Students at Chulalongkorn University put up signs demanding academic freedom today (24 September) after university management prohibited a campus launch event for a new research monograph on the behind-the-scenes role of the military in Thai politics.

The Thai version of Infiltrating Society (Photo from Same Sky Books)

The book is a Thai version of the monograph Infiltrating Society: The Thai Military’s Internal Security Affairs by Puangthong Pawakapan, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Sciences. Printed by Same Sky Books, it focuses on how the Thai military has employed infiltration tactics, from the Cold War period to the present, to indoctrinate civilians, promote ultra-royalism, and secure political order.

The book launch was initially scheduled to take place at the Faculty of Political Sciences. According to Same Sky Books, the venue has now been changed to the Jim Thompson Art Centre and will be held this Friday (27 September).

Puangthong wrote on her Facebook profile page that she was informed last week by the Dean of her Faculty that university management had prohibited the event from being held on campus.  No explanation was provided.

The Faculty is reportedly still funding the event and the Department of International Relations is still hosting it.  However, the Faculty is unable to host the event in its building because university management has authority over the entire campus.

According to Puangthong, Thammasat University’s Faculty of Political Sciences offered to host the event on its campus. However, the organisers had already contacted the Jim Thompson Art Centre, which agreed to let them use its event space.  Puangthong thanked the Centre’s management for agreeing, despite the risk from the authorities.

Last week, the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) asked for sale of the book to be suspended, claiming that the study is based on misinformation and damages ISOC’s public image. ISOC also threatened to ask Chulalongkorn University to conduct an ethics probe on Puangthong’s research and to press charges against her.

Students put up signs calling for academic freedom and demanding that the university management provide an explanation on its relationship with the military.

In response to the university management’s decision, a group of students put up signs at several locations on campus calling for academic freedom and demanding an explanation.

Nitchakarn (last name withheld), one of the students, said that a university should not be prohibiting public academic events from being held on campus. She questioned why its management was obliged to defer to ISOC. She also wondered why the management was interfering with Faculty of Political Sciences affairs, banning events which were previously allowed to be held at the faculty building.

Nitchakarn added that the university is facing a number of criticism, including its use of university land for commercial purposes. She called upon faculty members and students to keep an eye on the management team and their relations with ISOC and other security institutions.