Abused draftee no ‘Servant’, merely ‘borrowed’, says Prawit

[billd766]

15 hours ago, baboon said:

Yeah. We know how that works. 'Eeny, meeny, miny... You. Congratulations, you have just volunteered. Got a problem with that, have you...?'

 

OTOH it does beat getting posted down south and getting shot at.

 

Front rank stand easy. Rear rank one pace to the rear, march.

 

The front rank are now volunteers.

[bangrak]

On 7/18/2018 at 11:37 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Please stop trying to imply that this is a "Thai" only situation. When I was in the military I was used as a pot washer in the kitchen instead of learning to do my job, and sent to do the garden of an officer, while others were sent to fix his car. That was on a Saturday in our time off.

I don't know if "batmen" still exist, but they were junior ranks assigned to clean officer's shoes etc, and there used to be soldiers used as waiters for officer's mess, which may still happen for all I know.

Sorry 'thaibeachlovers', but outside fixing an officer's private car, and gardening (when the officer's residence is) outside of  camp's limits, both during duty, the rest is all very normal military practice, as a recruit, freshman or junior one can feel a bit humiliated to have to perform tasks as cleaning pots in the mess' kitchen, wait in its restaurant, but who do you want to do it? The officers themselves or staff hired from outside, do you? To clean the soldiers' blocks (and lavatories) and make up their beds too, maybe? As for shining the shoes of an officer, recruits would fight for, as it's a minor job the officer's ...driver mostly gladly takes care of...

The story here is about recruits being abused, having to work as servants, outside of any military function, for the personal benefit and in the private part of the life of officers (and family, and business).

[worgeordie]

17 hours ago, Chris Lawrence said:

Looks like Benny has a touch of Narcolepsy. 150mg of Nuvigil will fix that or the alarm on his expensive watch to go off every 10 minutes. Very serious condition.

He would say,I am not asleep,just have my eyes closed !

regards worgeordie

[Baerboxer]

18 hours ago, Chris Lawrence said:

So, if they did they could although the practice doesn't go on anymore. But they did because they could. So if they could wouldn't you think they would now.

 

Very senior military officer near us always has 2 conscripts/recruits available for garden watering and weeding, cleaning etc at his two houses. One comes morning, one evening to make sure everything ok. I doubt he's unique. It's the forces "batman for officers' only extended to home use.

[johng]

I remember watching one version of "Phu Kong Yod Rak"

the main characters where always  doing chores for  their "military masters"

 

Quote

Virtually all Thais have encountered at least one of the nine adaptations of Phu Kong Yod Rak, a romantic comedy novel written by Kanchana Nakanan. Phu Kong Yod Rank, or My Super Lovely Captain, has been made into a movie twice, in 1973 and 1981, and into a soap opera seven times: in 1972, 1979, 1988, 1995, 2002, 2007, and most recently, the currently-running 2015 version, which has just finished its primetime showing on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays on Channel 3. 

https://prachatai.com/english/node/5356

 

[mlmcleod]

22 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

General Prawit allowed, however, that junior soldiers might be “willingly borrowed from other units to voluntarily serve their seniors”.

Yes, everyone who has ever served in the military knows what happens to your career if you refuse to "voluntarily serve their seniors"!???

[thaigirlwatcher]

I can tell you from experience that the United States military didn't do that was I was in the Navy in the 70's and I know it is not done now. Time for some militaries to enter the 21st century. 

[tomta]

This latest episode is no surprise to anyone who is at all acquainted with the fundamentally corrupt and abusive nature of the   army .  It is staggering that anyone believed that such an institution  could put Thailand back on the straight and narrow.

 

Another questionable use of army resources is that of spying on their own people and using recruits to do it. A couple of ex-students of mine told me how they had done their part-time military service to avoid the draft. They went on a camp up at Kanchanaburi. They were offered the choice as students from an elite university of either going on a route march in the hot sun or  going to do some computer work. THey took the second option. They were delegated to look on the web for lese majeste, to reply in criticism of lese majeste, to use templates to spread nationalist royalist fervour etc. Ironically, later on they were politicized the other way. A bit like telling 18 year olds to go out  and find and suppress pornography. It won't  work

 

BUt the point is that the army is a fundamentally corrupting and corrupted institution  It was great to see in the BP today an editorial about these events that called without prevarication for the ending of conscription. It would be great to see this happen. It would absolutely undermine the power of the army to stymie democratic processes and may even lead to the creation of an army that Thailand could be proud of for doing its job properly

 

 

 

 

[JestSetter]

I cannot speak freely, but I recall seeing a general (and officers) asking and using 6 ball girls (no boys) to retrieve and hand tennis balls over to them. This took place on a tennis court that was in a major army camp. Now that is entitlement. So, the bigger question is how prevalent is this and how much abuse occur? My guess is that these guys could excuse any behaviour to suit their needs. Btw, those girls were not the prettiest ones, but were fast and accurate. This is of great concern because this kind of behaviour could lead to sexual, physical, and emotional abuse as demonstrated here. 

 

The whole society is set up to make the young serve the elderly. If you are a pretty woman, you might need to do more than you really should or want to. But, it happens to some degree in many countries, but maybe (hopefully) just occasionally when a real a$$hole decides to be a ranked officer. However, cleaning gardens and such, for officers that have retired as well, that's an indication that this kind of abuse is rampant. What else do "servant soldiers" need to do to get their ranks?

[Grossman]

On 7/17/2018 at 10:34 PM, Chris Lawrence said:

Looks like Benny has a touch of Narcolepsy. 150mg of Nuvigil will fix that or the alarm on his expensive watch to go off every 10 minutes. Very serious condition.

He borrowed a nap from a narcoleptic friend.