Throughout the whole world we will see uniforms. When we come into a hospital we expect that nurses and doctors wear a white gown. Judges wear a robe, and even policemen and soldiers in the service are bearing uniforms, so everybody can recognize their profession.

                       

In Thailand, we can see much more people wearing uniforms, than in western countries. All civil servants and state employees have a uniform, and if they are not already wearing them every day while in service, then at least they will don them for special occasions. In my village, once a week all teachers are coming to school in uniform, each with appropriate rank insignia on the shoulder patches and medals on the chest. If you see with the Cabinet of Ministers in a televised event, you can think that it consists only of generals. Each minister is wearing a snow-white uniform with the compulsory decorations. It seems that the first official act of a newly appointed minister consists in ordering a full military dress.

           

Having business with a government agency, one sometimes gets the impression, to have to do only with senior officers. In election times when everywhere the posters of candidates are hanging out, one has the impression, as if only generals would be candidates. Each candidate is posing on the election posters in uniform. Even our village mayor is wearing a decorated uniform when he is going to an official visit in the city.

           

The tradition that all civil servants wear a uniform goes back to the time of King Rama V. 1873. The king abolished the commandment that everybody in the presence of the king had to prostate on the ground, and instead ordered, that all the princes and officials had to bear white collar jackets, closed with 5 buttons.