A long-time tradition honoring the royal roots of Thailand’s oldest university was scrapped by its own students for promoting “authoritarianism” and “inequality,” igniting bitter debate along predictable fault lines.
The Student Union of Chulalongkorn University announced it would no longer hold the Phra Kiew parade before its annual football matches with rival Thammasat University. Saturday’s announcement seemed designed to provoke, coming on Chulalongkorn Day, which commemorates the death of university founder King Rama V.
“The procession of Phra Kiew supports and reflects authoritarian regimes and a belief that people are not equal,” read the statement by the student government body. “This form of procession also represents feudalism by lifting one group higher than others.
All 29 members of the student government voted unanimously to scrap the…
