Band of beggars: School lessons in deviousness pay off (once)

The warm welcome that heroes usually receive on returning home via

Suvarnabhumi Airport was actually quite “hot” for the young members of

Satriwitthaya 2 School’s marching band, the Max Percussion Theatre, earlier this

week because they’re not widely regarded as heroes – just the opposite, in fact.
The band had no trophy to show from the competition it had entered in the

Netherlands anyway, but meanwhile its reputation as a gang of larcenous

scoundrels had solidified. Someone had posted an audio clip online that went

viral, purportedly of the school director (he calls himself Por Or) discussing

fundraising strategy with the kids. They needed cash badly to cover their

overseas excursions.
And this is no feelgood pep talk. The alleged Por Or assures the students that all

sorts of wealthy people will want to be sponsor their trips because “these dogs

just want publicity!” He tells the kids there’s nothing particularly prestigious about

the competition in Holland, but if they grabbed a trophy, the gullible folks at

home would go nuts anyway, thinking it was, and pay for more. “These people

just don’t know. They’ll cheer about it,” he says.
This audio evidence – might as well call it Exhibit A – was made before members

of the band rallied outside Ichitan Group headquarters hollering for chairman Tan

Passakornnatee to loan them some money. Tan reluctantly forked over Bt3.1

million and then begged everyone to stop asking him for money. Well, the visit

to Ichitan was part of the strategy recorded on Exhibit A.
Naturally this has only compounded the criticism heaped on the “band of

beggars” earlier after Pantip.com sleuths shot its claims full of holes. Socialmedia

reaction to the tape is that “the director” ought to be kept well away from

schools if those are the sort of values he’s putting in students’ head. He’s

pushing the kids to demand what they want and makes no mention of showing

gratitude later. The Dutch contest is just a stepping stone to their planned US

junket, he says. And all this has to be kept secret – don’t tell them I told you

what to do.
Critics were admittedly jumping to conclusions about the authenticity of the audio

recording, but on Tuesday Tan joined them, scolding the Max Percussion

Theatre on Facebook while stressing that not all teachers and students

Satriwitthaya 2 were involved. For those who were involved, Tan said, this

scandal should serve as a good lesson to learn early on in life, and he’d let them

off because of their youth and naivety. “If the audio clip is real, I want to tell

them that the money is neither my corporation’s nor my parents’ – it’s my wife’

s! Get it?” Lots of people got the dig at the alleged school director’s planned

assault on rich publicityseekers and Tan’s post got 320,000 “likes” in turn.
Confronted by reporters at the airport, members of the band said they’d heard

about the brewing scandal while overseas. Nation TV reported that they hinted

the leaked audio was genuine. They kids said that several times they’d shared a

group weep, though it wasn’t clear whether the tears came from fear of the

consequences or disappointment that the jig was up and their game plan for

future trips was spoiled. Certainly they won’t have any more pockets like Tans to

pick.