Thammasat 'is open' to academic events

Meanwhile, a split was growing between Thammasat’s conflicting students and alumni, with one side coming out against the campaign for amendment to Article 112 of the Penal Code on lese majeste, and the other side protesting against the university administration’s “restrictions on academic freedom”.

Somkid Lertpaithoon, the university rector, said yesterday that the ban would be applied to both sides involved in the dispute – the Nitirat group, which is campaigning for changes to Article 112 and constitutional amendments on the monarchy, and the Siam Prachapiwat group, which is campaigning for protection of the monarchy and against “parliamentary dictatorship by political capitalists”.

He said both groups could still hold their academic-oriented events on the matter inside the university compound.“The ban only covers campaigns of a political nature about Article 112. If the CCA 112 wants to hold an academic seminar about Article 112, I will give them permission. But I won’t allow them to hold a signature campaign inside the TU compound,” Somkid said in an interview with Matichon Online.

CCA 112 refers to Nitirat’s Campaign Committee for the Amendment of Article 112.

“Siam Prachapiwat also will not get my permission if they want to collect signatures inside the university compound in their campaign against amendment to Article 112,” the rector said.

At the university’s Tha Phrachan campus yesterday, a group of current and former students from the faculty of journalism and mass communications gathered at the monument of Thammasat’s founder Pridi Banomyong to announce their opposition to Nitirat. The group, who called themselves “Journalism Faculty against Nitirat”, were led by film director Yuthana Mukdasanit.

Yuthana read a statement that the monarchy had become a target of people seeking to overthrow the institution and that allowing amendment to or removal of Article 112 was to pave the way for them to achieve the goal. The group said they agreed that Nitirat’s campaign was not purely academic, but rather politically motivated with the hidden goal of undermining the monarchy. 

The anti-Nitirat group also made a five-point call for all elements in society to come out against any efforts to bring down the monarchy. Their petition was handed to deputy rector Pornchai Trakulwaranont, who accepted the document on behalf of the rector, who was in the Northern province of Lampang. The group members, facing Siriraj Hospital across the river where His Majesty the King has been staying, also sang the Royal Anthem before leaving.

A group of red shirts gathered at the campus yesterday, calling for a lifting of the ban. At its Rangsit campus, a group of Thammasat students laid a wreath in front of the statue of late former rector Puey Ungphakorn, in protest against the ban. The students said they did not want the university to curb academic freedom.