“Political scientists in the southern border provinces have already issued a statement urging the PM to resign,” said Piya Kittavorn, dean of political science at Prince of Songkhla University’s Pattani campus.

He came to Bangkok to join fellow deans from Thammasat, Chulalongkorn, Ramkhamhaeng and Sukhothai Thammathirat at a special symposium on the state of liberty and democracy.

“The administrator of this country no longer has legitimacy,” he said.

The only dean to remain ambivalent about the demand for Thaksin’s head is Ramkhamhaeng’s Asst Prof Wuthisak Larbcharoensab, who feared a bloody encounter between pro and anti-Thaksin camps.

“I hope everyone is mindful in solving the problem. And please do not think that violence is a social solution.”

Other deans said people have the right to oust the government in an exercise of direct democracy through a mass uprising, preferably a peaceful one.

“People are only familiar with representative democracy and view any [extra-parliamentary] movement as destructive to democracy. However, we must first acquaint ourselves [with the notion] that representative democracy is not the only form of democracy and what we’re doing is direct democracy,” said Prof Amara Pongsapitch, political science dean at Chulalongkorn, who led the first wave of academics in calling for Thaksin’s resignation.

Amara, who was caught in a feud with Chulalongkorn’s Political Science Alumni Association, which supported Thaksin, said the prime minister has abused his power, launched crackdowns on the media and is only democratic in name.

Amara said the Bt73-billion tax-free sell-off of Shin Corp, which was owned by Thaksin’s family, to Singapore was the last straw.

“Liberty has been steadily curbed and so we must help one another fight to protect liberty,” she said.

The host, Assoc Prof Nakarin Maektrairat, Thammasat’s political science dean, said the people’s movement against Thaksin would continue to grow. And meddling in current affairs is not only political scientists’ right, it is their “duty” under the dire political circumstances, he said.

The deans later held a closed-door meeting to seek a solution for the current political impasse.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation