We haven’t even met him yet, but we already know that the new owner of Liverpool’s historic Zogg Building is one of Thailand’s most outspoken proponents of democracy in his troubled country of 66 million people
This past August, Liverpool Community Church, which has owned the former A.V. Zogg Building for 11 years, sold it for $1.1 million to Dr. Pramote Nakornthab, a retired professor of political science from Cornell University.
Nakornthab continues as president of First Global Community College located in his native Thailand. A graduate of Chulalongkorn University, the good doctor is a longtime member of the Free Thai Movement.
“In the late 1960s our focus was really about Thai society and the authoritarian Thanom-Praphat military regime,” he once wrote.
A student-led uprising in Bangkok in October 1973 overthrew Thanom Kittikachorn and Praphat Jarusathien, but the rebellion cost the lives of many activists.
‘People’s Alliance’
More recently, Nakornthab joined the People’s Alliance for Democracy which opposed former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a business tycoon who ruled the Southeast Asian country from 2001 to 2006. Thaksin’s younger sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, served as prime minister from 2011 to May 2014.
In 2014 the People’s Alliance for Democracy renamed itself the “People’s Movement to Overthrow the Thaksin Regime.”
In a 2008 letter to the editor published in The Nation, Nakornthab praised the People’s Alliance for its efforts “to safeguard our country from the enemies of democracy who usurped powers via rigged elections. They have destroyed our constitution, human rights and lives, plundered our treasury, ignored our laws and every moral fibre in our society.”
After a constitutional court removed Yingluck Shinawatra from office in May 2014, Thai army commander Prayut Chan-o-cha staged a coup and installed himself as prime minister. Prayut cracked down on dissenters, took control of the media, imposed Internet censorship, declared a nationwide curfew and arrested politicians and anti-coup activists.
Loyal royalist
Through it all, Dr. Nakornthab has remained a loyal royalist. His Facebook page lists among his favorites “Our Beloved Princess Maha Chakri [Sirindhorn],” the second daughter of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the popular monarch who has reigned since 1946.
In 1974, Nakorthab helped draft a Thai constitution which allowed for female succession to the throne, paving the way for Princess Maha Chakri to eventually lead the nation.
Nakornthab earned a doctorate in social sciences from Cornell University and authored a 1986 book titled “Urbanization and National Development: A Study of Thailand’s Local Urban Governments.”
Paid $1.1 million
Records at the office of the Onondaga County Clerk’s Office indicate that Nakornthab purchased the 86-year-old Zogg Building for $1.1 million.
A news release from Pyramid Brokerage Co., which represented the church in the sale, said the buyer plans to use the 97,287-square-foot building at 800 Fourth St. as a school and for community activities.
The two-story building was built at Hickory and Fourth streets in 1928 to house Liverpool’s first stand-alone junior-senior high school. It contains a 500-seat auditorium, and the 6.9-acre property it sits on includes a large athletic field including a cinder track, a basketball court and the remains of two tennis courts.
Liverpool’s Codes Enforcement Officer Bill Reagan said Nakornthab still has a few hoops to jump through before he can reestablish the Zogg Building as an educational institution. Though built and used for decades as a school, the building has been used for more than a decade as a church, and the village’s approval would be required before it could be used again as a school, Reagan said.
Wild cards
Kansas City barbecued those birds! Now they’ll try to jazz the Giants.
Baseball flick
Speaking of the national pastime, a new baseball movie, “Million Dollar Arm,” will be screened for free at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28 and 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, at the Liverpool Public Library. The film stars John Hamm, Alan Arkin and Bill Paxton.
