Lottery for military draft takes place each April. While some step forward willingly, others want it abolished.
James Campbell was scared the day he took part in Thailand’s lottery for the military draft.
It was sweltering as he waited with scores of other young men in 2016 to have his weight and measurements recorded by stern-faced soldiers.
“I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t scared,” Campbell, 24, who has a British father, told Al Jazeera.
“I remember that morning vividly. I was scared.”
Campbell was surprised to receive a letter in the mail telling him to attend the draft. He had to mentally prepare himself as his “entire life could change”.
“I also thought about my family. My parents are getting old, and I feel that I need to look out for them.”
Under Thailand’s 1954 Military Service Act, when men reach the age of 21, they become eligible for conscription.
If they don’t volunteer, they must participate in a lottery that takes place each April.
Every year, about 100,000 personnel are recruited. Their fate rests on the choice of a card: black for exemption, red for mandatory enlistment.
But reports of the abuse of young conscripts have caused outrage among Thais.
Human rights groups have documented cases of young men allegedly killed by their peers or senior officers through brutal hazing rituals, corporal punishment and even torture.
Conscription was a key issue at last month’s elections. Three parties talked openly about abandoning the draft.
Future Forward, the party that energised the youth vote and came third, said it wanted to end the draft and reform the military.
Pheu Thai, which won the most seats and is linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was deposed in a 2006 coup, also talked of ending conscription.
