Politicians return favours for `dek faak'
Bangkok
Post, About Politics, 15-05-2008
With the new semester here, the most pressing concern for many parents is to find the best school for their children, or at least to make sure they have a good school to attend.
Children known as dek faak, whose parents try to get them into good schools through well-established connections with people who have influence over the schools, immediately spring to mind.
To make sure their children get a seat at their favoured school, these parents look to someone in a powerful position for a helping hand.
Their focus is usually on high-ranking officials and politicians with influence at the Education Ministry.
Politicians return favours by finding a good school for their supporters' children.
So, many dek faak are the children of fellow politicians or canvassers working for politicians. Several former education ministers are known to be very busy trying to get these dek faak into top establishments.
Certain former ministers were known to be very insistent those children be given a seat, but others were able to compromise to a certain extent.
One former minister was said to have been relentless in his efforts to push a dek faak student into a top school _ only to hit a stumbling block.
The school happened to have a parents' association with connections with people in even more powerful places. The minister had to back down after he received a stern reprimand from a ``senior'' figure he most certainly feared and respected.
Another former education minister even complained that so many children were from canvassers working for his party leader there were no seats left for children of other party members.
Like it or lump it, civil servants in the Education Ministry, particularly those at the Office of the Basic Education Commission, have to work hard to satisfy the demands of politicians. They have often been on the receiving end of pressure from their superiors to make the necessary arrangements.
But some officials appear to have adapted so well that they have the privilege of not having to do their routine job. All they need to do is to personally coordinate with the chosen schools to ensure a place for these dek faak children.
