Thai military hazes students as punishment for erotic hazing video
Film students from Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University crawl on their stomachs through muddy jungle paths as part of an endurance test designed to “break down their ego (and) humiliate them” at a military boot camp ordered as punishment for a hazing incident. Pic: AP.
By Asian Correspondent Staff Oct 05, 2015
A new report has revealed the details of a gruelling military boot camp endured by a group of Thai university students behind a controversial hazing video that went viral on social media earlier this year.
The Associated Press article describes in detail how the 53 film students were put through punishing physical exercises and ‘attitude adjustment’ for three days at a military base near Bangkok in mid-September.
The controversial video, which received millions of views, shows students at Thailand’s Sunandha Rajabhat University partaking in an erotic hazing ritual where they pretend to copulate while fully clothed.
While arguably relatively harmless compared to some of the more sinister hazing rituals that take place in Thailand’s universities, the incident caused enough public outcry to prompt the military to step in to bring the kids into line.
“For the students from the film school of Bangkok’s Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, a three-day boot camp included reprimands, public humiliation and a grueling endurance test,” said the AP report.
Joined by some university professors, the students had their phones confiscated on arrival at the camp, had to eat meals in silence, and were housed in barracks with mattresses on the floor to sleep on.
Ironically, the students were exposed to hazing-like rituals themselves, according to the report. One overweight girl was called a ‘hippopotamus’, while losing team members were forced to humiliate themselves by ‘walking like elephants’.
“The idea is to break them down. Break down their ego. Humiliate them. And then we build them back up,” drill sergeant, Sgt. Maj. Kongsak Klaeiklang, told AP.
The decision to punish the students in this manner seems less about the fact that they partook in a hazing ritual, and more about the sexual nature of what they did.
Asian Correspondent columnist James Austin Farrell wrote last month:
The students in the video clip did not seem to be suffering too much, and may even have enjoyed their part in the misadventure. This kind of puerile erotic behavior happens in schools, universities, and even workplace end-of-year parties – I’ve been there. While it could certainly feel like harassment to some people, and perhaps at times get out of hand given the virility of most males at that age, how unethical it is will always depend on the situation and the feelings of those involved. It would be hard to call it ‘barbaric’ if the adults were consenting. But then peer-pressurized sexual acts, even if vaudevillian, are likely not that enjoyable for anyone – more so for the young women under a pile of randy males.
While many within Thailand’s often militaristic education system argue that some of these rituals can be character building, they sometimes devolve into violence or even death.
