Students divided 0ver PAD protest

POLITICAL CRISIS
Students divided 0ver PAD protest
By The Sunday NationPublished on September 7, 2008
Some have serious reservations about 'new politics' proposal University students are split over whether to throw their support behind the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
One group said it would boycott classes next week in a show of support for the PAD, while another is against the PAD, arguing its proposal for "new politics" is undemocratic.
According to the PAD proposal, only 30 per cent of MPs should be elected and the rest appointed from professional groups.
Yesterday, a new group of college students calling itself Yaowachon Koo Chart (Young PAD Group) said some 80 to 100 students from 80 universities throughout the Kingdom would not report to classes from Tuesday until Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej resigned.
"We're not following a trend in siding with the PAD," Kulthip Karn-samrit, a leader of the group, said. "But we want to be with the right side."
At the opposite pole is the Students' Federation of Thailand, the King-dom's largest umbrella group of students from 39 institutions and with a long history of democratic struggle. It rules out support for the PAD because its "new politics" theory - where 70 per cent of MPs will be appointed - is undemocratic.
"We disagree with the PAD and the crux of it is with the [new politics] issue. The PAD's demand for the resignation of the PM or for the dissolution of the House is, however, within the democratic framework," Artef Sohko, its secretary-general, told The Sunday Nation.
Artef said those students wanting to support or join the PAD could do so but he urged students to think deeply about the implication of the PAD's proposal.
He added that a majority of university students were unsure how to resolve the political stalemate.
The SFT, which will hold a news conference at Thammasat University today, is also opposed to the state of emergency, but it wants the nine PAD leaders to report to the police to hear government charges.
Elsewhere, a lecturer of medicine at Chulalongkorn University issued a statement calling on Samak to resign.
Tul Sitthisomwon demanded that the state-run NBT TV station stops being a a mouthpiece for the government.
Meanwhile, students have been gathering signatures at Thammasat University's Rangsit campus to seek impeachment of the premier. They had collected 1,000 in four hours.
Ramkhamhaeng University students will visit National Police Head-quarters today to see if there's any progress in the shooting case against two of their colleagues. They vow to lay a wreath if there's no progress.
Yesterday evening, about 1,000 college students gathered near Makkhawan Bridge, demanding that Samak step down. The so-called Young PAD Group defied the emergency rule imposed by the government which bars a political gathering of more than five persons.

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