What hope for Thai democracy when tyranny rules at university?
TITIPOL PHAKDEEWANICH
Outdated hazing rituals expose Thailand's abiding societal schism
These first few weeks of the new Thai university year again bring into focus the euphemistically titled tradition of "rub nong" - (welcoming the newcomer). These rituals, with a well-established format that plays on the naivete of first-year students, are a thoroughly dehumanising group induction into university life.
Year after year, rub nong and its various hazing-style practices leave their unwitting victims psychologically and sometimes physically scarred. Serious injuries have resulted - and still it goes on, under the noses of university authorities.
Despite this, many former and current university students regard these rituals with surprising affection as part of a Thai cultural tradition of social bonding, where everyone gets to become your "brother" or "sister".
A standard argument is that older and more worldly students can help support their younger and inexperienced counterparts - which, in principle, sounds like a reasonable claim.
But for several generations of students, rub nong has been a calculated enforcement of a rigid social hierarchy on campus that they must endure.
A reality of obedience and subordination outweighs the ideal of friendship and equality, and the practices adopted by senior students who implement these rituals are well-honed and ruthlessly enacted. Over recent years, veiled threats and coercive group psychology have been the trend, though outright violence still takes place on occasion.
The latter help ramp up an overbearing pressure to conform to the norms of this menacing regime.
Fear over who might be singled-out next for displeasing those who run this mini-mafia means most students simply keep their heads down. And so this often fanatical effort to boss student life prevails unchallenged, aided by the indifference (or ambivalence) of university and government authorities.
Advocates often justify the practice by claiming rub nong prepares students for the harsh world waiting for them after graduation. In reality, this claim is an attempt to rationalise their own unthinking authoritarian approach to life.
Do the legions of university seniors already implicated - whether from actions this week or 20 years ago - share any secret sense of shame at their part in the dehumanisation of their innocent fellows, even while they publicly remain shameless and defiant in their advocacy for it? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But either way, rub nong and the cultural climate it helps engender remains as Thailand's shame, regardless of how much we continue to avoid the issue.
"Life on campus is not what I expected. I thought I would have freedom, but I don't think that I have it at all. Seniority is extremely embedded here, and it is secretly supported by the university executive, who believe in this kind of authoritarian system. I don't think that I have any hope for a better student life here, because my rights do not mean anything to the university."
These are the words of a student currently based at a northern university, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It is clear that concerns about rub nong and the welfare of students are not a priority for the authorities, despite lip service paid by the Education Ministry and university authorities in recent years.
Although human rights now often get a mention at the start of the new academic year, this is still largely a token effort. Rub nong's perpetrators can disregard the official platitudes, safe in the knowledge that serious action is seldom taken.
For those of us who once had such high hopes for Thailand's development, it is dismaying to note that rituals which violate basic norms of universal human rights still retain a semblance of legitimacy.
Worse still, rub nong - along with other similarly absurd authoritarian propositions continually spouted by talking heads, street-level wannabes and every totalitarian enforcer - excite those Thais who regard such things as actually worth fighting for.
All this, of course, is taking place at a time when Thailand is subject to increasingly severe scrutiny by much of the international community over its abandonment of democracy.
And the country's already damaged international standing is now being even further undermined by a focus on the broader question of human rights violations. In this context, it is disturbing that the prevalence of rub nong evidences a strong generational desire to disavow basic democratic and human rights tenets. And this, while Thailand is in the midst of a prolonged and worrisome dynamic of social-political disintegration. Such ingrained authoritarianism bodes ill for both our future domestic prospects and our reputation abroad.
Even if a semblance of democracy is re-established in the country, then the ongoing prevalence of pernicious and divisive university rituals that help enshrine the Thai patronage system will inform the much-vaunted and idealised "Thai-style" democracy to come.
Future generations will gain little solace from denouncing the authorities of today. For those generations will, by then, surely be forced to do some soul-searching over the part they played in defending authoritarian norms.
Without a far more determined effort to question the prevailing Thai mentality - and especially its most damaging aspects, which are already penetrating the minds of yet another generation - why should anyone who claims to be serious about the current process of Thai reform expect things to change for the better?
TITIPOL PHAKDEEWANICH is a visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick, in the UK. He is based at Ubon Ratchathani University.
Year after year, rub nong and its various hazing-style practices leave their unwitting victims psychologically and sometimes physically scarred. Serious injuries have resulted - and still it goes on, under the noses of university authorities.
Despite this, many former and current university students regard these rituals with surprising affection as part of a Thai cultural tradition of social bonding, where everyone gets to become your "brother" or "sister".
A standard argument is that older and more worldly students can help support their younger and inexperienced counterparts - which, in principle, sounds like a reasonable claim.
But for several generations of students, rub nong has been a calculated enforcement of a rigid social hierarchy on campus that they must endure.
A reality of obedience and subordination outweighs the ideal of friendship and equality, and the practices adopted by senior students who implement these rituals are well-honed and ruthlessly enacted. Over recent years, veiled threats and coercive group psychology have been the trend, though outright violence still takes place on occasion.
The latter help ramp up an overbearing pressure to conform to the norms of this menacing regime.
Fear over who might be singled-out next for displeasing those who run this mini-mafia means most students simply keep their heads down. And so this often fanatical effort to boss student life prevails unchallenged, aided by the indifference (or ambivalence) of university and government authorities.
Advocates often justify the practice by claiming rub nong prepares students for the harsh world waiting for them after graduation. In reality, this claim is an attempt to rationalise their own unthinking authoritarian approach to life.
Do the legions of university seniors already implicated - whether from actions this week or 20 years ago - share any secret sense of shame at their part in the dehumanisation of their innocent fellows, even while they publicly remain shameless and defiant in their advocacy for it? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But either way, rub nong and the cultural climate it helps engender remains as Thailand's shame, regardless of how much we continue to avoid the issue.
"Life on campus is not what I expected. I thought I would have freedom, but I don't think that I have it at all. Seniority is extremely embedded here, and it is secretly supported by the university executive, who believe in this kind of authoritarian system. I don't think that I have any hope for a better student life here, because my rights do not mean anything to the university."
These are the words of a student currently based at a northern university, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It is clear that concerns about rub nong and the welfare of students are not a priority for the authorities, despite lip service paid by the Education Ministry and university authorities in recent years.
Although human rights now often get a mention at the start of the new academic year, this is still largely a token effort. Rub nong's perpetrators can disregard the official platitudes, safe in the knowledge that serious action is seldom taken.
For those of us who once had such high hopes for Thailand's development, it is dismaying to note that rituals which violate basic norms of universal human rights still retain a semblance of legitimacy.
Worse still, rub nong - along with other similarly absurd authoritarian propositions continually spouted by talking heads, street-level wannabes and every totalitarian enforcer - excite those Thais who regard such things as actually worth fighting for.
All this, of course, is taking place at a time when Thailand is subject to increasingly severe scrutiny by much of the international community over its abandonment of democracy.
And the country's already damaged international standing is now being even further undermined by a focus on the broader question of human rights violations. In this context, it is disturbing that the prevalence of rub nong evidences a strong generational desire to disavow basic democratic and human rights tenets. And this, while Thailand is in the midst of a prolonged and worrisome dynamic of social-political disintegration. Such ingrained authoritarianism bodes ill for both our future domestic prospects and our reputation abroad.
Even if a semblance of democracy is re-established in the country, then the ongoing prevalence of pernicious and divisive university rituals that help enshrine the Thai patronage system will inform the much-vaunted and idealised "Thai-style" democracy to come.
Future generations will gain little solace from denouncing the authorities of today. For those generations will, by then, surely be forced to do some soul-searching over the part they played in defending authoritarian norms.
Without a far more determined effort to question the prevailing Thai mentality - and especially its most damaging aspects, which are already penetrating the minds of yet another generation - why should anyone who claims to be serious about the current process of Thai reform expect things to change for the better?
TITIPOL PHAKDEEWANICH is a visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick, in the UK. He is based at Ubon Ratchathani University.
