(English Edition) The original data visualization was released on 8 January 2022 and translated in August 2022.
“What is the easiest way to instill nationalism in children?” One of the annual duties of the prime minister of Thailand and their team is to create a motto for National Thai children’s day, sending messages to the future generation. Every year, the motto will be widely broadcasted to the entire country. Every child has to memorize it, it is a simple yet powerful tool to instill values in children.
The process of creating a children’s day motto is simple. The government will announce the motto in December one month previously before children’s day on the second Saturday of January. They will be brainstorming what’s happening in a year and decide which message they want to send across, then embed it in form of a motto.
For example, in October 1973, there was a political uprising in Bangkok to overthrow a military dictatorship. The incident was known as “14 October uprising”. Two months later, the government announced the motto of the national children’s day 1974, “Unity is Potency” suggesting that children should be more compliant with a military government. In 1997, there were an Asian financial crisis widely across Asia, they announced the motto “Diligent, economize, honest get discipline” signifying that the children are ought to handle money with diligence and discipline.
The design of this visualization was heavily inspired by the answer sheets that children used in general school exams. Each dot symbolizes a phrase in the motto. The colors represent the meaning of the phrase. For instance,
Red represents Nationalism for example love nation, Proud to be Thai, Thai culture, lead nation,
Yellow represents morals and ethics for example discipline, virtue, honesty, good children, and patience.
Blue represents education for example Study hard, love to study, keep learning, seek knowledge.
Orange represents harmony for example unity, collective, public responsibility.
Purple represent the future vision for example future, technology, development, prosperity.
The mottos are divided into 8 periods based on the political events in Thailand.
Period 1: Military and cold war (1956–1973)
Period 2: Democracy movement (1974–1980)
Period 3: Half Democracy (1981–1988)
Period 4: Democracy 101 (1989–1997)
Period 5: Asian financial crisis (1998–2001)
Period 6: Thaksin Shinawatra (2002–2006)
Period 7: Political conflict (2007–2014)
Period 8: Military junta (2015 — Present)
Lastly, the colors of lines in the timeline color-coded by the different regimes. Red lines represent the period under military leaders. Blue lines represent when the prime minister came from the general election.
Period 1 : Military and cold war (1956–1973)
During that time, the Military government mainly focus on “morals and ethics” instill the concept of how hard you study is to more success you will get in your life. They used the words which relate to that for 12 years in row from 1960–1973. For example, in 1966 “Good Children must have manner, be patient, be diligent and united”. Another factor to create the motto in this period was “The Space race” they use the words to inspire children to the more global, futuristic mindset. For Example “Brightening our future…..”, “……Shining Future” “Leap forward future”.
Period 2 : Democracy movement (1974–1980)
The communist forces in neighboring countries and the political tension in Thailand were intense, they mostly created a motto about nationalism and ethics. As proof, in 1976 two months after the 6 October massacre which 40 protesters were killed and lynched by the military junta, they released a motto for 1977 after this gruesome event as “Love nation, Religion, Monarchy is the feature of Thai children” which contradicts to what is happened two months before.
Period 3: Half Democracy (1981–1988)
This period has been ruled by one former military prime minister for a whole 8 years. The classic motto repeats only three topics. For instance, “you must be a good child”, “You must help your family save money”, and “You must proud of our country”. The shortest one is in 1984, written with only one phrase “Love Thai culture”.
Period 4: Democracy 101 (1989–1997)
After an entire four decades under military government, the motto mentioned “Democracy” for the first time in 1993–1994 used for two years. “Believed in Democracy, United the nation and protect our environment”. They want children and their parents in this generation to uphold in the democratic values.
Besides that, in this period there have many new topics referring to Democracy, Environment and Drugs.
Period 5: Asian financial crisis (1998–2001)
As it has been titled, The crisis meltdown due to financial contagion in 1997. Bankruptcy is daily life, the motto “Diligent, economize, honest get discipline” was used for two years in 1998–1999. Then mention the education in the next year instill the children for keep learning after some of the family haven’t money left for their child’s education.
Period 6: Thaksin Shinawatra (2002–2006)
The new chapter of Thai children’s day motto has begun, the prime minister mentioned “Creativity” and “Future vision” together for the first time and mostly talked about “The importance of education”.
This period was the best example to explained the differences of thought between the military junta and democratic leaders. They earlier mention about morals, ethics, and nationalism for almost five decades. The motto in this period modernizes to the world which is still updated to nowadays. For example, in 2003, “Lifelong learning, Thinking creative, Live forward technology”.
Period 7: Political conflict (2007–2014)
After 2006 Thai coup d’état, military government take over the country and People’s constitution has been repealed. They announced the motto mentioning morals and ethics along with the strong concept of “Harmony” despite the ongoing political conflict. To illustrate, they used the phrase “live harmonious, bound together and public responsibility”.
Period 8: Military junta (2015 — Present)
Thailand’s trajectory is like a boomerang as we were back to the same place once again six decades later, the pattern of the Children’s day motto is identically the same as the cold war period as symbolized mostly with red dots, yellow dots, blue dots and purple dots. For example, in 2020, there were multiple protested led by the younger generation. The protestors clearly expressed viewpoints that are different from the conservative government and raised questions about the monarchy. After these series of protest, at the end of that year, they released the motto for 2021 “New Thais generation, collectively build our nation with loyalty and morals”.
The purpose of this analysis is to illustrate that “Language is a tool for indoctrination”.
Language can reflect what is the government agenda, what they think about the future generation, and what they want them to be. For the past 66 years, leaders from different regimes indirectly instill their thoughts in the motto. This work was released on the national Thai children’s day and went viral on social media in Thailand.
References :
คำขวัญวันเด็ก 2499 — ปัจจุบัน
ผู้ใหญ่อยากปลูกฝังอะไรเด็กไทย? วิเคราะห์คำขวัญวันเด็กผ่านการเมืองไทยแต่ละยุคสมัย
เด็กวิถีใหม่ = ภักดี + มีคุณธรรม : วิถีใหม่นั้น ใหม่ของใคร?
สาระ+ภาพ: 61 ปี มี ‘อะไร’ ในคำขวัญวันเด็ก พบ ‘วินัย-ชาติ-คุณธรรม’ นำโด่ง
ผู้ใหญ่อยากปลูกฝังอะไรเด็กไทย? วิเคราะห์คำขวัญวันเด็กผ่านการเมืองไทยแต่ละยุคสมัย
