As university students stage weeks of high-profile campus protests for democracy, their younger brethren are advancing their own rebellion to Thailand’s establishment.
“There is a viral saying that ‘our first dictatorship is school,’” 17-year-old Peka Loetparisanyu said. “They are trying to instill in us that we are only the little people in an authoritarian society. This means that a lot of our rights have been violated.”
The movement sweeping through Thai high schools has been dubbed “bad student” by its leaders. Its namesake is a book written by university student activist Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal about his experiences in high school titled A Bad Student in an Excellent Education System.
Photo: Reuters
As well as supporting the broader aims of the anti-government protests, the high-school movement is targeted at gaining self-expression for students via the abolition of rules they deem as archiac.
Traditionalism runs through Thailand’s education system. The national anthem is played at morning assemblies, uniform and deportment rules are strict, and students are expected to be unquestioning of authority.
Critics say that the school system is aimed at compliance more than education. Global scores compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for 2018 show Thailand far behind top performer Singapore and also lagging neighboring Malaysia in reading, maths and science.
Still, conservatives were furious last month when some students wore white ribbons and raised three-finger Hunger Games salutes during the morning anthem recital to support the pro-democracy movement. The salute has been a symbol of calls for democracy since Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha first took power in a 2014 coup. The white ribbons represent the purity of the students.
Thai Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan earlier this year bowed to demands by students to relax the rules that prescribe specific hair length and styles for male and female students.
Nataphol said that more discussion was needed on calls to abolish uniforms and other major changes.
“I don’t think the students are my opponents,” he said. “I feel that by listening to them, I am giving them an opportunity to voice their concern safely.”
Fifteen-year-old Benjamaporn Nivas became one of the first faces of the “bad student” movement when she sat in public places with a sign around her neck inviting passersby to cut her hair as symbolic punishment for breaching the haircut rule.
She has now set her sights on further reform.
“They should revoke all the outdated rules, not just that one,” she said. “Those rules should not exist in the first place. They violate our human rights.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in