We have one colour -- Thai colour : Thaksin
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Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is waiting for national reconciliation to happen before he returns to his homeland.
Thaksin said this in an exclusive interview with Channel News Asia on the sidelines of the Strategic Review Forum in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Thaksin may be far from home, but home is never far from his mind.
"I can go everywhere in the world, except my homeland. Why? I should be able to go to my homeland, my motherland. But now every country welcomes me, except my motherland," he said.
"(This makes me) feel bad. There's something wrong, (and) that is the big misunderstanding (between the Thai political factions). It's time to face and talk."
Thaksin also says it was time for forgiveness. "I forgive everyone. Don't worry that they might you know, insult me with verbal, or with legal, or whatever. I forgive them all. I just want to be part of Thai society. I want to live my normal life," he said.
At the Strategic Review Forum in Jakarta, Thaksin called for a highly-controversial amnesty, which he says is key to long-overdue reconciliation in Thailand.
"I want to see reconciliation. I want to see peace and unity in Thailand. I will bring my people and come together with those who are against me and then we will do something. We will try to find something that we can have activities together," he said.
Thaksin said South Africa's Nelson Mandala served as an inspiration for him.
"If you were to remember, Nelson Mandela used rugby as the vehicle for the blacks and the whites to come together and play together. South Africa has a very good rugby team until now," he said.
"We might do something that can create the activities that those can come together with no colours. We have one colour -- Thai colour."
The fugitive former premier says Thais want to move on from the current political divide.
"They want reconciliation. ... They want Thailand to be like in the old days, that we are the Land of Smiles. We can smile to each other, we don't have to ask: you are red or you are yellow?"
The Thai government, led by Thaksin's sister Yingluck, has put forward reconciliation proposals, but the parliamentary vote on these have been postponed due to political tensions.
It seems Thaksin may have to wait a little longer before he can go home.
