Dear Friends,

Midnight University, a program of popular education based at Chiang Mai
University in Northern Thailand, is appealing for support from university
and media colleagues and activists all over the world to oppose the closure
of its website on September 29, 2006, by the Ministry of Information and
Communications Technology by order of the leaders of the military coup in
Thailand.

www.midnightuniv.org is visited by over 2.5 million users per month. The
closure means the loss of access to over 20,000 pages of 1,500 or so papers
and articles in the fields of Science, Social Science, and Humanities,
including 1,300 items on the Bulletin Board. This major encroachment on
academic freedom and curtailment of freedom of information of a great
number of the Thai population cannot be tolerated. See the statement below for more details.

To denounce the website closure, please send your full name to
midnightuniv gmail.com, attention: Mr Somkiat Tangnamo, Webmaster.

Thank you,

Chanida

Focus on the Global South

Statement of the Midnight University

“Opposing the Closure of Channels of Free Communication”

Beginning on Friday September 29^th, the Midnight University’s website has
been blocked by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT), Thailand. However, ours was not the first one to be blocked or
tampered with by the power of the Coup Council. The Midnight University’s
considered reaction to the September 19^th coup is strong disapproval of
such a reckless solution to the nation’s political problems. Nonetheless,
we also realize that it is too late to reverse it and the only way out is
to lend a hand in pushing our country back onto the path of democratic
development.

The Council for Democratic Reform (CDR) has claimed that this coup is the
beginning of a political reform process which includes the drafting of a
new constitution. And yet, the provisions concerning the drafting of a new
constitution and political reform in the Provisional Constitution of the
CDR do not allow the full and free exercise of political rights and civil
liberties by the people, which is the key condition for a successful
political reform. Popular participation does not simply mean being selected
to sit in a constituent assembly, but also denotes the opportunity for
mutual learning and free exchange of ideas. Therefore, an atmosphere of
subjection and control by the military under the CDR will rule out any
possibility of genuine political reform.

For that reason, the Midnight University held a press conference on
September 28^th, to oppose the political reform process as stipulated in the
Provisional Constitution and propose an alternative that would allow for
the full restitution of rights and liberties to the people. To get our
point across, we performed a symbolic act of tearing up copies of the
Provisional Constitution and posted a report of the said event on the
Midnight University’s website.

Hence, the ICT’s immediate imposition of a blockage on our website.

Actually, it is not hard for the Midnight University to overcome this
technical difficulty. We have indeed received various offers from foreign
servers to host our website. Be that as it may, we are of the opinion that
the problem of availability of a public space is not technical in nature,
but essentially political. And it has arisen because the self-proclaimed
“Council for Democratic Reform” has used its coup-begotten power to impose
a blockage on public space. Therefore, we need to fight this illegitimate
power together right here in this land rather than evade it and find a new
public space elsewhere.

As the Midnight University has earlier warned, political reform couldn’t be
realized in an atmosphere shorn of people’s rights and liberties. That the
Coup Council has thoughtlessly closed down websites that expressed
dissenting views on the coup shows that it is incapable of leading a
political reform that is free and equally open to all. To bring this power
to an end peacefully, Thai society must not submit to it. Instead, we
should together pressure it to stop the violation of people’s rights and
liberties at once.

It is true that, given freedom, there will be some who would exploit it to
try to destroy or disrupt political reform. And yet, only the full exercise
of rights and liberties can enlighten and empower a society to fight the
lies and half-truths of corrupt politicians seeking a return to power. On
the contrary, a society whose learning and communication is kept under
tutelage will remain weak and unable to resist them.

In place of an arbitrary and selective censorship based on a subjective
feeling of distrust and animosity of the censors, the complete and
indiscriminate opening of all channels of communication will result in a
free, fair and predictable rule of the game for all, thus rectifying the
arbitrary, unchecked and uncontrolled exercise of power that is a major
weakness of all coup-makers. By guaranteeing the equal rights and liberties
of the people to information, the Coup Council will be able to tap into the
real source of power far greater than whatever it can get from its
illegitimate coup.

30 September 2006