The new army chief has ruled out an end to the military draft but said he would make sure soldiers treat conscripts as their "youngest brothers".
"Every country has soldiers. A country without them is weak. Why don't we view becoming a soldier as having a job?" Gen Apirat Kongsompong said, discussing his policy as a new batch of conscripts reported to the army from Thursday to Saturday.
"The issue against the military draft was raised by a minority of people and sometimes it's politically driven. But believe me, every country has soldiers and a ban of the draft is impossible," he said.
He also thanked the parents of all conscripts.
"We're grateful and you can rest assured the armed forces will take very good care of them. The day they return to you, you'll see the differences. We insist we'll make your children good citizens of the country."
He said soldiers from the Royal Guard 904 unit will train others nationwide, following His Majesty's policy of providing the same training to everyone.
"The training for the model soldiers must result in smart and well-disciplined conscripts so that they can be good examples for other agencies. When soldiers have good discipline, the military will be strong and the country will be strong," he said.
Gen Apirat also warned that any punishments handed out to conscripts must be appropriate and in proportion to the disciplinary breach, or the officers imposing the penalties will be seriously punished. "If this [harsh or abusive punishment] happens again, the line commanders must be held responsible," he said.
"My policy is to create model soldiers so I pay attention to conscripts, who are like the little or youngest brothers at each military unit," he said.
There have been incidents where conscripts were beaten, fatally in some cases, by their supervisors or peers. Several cases of abuse or misuse of conscripts such as assigning them to domestic labour have also been discussed in social media, leading to the debate over whether the draft should end.
A new regulation has been issued to make sure conscripts have access to good food, sanitary living conditions and adequate accommodation. Conscripts will also receive a salary and allowance of 10,000 baht a month.
"Training officers play an important role. They must make sacrifices and take care of the details, some of which call for quick problem-solving before a budget can be approved," he added. He said drug eradication is also a priority. Drug-addicted conscripts would be treated "as those who went astray".
Amid calls for an end to the draft, most critics suggest it should be replaced by an all-volunteer system because the number of volunteers has already increased over the years thanks to improved salaries.