«——【Preamble】】 ——»
Joining the army is an honorable thing on the mainland, and every conscription season, there are countless good men who bravely sign up, and even, those who sign up will be brushed down because they fail the test and cannot enlist.
But not all citizens of all countries see enlistment as an honor like our country, and for adult men in Thailand, enlisting in the military is a scary thing, and in order to avoid joining the army, this group of people can drive out anything.
«——【Strange Scene in April·】——»
Every year in April, Thai men experience a unique life event – a conscription lottery. For Thai men, it's a terrifying reality show.
At this time, Thai boys who are full of hope or anxiety will be dragged to designated gymnasiums, parks and other public places. Some are carefully dressed up and have exquisite makeup, as if they are preparing for a beauty contest; Others are uneasy, like prisoners awaiting their sentence.
The scene was lively, and the demons danced wildly. Bursts of heat rippled in the air, infinitely exaggerating everyone's nervousness. At this moment, the long-awaited sign of destiny was about to be revealed before their eyes.
An urn was filled with colored lottery codes, and some people blindfolded them and shook them gently, and the red signatures meant bad luck, and they had to serve in the military immediately; The black sign is a great luck, and this time you can look up to the sky and breathe a sigh of relief. Everyone is looking forward to the lottery because being a soldier is not an honorable thing in Thailand.
Look at the recruitment site again, there are sweet-looking "royal sisters", and monks dressed in monk robes......
Thai law stipulates that as long as you change your gender and become a full woman, you can be exempted from military service, so you can see a lot of transgender people dressed as "royal sisters" at the recruitment site, and they are holding certificates with happy expressions.
And there are some people who have not yet completed sex reassignment surgery, and they are also dressed as women, and their expressions are obviously very uneasy.
Drawing a lot from the lottery holder doomed the fate of whether or not to be drafted into the army that year. Serving as a soldier may seem honorable to us, but for most Thai men, it is a frightening outcome.
«——【·Lottery System·】——»
The annual recruitment season in Thailand is different from many countries for volunteer service or selection and admission, and Thailand adopts a unique lottery system.
Once you reach the age of 21, regardless of gender, status, or any hint of masculine characteristics, you are required by law to go to a designated local location to participate in the recruitment lottery.
The lottery is divided into red and white, and winning the red lottery means that you will serve for two years immediately, while winning the white lottery can temporarily exempt you from military service for one year, and wait until next year for a new round of lottery.
If a person reaches the age of 26 and has not won the red lottery, he or she can be permanently exempted from military service. However, the cost of evading the lottery is not small, and once it is verified, it will face severe punishment of fines and even imprisonment.
Despite the fact that Thailand is now a popular tourist destination, April is a nightmare for local men.
«——【Evasion of military service·unscrupulous means·】——»
In order to avoid being a soldier, many people do not hesitate to take risks and adopt all kinds of strange means.
Some people simply go for sex reassignment surgery, as long as they really become "her", they can be permanently exempted from military service if they show a certificate of qualification.
So at the annual conscription site, you can always see some tall and well-dressed "beauties", waiting to be named and exempted.
However, the operation is expensive, costing hundreds of thousands of baht, and it is also a heavy burden for ordinary families. As a result, many people seek a compromise and only do some superficial work, still retaining some masculine characteristics.
As a result, when he arrived at the recruitment site, he was recognized by the sharp-eyed officer at a glance, and he was forced to draw lots. So everyone witnessed the wonders of those who have the characteristics of both "glamorous" and "macho man".
Of course, sex reassignment surgery is only one way out. For young people from ordinary families, the most cost-effective way is undoubtedly to become a monk.
Because Thailand is a Buddhist country, the law specifically stipulates that if you can become a monk for more than 10 years, you will always be exempt from military service at the age of 21.
Therefore, children who have been monks since childhood, as long as they can survive until adulthood, are equivalent to embarking on a road of avoiding service in an open and honest manner.
However, this path is by no means easy. Buddhism is arduous and requires an unimaginable price for ordinary people. Leaving his parents at a young and ignorant age, and living a miserable life as a monk, there are not many people who can survive to the end.
And at the annual recruitment site, you will also see a solemn group of monks (ordained but not yet 10 years old) to shake whether they still need to serve.
Some people chose this path of becoming a monk and escaping from military service when they were young, but they were unlucky, and after less than ten years of practice, they received the results of the red lottery, and their accustomed spiritual life was interrupted.
In addition to this, Thai law also has a provision that disabled persons are permanently exempt from military service. Based on this, some people simply leave their bodies disabled in order to avoid enlistment. What's more, in order to get rid of all future troubles, he even did it by cutting off his limbs.
