Kids really do ask for too much these days - ask Uncle Tan

The youngsters were members of a band at Satriwitthaya 2 School called Max Percussion Theatre. God knows where they got the idea, but they organised a rally outside Tan’s premises in the Thonglor area, demanding financial support. Well, they weren’t “demanding” it. They were asking nicely – to “borrow” Bt3.1 million to pay for their participation in a drum-line competition in the Netherlands, which is taking place right now. 

Tan had evidently become their last resort, being a millionaire with a reputation for helping people in need. The Office of Basic Education Commission couldn’t come up with the dough in time for the competition, the kids said, so they figured they’d “borrow” the money from Tan and get the commission to pay him back later. 

Tan wasn’t initially disposed to sharing this time, but no one was calling him a miser. Instead there was much sympathy in the online public forums for Tan, who seemed like he was being robbed in broad daylight. The musicians were judged harshly and dubbed “the begging band”. 

In the end, Tan did pick up the tab for the band’s trip and said they needn’t pay him back, but he would appreciate it if people stopped asking him for money from now on. He’s not the government, he said. He’s not that kind of populist. Meanwhile the social media came up with all sorts of sarcastic excuses for tapping him for a loan. “If we want to go to a concert in South Korea and have no money, we’ll go to Khun Tan!” @mindictator tweeted. 

Then the self-appointed sleuths at Pantip.com probed the yarn and discovered that the organiser of the Dutch competition, the CGN IPN championships, hadn’t even invited the Thai band to participate, at least not at first. The Pantip crew found only one category in which the band could compete, “Marching World Class”, but the kids wouldn’t actually have to compete since they were the sole entrants! “So what prize they would they be bringing home if they won?” someone wondered. 

The detectives learned that, of the 54 band members supposedly going to Holland, only 16 are current students. Another 34 are alumni. Plus, they’d asked the commission for Bt13 million to cover two contests, the one in Holland and another in the US state of Ohio. Plus, their stated budget is far beyond what they need. The commission hadn’t said “not yet” – it said “too much”. Plus, the band had announced on their website last September that they were going to Belgium in April. One last plus: Contrary to its claim, the Max Percussion Theatre is not Thailand’s secondary-school marching-band champion. They have won no Thai competition at all this year, so they don’t even qualify for government sponsorship! 

We would love to hear from the school or the band that these revelations are untrue, but that seems unlikely to happen. Instead, we appear to have found a whole orchestra-full of future politicians.