Let's hand the torch to the young, for the world of cynical adults requires a dose of youthful idealism.
Give the fire to the courageous youths, such as the intern who exposed the vile corruption at a welfare centre for the poor in the Northeast. Or the students in Florida who are going up against US lawmakers following the latest school shooting. Or the young people who're now leading the Saturday protests against our own Pinocchio -- or Yut-nocchio -- regurgitated from the belly of Monstro the Whale into drab Juntaland.
In the US, those students campaigning for gun control have been so remarkable, a group of stern-eyed high-schoolers wedded to the lucidity of their conviction. Blow by blow, they shame the politicians and rifle-lovers with their eloquence, reason and resolve, and while we bemoan the state of Trump-led America these youngsters remind us that the future isn't all too bleak, here or there. And right on cue, the dark side, unable to see rays of hope, accused them of being "paid actors" -- a tired allegation, since the young people protesting against the military in Thailand are also "paid" by the puppet master, the "West", the Illuminati, the Antichrist, George Soros, whatever. It's typical for those who live in the dark to scramble away from the light.
Light almost didn't shine on Panida Yotpanya either. During her internship, the 22-year-old social science student at Maha Sarakham University whistle-blew a massive corruption scheme at Khon Kaen Protection for the Destitute Centre. To cheat is wrong, to cheat the poor is disgusting. And yet Ms Panida, who cried foul over the embezzlement of public money, almost became a victim of the classic kill-the-messenger move: Her professor, instead of championing her, allegedly wanted her to hush things up and even to apologise to the bureaucrats embroiled in the case. The entrenched seniority system is our curse, invisible but omnipresent, and it exerts great power in preventing the young from saying an adult is wrong. That was as depressing as the corruption itself.
One thing is clear: An intern with conscience is more effective than the numerous anti-graft agencies with long acronyms, which still fail even to get close to those problematic, awfully expensive watches worn by a deputy prime minister. We should let Ms Panida intern at the government house for a month (give her maximum protection and 24-hour bodyguards). That would be exciting, then let's see if the junta would continue to sing her praise.
In fact, that's exactly the nub of our young-vs-old trouble. We may be thankful that Ms Panida has been hailed by the authorities as a model student, but it would be premature to believe that the young in this country can actually bring about real change. The voice of the young is suddenly treated as naïve, inexperienced and "manipulated" as soon as it's the progressive voice, as soon as it goes beyond bureaucratic corruption into something larger, such as the system, the politics, the traditional values, the "Thainess", and the junta itself. When young people question those things, they're a nuisance, attention seekers, "paid actors", the green upstarts used by politicians, when in fact what they're doing is as important as Ms Panida's brave whistleblowing.
The American high-schoolers who speak out against gun ownership face the same dismissal from conservatives, but at least they have the backing of the progressive masses. For the Thai students who've led the rallies against the regime, they have to deal with more than that: Many of them have been charged for unlawful gathering and are subject to scorn and bullying from the government -- the same fate as Joshua Wong, the passionate young Hong Kong activist. And of course, the charge that they're in the pay of resentful politicians returns like a broken record, as well as the quip that they're "following the example of the West". Then which example should they take after? Stalin? Mao? Gen Sarit Thanarath? Gen Sarit, the first prime minister to give the Children's Day motto to the young of the nation and the perennial idol of so many 60-plus generals who dream of endless power without an election?
Ms Panida, the whistleblower, has done a great service to the anti-graft effort. She's shone a light and exposed the dark, but she's not the only one. The cynical machine of Thai politics does not fear the young per se: they fear new, unpredictable and fresh challenges that question the status quo. In short, they fear time, because time is never on the side of those whose future is shorter than their past. They're scared of time, and the interminable ticking that edges closer towards their end.
Kong Rithdee is Life editor, Bangkok Post