That's really a desperate fight for not to be a soldier!
On the other hand, those who have short stature and genetic diseases are more lucky. According to the relevant regulations, they can be exempted from military service and do not have to take this risk.
«——【Why don't you want to be a soldier】——»
All of these seemingly comical actions are actually due to the incomparable fear of Thai men for service. The main reason for this is the ultra-low remuneration and poor management system of the Thai army.
First of all, Thai soldiers do not have a good reputation in the local area, and as soon as they put on military uniforms, they will be treated with ridicule and even abused. Once upon a time, the social status of soldiers was still quite high, but in recent years, various scandals have been riddled with them, and their image has plummeted.
Even more intolerable is the low-pay torture inflicted on soldiers by the Thai army. Every soldier in the army has a pitiful monthly salary of even the most basic salary, and their allowance for each meal is only 10 baht, which is equivalent to less than 2 yuan.
If you think about it, even food and clothing are a problem, where can you have the mental strength to cope with the high-intensity training day after day. After retiring, they have nothing, which is undoubtedly worse for their quality of life.
Moreover, when training recruits, veterans often resort to unbridled corporal punishment and humiliation, a style of education that the Thai military is accustomed to. Once humiliated to the point that they could not stand it, recruits often ended up committing suicide.
What's more, some commanders still do such dirty things, imposing their own selfish desires on recruits, and heinous things like sexual assault happen from time to time.
The scary thing is that this bad habit has been ingrained in the Thai army for a long time, and it has been passed down from generation to generation. No matter how hard the recruits work after joining the army, they cannot escape such physical and mental torture. Over time, Thai men's fear of serving in the military has become a common psychological shadow of an ethnic level.
To make matters worse, enlistment can lead to endless lengths of service at any time. According to the regulations, the normal period of service in the Thai Army is two years. But in reality, many people have been delayed for many years, and some have even been unreasonably extended to 25 years.
Do you think, when a young man is thrown into this filthy and filthy environment at the age of eighteen or nineteen, and endures years of humiliation and torture until he knows his destiny, isn't this kind of life arrangement the saddest?
What's more, even if you are discharged after two years of service, the Thai government has not been able to provide adequate guarantees and subsidies. In contrast, veterans from some other countries, such as South Korea, receive good employment placements and corresponding subsidies.
And in Thailand, the treatment after leaving the army can be said to be nothing. Except for a meager financial subsidy, they will have to fend for themselves. There is no source of income, and the quality of life can be imagined.
Therefore, aspiring young people tried every means to escape this endless nightmare. Sex reassignment surgery and ordination may be tortuous, but they are still the best choice. But for those children of ordinary families, even this opportunity is a luxury.
Once they are co-opted, they will be forcibly dragged into the bottomless abyss of the Thai army, and they can only be at the mercy of others, controlling their own future and destiny. But even so, they can only grit their teeth and survive this painful military service life.
From the frenzied operation of Thai men every year, we can see how outrageous the dilemma of Thai military management is.
The local government is also reluctant to cope with this situation. You must know that although it is not standardized, compulsory conscription is, after all, one of the hard indicators for safeguarding national defense, and it is impossible to abolish it directly.
«——【·Conclusion·】——»
Watching these young people desperately gamble on their future, one can't help but sigh. These Thai boys who were born here are almost destined to have a bad fate, so that these young people who should be enthusiastic are distorted into such a look, has Thai society ever reflected?
What is even more troubling is that these young people, who are terrified of serving in the military, may one day become the backbone of the Thai army. Will they be able to maintain their last vestiges of reserve and righteousness under the immersion of years of filthy environment?
As the saying goes, without a cold bone, how to get the fragrance of plum blossoms. We hope that the Thai military will usher in a painful reform at an early date, so that it will be eligible to return to glory. Otherwise, the future of the Thai army will be worrisome and will decline day by day.
In general, Thailand's conscription system is terrible and a farce.
Ironically, local men had to do everything they could to escape. The strange thing is that every year there will be various funny scenes staged at the recruitment site.
What is even more distressing is that the root cause of all this lies in the chaotic and corrupt management system of the Thai military. The devastation that the recruits endured after joining the army is disturbing that they will later become the backbone of the Thai army.
We look forward to an early and thorough reform of the Thai military, which will reverse the current predicament, restore the military's prestige, and clean up its internal bad habits. This is the fundamental solution to the problem of conscription, not a simple expedient measure.
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There are many interesting facts about military recruitment in Thailand, and before the draw, it seems to be a sentence of life and death-Xinhuanet