<p>As if our non-elected Prime Minister didn’t already have little enough faith in democracy, Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal has gone and got himself elected as president of Chulalongkorn University Student Council.</p> <p>Chula, that bastion of elitism, conformity and 100-year-old privilege in pink; the university where students wear uniforms to sign petitions against uniforms, and where new graduates give Nazi salutes in front of murals of Hitler (just for the laugh, of course); Chula, of all places, has elected a free-thinking anti-authoritarian, anti-militarist iconoclast.</p>

<p><em>Note: Jit Phumisak (25 September 1930 – 5 May 1966) was one of the foremost Thai Marxism thinkers of the twentieth century. His most well-known work, The Real Face of Thai Feudalism, was published while he was still a student in the Faculty of Arts at Chulalongkorn University in 1957. The Real Face, which was later translated into English by Craig Reynolds, offered an analysis of feudalism and its remnants in Thai society, politics, and law. The volume was swiftly banned and he was arrested later that year and accused of being a communist.</em></p>

<p>This column highlights the fact that Thais brought up as children under authoritarian regimes are more likely to reflect authoritarian values – the ‘<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/112/26/7931.abstract">Nazi effect</a>’, which turns children into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianism">Right-Wing Authoritarians</a>. The result is that Thailand is a ‘swing state’ between democracy and authoritarianism, making it a crucial battlefield for values in Southeast Asia.</p> <p></p>

<p dir="ltr">When Ajarn Tum (Sudsanguan) Suthisorn was released from prison, Ajarn Charnvit Kasetsiri greeted her with a public message on Facebook that read, “Welcome back from the small prison to the large prison” (he did not use these exact words, but this was the gist). I gave my knee a loud slap when I read these lines. That is exactly right.</p> <p></p>

<p>The Ordinary National Education Test (ONET) results this year are as disappointing as in previous years.&nbsp; Almost as disappointing as the wilful ignorance that produced the tests and the sadly misinformed comments on them in the media.</p> <p>Let us take the Prathom 6 English test as an example. For kids who have in all likelihood been taking multiple-choice tests since pre-kindergarten, it starts by helpfully showing them how to answer this kind of question:</p> <p>‘Directions: Choose the correct answer.</p> <p>‘Example</p> <p>‘Item 0: Which province is in the south of Thailand?</p>

<p dir="ltr">The UK, once almost entirely reliant on coal-fired energy, had its<a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/1236514/uk-has-first-day-without-relying-on-coal-for-power-since-1880s"> first coal-free day</a> since 1880 this month (Friday 21st April), meaning it is on schedule to be completely coal free by 2025. More coal-free days will depend on the availability of solar, especially in June and July. Approximately half the UK’s energy comes from gas, 30% from renewables and inter-country agreements, and the rest from nuclear.</p>

<p>On a Saturday night in mid-September 2013 I was sat at table in a deserted restaurant in an exclusive beachside resort in Phuket. My companions were graduate students and researchers from Chulalongkorn University and Japan’s prestigious Kyoto University.</p>

<p dir="ltr">“The trigger gave; I felt the smooth underside of the butt; and there, in that noise, sharp and deafening at the same time, is where it all started. I shook off the sweat and the sun. I knew that I had shattered the harmony of the day...”, Albert Camus, L'Étranger.</p> <p></p>

<p>In early March, the Project for a Social Democracy launched its national media campaign with two major op-ed columns in the national English-language media. The <a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1209473/social-democracy-offers-a-third-force">first</a>, in the <em>Bangkok Post</em> of Monday 6 March, was followed the day after by <a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/opinion/30308127">another</a> in <em>The Nation</em>.</p>

<p>Recent news item:</p> <p><em>‘</em><em>The Department of Land Transport </em><em>(</em><em>DLT</em><em>) </em><em>said that despite their positives, Uber and the Grab Car do not provide customers with the essentials that regular taxis offer</em><em>. </em><em>Under the law,</em> <em>taxis come under public transportation, so taxi drivers are required by law to register themselves with the DLT</em><em>. </em><em>The agency conducts a comprehensive background check on the drivers and when problems occur, <strong>they can be traced easily</strong></em><em>.’</em></p>

<div>Between 21-24 March 2017, Ratchaburi Provincial Court will hold witness hearings for and against <a href="https://prachatai.com/english/node/6516">the criminal case of Taweesak Kerdpoka</a>, 25, a Prachatai journalist. </div>

<p>Well it didn’t take long for the other shoe to fall.</p> <p>The recent Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net) in Thai language contained what could have been a bolt from the blue for the Thai schooling system.&nbsp; Instead it turned out to be a bolt that ever more firmly fixes Thai education into authoritarian irrelevance.</p>