Reconciliation is achievable, says Anek

[rooster59]

Reconciliation is achievable, says Anek

By PIYAPORN WONGRUANG
THE SUNDAY NATION

 

 

THE government has sent out clear signals since February that it wants to renew efforts to forge reconciliation among divided political groups.

 

That has resulted in the setting up of a new supreme committee to oversee reform, reconciliation, and national strategy, under which a preparation committee was established to assume direct responsibility for reconciliation.

 

On Friday, its sub-panel, processing political input after talks with more than 70 political parties and civil organisations over the past few months, wrapped up its work. This will now be forwarded to the next panel to help formulate synchronised views into a “social contract” to help bridge division among political parties.

 

According to Anek Laothanmatas, former chairman of the reconciliation study committee under the National Reform Council, who has been invited to advise the government’s reconciliation committee, the latest attempts can help bring about a smooth election as promised as well as “political reconciliation and stability”.

 

However, it still remains questionable whether it can help heal the deep social divisions, which are at the root of the reconciliation problem.

 

In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Nation, Anek said there were some signs that suggest “political fruition” from these latest efforts.

 

From the outset, the chairman of the committees, Deputy Premier Prawit Wongsuwan, set his goal, clearly and firmly, saying that the new round of talks aimed to ensure the country would not fall back into division again. 

 

Moreover, it must help pave the way for a smooth poll, with candidates able to campaign anywhere without disruptions, like in the past.

 

Amnesty for jailed individuals was excluded from the process, which was undertaken to pave the way for such goals, Anek said.

 

And besides the government’s clear goals, political parties and their leaders had agreed they want to see an election held. The long years of division has exhausted them and they want to have a break, he said.

 

Only a few involved with certain critical incidents wanted an amnesty as a precondition for reconciliation. The hopes of those already in jail, in discussions he had when he visited them, had receded. What they wished for now was to serve their terms and hope for a pardon to end their unfortunate plight, he said. As such, all energy was channelled towards the set goals, which were now foreseeable, Anek |said.

 

“This is made possible, crucially because all key figures sit on the committee and when they propose something, it’s something that cannot be denied,” he said.

 

“Political reconciliation”, Anek said, was dependent on the eventual election because, if it yields the expected results, the country will see a mixed government, under which no political parties could dominate others in the House. 

 

As such, political stability and reconciliation could last for some time because they would need to compromise and work together and would not wish to return to the previous political conditions under which democracy was frozen.

 

However, given the economic inequality in the country, Anek pondered whether this could bring about the desired “social reconciliation”.

 

While the government has been striving to get all concerned parties geared towards the election, one hard fact is that economic conditions in the country are rather painful for all, partly because |of the global downturn. This impact can be now felt widely, said Anek, and underlines the problems of “social inequity and division”.

 

To forge true reconciliation, he said the fundamental need was to allow conflicting parties participate in the process, not only forging reconciliation and rehabilitation among themselves but for all in society.

 

“They should not be treated as bullies or the bullied, who keep asking for forgiveness or waiting for forgiveness, but treated as social healers who can help contribute healing for the whole of society together,” he said. 

 

Fundamental problems, he added, need to be tackled seriously so such inequity can be addressed and resolved. 

 

“This is about nurturing political culture and mindsets,” he said. “We once had it, but it has been lost over the past 10 years in a fierce political competition and deep divisions. The question is how we can reboot such a nurturing culture to help reduce the gap and give a more equal chance to all.”

 

So what really needs to be done? 

 

“We need to listen to one another, truly, I mean, not just among political blocs, but between people in the cities and people in the rural areas,” he said. 

 

“It doesn’t always mean that your equality as defined under your ‘democracy’ would mean the same as that of people living in rural areas, and as such we must think for them. What we need to do is listen to one another so that we can hear what they really want, and want to pursue in life; that’s giving an equal chance to others.”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30316518

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-05-28

[klauskunkel]

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Reconciliation is achievable, says Anek

That has been a recurring headline over the past months... similar to a "daily affirmation"?

[yellowboat]

Anek is right.  If the common Thai will agree to lower their standards and accept what the military government is forcing upon them, the citizens will reconcile for less in life.  We have seen what they have accomplished with regards to educational standards over the last three years. 

[mtls2005]

That has resulted in the setting up of a new supreme committee to oversee...

 

 

You know they're getting serious when the committees being formed need superlatives.

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

under which a preparation committee was established to assume direct responsibility for reconciliation.

