Nipit Intarasombut, a Palang Pracharath party-list MP-elect, claimed on Monday that the immediate revocation of conscription, a Move Forward Party manifesto promise, will only cause more inequality in Thai society.
He said he does not oppose the idea per se, but the change should be implemented gradually.
In his Facebook page, Nipit said he wants to suggest to Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat that immediate ending of the conscription will only exacerbate the already wide inequality gap while, Nipit said, Pita has publicly campaigned hard for the reduction of inequality.
Move Forward has campaigned to revoke conscription in favour of voluntary enlistment, a policy which received a positive public reaction.
The MoU, signed by the eight parties in the Pita-led coalition, mentions that the government will see a transition from conscription to voluntary enlistment, except when the country is at war.
Nipit claimed that, if the cancellation of conscription is done immediately, no children from rich families will voluntarily apply for military service, but those from poor families certainly would, attracted by the salaries.
He noted that, in 2006, only nine of Princeton University’s 1,108 graduates from applied to join the military. This low number was echoed at other leading US universities, adding that only 2 per cent of Congress members in the US, a country where conscription ended in 1973, have children serving in the military.
“If immediate revocation of conscription is introduced in Thailand, which has a higher level of inequality than the US, only the poor’s children and those who have no choice will apply to be soldiers,” Nipit wrote.
He said, if Pita insists on doing it immediately, he has to accept that, from then on, when we see soldiers, they would be the children of the poor, not of the rich.
