Back From The Thai Jungle

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND —
Out on the marches between Thailand and Myanmar the terrain is pretty rough. They call it the “tribal areas.” And a lot of the inhabitants are refugees from Myanmar, as you might expect.

We visited a couple of villages, two of the few true agricultural villages left in Thailand. They are located in a National Park at the end of jeep trails.

But the Thai government does not just leave these villages in splendid isolation. Oh no. It is, you might say, very interested in village life in the tribal areas.

In fact it is interesting to observe how the Thai government extends its power into these tribal areas.

In the first place, the Thai government operates a government school, compulsory for all children, run by a single teacher who lives in the village (and likely ends up marrying a local village girl). In the village we visited there’s a one-room school house and it features a huge display of the King of Thailand and his queen. There’s a display of the Thai alphabet and the English alphabet (English teacher comes once a week on Friday).

Shocking to an American is the straight-on Thai nationalism of the school. Around eight in the morning each day there’s a flag-raising in the school yard, singing of the national anthem, and rudimentary military drill.

Inside the school building there is posted a big ten commandments in which the children are directed to be respectful to their parents and their teacher, to study hard, and to listen in class.

You can see that whatever the parents may want, the Thai government is determined to turn the children in the tribal areas into loyal Thai citizens.

Like everything else about the Thai government, it seems effective and efficient.