But she is on the forefront of a youth revolt in Thailand against the powerful military’s influence in schools and society in general. Earlier this year, students began protesting strict school rules imposed by past military regimes, such as requiring boys to wear crew cuts and girls to crop their hair at their earlobes.
Thailand may project an image of a relaxed holiday destination, where sun, surf and sex intermingle in hedonistic indulgence. But the country is also bound by martial traditions that critics — particularly younger ones — say promote subservience and glorify hierarchies that are ill-suited to modern life.
At Democracy Monument in Bangkok last week, young people gathered in Harry Potter outfits that were as whimsical as they were nonthreatening. Some clutched chopsticks or batons, raising these makeshift wands to demand that the military stop interfering in politics and society. “Maybe the older generation doesn’t understand that their rights and freedom have been taken from them, but we understand,” Benjamaporn said. “They don’t have the right to touch the hair on our head.”
“The military’s values are to not question and to follow orders collectively,” said Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, the president of the political science student union at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “This is imposed in Thai schools, where teachers say we have to be obedient. Because it’s gone on so long, we think this is normal, that the government also has to be obeyed.”
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