Govt pushes AIT leadership to respect Thai law
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Several government agencies have pressured the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), which has the status of an international intergovernmental organisation, to abide by Thai law or to operate under its old charter at least until Parliament agrees to appro
AIT finds itself in a crisis, because, while it is located in Thailand, its new charter has not won ratification from Thai Parliament. Without parliamentary approval, its new graduates and students are worried that their degrees may not be officially recognised.
“The Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Council of State and the Cabinet have already made it clear that as AIT sits in Thailand, it must respect Thai laws,” AIT vice president Worasak Kanok-Nukulchai said yesterday.
He was speaking after the House Committee on Foreign Affairs summoned him over the AIT crisis. According to Worasak, the House committee told him that AIT is subject to Thai law.
Worasak said AIT president Said Irandoust believed international law was more important.
“Someone has to convince [Irandoust],” Worasak said. “I am not in a position to do so.”
Several AIT students and alumni have called on the Foreign Affairs Ministry for help.
Worasak believed the best way forward was for AIT’s old board, which comprised 33 members, to convene a meeting to resolve the crisis.
If more than half of the board members showed up, it would have the authority to draw up a solution and resolve the impasse.
Chawalit Chantararat, a board member and also the chairman of the AIT Alumni (International) Association, said it was not possible to convene a board meeting amid intense lobbying by various factions. “Only nine members showed up for the meeting I tried to convene to approve the degrees for new graduates,” he said. “That doesn’t work.”
Chawalit believed the Foreign Ministry should help more by encouraging the board members, who are foreign envoys, to attend the meeting. “Some of them have refused to show up because someone spread false rumours that such a meeting would be illegal. The Foreign Affairs Ministry should clear up the misunderstanding,” he said.
Pawat Traipattanakul, a former president of the AIT Student Federation, said some AIT students were set to graduate in mid-December, and he hoped the crisis would be resolved before then.
