Anti-coup academics taking refuge in the United States

Earlier this week, Yukti appeared with Pitch Pongsawat, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn and another anti-coup academic, who happened to be at Harvard University’s Harvard-Yenching Institute on a year-long sabbatical, to fiercely criticise the junta in a video interview.
Yukti, who has now received assistance from the Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) and is at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, insisted he’s not seeking asylum but merely temporary refuge from political danger, and vowed to continue criticising the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) from abroad.
“I don’t think the situation will improve in a year or two,” Yukti wrote on the prachatai.com online newspaper on Monday.
“But I think being able to work freely for a while (in the US) is better than having to work where there’s no freedom and where one could be threatened at any time.”
Most recipients of assistance from SRF are scholars from countries like Syria, Iraq and Egypt, where freedom is being severely threatened, and he wants the world and the Thai government to know that Thailand’s level of freedom “has fallen that low”.
Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher on Thailand for Human Rights Watch, said this coup had triggered the biggest exodus of liberal intellectuals in recent history.
“This is unprecedented since the October 1976 [massacre] that so many Thais have fled to live in exile in order to fight for democracy,” he said.
Japan and the United Kingdom are two other spots with visible anti-coup intellectuals, he said. In Japan, the most visible anti-coup voice belongs to Pavin Chachaval-pongpun, who was teaching at Kyoto University even before the putsch.
In England, Harvard law graduate Verapat Pariyawong, who refused to act on the NCPO’s summon to return to Thailand, continues to write critically about the junta, adding firepower to the missives from Thai intellectual Ji Giles Ungpakorns, who fled there before him.
The whereabouts of Thammasat historian Somsak Jiamteerasakul, arguably the most prominent critic of the lese majeste law, are unknown, although it is believed he skipped the country right after the coup.
“These critics feel it’s no longer safe for them to stay. Thailand is falling further and further into dictatorship,” Sunai said.
Ekachai Chainuvati, a law lecturer at a private university in Bangkok, also wants to leave for a country like Sweden, the UK or the US, but he said he has a family and can’t decide matters alone. “I feel numb when many liberal pro-democracy academics gradually decide to depart their homeland. I guess they have been through many coups in Thailand but they feel their voices are not the ‘right’ voice for the Thai elite and Bangkok people anymore,” Ekachai told The Nation.
“In the long run, Thailand will face a problem of a lack of liberal democratic voices in Thai universities, but the US and the world will understand more about the Thai situation. Thus, it is beneficial to the world and a deficit for Thai society. There’s no win-win scenario here, only the winner takes all and the junta is the winner.”
NCPO spokesperson Colonel Winthai Suvari said the matter is a personal view of each academic and many scholars remain in Thailand. “Many still do not understand the intention of the NCPO in solving problems. The government and the NCPO are working for the Thai people and not for themselves. Asian nations have developed a better understanding. But there’s only so much we can do to convince these people,” said Winthai.