Thai politics: Reconciliation vital, but still out of reach

[webfact]

Reconciliation vital, but still out of reach
NITIPOL KIRAVANICH
THE NATION

HONEST BROKER NEEDED TO URGE DISPUTING PARTIES TO TALK PEACE

BANGKOK: -- A YEAR after the coup, the military's promise to bring about national reconciliation looks highly unlikely to be achieved with the conflicting political parties doubtful it would be achieved anytime soon. However, all agree reconciliation is still needed.

People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) co-leader Tankhun Jitt-itsara said reconciliation was extremely hard to achieve due to many issues and factors, but it was necessary. "When political disputes emerge, all sides surely believe they are on the right side, so there must be a broker or a neutral committee the conflicting parties can rely on and accept," Tankhun suggested.

The PDRC co-leader cited that even though he did not support the coup, the military regime offered the most important window to find out the truth on what actually happened during the protests and bloodshed over the past years, and to unveil these facts to the public.

"There should be arrangements for debate between conflicting parties without causing hate speech or violence, in which they could exchange their thoughts and lead to a better understanding of contrasting ideas - then a lasting reconciliation might be achieved," the PDRC co-leader said.

Asked whether there was hope for the country to achieve reconciliation within the next few years, Tankhun predicted it would take at least ten years, reasoning that people usually dwell on the past.

He explained that the PDRC wanted to reconcile, adding that reconciliation did not mean everyone believing in the same ideology or holding each other’s hands. Rather it was about people in the same society co-existing peacefully without violence and still holding on to their contrasting ideas.

United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) co-leader Weng Tojirakarn said the junta had failed to promote reconciliation over the past year. Moreover, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) itself had become an obstacle to reconciliation.

The red-shirt leader said the NCPO had obstructed the process of promoting reconciliation by obscuring the truth about the May 2010 crackdown on red shirts, which led to the combined deaths of at least 99 people, and the role of the so-called "men in black".

Earlier, said Weng, police had arrested five of the so-called men in black, who many believed were responsible for the killing of at least five soldiers during the red-shirt anti-government protests in 2010.

"How could this lead to reconciliation, because the red shirts do not have an armed unit?" Weng asked. "I want to reconcile, yet promoting it should first be driven by sincerity of the people who want to promote a true reconciliation."

Weng added a new draft charter was another obstacle, as the current draft constitution was undemocratic.

"The charter should be more democratic than the one Constitution Drafting Committee [CDC] chairman Borwornsak Uwanno is drafting right now."

Mahidol University's Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP) lecturer Ekapan Pinthavanish said that whether or not the Prayut Chan-o-cha government could achieve reconciliation was still uncertain.

"There are reconciliation committees and the like, but the result is still uncertain," Ekapan said.

He said any reconciliation process must be acceptable to all conflicting parties if there was to be any hope for success. When asked if hate speech by the various sides had subsided, Ekapan said on the surface it might appear so, as "freedom of expression has been curbed".

"However the public should question that because parties are not expressing their hatred [it indicates] their feelings have decreased or not," the lecturer said.

Democrat Party deputy leader Nipit Intrsombat said reconciliation could never be achieved as long as people did not change their mindsets and political ideologies, adding that political beliefs were extremely hard to alter.

"Different groups have different gods. The issue that obstructs reconciliation is that conflicting sides do not accept, for example, that in the past political disputes, neither the red shirts nor the PDRC were willing to accept they had used violence against one another. So first we need to put an end to that issue," Nipit said.

Nipit said the last process in promoting reconciliation surely should end with the granting of amnesty or pardon to wrongdoers - but this would be hard to achieve according to the new charter draft.

This draft stated that an independent reconciliation committee would be established and could request pardons for wrongdoers once they admitted their wrongdoing and provided facts to the committee. "There is no way wrongdoers would come forward to such a committee and say 'I admit that I was wrong so please grant me a pardon'," Nipit said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Reconciliation-vital-but-still-out-of-reach-30260412.html


-- The Nation 2015-05-19

[Tatsujin]

It's going to take decades to achieve "reconciliation", and nothing I've seen in my time here in Thailand shows me that it's going to happen any time sooner than that. There's too much hate and distrust of the "other side" of the political divide.

