Seminar Series: Abstract

Uncivil Servants: doctors, teachers, and bureaucratic dissent in Thailand
Dr Tyrell Haberkorn

In the heady atmosphere engendered by the events of 14 October 1973, many teachers and doctors became radicalized in Thailand. They came to believe that education and healthcare were the rights of everyone, rather than the privilege of a few. Like the students, farmers, and workers who also became politicized during this period, the teachers’ and doctors’ actions came to seen as transgressive and were met with hostility by some conservative forces. Yet unlike students, farmers, and workers -- who positioned themselves outside the system -- as civil servants, teachers and doctors were squarely within the system. Drawing on ethnography, oral history, published letters and volumes, and newspapers, I trace the politicization of teachers and doctors in the mid-1970s. In particular, I consider their roles as civil servants – agents of the state – and how this refracted the danger they posed. Finally, I ascertain how the call for access to healthcare and education for all became threatening to those in power, and therefore catalyzed social and political transformation which greatly exceeded their individual lives.