Credit: Irrawaddy News Magazine.
Mong Thongdee, a 12-year-old ethnic Shan boy representing Thailand in an international paper plane contest, took third place in the individual championship in Japan on Sunday after winning gold for his three-man Thai team on Saturday.
Mong took first place for the Thai team after his paper plane stayed in the air for 11 seconds. During a warm-up, Mong recorded a time of 16.45 seconds.
Last year, Mong won the national origami plane championship, organized by the National Metal and Materials Technology Center in Bangkok. His plane stayed in the air for 12.5 seconds, qualifying him to participate in 4th Origami Plane Competition in Japan.
Mong was almost denied the chance to compete in the competition in Chiba, Japan, after Thailand’s Ministry of the Interior refused to issue him a travel document because his parents are Burmese migrants and he has no Thai ID, even though he was born in the kingdom.
After much media publicity, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva stepped into the limelight and offered Mong a passport after meeting him in Bangkok.
Mong’s photograph and personal story were published on the front page of English-language newspaper, The Bangkok Post, while several other Thai newspapers and TV channels also followed the story. The Irrawaddy and other exiled Burmese exile media have also reported about Mong.
“I had to take some days off work because so many journalists called me,” said Mong’s mother, Nang Mo. “My boss didn’t like it.” Sai Nyunt, Mong’s father, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the family is preparing to go to Bangkok to join the welcome celebrations for his son. “I feel very happy and proud of my son. He will be a good example for other children in Thailand,” he said.
Mong said his real dream isn’t just to be a paper plane champion, but to be an airplane engineer. He said many of his classmates have taken up paper plane flying now as well. He said that he was told by Abhisit that he would meet him again if he won first prize in Japan. Mong is a fourth-grade student at Ban Huay Sai Primary School in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.
He was born in Fang, a rural district of Chiang Mai Province, where his parents were working as laborers in an orchard. His parents, Sai Nyunt and Nang Mo, left Kho Lan village in southern Shan State in 1995 in search of a better life in Thailand. Mong’s family is on a Thai government list of people to be considered for repatriation to Burma in February 2010.
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