Recently, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha issued a 23-page policy statement on how he intends to get this country back on its feet. Of course, we’re not one to criticise his foolproof plans, nor suggest that he should come up with another song, this time collaborating with popular artists like Thaitanium or Joey Boy to keep the young’uns from switching radio stations every time the tune comes on. Instead, Guru enlists the help of aspiring change-makers from different industries to come up with their own political campaigns of what improvements they’d like to see, what laws should be implemented and even the lyrics to their own songs; so if the present and future PMs ever run out of ideas, they’ll know where to look.
ART
Jongsuwat Angsuvarnsiri is the managing director at Adler Subhashok Gallery, where he is in charge of curating artworks and promoting local and international talent.
: All couples who want to have children must pass a Parenting 101 exam first. There have been too many cases of child abuse, missing children and teenage pregnancy.
NEW LAW
BAN: Squat toilets — accidents happen more than you think.
ENCOURAGE: Staff at every company to exercise more — we should all dance for at least 20 minutes before we leave work.
DEVELOP: A new national dish to encourage tourists and locals to order something else rather than pad thai.
CREATE: Scream boxes on the street where people could go and let out their anger before returning to normal life with a Thai smile.
NON-PROFIT
Vansa C. is a project manager at a non-profit organisation where she leads activities to help eradicate poverty in developing countries.
: Reading and writing in Thai. There needs to be more Thai writers and novelists, not just stuff translated from English to Thai.
ENCOURAGE
REDUCE: The amount of graphic news in the media.
It’s disrespectful and even if you pixelate the photograph, people can still see a dead body.
CREATE: A culture of innovation where students should be encouraged to think outside the box instead of memorising textbooks.
BAN: Prostitution. The “booming sex industry” isn’t something our country should be proud of.
NEW LAW: Children under the age of 18 cannot buy knives without parental advisory. That includes machetes, cleavers, bread knives and anything else vocational kids can use to harm each other.
ONLINE
Amata “Pearypie” Chittasenee is a renowned make-up artist with over 630,000 fans on Facebook.
BAN: All types of online and offline media from releasing false information and dramatising news stories in order to sell copies. Enough about gossip, cat fights and digging into peoples’ private lives. The media needs to push for more educational, interesting and informative content for news. Do we want to grow as a nation or allow ourselves to be consumed by stories about celebrities getting plastic surgery or who stole whose husband?
NEW LAW: Media publications must set and follow a standardised code of ethics.
NATURAL RESOURCES
Dan Samitisirisuk is an M.S. Natural Resources Management student at the Asian Institute of Technology.
BAN: Election campaign posters and flyers (we’re living in the digital age now). They’re wasteful and always need massive clean-up efforts afterwards.
ENCOURAGE: The use of “bum guns” or bidets in order to conserve toilet paper.
DEVELOP: A culture with better understanding of raw material consumption. Those McNuggets and iPhones do not magically appear out of thin air.
CREATE: A social climate where primary industry workers are respected, paid and seen as equals to white-collar workers. After all, they’re the ones growing your rice and raising your chickens.
ENTERTAINMENT
Chatchavalit Sirisab is also known as DJ Boss at Like 103 FM Radio. He is also a model and VJ, and you can pretty much find him in the middle of anything to do with the entertainment industry.
CREATE: More connecting stops at BTS stations so that people don’t have to go all the way to Siam to change routes. It would ease the amount of people during rush hours on the BTS trains, making the journey at the beginning and end of each day more pleasant.
REDUCE: Taxes on cars. Instead, we should implement a congestion charge system for people who drive through the city centre.
RETAIL
Jae Thip is a shopkeeper. In her spare time she’s busy trying to keep an eye on her two mischievous children.
INCREASE: The number of holidays! We work hard but want to rest hard as well.
MAKE: Quality education available throughout the whole country — even to the most remote places.
CHANGE: The way different generations communicate with one another. Children, parents, grandparents should spend more quality time with family members and not just use their smartphones to send stickers or messages.
DIGITAL SERVICES
Sirasit Suriyapattanapong is the developer of the Choco Card and Gin Rai Dee website and application. You can spot him at the newest restaurants and hangout spots.
MAKE: It more difficult to become a taxi driver. It shouldn’t be a job for everyone who “sort of” knows how to get to places. Improved background checks and quality of service is much needed.
REMOVE: The current bus system that is not only confusing but dangerous and unreliable. At the very least, we should have an official map of the bus routes and not have to just rely on our instinct to know which number to get on!
MUSIC
Preyawit Nilachulaka is the lead singer of the band Instinct. He’s also an artist — in 2000, he came seventh in the Thailand Art Awards (run by Philip Morris).
CREATE: A device that automatically catapults selfish drivers out of parking spots reserved for the disabled. There is already only a limited amount of disabled parking spots in Bangkok, which outlines one of the many unresolved social issues in our society. In other cultures, it’s just common decency that people help each other out.
TOURISM
Daniel Fraser has been in Thailand for over 20 years. A familiar face on TV, he is also the Tourism Ambassador for the Tourism Authority of Thailand and hosts a TV show on Thai PBS channel.
BAN: Any politician with a criminal record, or immediate family members who have one, from any public office.
ENCOURAGE: Tolerance of different viewpoints.
CREATE: Full media liberty and freedom of expression.
NEW CAMPAIGN SONG: “Yellow and red make orange, and beautiful orange is our shining future, baby!”
VOICES OF THE CITY
We take to the streets to ask more people their thoughts on improving the country.
Mackie
“We need to work together as one, not divide into two colours and keep fighting against each other.”
Fondeekam C. (security guard)
“A big clean up of the city is necessary. Who likes eating their lunch while trying to guard it from rats and cockroaches?”
Kris B. (political journalist)
“Reduce the cost of branded medication. Healthcare should be for everyone not just for those who can afford it.”
Jay Chaiwatanasirikul (pharmaceutical company employee)
Brooke
“We want better school food for teachers and students. Schools need to understand the nutritional value of each dish they serve — food should be enjoyed, not pushed aside.”
Mackie E. (teacher)
“Encourage more reading and less Thai sitcoms. Young adults are now idolising drama queens on TV instead of award-winning authors and Nobel Prize-winners.”
Brooke K. (assistant manager at an insurance company)
