Anand Panel Must Go Beyond Abhisit And Thaksin

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THAI TALK

Anand Panel must go beyond Abhisit and Thaksin

By Suthichai Yoon

The Nation

THE OPPOSITION Pheu Thai Party and some red-shirt leaders have wasted no time in labelling former premier Anand Panyarachun and "senior citizen" Prawase Wasi, "tools of the Abhisit government".

That shouldn't surprise anybody.

In fact, it would have been unrealistic to expect them to jump on to the bandwagon. They can't be sure where its destination is in the first place. For some, they don't see how they can be in a position to reconcile with the authorities while they feel they are being hunted down.

It was equally perplexing to hear Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva say in his Sunday television show that his "reconciliation plan" wasn't about him and his rivals. It's for the rest of the country. The problem is that if charity begins at home, reconciliation will have to start where it hurts the most. But both sides can't even agree where to begin.

But that doesn't mean the national rehabilitation task can wait.

Both Abhisit and Anand have bent over backwards to demonstrate how "independent" the National Commission on Reform is. In fact, Anand and Prawase had reportedly insisted that its members must be nominated by civil society and not by the government in order to ensure credibility and accountability for the highly complicated work to be carried out.

Abhisit went along with the formality by accepting the proposal from various non-government organisations for him to "approach" the two "senior citizens" to lead the all-important reconciliation and reform task forces.

But keeping a proper distance isn't the only measure of independence. What really counts is the substance of how the "reform agenda" will go beyond the current government's term and move Thai society out of its very unhealthy obsession with Thaksin.

For some observers, the whole ongoing mess is in fact a continuing battle for political supremacy between the ruling party and the main opposition. The rest is nothing more than a sideshow thrown in for good measure.

But if the prime minister can't draw a clear line between implementing the rule of law and what is seen by his opponents as a political witch-hunt, all attempts at national reconciliation will be futile from the outset.

What's worse, if he can't ensure that all the committees assigned to the tasks of "reform" and "reconciliation" are genuinely independent of government influence, the whole exercise will simply be washed down the drain.

Credibility is the crucial key in the process of convincing all parties concerned that the Abhisit government isn't exploiting the various working groups for its own electoral benefit. It's only natural that every move - including the wording of questionnaires to seek the public's opinion - is being watched for possible undue interference by the powers-that-be.

A clear distinction must be drawn between electoral politics that is the favourite game of politicians, and "people's politics", in putting the country back on its feet.

First, the Truth Commission led by former attorney-general Kanit na Nakhon must be given all the support to dig deep into all evidence so that it can come up with nothing less than the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That's because only truth can bring about justice. And without justice, there cannot be national reconciliation. And without reconciliation, any "road map" to bridge the rich-poor divide will be stillborn.

In parallel with the Truth Commission, it is imperative for the Anand Panel to:

1. Not only appear to be independent but also to challenge some basic assumptions of the Abhisit government regarding the reform and reconciliation processes.

2. Make it absolutely clear in what areas "reform" and "reconciliation" can be implemented and where the two missions need to be separated for real results. Anand and Prawase have insisted that they are involved only in "reform" and not "reconciliation", the latter being the sole responsibility of the government.

3. Not only make official statements about "going beyond both Abhisit and Thaksin", but also to specify how to go about reinventing Thailand in a substantial way.

Anand and Prawase have insisted that reconciliation and reform are two different animals. The two animals may not live in the same cage, but they belong to the same zoo. We neglect one or the other at our own peril.

-- The Nation 2010-06-24