Hidden messages behind Thai children’s day motto. by Poon Lee Potchanakasem

“What is the easiest way to instill nationalism in children?” One of the annual duties of the prime minister of Thailand and their team is to create a motto for National Thai children’s day, sending messages to the future generation. Every year, the motto will be widely broadcasted to the entire country. Every child has to memorize it, it is a simple yet powerful tool to instill values in children.

The design of this visualization was heavily inspired by the answer sheets that children used in the school. Each dot symbolizes a phrase in the motto. The colors represent the meaning of the phrase for example, red means nationalism, yellow represent morals and ethics, blue represent education, and orange means harmony. The mottos are divided into 8 periods based on the political events in Thailand. Lastly, the colors of lines in the timeline color-coded by the different political regimes. Red lines represent the period under military leaders. Blue lines represent when the prime minister came from the general election.

The purpose of this analysis is to illustrate that “Language is a tool for indoctrination”.
Language can reflect what is the government agenda, what they think about the future generation, and what they want them to be. For the past 66 years, leaders from different regimes indirectly instill their thoughts in the motto. This work was released on the national Thai children’s day and went viral on social media in Thailand.