Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha rather curtly ordered tens of thousands of students to continue waiting but the young people have a point about their examination dates. When he suggested Feb 24 for an election date, Gen Prayut "forgot" that university entrance exams already had been scheduled for Feb 18-23.
The students, most of whom also are voters, were shunted aside in the government's rush to hold polls. Now that it wants to once again delay the election date, students quite reasonably want their old examination dates returned.
Last Friday, from his @prayutofficial Twitter account, the prime minister took note of the students' concern. But he promised nothing. "Check back for the exam date," he tweeted. Be patient. Wait until the election date has become clear." Once the Election Commission sets a date, he wrote, he can consider what to do about the General Aptitude Test (GAT) and the Professional and Academic Aptitude Test (PAT) they need to enter university.
Year 12 (Mathayom Suksa 6) students have been understanding about the exam dates -- the most important event in their 18-year-old lives, after all. When a Feb 24 election option came up, they accepted earlier examinations, from Feb 16-19. Now that the election date is being reset, they logically and righteously want the exams returned to the original schedule.
This is a corner into which the prime minister has painted himself. After supposedly ironclad promises of a Feb 24 election, Prime Minister Prayut and his ministers have gone entirely wobbly.
The government has blamed the Election Commission for failing to set a firm date -- when the EC is powerless without a royal decree on the subject, which the government continues to withhold. The excuse that the May 4-6 royal coronation of His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn somehow affects a February election date holds no water.
On Sunday, citizens who branded themselves as people who want early elections took to the skywalk near Victory Monument to press the demand that Gen Prayut's government and the EC stick to their promise to hold national polls on Feb 24. Activists promised a second "mass rally" today at Ratchaprasong intersection. It is telling that police refused to interfere with Sunday's rally, despite the presence of hardcore anti-coup activists.
In a similar vein, almost as soon as Gen Prayut announced another election delay, formerly quiet and accepting students challenged him. The hashtag #wantbackexamdates began trending quickly on Twitter, and a petition on Change.org demanded the immediate restoration of the Feb 23-26 dates. It must be noted that changing exam dates for 450,000 secondary school graduates creates huge upset in each of their personal schedules -- not to mention the vast organisation required to hold such exams, securely, throughout the country.
The students don't deserve the brush-off tweet that the prime minister has given them. At the same time, the country itself does not deserve the years of blithe election delays delivered by Gen Prayut since way back in 2015.
What appears to worry Gen Prayut is not a clash with the date of the royal event. He appears concerned only about the possibility that a Feb 24 election could put an elected prime minister and government in place before the coronation. The only result of a delay is assurance the military regime is still in power at that joyous time. And for that, he is willing to keep nearly half a million students in examination limbo.
