Posted
January 31st, 2011
by
Giles Ji Ungpakorn, an associate professor at Chulalongkom University in Bangkok and a contributor to Asia Sentinel and the New Statesman,
was formally charged under the lèse-majesté laws with insulting the
king on 20 January 2009. He was given 20 days to respond to the charges,
before the Thai authorities decided whether or not his case would be
given to the Thai courts for prosecution, and could have faced between
three and fifteen years in prison if found guilty.
The charges against Ungpakorn relate to his book A Coup for the Rich, in which he criticised the 2006 military coup. (To read the book, please click here. http://wdpress.blog.co.uk/)
Giles discovered that the university where he worked (Chulalongkorn
University), who had previously banned his book from their bookshop,
were the people who actually handed a copy to the Thai police. According
to Giles “The entire university administration supported the coup and
my prosecution and only a handful of Thai academics spoke up for me and
for academic freedom. The entire N.G.O. movement in Thailand remained
silent and even my own brother (an ex-Senator) told me that if I waged a
high profile campaign to defend myself then “there was nothing anyone
could do to help me”.
However, English PEN firmly believed the charges
against Ungpakorn to be in breach of Article 19 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to
freedom of expression and to which Thailand is a state Party, and
therefore called for them to be dropped.
Shortly afterwards, Giles Ungpakorn and his wife fled
from Thailand, leaving their home, jobs, friends, family, and the vast
majority of their possessions. They arrived in the UK on 6 February
2009. Giles has since explained to representatives of English PEN that
the main reasoning behind this decision was that he didn’t believe that
he would receive a fair trial. (For more information, please see Duncan
Campbell’s article ‘British professor flees Thailand after charge of
insulting king.’) Furthermore his wife, Numnual Yapparat, had received a
number of death threats on her personal mobile phone in the days
leading up to their departure.
Following their return to the UK, English PEN learnt
that supporters of the government, the PAD royalists and the military in
Thailand had begun “witch hunting” people who had signed the anti-lese
majeste petition launched by Giles Ungpakorn on 18 January 2009,
including a prominent lecturer at Chiangmai University, Associate
Professor Somkiat Tangnamo. There continues to be a warrant out for
Giles’ arrest in Thailand, and as such he will not be able to return to
his job at Chulalongkorn University as a political scientist.
Giles Ji Ungpakorn has been an Honorary Member of English PEN since May 2009.
“What PEN Means to Me” – Giles Ji Ungpakorn
(April 2009)
In January 2009, I discovered that I was charged
with lese majesté, and faced 15 years in prison, for writing an academic
book criticising the 2006 military coup in Thailand. I found out that
my university (Chulalongkorn University), which had previously banned my
book from their bookshop, were the people who actually handed a copy to
the Thai police. The entire university administration supported the
coup and my prosecution and only a handful of Thai academics spoke up
for me and for academic freedom. The entire NGO movement in Thailand
remained silent and even my own brother (an ex-Senator) told me that if I
waged a high profile campaign to defend myself then ‘there was nothing
anyone could do to help me’. The implication was that I should shut up
and say sorry and then the Palace might grant me a pardon in the distant
future.
In my personal hour of darkness it was English PEN who
rose to the challenge and provided me with serious support. None of the
writers in PEN had ever known me before. Many might not share my
beliefs. But the issue for PEN was simple: freedom of speech. Without
this kind of international support, and without the warm support I
received from the ‘Redshirt’ pro-democracy movement in Thailand,
academics like me would lose heart and remain silent and fearful in the
face of oppression, injustice and censorship.
Recently I was
shocked to hear the vice chancellor of Oxford and the President of St
John’s College praise the ‘democratic credentials’ of the Thai Prime
Minister. No doubt uppermost in their minds was the income earned from
Thai government scholars at Oxford. So academic freedom cannot be taken
for granted anywhere.
So what I say to PEN is… Thank you,
please keep up the excellent work that you do. Thailand is not yet a
free society and there will be others who need your support.
Originally posted with the url: www.englishpen.org/writersinprison/writersinexile/gilesjiungpakorn/
