Thammasat University is usually considered to be one of the most progressive of universities in Thailand. Its origins are in the civilian elements of the People’s Party. The People’s Party overthrew the monarchy in order to establish a democracy in Thailand. Through the ups and downs of military and royalist opposition to the people’s voice, Thammasat has tended to reflect its foundation as a university of the people. It is seemingly fitting that Nitirat should blossom at such a university.
Reading The Nation it seems that some old law graduates have forgotten everything about their university. They also appear to have forgotten the most basic notions of justice that is meant to be a part of the law.
Opposing the Nitirat group of law lecturers at Thammasat and their proposals regarding lese majeste and coup-related laws, the law class of 1958 has:
issued a statement calling for an end to Nitirat’s use of the university as a venue for its activities, and alleged that the group had defamed the Royal institution. They said that since the lecturers were government officials but did not support Thai democracy with the monarchy as its head, they should be fired.
We fully understand that aged lawyers – they must all be in their mid-70s – can be forgetful of the heritage of their faculty and university and may also have forgotten the law itself. Even so, their call would be more at home from tinpot military despots than people who were once trained in law and philosophy.
But it is a class that does include some of the major political figures like the Democrat Party’s Chuan Leekpai and royalist ideologue Meechai Ruchupan. At the Bangkok Post these old men are said to be worried that Nitirat professors would have “a bad influence on the students.” They called for
Disciplinary probes should be launched against the lecturers as they have shown they do not have faith in democracy with the King as head of state….
PPT can well imagine that these aged royalists worry that their ideological edifice is crumbling.
Of course, all of Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva’s closest allies are jumping on the anti-Nitirat train. Abhisit’s buddy Sathit Wongnongtoey is reported at The Nation as “mobilising party members to oppose the group.” When his party was in government, Sathit was responsible for closing opposition and independent media.
In a coordinated attack, Sathit claimed the country was facing “a new security threat.” He identified this as “the distorting of information about the monarchy institution to make it look bad.” We are a little mystified by this claim as most recent “information” has been pro-monarchy. Sathit demanded “[m]ore dissemination of correct information was needed…”. We wonder how much more propaganda is possible.
Another close Abhisit aide joined in. This is Thepthai Senapong who went the additional step and linked Sathit’s claims to the Yingluck Shinawatra government. He “said the ruling Pheu Thai Party had made it clear at certain levels that they would not make a move to amend the lese majeste law. Whether people believed that or not was another matter, however, he said.” He then exploded into claims of disloyalty:
Thepthai said the lack of trust was related to the fact that many figures associated with the party, from former premier Thaksin Shinawatra down, had been embroiled in actions or words deemed as disloyal to the throne. He claimed that the ousted and convicted former premier always attacked the monarchy in interviews with foreign media.
Thepthai then did a bit of lateral concocting and said the actions and movements of people like Jakrapob Penkair and rather bizarrely, Ji Ungpakorn to claim that “people would trust Pheu Thai when it comes to the issue of the monarchy, no matter how many statements they made.” Thepthai has a history of making scurrilous claims.
PPT has made the point that ultra-royalists – be they old lawyers or the DemoPAD Party – will never accept Puea Thai no matter how royalist it makes itself. Whatever Puea Thai does, it is “disloyal” and this is the issue chosen to bring the election result undone.
For the Democrat Party and its royalist allies in the military, palace, PAD, and so on, the battle began the day the voting public rejected them.
Puea Thai has been misguided (if not politically stupid) in believing that their battle was won when it won that election. Even now surveys show that the public is not supporting the ultra-royalists and Puea Thai has far more support than the Democrat Party. But that counts for nothing with the royalists: they are not democrats and they are desperate to save their crumbling royalist regime.
