An Open Letter to AIT Stakeholders from AITAA (Thailand)

For the past few weeks there has been an attempt made, both in writing and in verbal communication to AIT stakeholders, to accuse AITAA (Thailand) of being accountable for the withholding of financial supports from the Royal Thai Government to AIT; such as,"because of a complaint letter from AITAA Thailand Chapter, the Royal Thai Government has frozen all budget to AIT, including the flood relief package and RTG Scholarships, and the Charter ratification process by Thailand has also been put on hold".

As this is misleading and would pose obstacle to both current and future cooperation between AIT alumni and AIT management, AITAA (Thailand) deems it necessary to announce a clarification as follows:

1. Release of RTG's financial supports was disabled due to the change in legal status of AIT without awaiting the participation of Thailand, whereby the RTG could not approve the national budget to fund an Intergovernmental Organization of which Thailand is not a member.This has nothing to do with AITAA (Thailand). See the attached file for a clear explanation in the Office of Higher Education Commission (OHEC) letter dated April 19, 2012 and its reiteration dated June 19, 2012 where there wasno mention of AITAA (Thailand) in either of the two letters.

2. While the RTG has decided to suspend the ratification of the new AIT Charter until the issues of concern about governance and transparency raised by AITAA (Thailand) are properly resolved by AIT, and while Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has already pointed out in its letter dated 2 May 2012 that the Board of Trustees is the valid legal body to act for AIT; it is necessary that the Board of Trustees be convened to ensure the proper function of AIT and to hear AITAA (Thailand)'s points of concern. A mere clarification by the holder of the AIT presidency under the new AIT legal status is not accepted as valid or legitimate since the operation of AIT under the new status is deemed illegal as MFA has already stressed "the AIT under the new AIT Charter, including its Governing Council, cannot perform its duties in Thailand in the absence of a new AIT Enabling Act".

The approach of AITAA (Thailand) is a check and balance process which is of utmost importance for the transparent operation of any non-profit organization, done for the benefit of all AIT stakeholders and AIT donors. It is clear that before entering into any new venture, the management must prove itself clean, efficient, and trustworthy; otherwise the new venture would be a waste of time and money, which should have been spent fruitfully in many other undertakings.

The attached file is our compilation of key official documents relating to new AIT Charter and AIT status. The most important documents are the two letters from OHEC (Document #7) and the letter from MFA (Document #8).

To solve the deadlock, the following actions should be taken:

1. The holder of the administrative power of AIT should resume original legal status of AIT based on the original Charter, convene the Board of Trustees, and inform OHEC of the status resumption so that the frozen funds can be released.

2. Then the Board of Trustees should appoint an ad-hoc committee, comprising persons of proven integrity, to investigate and resolve the issues of concern raised by AITAA (Thailand) to satisfy the requirement in MFA's letter of 2 May 2012, so that MFA can proceed appropriately with the New Charter.

With kind regards,

AITAA (Thailand)

by Thanin Bumrungsap, President