Protest veteran blames educational failures for modern youth's lack of political activism
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Forty years ago, Admiral Phajun Tamprateep, former chief of the General Prem Tinsulanonda Foundation, was among student activists who campaigned against the military dictatorship although he was a naval cadet.
Now, Phajun regrets that young Thais are not as active in politics as students were in 1973.
He is also sorry that young people do not recognise how the October 14 student uprising is important for Thais.
Phajun recounted that he was in his third year of studies at the Royal Thai Naval Academy and he sneaked out to join the demonstrations at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok.
“I admired Thirayuth Boonmee, Chiranan Pitpreecha and Seksan Prasertkul. I skipped classes to follow these student leaders and my friend, Vice Admiral Theprangsun Silapabanleng, also joined me at the rally.”
Phajun said he felt the student leaders were great and brave, and he later found out that it was education that prompted students activists to come out to fight for democracy.
Phajun said the curriculum in those days encouraged people to be active in politics, and those who were students in the 1970s, and who are now over 60 years old, are still politically active and join political rallies.
But the current political rallies fail to draw support from students or youth now because they have been educated that democracy means elections.
“This is a mistake of the adults for failing to instil the principle in children,” Phajun said.
He noted that a lot of young people joined the campaigns against the Mae Wong Dam because they regarded environmental issues as their duty, while politics is not.
“I am not blaming them. It’s because we have not taught them,” Phajun said.
While pro-democracy student activists of the 1970s campaigned against the influence of the military in politics, General Boonlert Kaewprasit, chairman of the Pitak Siam group, said the military was currently idle, in a posture of waiting and seeing, and indecisive when it should have taken a stance.
Boonlert, who led an anti-government rally last year, still wants the military to stage a coup against the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. He said the military must do so because Parliament cannot solve political problems.
He said he believed that student activists would eventually hold massive protests because they would not be able to tolerate Yingluck’s government.
But Boonlert saw that the military regime of Field Marshal Thanom Kittikhachorn was toppled not only because of the force of the student activists but also because of the rifts within the military itself, and the government at that time agreed to step down for the sake of the country.
He said the situation was different for the Thaksin Shinawatra government and that of his sister, as they would not step down for the sake of the country. So the military should step in to seize power.
