Abhisit: Giles behind Oxford criticism

By: BangkokPost.com

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has accused fugitive academic Giles "Ji" Ungphakorn of being the force behind opposition to him giving an address on democracy at Oxford University's St John's College.



"Mr Giles' behaviour is not that of the democratic activist he has claimed he is, because it violates the rights of a person. He also escaped a charge against him and continues his activities in the United Kingdom," Mr Abhisit said on Friday.

Mr Abhisit is due to deliver an address on the challenges of democracy at St John's College on Saturday

His outbuirst on Friday came after Oxford University academic Lee Jones criticised Mr Abhisit and his administration as "democratic hypocrites".

Mr Jones, who Mr Abhisit's spokesman Thepthai Senpong claims to be close to Mr Giles, sent a message to the college president saying that the Abhisit administration came to power with the help of "street politicians" who were rewarded with ministerial posts.

His comments later appeared on the website Prachatai.com, and were revealed at a Puea Thai press conference in Bangkok.

"St John's may feel proud to have one of its alumni serving as Thailand's prime minister, but it can only embarrass itself by inviting such a figure to speak on the subject of 'democracy','' Mr Jones was quoted as saying.

"In reality there is neither freedom of speech nor academic freedom nor democracy in Thailand today."

On Friday, Jones wrote on his website www.leejones.tk that the email sent to the president of St Jone's College was "written in haste, quickly; it was also private, a brief communication to a colleague of my own University".

''On 6 March I wrote an email to the president of St John's College, Oxford, regarding the visit of the Thai prime minister, who is scheduled to give a talk on the 'challenges of democracy' on 14 March,'' he said.

''In it, I expressed concern that Prime Minister Abhisit was perhaps not the most appropriate person to speak on this topic given the way his government had come to power in Thailand and given that the last few years in Thailand have been characterised by often violent social conflict, military coups, judicial activism, and the use of various laws for purely politicl purposes.

"It was never intended to be a public statement of my views on Thai politics...I stress that it was leaked without my permission." he said.

"It was never my intention in writing the email to supply ammunition to the Puea Thai party or to publicly attack Mr Abhisit or his government."

The email was leaked to the website Prachatai.com, whose webmaster is accused of lese majeste.

Mr Giles, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, was charged in January with lese majesty. He fled to Britain last month, saying he did not believe he would receive a fair trial.

Mr Abhisit left for the UK early on Friday to attend the G-20 summit and is scheduled to deliver his address at the college on Saturday.