1. Government Restrictions on Chinese Schools
Schools established in Thailand by foreigners are registered as either missionary or private schools. They have to be conducted in strict accordance with the Thai laws and regulations governing private schools. Before a school is established, the sponsors have first to apply with the Thai Ministry of Education for permission which has been almost impossible to secure since 1948. Those which had secured permission were the ones established immediately after the Second World War. In many cases permission was withheld because the school premises were too small, equipment was poor and teachers were not qualified according to the Thai laws and regulations. The harshest provisions are the following:
(a) The principal of any foreign school should, be of Thai nationality.
(b) Foreign schools are allowed to teach only five hours a week of their own language.
(c) Foreign teachers should pass the Thai language examinations be fort they are qualified to teach.
(d) Foreign schools should not collect from the students more tuition and other fees than those prescribed by Thai regulations.
If operated on the basis of the above provisions, the Chinese schools would turn out to be more Thai than Chinese. Not many Chinese children would enter such schools. For it was the view of the Chinese community that to learn little Chinese is worse than not to learn it at all. Furthermore, these schools would face great financial difficulties because on the one hand they are not allowed to collect extra fees and on the other, they would not be entitled to any subsidy from the Thai Government as are the private Thai schools. Therefore, the Chinese schools fought hard for special treatment and the task inevitably fell on the Chinese Embassy.
2. Blows on Chinese Schools before 1945
The history of Chinese schools in Thai land is a tragic one. In 1939 when China was carrying on a life-and-death struggle against Japan, anti-Chinese campaigns were staged throughout the country. A series of drastic measures were taken against the Chinese, among which one was the closing down of all Chinese schools. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese children deprived of Chinese educational opportunities were forced to attend Thai schools because primary education was compulsory in Thailand. Some well-to-do Chinese engaged private teachers to teach their children Chinese after school hours. The poorer families pooled their resources to engage a teacher to teach their children with each family sharing part of the expenses. But according to the Thai laws and regulations, a private teacher can not teach more than seven children at the same time and in the same place. So a class of over seven children taught by one teacher, was considered a school. During the years from 1939 to 1945, the majority of the Chinese children had no opportunity to learn Chinese under such strict regulations. As there were no diplomatic relations between the Chinese and the Thai governments during those years, the Chinese schools were left to their fate.
3. The Chinese School Problem after the War
After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Chinese Government, realizing the importance and urgency of establishing diplomatic relations with Thailand, dispatched Dr. Li Tieh-tseng, former Chinese Ambassador to Iran, on a goodwill mission to Thailand which arrived in Bangkok on January 9, 1946. After a short period of negotiations, a Treaty of Friendship and Amity was signed on January 23, thus establishing formal relations between the two governments. In the course of the negotiations, the problem of Chinese schools in Thailand was discussed. The Chinese representatives insisted that the number of hours for teaching Chinese should be increased and that Chinese teachers should be exempted from Thai language examinations, while the Thai representatives held on to their own views. Finally, it was stated in the conference minutes that the increase of hours for teaching Chinese would be given due consideration in accordance with necessity. In the Treaty of Amity, paragraph 2 of Article VI states, "They (Chinese) shall also have the liberty to establish schools for the education of their children, …..in accordance with the laws and regulations of the country." Actually, the liberty later enjoyed by the Chinese in the matter of educating their young proved to be very limited due to the restrictions placed on them by the Thai laws and regulations. The Chinese communities throughout Thailand were openly disappointed with the treaty.
In August, 1946, Dr. Li Tieh-tseng was appointed Ambassador to Thailand. He was reluctant to take up the post, which, he knew, would bring him lots of difficulties. He arrived at Bangkok on September 6. The Chinese Embassy formally came into existence when Dr. Li presented his credentials on September 17. Three days later, he called a meeting to which the principals of the larger Chinese schools and responsible officers of the Kuomintang branch office in Bangkok were invited. After lengthy discussions, they put forward the following points as a basis for negotiations with the Thai Government.
(a) The Chinese and their descendants should have the right to establish schools for the education of their children.
(b) All subjects in the Chinese school curricula should be taught in Chinese.
(c) Chinese teachers should be exempted from the Thai language examinations.
(d) Contributions collected for expansion of educational facilities from the Chinese should be used for Chinese schools.
