On Aug 6, a letter from a local educational office in Buriram ordering schools to collect the signatures of staff and students against the red shirts’ petition was posted on the Pantip webboard by a poster named Mati Khon.

The letter, dated Aug 4, was signed by the Acting Director of the Office of Buriram Educational Zone 2, and sent from the office in Prakhon Chai District to all school directors in the district.    

The letter cites a Prakhon Chai District announcement that certain groups of people are trying to submit a petition to ask for a royal pardon for a former Prime Minister.  This is considered an act of ‘lowering the sky’, ‘transgressing the royal prerogative’, ‘pressuring the institution’, and causing division among the people.  Some citizens have unknowingly signed the petition, and some have been deceived into doing so.

The letter asks school directors to tell their staff and students to write their names and addresses, and sign an attached form, ‘List of citizens who protect the institution to the death and oppose the petition submission which transgresses the royal prerogative’.

The lists of signatures are to be submitted to the Office of Buriram Educational Zone 2 by Aug 6, to be forwarded to Prakhon Chai District by Aug 7, the letter says.

In the attached announcement, Prakhon Chai District, claiming to implement the government’s main policy to protect the institution, says that the people who have unknowingly signed the petition can come to sign withdrawal of their names at marquees in front of Prakhon Chai Municipal Office or the offices of village heads until Aug 7, and those who disagree with the petition can also come to sign to oppose it at the same place.