Sounds rather ominous. "Step into my web said the spider to the fly"

[elgordo38]

37 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

Anek is right.  If the common Thai will agree to lower their standards and accept what the military government is forcing upon them, the citizens will reconcile for less in life.  We have seen what they have accomplished with regards to educational standards over the last three years. 

It came right out of the PM's mouth. Thai's must sacrifice some personal freedoms for the sake of security. How much I guess is still up for debate. 

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

“We need to listen to one another, truly, I mean, not just among political blocs, but between people in the cities and people in the rural areas,” he said. 

Boots and shovels time. 

[ddavidovsky]

Reconciliblahblahblahblahblahllalalalalalalalaalalalalilahdidahididahdishlobbolobbolobbolobbolobbolobb...

I stopped listening.

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

The tail wags the dog.

 

From what I see the only divisions are engineered by certain criminal mafia politicians and the Thai military. 

 

The Thai people appeared quite capable of deciding who they wanted to run the country on a number of occasions. 

 

The military needs to be accountable to the elected government. Until that is achieved, there will never be progress here. 

 

There's two sides of the coin.

Somewhere in the picture there also needs to be political parties who have a serious and appropriate detailed manifesto benefiting all Thais and aimed at reducing the gap, and seen to be seriously working to achieving the manifesto objectives and a clear regular display of good morals and good ethics.  And no display of poor / unacceptable morals and ethics.  

Edited May 28, 2017 by scorecard

[yellowboat]

29 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

There's two sides of the coin.

Somewhere in the picture there also needs to be political parties who have a serious and appropriate detailed manifesto benefiting all Thais and aimed at reducing the gap, and seen to be seriously working to achieving the manifesto objectives and a clear regular display of good morals and good ethics.  And no display of poor / unacceptable morals and ethics.  

No, that is what elections are for.  When elected officials fail in the eye of the public, they get voted out. Morals and ethics come in to play during elections, unless  If violating morals and ethics constitute the breaking of a law, then the courts will decide. Manifestos or road maps are for autocratic governments.   

[starky]

3 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

It came right out of the PM's mouth. Thai's must sacrifice some personal freedoms for the sake of security. How much I guess is still up for debate. 

What like the US after 9/11?

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, yellowboat said:

No, that is what elections are for.  When elected officials fail in the eye of the public, they get voted out. Morals and ethics come in to play during elections, unless  If violating morals and ethics constitute the breaking of a law, then the courts will decide. Manifestos or road maps are for autocratic governments.   

 

So you support voting in a party who deliberately give no detail of what they will focus on if elected?

Edited May 28, 2017 by scorecard

[elgordo38]

4 hours ago, ddavidovsky said:

Reconciliblahblahblahblahblahllalalalalalalalaalalalalilahdidahididahdishlobbolobbolobbolobbolobbolobb...

I stopped listening.

I think you should continue listening I think your on the verge of a musical/song breakout. Name that Tune?? Give the PM's song writing efforts a run for his money. 

[Ebony19]

5 hours ago, yellowboat said:

Anek is right.  If the common Thai will agree to lower their standards and accept what the military government is forcing upon them, the citizens will reconcile for less in life.  We have seen what they have accomplished with regards to educational standards over the last thhree years. 

 

 

[phantomfiddler]

Regrettably the situation presently exists where the Thai rural majority would vote toxin,s dog into power if he paid them the customary bribe. When Abhisit found himself in power, a Bangkok taxi driver, when asked about the new Prime Minister, said "Abhisit is a total crook, the only honest man in Thailand is toxin" ! When the ignorant majority are so far off base there is no hope for reconciliation. Thanks to the total corruption of the meaning of democracy here in Thailand the present situation is far superior to any other likely solution.

[Cadbury]

5 hours ago, starky said:

What like the US after 9/11?

This subject is nothing to do with the almighty United States of America and 9/11. It is about reconciliation in Thailand. Please keep your mind on the job.

[billd766]

9 hours ago, yellowboat said:

Anek is right.  If the common Thai will agree to lower their standards and accept what the military government is forcing upon them, the citizens will reconcile for less in life.  We have seen what they have accomplished with regards to educational standards over the last three years. 

 

About the same as all of the Thaksin governments did over 10 years.

[scorecard]

44 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

About the same as all of the Thaksin governments did over 10 years.

 

Including thaksin being the education minister!

[wakeupplease]

12 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

Boots and shovels time. 

Lies and BullS>>> Time you mean

[wakeupplease]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Including thaksin being the education minister!

