Debate the lese majeste law

Thammasat’s law alumni, of all people, should know that the core mission of a university is to question, to challenge. If what the Nitirat group proposes is not suitable for Thailand, then show us, through open debate – not trying to silence the proponents unheard. The 1958 Law Alumni Club sounds like those who wanted to kick out then-Thammasat rector Dr Puey Ungpakorn years ago, claiming he was a communist, “to prevent him from having a bad influence on the students”. If Thammasat law students don’t know how to think, how to separate the wheat from the chaff, then the faculty has failed abjectly in its main duty.

Club president Suthep Nirundorn, will you be willing to debate Nitirat’s representative, broadcast live, on whether HM the King’s opinion about our lese majese laws should be applied to the Nitirat proposals? The debate would be excellent material for discussion in classrooms and the media, and thus we can find out for ourselves what to do with our laws. Come, sir, help shed light, not heat, on how to protect our highest institution.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok