Academics tell junta to respect democratic values
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UNIVERSITY lecturers have called on the junta to stop violating academic freedom and stop threatening those expressing political opinions. The comments were made yesterday at a talk, "Universities Are Not Barracks: Space for Rights, Liberties, and Creativ
Speaker Soraj Hongladarom, a philosophy lecturer from Chulalongkorn University, said limiting freedom of expression and academic freedom would have an impact in the long run. When thoughts are limited to only one, society would collapse easily, he said.
He said diversity of ideologies was as important as an ecosystem. Society could not survive when everyone had the same opinion, just as an ecosystem would fail if it had only one species.
The lecturer said there was a need to protect academic freedom because it involved democratic values. It was based on the belief that everyone was equal, leading people to respect one another.
The threats posed by the junta are worrisome, he added, as society will be tamed by its leaders.
Soraj said people would not be able to think on their own and would become more like robots – another reason academic freedom should be maintained.
Academic Krittaya Achavanuntakul from Mahidol University said the National Council for Peace and Order did not seem to be fond of academic freedom.
Since the 2014 coup, the NCPO have attempted to block many meetings, seminars and public talks, she said. Krittaya said her alliance has been visited many times, and the junta had asked to see the scripts prior to its members speaking at public forums. Sometimes lecturers were asked to change statements or title of seminars. Many lecturers had been threat?ened.
Dejrat Sukkamnerd, a lecturer from Kasetsart University, said violations of academic freedom were occurring at a couple of levels. Many academics have been summoned for an “attitude adjustment” session, he added.
Sometimes they feel threatened, like when Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha recently said that people making political moves might be shot or bombed to death, the lecturer said.
He said all this was impeding the reconciliation atmosphere, adding that limiting academic freedom covered many other aspects, not only politics. Sometimes, it extended to economic or environmental issues.
At the talk, the Thai Academics for Civil Rights (TACR) issued a statement calling on the NCPO to stop threatening those expressing political views. They said expressing different opinions was common in a democratic society and had always been allowed by every democratic government.
Only a dictatorial government with abusive power would see the practice as provoking and confusing, the TACR said.
The statement included a response to Prayut’s remark about those taking political action perhaps being attacked. They said it was imprudent and could be bad for the country.
The talk and the statement came after Prayut called on academics to stop making political moves late last month. Prayut, who is also NCPO chief, said such actions by activists and lecturers could result in violence against them.
At the time, lecturers were calling on the junta to stop threatening people who were peacefully expressing political views.
Prior to all this, lecturers from some Chiang Mai-based universities were summoned by police and charged with violating the NCPO’s ban on gatherings of more than four people.
They had held a press conference titled “Universities Are Not Barracks” in response to the criticism that universities were hatching grounds for anti-government forces.
