15,000 sign Luang Por Cham petition

PHUKET: A petition signed by more than 15,000 people urging a Bangkok academic to retract remarks he made about Wat Chalong’s revered former abbot, Luang Por Cham, has been submitted to Phuket Governor Charnchai Soontharamut’s office. The petitioners hope to pressure Dr Poowadon Sonprasert, a sociology professor at Kasetsart University, to retract negative comments he recently made about Luang Por Cham in an interview with Thaicoon magazine. The petition was launched by Songwoot Hongyok and Amnuay Koombarn, both members of Pattana Tongtin, the minority party in the Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor). K. Songwoot said, “We plan to submit another petition to the Governor next week, and we will continue doing so every week in order to pressure [Dr Poowadon] to apologize, as there has been no reply from him so far. “We still have 13 more communities that have not sent us their signed petitions. I believe that after we receive these, there will be another 10,000 names.” A committee was recently set up at Kasetsart University to investigate the dispute.