising 57 essays on education, 58 plays, 32 works in poetry, 8 travelogues, and 52 bylines and occasional papers. In recognition of his literary achievements, the Thai Government proclaimed him a National Artist in literature in 1987.

On the occasion of UNESCO and SEAMEO joining us in the commemoration of Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary, I should like to quote from Dr. Kaw Swasdi Panich, the first Director of SEAMEO Secretariat and a former Executive Board of UNESCO and a former Minister of Education of Thailand. Dr. Kaw Swasdi Panich, a student of Mom Luang Pin’s and one of his close associates, wrote in 1987 that “Mom Luang Pin was born to work for education. He was always happy when he worked. He enjoyed doing everything from teaching to meeting the difficult challenges of educational development.”

Today, I stand in front of his Centenary Building, as a student of his works and a follower in His Excellency Mom Luang Pin Malakul’s footsteps in education. I pay my heartfelt respect for him and a deep admiration for what he has endeavoured to do in his life for all of us, and for the younger generations. And today, I am proud to be among all of you, and to join with all of you in doing him the honour by rededicating the building that he founded in 1969 to house the regional office of UNESCO and the Secretariat of SEAMEO, and to unveil his statue in this building.

May I thank you all once again for your support and assistance and for joining me in performing this gesture of gratitude to His Excellency Mom Luang Pin Malakul this morning. I believe that this commemoration of his centenary will serve as a reminder to all of us, that education, as he himself wrote in one of his famous poems, “like orchids, takes such a long time to blossom. But once in bloom, is so glorious and can be admired by all.”

Thank you very much for your attention.