Resolution of social ills requires engagement of all sides: KPI analyst

HOW CAN SUPPORTERS AND OPPONENTS OF THE MAE WONG DAM PROJECT AGREE ON A SOLUTION?

 

The Mae Wong Dam has already become politicised and those who make moves to oppose or support it are not the locals. It will [continue to be] a political issue. 

 

Having said that, I don’t see a clear water-management plan. Country planning has been laid down since the reign of Rama V, but in the end, industrial zones were built all over flood-prone areas. Who should then be responsible?

 

DO YOU THINK RECONCILIATION IS TRULY WHAT POLITICIANS WANT? IT SEEMS THAT THE PARTY NOT IN POWER ALWAYS OPPOSES RECONCILIATION, WHILE THOSE IN POWER SAY THEY WANT RECONCILIATION SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY’RE CURRENTLY IN POWER.

 

It’s impossible to have reconciliation from just one side. All sides must have the desire to forge reconciliation in order for it to materialise. Those in power must give a chance to those without power to hold a dialogue. Today, the timing is wrong, however, because the opposition wants to oust the government.

 

KPI IS OFTEN ACCUSED OF SIDING WITH WHOEVER IS IN POWER. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SUCH AN ACCUSATION?

 

I will not answer on behalf of KPI because I consider our organisation as conducting academic work. Our work is done once we present the facts. It’s others’ business if they want to criticise us. There’s no paper [to be found] where someone agrees with us 100 per cent. We have all sides represented here on our [KPI] council too.

 

WHY DO YOU THINK MANY THAIS ARE STRONGLY INTOLERANT OF POLITICAL OPINIONS THAT DIFFER FROM THEIR OWN, OFTEN TO THE POINT OF HATRED?

 

Education is one explanation. Students are taught to win. Say, on the Asean Economic Community (AEC), we always think about beating our neighbours or how to take advantage of them. People see things from a self-centred point of view. Thai education places [the individual] at the centre.

 

Our education is backward and a failure and that’s why our education was recently ranked the worst in Asean. The media is also responsible for sowing conflict and it has never reformed itself. In Rwanda, neighbours killed one another because of the incitement of the media. Now the ugliness of propaganda speech has even entered the [Thai] Parliament.

 

DO YOU THINK VIOLENT CONFLICT IN THE DEEP SOUTH WILL GO ON FOR DECADES TO COME?

 

 I think there’ll be an end to the conflict and there’re signs that local people are rising to protect their own rights. KPI went to the deep South to open forums [for deliberation]. People can now say “merdeka” [freedom or independence, in Malay language], although they dared not utter it just three years ago.

 

The dialogue with the BRN is ongoing and the BRN came up with a 38-page paper envisioning the future. We looked at it and considered what is acceptable and what is not. Our government has entered into dialogue four times and all they did was insist that the level of violence be first reduced.

 

In more than 100 countries, conflicts ended with negotiation. But we need a road map. And that’s what we don’t have, although the BRN has its own road map with clear details.

 

If you ask me whether there could be a special administrative zone in the deep South, my answer is that we [also] speak for 40 other provinces who are calling for the electing of their own governors. So we will push for those other provinces first. What’s more, the prime minister herself declared during the election campaign that the deep South would be made a special administrative zone.