PM scolds Netiwit for plan to change Chula’s prostration custom
Student activist Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal was admonished by the prime minister Friday over his plan to campaign for Chulalongkorn University students to be given the choice on whether they should lie prostrate before the statue of King Chulalongkorn at an annual ceremony.
“I feel pity and have concern. This could tarnish the reputation of the institution,” Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha Prayut said Friday.
Good traditions, he said, need to be preserved, as they were “charms” of the country.
“Don’t abandon your past while you move forward. We should be proud of our good history and it should be preserved. We may not repeat the bad ones,” Prayut said.
His remarks came in a keynote speech at Mahidol University on the roles of Thai universities.
