Royalist handmaidens

While Reuters has it as an “exclusive,” the story that university administrators have been ordered to prevent students from criticizing the monarchy is not a particularly new story. What is new is that Reuters has confirmation that the orders have been issued and has seen one of the letters.

Senator Somchai Sawangkarn told Reuters that letters had been sent by state-appointed provincial governors to university heads, summoning them to meetings ahead of protests planned on Sept. 19 in Bangkok and elsewhere.

“University administrators should create understanding with the students on this and should put a stop to the demands on the monarchy,” he said.

“We did not tell the governors to block the protests but we want them to create understanding with university officials, especially on the 10 demands for the monarchy.”

Somchai is a well-connected yellow shirt and his comments were confirmed by the Ministry of Interior. That Ministry described the order as standard practice.

A letter to one university explained to university administrators:

There are concerns about the behavior of some groups taking part in the protest that are inappropriate, for example those that want to topple the monarchy and those that demand voiding Article 112 of the criminal code.

As far as we are aware, no student protest has called for the toppling of the monarchy, but perhaps we missed it.

Tellingly, the letter refers to the possibility of violence, referring to 1976 and 1992, both events where the violence and murders was perpetrated by the state’s security forces.

It is not surprising that the regime is asking the universities to do its dirty work. As we said some time ago, university administrations have been captured by royalists who are the handmaidens of rightist regimes.