The above points were transmitted in a memorandum to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While the reply from the Thai Government was still pending, some Chinese newspapers published reports to the effect that the Thai Government had accepted our requests while others published entirely different information. After repeated requests for an early reply, it finally came on the eve of the Chinese New Year. The disappointment was great for the Thai Government accepted none of the Chinese proposals. Instead, it emphatically stated that its educational policy "does not deviate from that of an independent country." Representations were again made to the Thai Government. Rear Admiral Luang Thamrong Nawasawat, then Prime Minister and concurrently Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the Thai Government desired settlement of the Chinese school problem simultaneously with the immigration problem. After months of arduous negotiations, the Thai Government granted to the Chinese schools the following facilities:
(a) The number of hours for teaching Chinese arc to be increased to 10½ hours per week for the first year of the primary school; 11½ hours for the second and the third years; 12½ hours for the 4th and the 5th years, and 13½ hours for the sixth year.
(b) Chinese teachers are to be exempted from the Thai language examinations.
As to the question of the textbooks to be used in Chinese schools, the reply was not specific. However, it was the Chinese understanding that the Chinese textbooks should be submitted to the Thai educational authorities for examination if required to do so. All Chinese schools expressed their satisfaction with this reply.
On November 8, 1947, Luang Thamrong Nawasawat's Government was overthrown by the coup d'etat headed by Marshal Pibul Songgram, now Prime Minister of the Thai Government. It was not until March 6, 1948, that this new government was recognized by China, Great Britain, the United States and France. The new Thai Government was reluctant to recognize the educational facilities granted by the previous Government. At the request of Dr. Hsieh Pao-chao, new Chinese Ambassador, who replaced Dr. Li Tieh-tseng in May, 1948, two meetings were held in the Thai Foreign Ministry. In the midst of a hot debate, Major-General Prince Pridi Debyabongs Devakula, Thai Foreign Minister, stated frankly, "the bone of our contention is that you want your Chinese descendants here to be Chinese while we want them to be Thais. Our different aims are hardly conciliable." Nai Suki, Deputy Minister of Education and his assistant, a Director-General of Secondary Education, argued that the educational facilities granted to the Chinese by the previous government constituted a violation of the Thai educational laws. If the Chinese Government should insist, he said, that the present Thai Government carry out the obligations entered into by the previous government, the Thai Education Ministry would be forced to resort to other measures which would create new difficulties for Chinese schools. A deadlock ensued. Dr. Hsieh, however, proved to be a capable diplomat. He cultivated in a short period very close personal relations with the Thai Foreign Minister, Deputy Foreign Minister and other high-ranking government officials. Through his personal influence and skilful handling of the matter, he succeeded in bringing about a more or less satisfactory settlement of this long-dragged out school problem with the Thai Government. In his letter to Ambassador Hsieh, the Thai Foreign Minister stated earnestly that, because of the Ambassador's friendly attitude toward the Thai Kingdom, His Majesty's Government was prepared to increase the hours of teaching Chinese from five to ten hours per week. As to the Thai language examinations, the Chinese teachers would be permitted to teach one year before they would be required to take the examinations. If they failed in the first examinations, they could try again after teaching another year. In other words, they would have two years to prepare for the examinations.
In implementing the above understanding, however, the Thai educational authorities made it known that Chinese schools which taught 10 hours of Chinese a week would not receive any subsidy from the Thai Government and those which had been receiving such subsidy would be deprived of the privilege.
4. Limitation of the Number of Chinese schools
In May 1948, the Thai Foreign Minister in a communication to the Chinese Ambassador informed the latter that the number of Chinese schools in Thailand should be limited as follows:
(a) In each of the provinces of Thailand (71 provinces), only two Chinese schools are permitted to be established with the exception of the provinces of Pra Nakorn, Thonburi, Chiengmai and Ubol.
(b) Eight Chinese schools are permitted to be established in the province of Pra Nakorn and three schools in each of the provinces of Chiengmai, Thonburi and Ubol.
(c) In each of the provinces the number of Chinese schools registered with the Thai Education Ministry in excess of the number of schools fixed by the Thai authorities are permitted to continue their operation until they close down voluntarily.
(d) No aliens are permitted to establish high schools in Thailand.