Well I never knew that The man being the education minster, is that so please confirm

Edited May 28, 2017 by wakeupplease

[elgordo38]

36 minutes ago, wakeupplease said:

Lies and BullS>>> Time you mean

Same thing different words 

[Srikcir]

16 hours ago, starky said:

What like the US after 9/11?

Not really.

 

An elected congress and president answerable to the American Public as representatives of the American Public placed some restrictions on their liberties in 2011. Most of those restrictions have remained in place after three presidential and congressional elections. The American public in effect have placed restrictions on their personal liberties by themselves.

 

The self-appointed PM's sacrifice of Thais personal liberties (despite contravening the "People's" 2017 Constitution) is for the sake of a minority group (ie., elitists, royalists) who believe they hold sovereignty that supersedes the People's sovereignty by an inherent unwritten absolute power, and by extension not accountable to the People.

[scorecard]

9 hours ago, wakeupplease said:

Well I never knew that The man being the education minster, is that so please confirm

 

It's absolutely true, he took on the Ed. ministry among other roles with a big fanfare 'I will fix education in six months'.

 

The six months expired and nothing whatever had happened and he quietly, no fanfare whatever, passed to Ed. ministry to a nobody. 

[billd766]

10 hours ago, wakeupplease said:

Well I never knew that The man being the education minster, is that so please confirm

 

42 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

It's absolutely true, he took on the Ed. ministry among other roles with a big fanfare 'I will fix education in six months'.

 

The six months expired and nothing whatever had happened and he quietly, no fanfare whatever, passed to Ed. ministry to a nobody. 

 

I remember it too. I have just spent 20 minutes scouring Google  for a link to it but I cannot find one. There seems to be no record of previous Ministers of Education before the current government. There is a link to Thaksins Education policies on Wikipedia but no mention of him being the Education Minister for any period of time.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaksin_Shinawatra

 

One of Thaksin's educational reforms was school decentralisation, as mandated by the 1997 Constitution.[112] It was to delegate school management from the over-centralized and bureaucratised Ministry of Education to Tambon Administrative Organizations (TAOs), but met with massive widespread opposition from Thailand's 700,000 teachers, who would be deprived of their status as civil servants. Teachers also feared that TAOs lacked the ability to manage schools. In the face of massive teacher protests and several threats of school closure, Thaksin compromised and gave teachers whose schools were transferred to TAO management two years to transfer to other schools.[113]

Other intended policy changes included learning reform and related curricular decentralisation, mostly through greater use of holistic education and less use of rote learning.[114]

 

There is more than this about Education but no names of the Ministers if anybody wants to look.

[starky]

3 hours ago, Srikcir said:

Not really.

 

An elected congress and president answerable to the American Public as representatives of the American Public placed some restrictions on their liberties in 2011. Most of those restrictions have remained in place after three presidential and congressional elections. The American public in effect have placed restrictions on their personal liberties by themselves.

 

The self-appointed PM's sacrifice of Thais personal liberties (despite contravening the "People's" 2017 Constitution) is for the sake of a minority group (ie., elitists, royalists) who believe they hold sovereignty that supersedes the People's sovereignty by an inherent unwritten absolute power, and by extension not accountable to the People.

Yeah sure.  NSA, CIA, FBI, homeland security and all the other alphabet organisations. They were all asked for and approved by the people of the United States. Keep drinking the kool aid brother

[scorecard]

On 5/28/2017 at 9:15 PM, phantomfiddler said:

Regrettably the situation presently exists where the Thai rural majority would vote toxin,s dog into power if he paid them the customary bribe. When Abhisit found himself in power, a Bangkok taxi driver, when asked about the new Prime Minister, said "Abhisit is a total crook, the only honest man in Thailand is toxin" ! When the ignorant majority are so far off base there is no hope for reconciliation. Thanks to the total corruption of the meaning of democracy here in Thailand the present situation is far superior to any other likely solution.

 

Another version, from one outer member of my Thai family:

 

'Thaksin is a good man, he has promised to pay every Thai person, every age, a big salary every month for life when he returns,  but this government and the abhisit government won't let him come back because they hate poor people'. 

 

This specific comment has come up several times. My Thai adult son responds with: 'Why didn't he pay this big salary to everyone when the yingluck government was in power?'

 

Answer: 'Because he wasn't in Thailand to sign all the documents.'

 

Son: 'Why couldn't he arrange for another shin family member to sign the documents?'

 

Response: 'You can't do that by Thai law', then a direct comment to my son 'How come you don't know that would be illegal?"

Edited May 31, 2017 by scorecard