We need to release brake on progress in Thai technology

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EDITORIAL

We need to release brake on progress in Thai technology
The Nation 2011-07-16

Our young scientists are world-beaters, so why are we stuck in a rut?

Kudos to a team of Thai students from the King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB), which stomped to victory at the World RoboCup Rescue 2011 contest held in the Turkish city of Istanbul this week.

Thai youngsters managed to beat more than 3,000 contestants from 43 countries, including the US and Japan. Of the top five teams, three were from Thailand. IRAP_Judy, the team from KMUTNB, emerged victorious with a staggeringly high score of 835 points. The next best team, MLR from Iran, got just 430 points. In third and fourth places were Thai teams Stabilize (405 points) from Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon, and Success (395 points) from Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin.

Young Thai scientists are no strangers to success on the world stage, with this week's victory making Thailand the RoboCup Rescue champions for the sixth consecutive year.

While that news is to be welcomed, showing that we can have some hope in our next generation, it is too early to celebrate an overall improvement for Thailand's progress in science.

In fact, the Thai students' winning effort was all the more impressive because it goes against the trend in this country. Thailand is lagging behind many Asian countries in terms of science and innovation. This is despite the fact that the success of our students shows we have a deep and talented pool of human resources.

The country's failure to improve its progress in science and innovation is simply more evidence that the adults in charge have squandered opportunities to develop our resources to their full potential.

Thailand has been complacent, while other Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan and Singapore have managed to move up the technological ladder in the last half century.

South Korea is an obvious example of how a country can step up the technological ladder in less than one generation. South Korea's industrial development was almost at the same level as that of Thailand in 1980. But now, our level of technological development is 10-15 years behind South Korea.

While Thailand has been complacent, the Koreans have developed their technology to become an important source of production growth. South Korean companies acquired technology from abroad, but the country also focused on domestic research and development, with its well-educated workforce helping the country to realise its technological ambitions.

The essential element that is needed to improve our scientific development is education. But unfortunately, the Thai school system has so far failed to arm students with an awareness of the world in which they will one day work. In truth, our young winners deserve extra accolades for being able to transcend the prevailing system. These youngsters' success in Turkey is one example of what hard work, tolerance and creativity can achieve against the odds.

In addition, our education environment does not encourage people to think outside the box and take up challenges, because Thai society does not support those who like to try innovative ideas. For instance, in the corporate world, employees typically prefer to play it safe by sticking to the status quo rather than risking new ideas and behaviour. This is because they know they are likely to be punished if their experiment goes unexpectedly wrong, while their uncreative colleagues escape punishment by staying idle. This culture should be reversed.

Like the business world, the government also needs to do more to support a culture of innovation. More public resources and budget are needed to promote innovation and development, and the government should work with the private sector to accelerate our technological advancement. For instance, either the government or private companies could use these student teams' robotic technology to develop commercially viable or useful applications.

Unfortunately, we adults are failing to provide a supportive environment for our youngsters' creativity and ideas. Even worse, the government and political parties are increasingly discouraging self-reliance and innovation by offering populist promises of freebies that cause people to view themselves as recipients, rather than innovators who can take control of their own destiny and be agents of change.