[1] Anand was the youngest of twelve children[2] of a wealthy family of Mon heritage on his father's side and Thai-Chinese (Hokkien[3]) on his mother's.

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

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,[9] 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.

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

[13] 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.

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.

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

[21] In addition, the process for obtaining official operating licences for factories was greatly simplified, while the method of allocating textile and tapioca quotas was made more apparent.

[13] In addition to this, the Anand government allocated six billion baht in the fiscal year 1992 budget to be distributed to villages and spent at their discretion.

Anand made visits to China in September 1991 and Japan in December 1991, and went on to meetings with President George H. W. Bush in the United States.

He was able to shake off the stigma of being a junta-installed prime minister, instead successfully presenting the image of an administration determined to deregulate, cut red tape, and create an environment conductive to free enterprise.

The only foreign relations area where there were serious reasons for criticising Anand's administration was Thailand's soft stance towards the repressive military junta of Burma.

[16] The military had promised to resettle more than 1.2 million people to permanent farmlands, but instead evicted villagers from forest reserves, where they had lived in some cases for generations, and transferred the lands to corporate plantations.

Suchinda resigned on 24 May 1992, following an intervention by the king that ended the violent military crackdown on massive popular protests against his government.

[13] Arthit however held back the nomination of Somboon following a meeting with privy councillor Prem, who was thought to have been exerting pressure on behalf of the king.

[13] The House Speaker instead announced that no decision would be made until the constitutional amendments were passed on 10 June 1992, adding that the next prime minister would be a civilian.

[19] Four days later Anand announced the formation of his cabinet, which included twenty respected technocrats who had held ministerial portfolios during his previous tenure as prime minister.

The People's Constitution instituted several important reforms,[34][35][36] including: From March 2005, Anand served as chairman of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), tasked with overseeing that peace was restored to the troubled south.

A fierce critic of the Thaksin government, Anand frequently criticised his handling of the southern unrest, and in particular the State of Emergency Decree.

Despite much criticism of the Thaksin-government's policies, Anand refused to submit the NRC's final report, choosing instead to wait for the results of the 2006 legislative election.

[41] In a private meeting with US Ambassador Ralph Boyce, whose post-meeting report was leaked by WikiLeaks, Anand was critical of Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn.

Anand also said that the Prince's succession would face "complicating factors" if he continued interfering in politics and making "embarrassing financial transactions".

Anand's alleged negative opinion of the Crown Prince was repeated by Privy Counsellor Prem Tinsulanonda and Siddhi Savetsila in their meetings with the US Ambassador, the reports of which were all leaked by Wikileaks.