Student activist rails against removal as council chair

Activist Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal and four other students have had their memberships of Chulalongkorn University’s Student Council withdrawn.

Mr Netiwit formerly served as the council’s president from June 1 after being elected.

An announcement dated Aug 30 signed by the university’s vice-president Asst Prof Pomthong Malakul Na Ayudhaya cited school regulations in disqualifying the group.

According to its rules, a council member must not have accumulated 20 or more bad behaviour points.

As all four had racked up over 25 points each they were removed from their posts, he said.

Mr Netiwit reacted with a Facebook post yesterday promising the group would appeal the move.

He also requested access to the results of a university probe into a disputed incident involving a lecturer who reportedly manhandled a student and which led to some of the points being applied.

Chulalongkorn University apologised earlier after the lecturer, identified as Asst Prof Ruengwit Bunjongrat of the Faculty of Science, allegedly put a student in a headlock during an initiation ceremony on Aug 3.

The university reportedly views the incident as a plot cooked up by Mr Netiwit and his group.

It also denied allegations its freshmen were forced to sit on the ground and prostrate themselves in front of effigies of King Rama V, the university’s founder, and King Rama VI to pay respect despite it raining at the time.

Mr Netiwit, a second-year political science major, has campaigned against prostration at such ceremonies. He said in his Facebook post freshmen were ordered to do so despite reassurances by a deputy rector that they would be allowed to stand during the rain.

The student activist maintains King Rama V abolished the practice thus making it an anachronism.

Photos and video clips showed a lecturer putting a student in a vice-like grip as he and six others, including Mr Netiwit, attempted to walk out of the ceremony in protest.

Bancha Chalapirom, who served as a deputy rector at the time, denied the allegations.