Thai education has been thrown into tumult by new regulations governing the siting of schools, colleges and universities.

A ministerial order from the Prime Minister’s Office will ban any establishment from offering formal tertiary educational services within 300 metres from a military facility.  But this order, based on the Critical Thinking Prohibition Act, has not yet been published in the Royal Gazette and enforcement will not start until 30 days after that.

But a more vaguely-worded Order from the National Council for Peace and Order, issued by virtue of its unlimited powers under Section 44 of the Interim Constitution, covers the same issue and is effective immediately.  This is causing massive concerns among educational officials.

The Order refers simply to ‘educational institutions’ without specifying what these are.  Everyone assumes that licenced universities, colleges and schools are involved, but opinion varies when it comes to fly-by-night ‘fluent-English-in-4-weeks’ shophouse schools, hairdressers offering ‘serm suay’ training, and those rinky-dink obstacle courses that claim to teach driving.

The NCPO edict also uses the phrase ‘in the vicinity’, rather than any explicit distance, and education managers have been scratching their heads about what this might mean.  If interpreted broadly, it could mean the closure of virtually every educational institution in the country.  Asked if that could possibly be what the military government has in mind, a senior Ministry of Education official responded ‘We think it might.’

The enforcement of no-learning zones around military premises was prompted by fears in the military that some of their own personnel were at risk of thinking for themselves.  It seems that some officers sent to monitor academic meetings on sensitive subjects became genuinely interested in what they were hearing and later discussed the issues among themselves, with the danger of fomenting dissent in the ranks.

In one extreme case, a young lieutenant was discovered to have actually started reading a book.  His ‘under-the-bedclothes-with a-flashlight’ efforts were denounced by fellow officers who shared the same barracks and he was quickly cashiered.

It is feared that when soldiers leave their bases on furlough, when traveling to their second jobs or on their way to going AWOL, many have no choice but to pass existing educational institutions near their camps.  The military is worried that this may put temptation in their way and they will be persuaded by unscrupulous ‘learning-peddlers’, aka teachers, into sampling a class or two.

‘Once they’re hooked, it’s a slippery slope’, commented one 4-star general.  ‘Before they know it, they’ve begun to think for themselves.  We normally only find out when they start questioning orders, but by then, their careers have been ruined.  How could the military function if everyone started having ideas of their own?  The country would be ruined.’

Some observers have commented that it stretches the imagination to believe that the average Thai school or university does anything by way of teaching independent, critical or creative thinking.  But the military fear otherwise. 

‘When we look at the people causing trouble in this country, the students who protest and the journalists who ask the Prime Minister difficult questions and the lawyers that represent them in court, we have noticed a clear pattern,’ said one military intelligence strategist.  ‘All of them have been to a school or university at some time.  With our analytical skills and experience, it was easy to spot the connection.’

Of greatest concern to educational administrators is the part of the Order referring to enforcement.  This says that any official who fails to deal with each and every violation as soon as it occurs will be judged to be using ‘discretion’, or attempting to interpret the Order according to her or his individual opinion. 

Such officials will therefore be considered guilty of independent thinking and punished accordingly.  Since their offence will be obvious to anyone who can’t think for themselves, i.e. any member of the executive or judiciary, there will be no need for a trial before mandatory sentences are imposed.

Some have noticed that the new regulations seem to contain a contradiction when it comes to military schools and academies, which would seem to be logically impossible under the new rules.

The military, however, think otherwise.  ‘We’ve checked carefully what goes on in our own facilities’ said one military instructor, ‘and we’re confident that no one really learns anything in them.  In fact, it must be that way.  If someone had been teaching us critical thinking, how could we be able to take over the country and run it so well?’

About author:  Bangkokians with long memories may remember his irreverent column in The Nation in the 1980's. During his period of enforced silence since then, he was variously reported as participating in a 999-day meditation retreat in a hill-top monastery in Mae Hong Son (he gave up after 998 days), as the Special Rapporteur for Satire of the UN High Commission for Human Rights, and as understudy for the male lead in the long-running ‘Pussies -not the Musical' at the Neasden International Palladium (formerly Park Lane Empire).