Noted international scholars, writers, and activists support the call of the Campaign Committee to Amend Article 112 (CCAA112) to reform Article 112 in line with the amendment proposed by the Khana Nitirat.
In an open letter to Thai prime minister Her Excellency Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, these 224 international scholars, writers, and activists express grave concern over the use of Article 112 and the erosion of the basic rights of those who face charges under it. The signatories affirm that “Article 112 has become a powerful tool to silence political dissent, and in particular, any dissent interpreted as disloyalty to the monarchy.”
Dr. Kevin Hewison, Professor of Asian Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Thai studies expert observed that, “The political abuse of the lèse majesté law is associated with a precipitous deterioration of human rights in Thailand. Censorship, selfcensorship and charges of disloyalty seriously restrict the freedom of expression.”
The signatories support the CCAA112 and the amendment law because “reform is necessary to protect the basic rights of Thai citizens and support the consolidation of democracy and the rule of law.”
The proposed amendment would make the punishment for alleged lèse majesté proportionate to the crime, limit who can file a complaint to the Office of His Majesty's Principal Private Secretary rather than any citizen, differentiate sincere and truthful criticism from threats to the monarchy, and categorize violations of Article 112 as about the honor of the monarchy, rather than national security.
“We were thrilled that so many distinguished thinkers and activists from around the world have joined with us in this letter in support of the reform of Article 112. They show our courageous Thai colleagues who are seeking reform that they are not alone. This issue is, and will be, closely monitored internationally,” said Dr. Rachel Harrison, noted scholar of Thai cultural studies commented.
The signatories of the letter include (full list appended) distinguished scholars, writers, and activists from 16 countries and territories: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, US.
000
HE Yingluck Shinawatra
Prime Minister
Government House
Phitsanulok Road, Dusit District
Bangkok 10300
Thailand
Fax: +66-2288-4016
1 February 2012
Dear Your Excellency,
As concerned international observers of Thailand, we stand in solidarity with our colleagues in the Campaign Committee for the Amendment of Article 112, led by the most respected Thai scholars Dr. Charnvit Kasetsiri, Dr. Nidhi Aeosriwong, and Dr. Pasuk Phongpaichit, in calling for the reform of Article 112 of the Criminal Code. We have watched with growing unease over the last five years since the 19 September 2006 coup as the number of people charged and prosecuted has multiplied exponentially in the service of repression, while the violation of the basic rights of those who face lèse majesté accusations – including the denial of bail and the denial of the right to an open trial – has become routine.
In recent months, the harshest sentence to date under Article 112 was given to Mr. Ampon (a.k.a. Ah-Kong), who was sentenced on 23 November 2011 to 20 years in prison for allegedly sending four SMS messages with anti-monarchy content. There are many known cases in which charges have been filed and prosecutions carried out over the last five years, as well as an unknown number which have not been made public but which court statistics indicate have taken place. Adding an additional layer of concern to the use of Article 112, anyone can currently file a complaint of a violation with the police, who are then compelled to investigate fully. This is of particular concern as the growth in the number of accusations leveraged and prosecutions carried out under Article 112 has occurred as Thai society has become increasingly polarized along political and ideological lines. Within this context, Article 112 has become a powerful tool to
silence political dissent, and in particular, any dissent interpreted as disloyalty to the institution of the monarchy. There is no political space in present-day Thailand to publicly discuss the role and future of the monarchy under democracy, which is a crucial subject for the country at the moment.
The harsh and disproportionate lengths of the prison sentences given out under Article 112 have devastated the individuals sentenced and their families. Grandfathers have been wrenched from the grandchildren and fathers and husbands from their children and wives. Yet these sentences, which are comparable to those given for drug trafficking and violent crime, also work powerfully to create fear among Thai citizens writ large. When citizens cannot be certain if, or when, a knock at the door is going to come for a message they have written, an article they have posted online or another action deemed to be disloyal, action and thought are constricted. As long as this occurs, the full exercise of human rights cannot occur in Thailand.
We stand with the Campaign Committee for the Amendment of Article 112 because reform is necessary to protect the basic rights of Thai citizens and support the consolidation of democracy and the rule of law in a broad sense. The amendment draft proposed by the Khana Nitirat will address the crises engendered by the abuse of Article 112 by making the punishment reasonable and proportionate to the crime, limiting who can file a complaint with the Office of His Majesty's
Principal Private Secretary rather than any citizen, differentiating sincere and truthful criticism from threats to the monarchy, and treating violations of Article 112 as those within the legal category of insulting the honor of the monarchy, rather than the category of violations of national security.
We urge you to consider the proposed amendment without delay.
Sincerely,
(Alphabetical by family name)
- Patricio N. Abinales
Professor, School of Pacific and Asian Studies
University of Hawaii-Manoa
- Tariq Ali
Writer
- Nadje Al-Ali
Professor of Gender Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
- Robert B. Albritton
Professor, Department of Political Science
University of Mississippi
- Dennis Altman, AM FASSA
Professor of Politics and Director of the Institute for Human Security
LaTrobe University
- Gene Ammarell
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Ohio University
- Barbara Watson Andaya
Professor of Asian Studies
University of Hawai'i
- Dennis Arnold
Lecturer
Maastricht University
- Edward Aspinall
Professor, Department of Political and Social Change
Australian National University
- Chris Baker
Independent Scholar
- Joshua Barker
Associate Professor of Anthropology
University of Toronto
- Frieda Behets
Professor of Epidemiology and Research Professor of Medicine
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Peter Bell
Emeritus Professor
State University of New York at Purchase
- Trude Bennett
Associate Professor, Gillings School of Global Public Health
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Chris Berry,
Professor of Film & TV Studies, Department of Media & Communications
Goldsmiths, University of London
- Robert J. Bickner
Professor (Thai), Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia
University of Wisconsin
- Julia Bindman
London, UK
- David JH Blake
PhD Candidate, School of International Development, Faculty of Social Sciences
University of East Anglia, Norwich
- John Borneman
Professor of Anthropology
Princeton University
- Katherine Bowie
Professor of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Francis Bradley
Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies
Pratt Institute
- Shaun Breslin
Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies
University of Warwick
- Lisa Brooten
Associate Professor, College of Mass Communication and Media Arts
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
- Andrew Brown
Lecturer
University of New England
- James Buchanan
MA, Southeast Asian Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
- Poowin Bunyavejchewin
Alumnus
University of Hull
- Michael Burawoy
Professor of Sociology
University of California, Berkeley
- Pongphisoot Busbarat
Research Associate, Department of Political & Social Change
Australian National University
- Peter Carey
Emeritus Fellow in History, Trinity College
Oxford University
- Toby Carroll
Senior Research Fellow, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
National University of Singapore
- Pavin Chachavalpongpun
Fellow
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
- Dipesh Chakrabarty
Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor, Department of History and
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
The University of Chicago
- Dae-oup Chang
Senior Lecturer, Department of Development Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
- Hilary Charlesworth
Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Director and the Center for
International Governance and Justice
Australian National University
- Pheng Cheah
Professor, Department of Rhetoric
University of California at Berkeley
- Nicholas Cheesman
Projects Officer
Asian Legal Resource Centre
- Hyaeweol Choi
Professor
Australian National University
- Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor (retired)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- John Clark
Professor of Asian Art History and ARC Professorial Fellow
University of Sydney
- Peter A. Coclanis
Department of History
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- Joshua Cohen
Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society
Stanford University
- Paul T. Cohen
Senior Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology
Macquarie University
- Elizabeth Fuller Collins
Professor, Classics & World Religions, Southeast Asian Studies Program
Ohio University
- Michael Kelly Connors
Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences
La Trobe University
- Jason Cons
Postdoctoral Fellow in Development Sociology
Cornell University
- Christopher Cramer
Professor of the Political Economy of Development
School of Oriental and African Studies
- Altha Cravey
Associate Professor of Geography,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- Simon Creak
Associate Professor, Center for Southeast Asian Studies
Kyoto University
- Vicki Crinis
Research Fellow
University of Wollongong
- Michael Cullinane
Associate Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Susan M. Darlington
Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies
Hampshire College
- Tony Day
Visiting Professor of History
Wesleyan University
- Bina D'Costa
Fellow, Research School of Asian and Pacific Studies
Australian National University
- Heather D’Cruz
Adjunct Research Associate, Centre for Human Rights Education
Curtin University of Technology
- Deirdre de la Cruz
Assistant Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures and History
University of Michigan
- Arif Dirlik,
Knight Professor of Social Science (retired)
University of Oregon
- Ariel Dorfman
Author and Distinguished Professor
Duke University
- Ian Down
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- George Dutton
Vice Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
University of California, Los Angeles
- Nancy Eberhardt
Professor of Anthropology
Knox College
- Pilapa Esara
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
The College at Brockport (State University of New York)
- Grant Evans
Senior Research Fellow
Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient
- Brett Farmer
Lecturer, BALAC Program, Faculty of Arts
Chulalongkorn University
- Nicholas Farrelly
Research Fellow, School of International, Political and Strategic Studies
Australian National University
- Didier Fassin
James D. Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
- Jane M. Ferguson
Lecturer, School of Culture, History, and Language
Australian National University
- Federico Ferrara
Assistant Professor
City University of Hong Kong
- Jessica Fields
Associate Professor of Sociology
San Francisco State University
- Thamora Fishel
Outreach Coordinator
Cornell Southeast Asia Program
- Tim Forsyth
Reader in Environment and Development, Department of International Development
London School of Economics and Political Science
- Nancy Fraser
Henry A. & Louise Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics
New School for Social Research
- Arnika Fuhrmann
Research Scholar
University of Hong Kong.