"Different groups have different gods. The issue that obstructs reconciliation is that conflicting sides do not accept, for example, that in the past political disputes, neither the red shirts nor the PDRC were willing to accept they had used violence against one another. So first we need to put an end to that issue," Nipit said.

Indeed ... when both sides lie to each other, the public, the courts and themselves, how will anything ever change? There needs to be a fundamental change in how Thai's accept responsibility for their actions (indeed anything), before things will change.

[dominique355]

How can this military government preach to bring reconciliation when they are the very source of division?

[quandow]

Dr. Seuss figured it out, why can't we?

[scorecard]

It's going to take decades to achieve "reconciliation", and nothing I've seen in my time here in Thailand shows me that it's going to happen any time sooner than that. There's too much hate and distrust of the "other side" of the political divide.

"Different groups have different gods. The issue that obstructs reconciliation is that conflicting sides do not accept, for example, that in the past political disputes, neither the red shirts nor the PDRC were willing to accept they had used violence against one another. So first we need to put an end to that issue," Nipit said.

Indeed ... when both sides lie to each other, the public, the courts and themselves, how will anything ever change? There needs to be a fundamental change in how Thai's accept responsibility for their actions (indeed anything), before things will change.

To some extent I agree.

"Different groups have different gods. " Very interesting comment, and until the 'god' is a civil society where all Thais are respected equally and have equal and fair opportunities to improve their standard of living through their own productivity, and all Thais respect the rule and the application of the law and the law is applied transparently and fairly then there will be little progress.

I have asked repeatedly on these threads for the udd / red supporters, and others, to explain, to share what they see as 'reconciliation'; what would it look like, would there be a process and what would it be, who would be closely involved, what would the dialogue include?

There has never been one reply.

[Srikcir]

The basis for any political reconcliation is the adherence to a formal rule of law, typically defined by a PEOPLE'S constitution that assures the protection of everyone's rights and liberties. But such reconcliation is not a nuetralization of political differences as some Thais believe.

Reconciliation in a democratic system is the result of pluralism where the majority electorate chooses its political fortunes, usually through representation of one political party or a coalition of political parties. A majority is gathered through political debate, education, dissemination of ideas, presentation of accompishments, offers of hope and change. A demoractic system breeds and fosters political conflict.

But the Junta's reconcliation is based on the usurption of constitutions and the removal of Thai people's sovereignty. Thus, its very conduct is the antithesis of reconciliation! The Junta wants to achieve a single-minded political group that acts on behalf of the majority while itself is essentially an appointed minority. The military seeks essentially to create a politically e electorate whose sovereignty is controlled and manipulated to adhere to the Junta's agenda.

A military-led government cannot accomplish "political reconcliation" so long as it has extra-constitutional power over the electorate. Pollitical reconcliation must be devised and led by the electorate.

Edited May 19, 2015 by Srikcir

[halloween]

Reconciliation to a red shirt is giving their criminals a free pass, again.

[waitforusalso]

Reconciliation to a red shirt is giving their criminals a free pass, again.

Reconciliation to a yellow shirt is having the army shoot some red shirts, overthrow the elected red shirt government & then slipping into power on their coattails.

[EnglishJohn]

Reconciliation to a red shirt is giving their criminals a free pass, again.

Reconciliation to a yellow shirt is having the army shoot some red shirts, overthrow the elected red shirt government & then slipping into power on their coattails.

That must be the Red-Shirt TV condensed version of history suitable for feeding to the cattle. Do you even realise that the crackdown and the coup were years apart ?. Or does it all blur into a mess of jealousy and hatred for all those people with more money than you ?.

Reconciliation to a red-shirt is firing grenades into civilians then mass cheering on hearing the news a young girl got killed. At least the terrorists the Army fired at were armed and shooting back.

You people haven't managed to evolve your way out of the middle ages yet.