Grandline Group States That They Will Not Be Removing Sitala From H1-KEY In Official Statement
Grandline Group (or GLG), the subsidiary of Grandline Entertainment that is set to debut the girl group H1-KEY, has released a statement regarding their stance on netizens’ request for Thai member Sitala‘s removal from the group.
In November of 2021, GLG announced the debut of H1-KEY to be slated for January 2022, and revealed the 4 members one by one. When Sitala was revealed as a member, however, Thai netizens began demanding her removal from the group after it was unveiled that her father, the actor Tua Saranyu, supported the military dictatorship in Thailand.
Her father is Tua Saranyu ตั้ว ศรันยู, a former famous actor. He was the mainstay of the 2014 military junta coup and his family including #SITALA are dictatorship supporters. It’s been 7 years since the coup; our country is deteriorating day by day. https://t.co/0LeLQp6zd6
— polary🤍🎀✨ – slow (@akii_pl) November 30, 2021
After learning about the issue, Korean netizens soon took to social media to rally after Thai netizens in support of her removal, stating it to be the correct course of action to be taken.
GLG maintained their silence on the matter during the controversy, and have finally released a statement about it. They uploaded their statement to their official Twitter account in both Korean and English, apologizing for the wait and stated that they took a while to respond due to looking into the “history, political, economical, and social context and background of Thailand in order to understand the issue and situation.”
GLG then stated that after considering all the facts of the case, they concluded that they cannot hold Sitala accountable for the actions of a family member, and have decided not to cancel her debut or remove her from the group.
From the moment we recognized the worries and concerns of the Thai citizens, we have thoroughly reviewed matters regarding Sitala and her background of her father’s actions, how she was brought up as a minor, and up until how she has become a young adult.
We have come to the conclusion that we cannot hold Sitala accountable on the basis of her father’s past decisions and actions that were beyond her responsibility.
On this basis, we have decided not to change the members of the group.
—GLG
Netizens are not happy with this decision, and are taking to Twitter to express their anger and frustration at the agency’s statement.
When she posted on her social media to support the dictatorship she was fully 18 years old, how come she could be innocent for this act. Over million of people at her age lose their dreams or else GLG trying to say “only Sitala’s dream matters” but not us. #BANH1KEY https://t.co/B9bxCfPAAs
— 🆂🅿🅺🆃🅰🅻🅴🆂 (@VelvetTales) December 8, 2021
Stop twisting the truth. Not only her father but also #SITALA supported Thailand's military dictatorship #แบนSITALA #BANH1KEY #banGLG https://t.co/m8XwG0hKTe
— 장어 (@kdjcuurhsojchd) December 8, 2021
This company supports dictatorship https://t.co/B63LlN7qd7
— -알비윈- (@rabbItWIN_) December 8, 2021
yeah and we, the Thai people, were suffering damn hard while she's fulfilling her dream and lots of us can't even dream of doing anything because of what hey family did. How is this supposed to be fair? https://t.co/6HeieAOZPo
— 젠짴러버♡ ( final ) (@extrawhoopypie) December 8, 2021
You can read their full statement here:
— GLG (@GLG__official) December 8, 2021
