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No One In Thailand Wants To Listen To The Hard Truth


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EDITORIAL

No one in Thailand wants to listen to the hard truth

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The TRCT's report on the political violence of 2010 will be ignored because people are unwilling to take responsibility for their actions, leaving us no closer to reconciliation

The negative reaction from the Pheu Thai Party and the red shirts to the report by the Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand is not a big surprise. One may raise eyebrows, though, considering the fact that the report did confirm their camp's consistent assertion that military aggravation and misjudgement on the part of the former Abhisit government contributed to the political bloodshed in 2010.

Neutral readers of the report, however, cannot see any "extreme bias" on the part of the TRCT. Many red-shirt leaders, as well as Thaksin Shinawatra's international publicist Robert Amsterdam, are seeing what many others fail to see - like the alleged attempt by the TRCT to "blame" the people who were killed or wounded.

The resentment is understandable. The confirmation of the existence of the "men in black" weakens the red-shirt leaders' story that their weeks-long protest in Bangkok between March and May 2010 - during which key business districts were under siege - was peaceful. Not only does the TRCT report link the men in black to well-known red-shirt figures, it mentions bomb attacks and a hospital "invasion". The panel insists it was wrong for the Abhisit government to enlist help from the military to deal with the popular uprising, but strongly suggests that anti-government elements were armed and provocative.

Then the commission touches upon another crucial matter, explicitly criticising moves by the Yingluck administration to use its parliamentary power to rush through legal or constitutional changes so as to achieve a questionable "amnesty" programme. The panel warns that "reconciliation" cannot be forced on a divided nation via one side that controls the parliamentary majority. According to the TRCT, trying to implement much-opposed changes "for reconciliation's sake" could backfire badly, meaning Thailand's political strife could worsen.

The panel's report has won acknowledgement from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In Thailand, the document, which carries a comprehensive chronology of events, reports and observation by the conventional and social media, and various witnesses' accounts, will most likely end up as expected - as an artefact no one wants to touch. Besides the uproar from Pheu Thai and the red shirts, the Democrats and the military have been less than supportive of the report. Again, the reason is simple: this report blames everyone, and in this political crisis, no one wants to be blamed.

The prevailing apathy that has greeted the report confirms that we are getting nowhere as far as reconciliation is concerned. In fact, the report - the last from the TRCT before it disbands - was never expected to have an impact because the Abhisit government set up the agency. Meanwhile the Yingluck administration seems more interested in another "truth" report, advocated, ironically, by 2006 coup leader Sonthi Boonyaratglin. This latter document, controversially put together - and later almost renounced - by the King Prachadipok Institute, was used by Sonthi to support the Yingluck government's amnesty push.

In Thailand, "reconciliation" and "justice" mean different things to different people. If a "truth" report that seeks to heal and calls for forgiveness and chronicles what happened in 2010 without political bias is torn to pieces like this, there isn't much hope for Thailand in the near future.

The TRCT and its reports will now most likely fade to oblivion, as was widely expected. New truth finders will be commissioned, either by the Yingluck government or its successor. New fact-finding reports will come along. It's likely that some findings might please the ruling party, Robert Amsterdam and the red shirts. But the point is that, if the TRCT report can foster no change, then no report can. This is sad, but it's as simple as that.

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-- The Nation 2012-09-22

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Posted

Reconciliation needs goodwill on all sides.

Not a hope.

The sooner Yingluck (or rather the people who use her as a mouthpiece) recognises that the GOOD of Thailand will not be served by the ruling party's infantile definition of 'Democracy', the better.

A solution needs the ruling party and the Opposition working together. Not a hope with these 'wow, look what we can do' immature PTP MPs.

Good luck Thailand in finding a miracle. Nobody wants to serve you.

Posted

No one knows what the truth is

So many lies .... so many truths ... there is no line between the two

If I told you I had a 42 inch johnson ... who knows if it is the truth

Posted

Look at some summaries...

... report asserts "misjudgment" by Abhisit Govt" - How? They delayed as long as they could until the bamboo barricades and burning tyres started, gave more than enough time, offered to step aside - which then the REDS did an about face - or have the Thai's forgotten the Government of compromise?

... confirmation of the existence of men in black - denied by the REDS there was armed militia/mercenaries - yet from the shootings, how many were actually killed by army issued ordnance? Never been revealed!!

... the seizure of the core business district was peaceful - 24 hour screaming speakers brainwashing the RED faithful, barricades, speeches quoting "Burn Bangkok" - yes all very peaceful.

... wrong for the Abhisit Govt to enlist military assistance - when sensible negotiation compromise fails and police fail to protect the public, and aid and abet the seizure, did the Govt have a choice?

So whilst these reports clearly are trying to lay blame on both sides and condemn no-one - arguably some bent facts - the truth is still there to acknowledge by Thai's if they pull their collective heads out of their ..... REDS and no one else started the problem and deaths were the result. Irrespective of coloured shirts and the stupidity of Thai politics, that segment is clear cut. And should the other colours now come out at a future date whilst the PTP are in power - pray tell, what means of concilliation would they use to quell the protests? By all means PTP, lead by example and instead of denying the report, how would you have handled it differently?

Maybe in Cowboyland it is right to kill your own people,it was 2010 Bkk not 1850 Wyoming with John Wayn,easy to use rubber bullets,teargas,water canons,and and and,u r not to different from red shirts white washers.If u would follow the report and punish everybody who was involved,would be big step ahead.If Abisit gave the order to use rea bullets,then he should get his punishment,if he does not know who gave the order,Abisit still should get the punishment,because he was the government leader,and the leader is responsible for everything.If red.black blue pink or whatever colours was involved,then they should get their punishment too,it is a bit easy to blame only red,on both sides people got killed
Posted

Truth hurts.

You know what it can be like sometimes when you try to call a spade a spade here. When you tell your wife or girlfriend something and they put their fingers in their ears singing 'la la la la'.

If Thailand can start accepting the truth and learns to not take itself so seriously, then progress can be made. There are many ways of judging a culture and society. The best way for me is to see if a culture or society is able to make fun of itself and laugh.

You mean like us western people, who take the piss out of everything?

Posted

My depression about this country is the extent to which these good Buddhists lie. From Yingluck downwards, corruption, lies, cheating seems to be a way of life. How many farangs have been lied and cheated to by ex-wives? In my case a woman with degrees, a civil engineer and a 'good buddhist' who is now in a senior position in the main government hospital here in Chiang Mai, got lying down to an art form. I don't expect the red kwais to be any different and yes, the lies that they continually spout in defence of that exiled king of all liars is astounding.

Another stab at Thaksin while completely missing the point that there are bigger liars and manipulators than him.

They were liars and corrupt before he came along you know, not his fault he plays their game better than they can now.

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Posted

The hard truth is there can never be reconciliation.

A widespread civil conflict at this point seems inevitable.

Shame on the people behind the coup and yellow shirt movement for leading us down this merry path once again. Thai history repeating itself.

Posted

]Maybe in Cowboyland it is right to kill your own people,it was 2010 Bkk not 1850 Wyoming with John Wayn,easy to use rubber bullets,teargas,water canons,and and and,u r not to different from red shirts white washers.If u would follow the report and punish everybody who was involved,would be big step ahead.If Abisit gave the order to use rea bullets,then he should get his punishment,if he does not know who gave the order,Abisit still should get the punishment,because he was the government leader,and the leader is responsible for everything.If red.black blue pink or whatever colours was involved,then they should get their punishment too,it is a bit easy to blame only red,on both sides people got killed

Why 1850? Let's take an armed riot in Wyoming, or even New York, in 2010. when police/army/ security start getting killed with military weapons, what do you expect would happen?

".......,easy to use rubber bullets,teargas,water canons....." against AK-47s and M-79s? Easy for you to say, it's not your butt on the firing line.

That is another problem,the region where i come from,civilians don't carry any guns,therefore no police or protesters get killed,anyway if 100 of 100000 have a gun,means not u hv the right to hold ur guns in the crowd and shoot everybody

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