Challenging a royalist university

Thaiger reports on the latest twist in Paul Chambers’ 112 case and associated state actions to punish him, even when the case has seemingly been dropped.

As we have previously posted, university administrations have mostly come under the control of dullard royalists. Royalist administrators have acted against students and staff they see as anti-royal.

Naresuan University quickly dismissed Chambers after he was charged. Some say the university had to sack him once his visa and work permit were withdrawn. This was by other state agencies seeking to punish him for a crime he had not been convicted of and which now seems to have been dropped. But, this is just making excuses for royalist administrators.

As it turns out, Chambers’ lawyers are now asserting that “the termination was unlawful, lacked due process, and violated university regulations.”

Of course, none of these breaches have ever bothered royalists as their (potentially) illegal actions are demonstrations of loyalty.

Chambers’s dismissal was “signed by the acting rector, who also serves as vice rector for administration.” Chambers’ lawyers say that:

…the university jumped the gun while he was still appealing the visa cancellation, which itself was based on a charge that is no longer active.

More critically, the lecturer alleges he was never given a chance to defend himself and that the university failed to establish a fact-finding committee, as required under internal regulations before disciplinary action is taken….

According to Chambers [and his lawyers], the university’s own rules permit dismissal only in cases where an employee is either unqualified or has committed a disciplinary offence. He insists he has done neither.

It is common for universities in Thailand to hire foreign academics to boost their rankings through international publication, and Chambers has certainly done that for Naresuan, a provincial university, where Google Scholar has him ranked as the university’s highest ranked political scientist in terms of citations. But, again, loyalty is likely to trump anything to do with scholarly work.

It is suspected that Chambers may be deported.