Thai social media users launch ‘no impunity’ campaigns
SOCIAL MEDIA users have recently been actively campaigning for justice after a dentist posted on Facebook that he had finally paid off the debt of Dolrudee Jumlongras. He had been one of the guarantors for the former Mahidol University lecturer, who has s
As part of the justice campaign, social-media users have been sharing Dolrudee’s photos, her home address, her office address as well as her colleagues’ contact information. They have also set up a petition calling on Harvard to stop supporting her, saying she had taken advantage of taxpayers and the country for the sake of furthering her education. Many lashed out at her using rude language, while others gave her a poor rating and expressed their disappointment on Harvard University’s Facebook page calling for the university to take action against her.
After more than a thousand users began posting comments since last Friday at her post on Olsen Symposium, which contained her picture dating back to April 2011, the post was pulled off on Thursday.
Fuadi Pitsuwan, however, wrote: “On the dentist breaching the scholarship contract, I don’t think we should see it in terms of patriotism or gratitude for the country. Everybody with that level of education knows that being a researcher at such a university will be a better contribution to humanity and Thailand [than at a university in Thailand] … The problem is that she left her guarantors to pay the debt for her without any concrete plans to repay. These are different issues.”
In an e-mail response to |questions from Nation TV on Wednesday, Dolrudee wrote that she always intended to repay the scholarship she got from Mahidol University, and had asked for flexibility in paying it back.
She wrote that she had sent US$50,000 to the co-signers last April and asked Mahidol University to extend the deadline so she had enough time to find more cash. She also promised the co-signers that their loans would be paid off with interest once she could obtain the necessary funds in the near future.
“I hope this case will result in a major change in the scholarship awarding and repaying system in Thailand – a system that would allow reasonable and beneficial alternatives for the awardees to repay the loan,” she wrote.
Commenting on Nation TV22’s post of her letter, ScubaDiver Tau wrote: “Before you sign a scholarship contract, you should know all the conditions as to when you would have to repay or what penalties you would face in case you breach the contract. It is not right to complain later that the contract was not fair after breaching it.”
Nats Nathee Sup wrote: “Your behaviour so far has not signalled that you intend to repay. This is just a one-sided claim of one person.”
Natthawut Paisanwipatch-pong wrote: “Actually guarantors should not have paid [the debt for Dolreudee], but should have let Mahidol seek it from her on its own. It has been negligent for 10 years and just before the statute of limitations kicked in, it forced this from the guarantors. Mahidol will just do this again.”
Other than taking on Dolrudee’s case, Thai social-media users also pushed for two juvenile suspects in a murder and gang-rape case in Phattalung to be tried as adults. Many have also been campaigning for people accused of rape and murder to be given the death penalty instead of being considered for amnesty.
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