THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Guarantor not convinced of payback pledge

Guarantor not convinced of payback pledge

Harvard instructor accused of decade of delinquent payments, violation of terms of Thai govt backing

THE HARVARD University instructor at the centre of a fellowship controversy has let down her outspoken guarantor so many times that she would have to sign an ironclad contract with legal binding effect in the United States to convince him she would really pay up.
“She has told me throughout the past 10 years that she will pay, but she has not done what she promises. So it will take a written agreement for me to believe her,” Dr Padet Pulwittayakij said yesterday in response to a statement that Dr Dolrudee Jumlongras had just sent to Nation TV, a media outlet under Nation Multimedia Group. 
The station wrote to Dolrudee twice this week, on Sunday and Monday, asking her about allegations that she had not only violated the terms of her government fellowship but also refused to pay compensation for it. 
Dolrudee replied at about 11pm on Wednesday that she had run into difficulties and it was impossible for her to meet the repayment deadline. 
“I am still in the process of trying to obtain the money, and I ask that I be allowed more time to pay my co-signers,” she said in her note.
Padet has already paid more than Bt2 million for Dolrudee’s breach of the government fellowship. A few other guarantors were also forced to do the same thing. 
Under the fellowship, Dolrudee has to pay about Bt30 million for the breach. 
However, the guarantors have been given some leniency because they are not the wrongdoers and not related to her by blood. 
Dolrudee, a dental lecturer at Mahidol University, headed to the US in 1994 to pursue her master’s and doctorate degrees at Harvard under a Thai government fellowship. During that time, she continued receiving a monthly salary from Mahidol. 
But instead of honouring the fellowship’s requirement that upon graduation she return to Thailand to serve the government for double her study period, she resigned from Mahidol with effect in late 2003. 
Since then she has wired just about US$50,000 (Bt1.8 million) to her guarantors. 
Assistant Professor Pattarawadee Leelataweewud, a deputy chief for Mahidol’s paediatric dentistry unit, told the media that she had agreed to become Dolrudee’s guarantor because she hoped Dolrudee’s further studies would benefit the public. 
“I did nothing wrong but I ended up having to pay millions of baht in compensation,” she said. 
Padet said he had never received any apology from Dolrudee and he felt like she wrote the recent letter to Nation TV only because she felt the growing pressure. 
“I will sue her to set a precedent,” Padet said. 
Some Thais in the US are now raising funds for his legal battle with her, he said.
 
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