Sadly, today Asia Sentinel informed us that the Thai junta pressured the Thai foreign ministry to force the overseas' academics going back to Thailand. Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Thai academics in Kyoto, is the top priority, according to the article. We shared his article to SCMP about his view about the junta going after Thai scholars. Today, we shared the article in Asia Sentinel: There are said to be about 15 academics who are targets, according to sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among them is Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University and a regular Asia Sentinel contributor.
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Sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say the Thai ambassador in Tokyo and the consul general in Osaka have both been told that if they fail to force the academic to return, they face the prospect of either being transferred or forced out of the foreign service. It is unclear if other foreign service officials have been given the same marching orders.
It is also unclear how Kyoto University will respond to the call from the junta. The Center for Southeast Asian Studies has a reputation for supporting full academic freedom and once offered a fellowship to Aung San Suu Kyi before she entered politics and was put under house arrest by the Burmese junta.
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