Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal was in his first year at Thailand’s prestigious Chulalongkorn University when he made international headlines for refusing to kneel in front of a statue of the late King Rama V during an initiation ceremony – a mandatory pledge of respect for first-year students.
It was 2016, and Chotiphatphaisal’s act of defiance led to his dismissal as head of the student council. In Thailand the king serves as head of state, and the monarchy is traditionally revered. As such, there is a longstanding taboo on criticising the royal family, enforced by a powerful lèse-majesté law that carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison for insulting members of the monarchy.
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