BANGKOK – Freshly appointed Defense Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapha created another stir for the new Pheu Thai government this week with a controversial promise that this year’s transfer of senior military commanders would be based on merit.
In a radical break from tradition that has no precedent in Thailand’s military history, Yuthasak declared that promotions should be based on ability and seniority rather than an individual’s network of school-class contacts.
“We will look to a person’s capability and potential, rather than to the class from which he or she comes,” he said, referring to the specific graduating classes at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School (AFAPS) which are the traditional basis for Thailand’s factionalism-based promotion system.
The Minister furthermore said he would personally examine the annual personnel transfer lists from the commanders of the three armed forces and measure factors such as “qualifications” and “accomplishments” as well as “competency” in evaluating the appropriateness of the requests.
Reaction from the military was swift and almost unanimously negative.
Army commander-in-chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha told a meeting of Army staff yesterday that the new government’s policies were “absurd” and would destroy both order and morale in the military institution.
“Thailand’s Army has always relied on a patronage system, just as its government, economy, and social system has,” the chief said. “To suddenly introduce foreign concepts of merit and competency is un-Thai and insidious.”
The Army chief went further to suggest that the concept of meritocracy was the work of “outside influences” that were conspiring to harm the Kingdom’s unity and sacred institutions.
Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd agreed, accusing the newly elected government of promoting dangerous ideas and attempting to undermine the Army’s control of Thailand’s security.
“Meritocracy is just another fashionable idea for intellectuals who do not understand how the real world works,” he said. “Whereas we soldiers must risk our lives to protect the king and the nation from communists, Cambodians, and undesirable election results. To begin evaluating things on merit would render everything meaningless.”
Yuthasak flatly denied suggestions by opposition Democrats that the meritocracy-promotion idea was ordered by fugitive ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
“Thaksin has nothing to do with this,” said Yuthasak. “His own record clearly shows he never supported meritocracy either.”
