TRCT to release its final report before its tenure ends in July

Kanit na Nakorn said that in addition to findings on what happened during the political conflicts that have erupted over recent years, the report will also cover the rehabilitation process for victims.

He said the report would also provide some lessons in the hope that such problems do not recur.

“The TRCT has worked continuously to seek the truth. Our process is based on knowledge, not emotions. This study reflects the root cause of the problems in the economic, social and political sectors, as well as the mass media and the justice process,” Kanit explained.

“The study suggests what can be done to bring about reconciliation. However, in order to achieve true reconciliation and peace, all the elements in society have to work together,” he added.

Kanit was speaking at the TRCT panel’s discussion on “Root Causes of the Conflict Problem and Path to Reconciliation” held yesterday at Bangkok’s Rama Gardens Hotel.

Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government appointed the panel after the April-May 2010 unrest, which left 91 people dead and 2,000 others injured. 

Panel member Somchai Homlaor said at yesterday’s event that the middle class played an important role in the political conflict, with the urban middle-class siding with the old capitalists, while the rural middle class stood by the new capitalists. 

“In the red shirts’ view, the old capitalists are the ‘elite’, and the new capitalists are middlemen and businesspeople, some of whom run shady businesses and have expanded their roles from local politics to national politics,” Somchai said. 

TRCT member Thanet Arpornsuwan, the chief researcher on the imbalance in Thailand’s power structure, said that unfair distribution of political and economic powers had led to the conflicts. He called for a system in which many social elements can ensure the checks and balances in order to ensure a sustainable democracy. 

Supanida Puangpaka, who heads the research team on reform of security organisations, said that if the parties involved in the conflict still wanted to defeat one another, reconciliation would not be achieved. Instead, she said, all sides should be sincere and together find ways to achieve reconciliation. She also said that political reform should be done along with reform of the security sector.

TRCT member Surichai Wan-kaew, who leads the team researching political violence and social dynamism, said yesterday that most of the country’s recent political changes took place during former PM Thaksin Shina-watra’s tenure. He said the conflicts that began at that time were worsened by the 2006 coup that brought down Thaksin’s government. High-stakes political power made conflicts fierce and violent as leaders of the conflicting parties could not afford to lose, he said.