Thammasat comes out against amnesty bill
More than 600 Thammasat lecturers, officials and students have officially declared their opposition to the amnesty bill and called on the Senate to reject it.
In just one day – Sunday – 682 lecturers and staff signed their names to reaffirm the university’s stand against the bill. Many students also signed.
University rector Somkit Lertpaithoon said the bill should benefit only people who gathered in the political rallies in 2010, and should not cover other unrelated acts such as rallies against corruption cases.
The bill was unconstitutional, he said, because of its excessive scope, covering all illegal acts of politicians.
The amnesty would not bring peace to the country, so 636 Thammasat lecturers and 46 employees had signed their names to show their responsibility to society as an educational institution.
He said university alumni would gather at the statue of Thammasat founder Pridi Banomyong on Thursday and file a petition to the president of the Senate.
Somkit said the university might hold an event to discuss the amnesty bill.
Chalisa Thammawong, chair of the Thammasat students’ body, said they could see the importance of an amnesty bill, but added it should only apply to ordinary people and not politicians, government staff, protest leaders or those accused by the Assets Examination Committee (AEC) or other bodies set up after the coup.
She said: "This bill is illegal because the committee altered its core content during the second reading."
She said students and the student council had called instead for the original version of the bill to be considered, as the amnesty should apply only to people who gathered in political rallies.
