“I feel pity and have concern. This could tarnish the reputation of the institution,” Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha Prayut said Friday.

Good traditions, he said, need to be preserved, as they were “charms” of the country.

“Don’t abandon your past while you move forward. We should be proud of our good history and it should be preserved. We may not repeat the bad ones,” Prayut said.

His remarks came in a keynote speech at Mahidol University on the roles of Thai universities.