On April 18, five anti-coup activists submitted a petition to Asa Sarasin, the Principal Private Secretary to the King, at the office at the Grand Palace, requesting reconsideration of the reinstatement of Gen Surayud Chulanont to the Privy Council.

Gen Surayud, 65, was appointed a Privy Councillor in 2003 and resigned from the post to take the premiership after the Sept 19 coup in 2006. He was reinstated on April 8, and former Supreme Court Presidents Supachai Pu-ngam, 63, and Charnchai Likitjitta, 62, who was also Justice Minister in the Surayud administration, were also appointed into the 19-member Council.

Anti-coup activist Bhumiwat Nukij said that the appointment and dismissal of Privy Councillors is solely up to the King, but he and his fellows ventured to submit the petition because they considered Gen Surayud unfit for the post.

According to Bhumiwat, Gen Surayud accepted the junta's invitation to become Prime Minister against the principles of democracy. And, just a few days before his departure from the premiership, Gen Surayud's cabinet issued a royal decree increasing the salaries of Privy Councillors and the Senior Statesman who happens to be Privy Council President Gen Prem Tinasulanont. A lawsuit at the Supreme Administrative Court had been filed by Bhumiwat et al against Gen Surayud for a conflict of interest and is pending trial. And Gen Surayud's occupation of a plot of land on top of Khao Yai Thiang in a forest reserve in Nakhon Ratchasima province is currently under investigation.

Siyakorn Punpanich, head of the Legal Department under the Office of Principal Private Secretary, came out to meet the activists and said that the petition did not seem to her to constitute a lèse majesté offence, and she would report it to her superiors. Later, Kanthikaporn Kokliam, staff member of the Office, formally received the petition.

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