Category: Thai politics

Yet more on Thammasat, lèse-majesté, and the Nitirat Group:

Today’s Bangkok Post reports:

Thammasat University’s executive committee will reconsider its decision to prohibit the use of the campus for activities related to the lese majeste law.

Thammasat rector Somkit Lertpaithoon said he will ask executives to reconsider the decision to prohibit such activities on the grounds as the issue has widened divisions at the university.

Mr Somkit said he will propose a rethink on the ban at a meeting of the university executives on Feb 13.

The ban resulted from a campaign by the Nitirat group, a gathering of academics seeking an amendment to Article 112 of the Criminal Code, better known as the lese majeste law.

This movement has drawn significant opposition, leading the university to ban all campaigning relating to Article 112, by Nitirat or others, on its grounds, for fear violence could erupt between those opposed to the law and those seeking to keep it.

But critics of the ban say it is violating freedom of expression.

Nearly 200 protesters, including students, turned up at Thammasat University yesterday in opposition to the ban.

Meanwhile, the Post says Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha weighed in on the Nitirat group today:

The group of seven Thammasat law professors, known as the Nitirat (enlightened jurists), should stop calling for a change in the lese majeste law, national army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said Monday.

“I don’t understand their objective, because when a law is violated officials have to take legal action, without any exceptions, and the process is all in line with legal procedure,” Gen Prayuth said.

He called on Nitirat not to put the monarchy in the middle of “the conflict” because the monarchy is above it.

“The monarchy is not the person who will accuse anyone. If a person made a mistake, His Majesty the King can still grant a royal pardon,” said the army chief.

He said offenders could not make the excuse that they did not know the law, or had no bad intentions.

“I want to ask the Nitirat academics this – if someone curses at their guardians, parents or relatives, would they accept it?

“Thai society cannot continue to exist if we let people violate the defamation law, and as a Thai person I don’t want to see more damage to the country.

“I ask the Nitirat to stop their movement and stop linking the army with everything,” Gen Prayuth said.

You can find previous posts on the Thammasat issue under the lèse-majesté tag.

(All emphasis mine.)

(Image: Bangkok Post.)

To follow up on my last two posts:

The Thammasat Univ. lèse-majesté/free expression issue continues to make headlines here in Thailand and abroad.

Today’s Bangkok Post reports:

Students, alumni members and lecturers at Thammasat University remain divided over the use of its main campus as a venue for the Nitirat group to engineer a campaign to amend the controversial lese majeste law.

More than 200 current and former student members of the Journalism and Mass Communication Faculty staged a rally against Nitirat at the Tha Phrachan campus. Students and lecturers from other faculties and supporters joined in the demonstration.

They were countered by a group of students who gathered at Thammasat’s Rangsit campus in Pathum Thani who oppose the ban on Nitirat. The group will hold a rally at Tha Phrachan campus on Sunday.

More on the protesting journalism students, some of whom are pictured above: the Post said yesterday:

A group of former and present students of the faculty of journalism and mass communication at Thammasat University on Thursday submitted a letter to the university rector to investigate and take legal and disciplinary action against the lecturers comprising the Nitirat group.

They called during a rally for members of the Thammsat community to oppose Nitirat’s proposal for the amendment of Section 112 of the Criminal Code, for the university to launch a legal and disciplinary investigation of the seven law lecturers, for the mass media to exercise discretion in presenting information on the proposed amendment, and for people in all walks of life to oppose any move deemed insulting to the monarchy.

Elsewhere in the Post today, scholar Thitinan Pongsudhirak looks at Thai identity and puts the Nitirat campaign in historical context:

The Nitirat campaign to amend Article 112 of the Criminal Code, commonly known as the lese majeste law, has generated a political tempest.

It has struck a consonant chord as much as it has riled apprehensive nerves of reformers and conservatives on both sides of the political fault line centring on the monarchy’s role in Thai democracy.

Read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported yesterday that:

American linguist Noam Chomsky, Princeton University professor Cornell West and 221 other foreign scholars have urged Thailand’s prime minister to revise laws that shield the country’s monarchy from criticism, lending their voice to a controversial campaign.

In a letter seen on Thursday and sent to Yingluck Shinawatra a day earlier, the mostly U.S. and European academics backed the campaign by seven Thai university lecturers to amend the world’s toughest lese-majeste laws, which they said had become “a powerful tool to silence political dissent”.

(All emphasis mine.)

(Image: Bangkok Post.)

A follow up on my post yesterday about Thammasat Univ. banning a group of its lecturers from meeting on campus to discuss amending Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws.

The Bangkok Post reports today:

Thammasat University’s decision to bar the Nitirat group from using its campuses for activities related to the lese majeste law has sparked a fierce debate over its stance on freedom of expression.

Thammasat rector Somkit Lertpaithoon yesterday defended the university executive committee’s decision.

In a message posted on his Facebook page, he said the ban was intended to prevent any incidents which could escalate into violence such as the massacre of left-wing students at Thammasat’s Bangkok campus on Oct 6, 1976.

“Many people have expressed disagreement with my decision to prohibit the Nitirat group from campaigning against Section 112 at the university,” he posted. “This could be seen as a restriction on free speech. This is understandable.

“But I want you to look at another angle. University executives had to enact this measure out of worry that the situation could escalate into a second Oct 6.”

The Post also has an op-ed today headlined “Democracy demands debate on lese majeste law.” The author is Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political scientist at Ubon Ratchathani University. A snip:

Thailand will inevitably have to learn one way or another, to fully accept a founding principle of democracy, which is freedom of speech and expression. No country can claim to have negotiated the road to democracy while continuing to pick and choose as and when such democratic principles suit prevailing domestic interests.

The Nation has more in a story. A snip:

Several groups of students put up posters on the campus’ buildings against the decision. They also plan to place wreaths to oppose the decision at Puay Ungpakorn’s statue on the Rangsit campus tomorrow and at Pridi Banomyong’s statue on the main Prachan campus on Sunday.

There’s also this Nation editorial calling for tolerance on all sides:

Thailand cannot emerge from its political stalemate and develop its democratic institutions unless people have respect for opponents’ opinions

(All emphasis mine.)

(Image: Bangkok Post.)

Today’s Bangkok Post reports:

Thammasat University has banned the use of the university’s compound as a venue for any activities related to the lese majeste law.

The move came amid growing public discontent against the Nitirat group, comprising seven Thammasat law lecturers, which has proposed an amendment to Section 112 of the Criminal Code, better known as the lese majeste law, and a rewrite of Chapter 2 of the constitution, which covers the monarchy.

Since its establishment in September 2010, Nitirat’s activities have mainly been held at Thammasat’s Tha Phrachan campus in Phra Nakhon district.

“The university’s executive committee has resolved unanimously to prohibit the use of the university’s premises for any movement related to Section 112,” Thammasat rector Somkit Lertpaithoon wrote in a message posted on his Facebook page yesterday.

Allowing such activities to take place on the university’s grounds could lead the public to mistakenly believe that Thammasat organises or agrees with the movement, he said.

“Moreover, it could trigger violent confrontations on the premises,” he said.

The Nation has more.

(All emphasis mine.)