Put an end to conscription for good of all

Last week, I believe it must have been heartbreaking for many Thais who watched a video clip of a young man weeping and almost fainting upon learning he was drafted to serve in the army for two years via the annual conscription round. Yet, I also believe that many of them would oppose any proposal to abolish military conscription, a phenomenon that has long existed by default.

Why oppose change? Ask them and you will get the same answer: It is the duty of patriotic Thai men to serve in the military. That answer is a product of information which was programmed into our minds since we were young. And that mind programming has turned conscription, a requirement under the 1954 Military Service Act, into an established nationalistic doctrine which has remained unchallenged and unchanged for decades.

Dare to bring up the issue of abolishing conscription and you will be branded as someone who does not love your nation.

Challenging this issue is as unpopular as trying to question the existence of other laws and rules which contain “good values” we have been programmed to cherish.

These include the many useless rules imposed on public school students and the anti-narcotics law (the efficacy of which is highly debatable) that imprisons a high number of small-time drug dealers.

Let’s get back to talking about that poor draftee. In the video clip, 21-yearold Sakrit Srisoonthorn was crying while being supported by two soldiers who helped him to walk at a conscription station.

As an orphan whose parents left home a long time ago, he said he worried about his sick 75-year-old grandmother who would have to be left behind once he enters the army this November.

As the main breadwinner of a poor family which includes two aunts and a school-age nephew, Mr Sakrit was heartbroken that no one will look after them.

Thanks to the speed of the publicity that the clip received via social media, the army on Wednesday assigned someone to meet his family and offer help which could come in the form of assigning other draftees to look after his grandmother. Mr Sakrit will then be worry-free as he serves the nation.

But it is unclear where and how he will serve the country. And it wouldn’t be so shocking to know that he might end up running around a military compound or serving a general at home as a gardener or driver.

Mr Sakrit earns the minimum wage of 300 baht a day as a company employee. True, he will get a better wage of 10,000 baht a month as a draftee (if it is not deducted as has allegedly happened to others). But if he wanted to be in the military, he could have applied through the voluntary programme.

Like Mr Sakrit, more than one hundred thousand Thai men are forced to serve in the military via the conscription. They lost the opportunity to keep their jobs and pursue their career prospects.

Meanwhile, the country also loses the economic opportunities which could have been offered by the draftees should they have entered the labour market. By contrast, the state has to spend about 12 billion baht a year on the salaries of new draftees.

Given that Thailand is not at war and the only imminent security threat is the insurgency in the three southernmost provinces, we no longer need military conscription. Our political and security contexts have changed since 1954. Limited recruitment of professional soldiers should succeed it instead.

I am not a fan of military conscription as much as I’m not an admirer of the rules imposed on public schools nationwide.

Uniform and hair codes are forced upon students who have to line up in rows outdoors to sing the national anthem, pray and listen to a principal or a teacher who often say things which could have been delivered in the classroom.

None of us can say how these rules helped improve their learning, but many love to keep them. It is the same for the anti-narcotics law that we have been led to believe is an effective tool.

It will be a daunting task for any lawmakers to propose the abolition of military conscription, or changes to other senseless laws and rules that we have been programmed to believe are part of the fabric of our society and the nation.

But someone needs to have the guts to make unpopular choices. Once we can start talking about the need to end conscription and make it a reality, then we will probably come up with other progressive changes.

Surasak Glahan is deputy editorial pages editor, Bangkok Post.