'We used to run the country. And we could manage the economic crisis. We are experienced enough to manage the country again. Please vote for us."
While the students are enjoying themselves, they also learn how to live and work in a democratic community.
As one of the teams sold their policies and boasted their previous experience, hoping to be re-elected, another group was ready for electioneering.
This wasn't a scene from a debate for the upcoming general election, and we didn't have to wait until Feb 2 to hear the results, because in the next few minutes, the brief voting process was finished.
The speakers and the audience were the junior high and primary students of Preeyachot School in Nakhon Sawan. The electioneering is part of Sim Democracy, an educational board game with real-world resonance given the current political situation.
Sim Democracy was created in 2011 for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), a non-profit organisation that aims to promote liberal democracy, rule of law, economic freedom and respect for human rights.
With Sim Democracy, FNF aims to help students aged 16-18 gain a better understanding of the basic function of democratic community and public policy before they are old enough to vote.
After recruiting veteran Thai game designer Ruttikorn Vuttikorn, FNF teamed up with with the Election Commission of Thailand, which incorporated the Sim Democracy into its education workshop for over 200 high schools and universities around the country.
Sim Democracy is a board game which requires four teams to play, one acting as the government and the rest citizens. The government has to use its 25 million baht budget to run the country.
Last year Sim Democracy was adapted for universities in Malaysia and high schools in Bhutan, and will soon go to Myanmar, as details of the game must be adjusted for local cultures and beliefs. The recent workshop at Preeyachot School marked the first time FNF gave younger students a chance to play.
"We'd always been afraid that the game would be too complicated for the primary school students," said Pimrapaat Dusadeeisriyakul, FNF project manager. "Voting and administrating a country may sound too big for a primary school student to imagine."
But the one-day workshop at Preeyachot School, where half of some 80 participating students were from the primary level, proved that assumption wrong. The students not only enjoyed themselves, but also learned how to work, live and vote in a democratic community.
"The subjects in schools' curriculum have never been enough to educate students about democracy," Parichat Preeyachot, principal of Preeyachot School, said.
That's why Parichat invited the FNF to conduct its ground-breaking workshop at her school.
In Sim Democracy, the board represents a country. Hospitals, schools, forests and police stations respectively represent public health, education, the environment and human security. To start the game, each of four teams run a brief election campaign. The elected team is rewarded with 25 million baht _ in game money _ to develop the country.
The winning team was all eyes when they received the 25 million baht budget. The huge sum of money, however, wasn't rewarded for personal spending _ team members had to allocate a budget as they had earlier promised.
During the game, problems such as an increasing number of thieves or a decreasing number of trees in the forest occur as teams pick up cards. The government is allowed to spend its money accordingly, but everyone loses if it cannot pay its debts at the end of the game.
To win, the team acting as government and the teams playing citizens must cooperate to run the country debt-free, said Pimrapaat. Problems are much more easily solved that way. But the government needs to have a vision and negotiating skills to convince its people to cooperate. Citizen teams must examine the transparency of budget spending.
Pimrapaat pointed out the different reactions from students in provinces and in cities _ the way they played the game was a result of the spending patterns with which they were familiar.
Students from cities tended to spend the budget extravagantly and take loans easily, while those from provinces were careful with budget spending, hesitant to take loans unless they came to a dead end. It was as if they were managing their personal savings.
Pimrapaat said the young participants' management was also a result of their experience. A student from an all-boys school in Bangkok, for example, attempted to shuffle the budget to suit his own needs.
"And that's considered corruption," Pimrapaat said.
Parichat said she was glad her students were learning about the basics of democracy, because it is a topic that can be blended into any subject. A science teacher, for example, could subtly teach students about democratic community by assigning them to work as a group on a project, forcing them to act as leaders or team players, to criticise, listen and work together.
"That's the base of democracy," Parichat said.
Time was running out but students wanted to play on—they had to vote to stay longer than scheduled.