The above measures taken by the Thai Government against Chinese schools are in contravention of the provisions of Article VI, paragraph 2, of the Treaty of Amity. All the middle schools, about 8 in number, were forced to close down. Some big primary schools had to suspend their junior high school departments which they had operated for years. Asia result, primary school graduates who wished to further their education had either to attend the Thai high schools or go to some other country. Rich Chinese families sent their children to Hongkong and Singapore while others sent their children to Taiwan. As a result of the inducements offered by the Communists, some youngsters went to the Chinese mainland, with or without the knowledge of their parents.
As to the schools over and above the quota, they were in a precarious position. Because of shortage of funds, the school authorities found it difficult to run their schools in strict accordance with the Thai educational laws and regulations, especially with regard to school premises, equipment and the number of students fixed for each class. It was thus easy for Thai educational authorities to find fault with such schools and order them to close down on the ground of violation bf regulations.
The Chinese Embassy had on many occasions, lodged protests with the Thai Government requesting for revision of the drastic measures but to no avail. It has recently been reported that the Thai Government has expressed its intentions to revise the existing regulations to permit the Chinese to establish middle schools. The reason underlying such intentions is that many Chinese primary school graduates have gone to the mainland. After completion of their Communist training, they are sent back to Thailand to infiltrate into the masses and engage in subversive activities. However, the good intentions on the part of the Thai Government have not yet been translated into action.
5. Communist Infiltration into Chinese Schools.
According to the Thai educational laws, as stated above, a Chinese teacher, in order to be qualified, should pass the Thai language examinations. Many Chinese teachers are reluctant to or have difficulties in learning the Thai language. They have to quit teaching if they fail the examinations. The Communists, realizing that teachers are the best propagandas agents in schools, are exploiting this situation to their advantage. They order their young men to study the Thai language and send them to take the examinations. After they pass the examinations and thus qualify themselves as teachers, they go to the interior provinces of Thailand and do their best to get into the Chinese schools. Once employed by the schools, they work hard to win the respect and confidence of the students as well as of their parents. After they have established themselves as good teachers, they hold informal discussions on current events with the students and advise them to read Communist literature. They take pains to explain to the students what the latter cannot understand and give them books free of charge. The students are thus imperceptibly indoctrinated in Communism.
These Communist teachers always do their best to establish close personal relations with the local authorities whose confidence they gradually manage to secure. For instance, on Double Tenth, the Chinese schools wished to hold celebrations. These teachers reported this to the local authorities and reminded them that Chinese schools are registered as Thai private schools in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Thai Education Ministry. Under these laws and regulations, no date is set for the Chinese schools to hold celebrations for any occasion. Some of the local authorities were thus persuaded to forbid celebration of the Double Tenth in Chinese schools.
6. Anti-Communist Propaganda should be directed to Chinese Schools
There are now about 120 Chinese schools in Thailand. With most of them concentrated in the provinces of Pra Nakorn, Thonburi and Ubol, these Chinese schools may, in accordance with the political beliefs of the school authorities, be classified into the following categories:
(a) Schools owned and run by members and officers of the Kuomintang branch offices in Thailand
(b) Schools owned and run by people who are neither pro-Kuomintang nor pro-Communist, but neutral or in different to both
(c) Schools owned and run by either Communists or pro-Communists such as members of the Democratic League
What the National Government is seriously concerned about is that the second category of schools outnumbers both those run by Kuomintang and those by the pro-Communists or Communists. It is to such schools that our anti-Communist propaganda should be directed.
Since the Communist seizure of the mainland of China, the authorities of the second category of Chinese schools in Thailand have become disillusioned about the Communist rule which, they have realized, is oligarchic and much worse than any previous form of government. Owing to Communist intimidations, however, they do not dare express themselves openly in support of the National Government. Kuomintang officials in Thailand should avail themselves of this opportunity and take measures to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Communists.
We do not believe that every teacher or student in the pro-Communist schools is pro-Communist. Those who are not are the ones the Kuomintang should approach. Through contact with them, the Kuomintang members can learn their views on current political doctrines and help them study these doctrines in the light of the real situation in the democratic as well as Communist countries. They can give them publications to read at home and gradually make them aware of the falsehood of Communist propaganda and the evils of Communism. Students of the first and second categories of schools may have friends and relatives whose children are studying in pro-Communist schools. The Kuomintang members can persuade those friends and relatives that if they let their children continue their education in such schools, they will be poisoned both in mind and outlook. Most of the people who send their children to such schools are ignorant of the fact that their children are imbued there with Communist doctrines. But once they are aware of this fact, they will surely want to transfer their children to non-Communist schools.