At first glance, 18-year-old Min doesn’t appear the conventional rebel. He’s soft spoken; his youth etched in his slender shoulders, his shy smile. He’s rarely seen in the media. Yet Min is the anonymous force behind a Twitter account of several hundred thousand followers, and founder of a student movement that is taking on Thailand’s authoritarian education system.
The “Bad Student”, as the account is dubbed, is one of many interlocking youth-led protest groups that have been rocking Thailand since August 2020. The wider pro-democracy movement’s demands include reforming the monarchy, a new constitution and, most recently, the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha over his handling of Covid-19. The Bad Student’s catalysts for protest is similar – a militarised, top-down culture with no freedom of expression – but its focus is school, not society.
Content from our partners