- David Fullbrook
Graduate Student
National University of Singapore
- Narayanan Ganesan
Professor
Hiroshima Peace Institute
- Lisa Gardner
Journalist
- Paul K. Gellert
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
University of Tennessee
- Kenneth M. George
Professor of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Amitav Ghosh
Author
- Tamra Gilbertson
Carbon Trade Watch
Barcelona, Spain
- Henry A. Giroux
Global Television Network Chair, Department of English and Cultural Studies
McMaster University
- Jim Glassman
Associate Professor of Geography
University of British Columbia
- Lawrence Grossberg
Morris Davis Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Geoffrey C. Gunn
Professor of International Relations, Faculty of Economics
Nagasaki University
- Tyrell Haberkorn
Research Fellow, Department of Political and Social Change
Australian National University
- Vedi Hadiz
Professor of Asian Societies and Politics, Asia Research Centre
Murdoch University
- Jeffrey Hadler
Associate Professor, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies
University of California, Berkeley
- Shahar Hameiri
Senior Lecturer in International Politics, School of Social Science and Humanities
Murdoch University
- Annette Hamilton
Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
University of New South Wales
- Paul Handley
Journalist and Author of The King Never Smiles
- Eva Hansson
Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science
Stockholm University, Sweden
- Harry Harootunian
Adjunct Professor, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Visiting Professor, Literature Program, Duke University
- Rachel Harrison
Reader in Thai Cultural Studies
SOAS, University of London
- Gillian Hart
Professor of Geography & Chair of Development Studies
University of California, Berkeley
- Paul Healy
Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities
University of New England
- Steve Heder
Faculty of Law and Social Sciences
School of Oriental and African Studies
- Chris Hedges
Author
- Sascha Helbardt
Lecturer for Southeast Asian Studies
University of Passau
- Dagmar Hellmann-Rajanayagam
Associate Professor for Southeast Asian Studies
University of Passau
- Ariel Heryanto
Associate Professor, Southeast Asia Centre
Australian Natioanl University
- Kevin Hewison
Professor of Asian Studies
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- Allen Hicken
Associate Professor
University of Michigan
- Maureen Helen Hickey
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Asia Research Institute
National University of Singapore
- CJ Hinke
Independent Scholar
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT)
- Scott A. Hipsher
Visiting Professor, Fort Hays State University
Hays, KS USA (China Campus)
- Philip Hirsch
Professor of Human Geography
University of Sydney
- Preedee Hongsaton
PhD Candidate
Australian National University
- Alexander Horstmann
Senior Research Affiliate
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Ethnic and Religious Diversity
- Thomas Hoy
Lecturer
Thammasat University
- Caroline Hughes
Director, Asia Research Centre
Murdoch University
- Adadol Ingawanij
Senior Research Fellow
Westminster University
- Feyzi Ismail
Doctoral candidate
School of Oriental and African Studies
- Soren Ivarsson
Associate Professor
University of Copenhagen
- Peter A. Jackson
Professor of Thai History, College of Asia and the Pacific
Australian National University
- Arne Kalleberg
Professor of Sociology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Ward Keeler
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin
- Charles Keyes
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and International Studies
University of Washington
- Khoo Boo Teik
Political analyst and author
Member, Aliran Kesedaran Negara, Penang, Malaysia
- Khoo Gaik Cheng
Lecturer
Australian National University
- Ben Kiernan
Whitney Griswold Professor of History
Yale University
- Sung Chull Kim
Professor
Hiroshima Peace Institute
- Damien Kingsbury
Professor and Director, Centre for Citizenship, Development and Human
Rights, Faculty of Arts and Education
Deakin University
- Sherryl Kleinman
Professor, Department of Sociology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- H. Ruediger Korff
Professor for Southeast Asian Studies
University of Passau
- Andrew Alan Johnson
Postdoctoral Fellow, Asia Research Institute
National University of Singapore
- Lee Jones
Lecturer in International Politics, School of Politics & International Relations
Queen Mary, University of London
- Hjorleifur Jonsson
Associate Professor of Anthropology, School of Human Evolution and Social
Change
Arizona State University
- Sarah Joseph
Director, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law
Monash University
- John Langer
Honorary Fellow, School of Communication and the Arts
Victoria University
- Tomas Larsson
Lecturer, Department of Politics and International Studies
Cambridge University
- Laurids S. Lauridsen
Professor
Roskilde University
- Doreen Lee
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Northeastern University
- Namhee Lee
Associate Professor of Modern Korean History, Department of Asian
Languages & Cultures
University of California, Los Angeles
- Christian C. Lentz
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- Samson Lim
Assistant Professor, Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Singapore University of Technology and Design
- Peter Limqueco
Co-Editor, Journal of Contemporary Asia
- Larry Lohmann
The Corner House, UK
- Tamara Loos
Associate Professor of Southeast Asian History
Cornell University
- Gregore Pio Lopez
PhD Candidate, Crawford School of Economics and Government
Australian National University
- Trevor H.J. Marchand
Professor of Social Anthropology
School of Oriental and African Studies
- Thomas Marois
Lecturer in Development Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
- Andrew MacGregor Marshall
Freelance journalist and author
- Geoff Mann
Associate Professor
Simon Fraser University
- Mary E. McCoy
Lecturer & Outreach Coordinator
University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Colleen McGinn
PhD Candidate
Columbia University
- Katharine McGregor
Senior Lecturer in Southeast Asian History
University of Melbourne
- Shawn McHale
Associate Professor of History, Elliott School of International Affairs
George Washington University
- Robert Meeropol
Executive Director
Rosenberg Fund for Children
- Gayatri Menon
Department of Sociology
Franklin and Marshall College
- Mary Beth Mills
Professor of Anthropology
Colby College
- Art Mitchells-Urwin
SOAS Thai Society President
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
- Michael Montesano
Visiting Research Fellow
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
- Rosalind Morris
Professor, Department of Anthropology
Columbia University
- Frank Munger
Professor of Law
New York Law School
- Melissa Nickols
Honours Candidate
Australian National University
- Nguyen-vo Thu-huong
Associate Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures and Asian American Studies
University of California, Los Angeles
- Don Nonini
Professor of Anthropology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- Rachel Sarah O'Toole
Assistant Professor of History
University of California, Irvine
- Piya Pangsapa
Head and Senior Lecturer, Institute for Gender and Development Studies
The University of the West Indies
- Raj Patel
Visiting Scholar, Center for African Studies
University of California at Berkeley
- Jamie Peck
Canada Research Chair in Urban & Regional Political Economy
University of British Columbia
- Maurizio Peleggi
Associate Professor, Department of History
National University of Singapore
- Thomas Pepinsky
Assistant Professor, Department of Government
Cornell University
- Sheldon Pollock
Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies
Columbia University
- Oliver Pye
Lecturer for Southeast Asian Studies
Bonn University
- Rahul Rao
Lecturer in Politics
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
- Rajah Rasiah
Khazanah Nasional Chair of Regulatory Studies and Professor of Technology
and Innovation Policy, Faculty of Economics and Administration
University of Malaya
- Leon Redler
Faculty (since 1970), Former Chair of the Association
Philadelphia Association, London, UK
- Anthony Reid
Professor [emeritus]
Australian National University
- Craig Reynolds
Professor, School of Culture, History, and Language
Australian National University
- Andrea Riemenschnitter
Professor and Chair of Modern Chinese Studies, Director of the
University Research Priority Program “Asia and Europe”
University of Zurich
- Jonathan Rigg
Professor, Geography Department
Durham University
- Geoffrey B. Robinson
Professor and Vice-Chair, Department of History
University of California, Los Angeles
- Garry Rodan
Professor of Politics and International Studies
Murdoch University
- John Roosa
Associate Professor, History Department
University of British Columbia
- Danilyn Rutherford
President, Society for Cultural Anthropology
Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology
University of California, Santa Cruz
- Saskia Sassen
Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology
Co-Chair, Committee on Global Thought
Columbia University
- Wolfram Schaffar
Professor for Development Studies, Institute of Development Studies
University of Vienna
- Tilman Schiel
Professor, Chair of Insular Southeast Asian Studies
University of Passau
- Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt
Associate Professor
Aalborg University
- Sarah Schulman
Distinguished Professor of the Humanities
City University of New York
- Raymond Scupin
Director, Center for International and Global Studies and Chair, Department of
Anthropology and Sociology
Lindenwood University
- Laurie J. Sears
Professor of History and Director, Southeast Asia Center
University of Washington
- Mark Selden
Coordinator
The Asia-Pacific Journal
- Sarah Sexton
The Corner House, UK
- Jeffrey Shane
Southeast Asian Librarian, Curator, David K. Wyatt Thai Collection and
Chair of CORMOSEA
Ohio University
- John T. Sidel
Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics
London School of Economics and Political Science
- Dan Slater
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
University of Chicago
- elin o'Hara slavick
Distinguished Professor of Art
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- Claudio Sopranzetti
PhD Candidate
Harvard University
- Chris Sneddon
Associate Professor, Environmental Studies Program and Geography
Department
Dartmouth College
- Irene Stengs
Senior Research Fellow, Ethnology Department, Meertens Institute
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Carolyn Strange
Senior Fellow, School of History
Australian National University
- Donald K. Swearer
Harvard University
- David Szanton
Executive Director, emeritus, International and Area Studies Center
University of California, Berkeley
- Eduardo Climaco Tadem
Professor of Asian Studies
University of the Philippines, Diliman
- Teresa S. Encarnacion Tadem
Professor of Political Science
University of the Philippines, Diliman
- Neferti Tadiar
Professor and Chair, Department of Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College
- Eric Tagliacozzo
Associate Professor, Department of History
Cornell University
- Michelle Tan
Independent Scholar
- Nicola Tannenbaum
Professor of Anthropology, Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Lehigh University
- Nicholas Tapp
Professor Emeritus, Australian National University
Chair, Department of Sociology, East China Normal University
- Ross Tapsell
Lecturer in Asian Studies
Australian National University
- Benjamin Tausig
PhD Candidate, Department of Music
New York University
- James Taylor
Senior Lecturer
The University of Adelaide
- Nora A Taylor
Alsdorf Professor of South and Southeast Asian Art, Department of Art
History, Theory and Criticism
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Robert Tierney
Lecturer, School of Business
Charles Sturt University
- Serhat Uenaldi
Doctoral Candidate
Humboldt-University of Berlin
- Giles Ji Ungpakorn
- Peter Vandergeest
Associate Professor, Department of Geography
York University
- Andrew Walker
Senior Fellow, College of Asia and the Pacific
Australian National University
- Joel Wainwright
Associate Professor, Department of Geography
Ohio State University
- Napisa Waitoolkiat
Lecturer at South East Asian Institute of Global Studies
Payap University
- Meredith L. Weiss
Associate Professor of Political Science
University at Albany, SUNY
- Marion Werner
Department of Geography
University at Buffalo, SUNY
- Cornel West
Class of 1943 University Professor
Center for African American Studies
Princeton University
- Frederick F. Wherry
Associate Professor of Sociology
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
- Jerome Whitington
Research Fellow, Asia Research Institute
National University of Singapore
- Ingrid Wijeyewardene
Lecturer
University of New England
- Andrew Willford
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Cornell University
- Joanna Williams
Professor Emerita, History of Art & South/Southeast Asian Studies
University of California at Berkeley
- Ara Wilson
Director, Program in the Study of Sexualities and Associate Professor,
Women's Studies & Cultural Anthropology
Duke University
- Leslie Woodhouse
Lecturer, History
University of San Francisco
- Susan L. Woodward
The Graduate Center
City University of New York
- Rebecca Zorach
Associate Professor, Art History
University of Chicago
