Reform assembly agrees on form of political amnesty
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MEMBERS of the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) on Tuesday reached agreement over the form a political amnesty should take. The agreement was reached at an NRSA workshop in which the 200 assembly members formed separate groups to discuss amnesty a
The group assigned to discuss political reform group agreed that a conducive atmosphere was needed to facilitate reconciliation, said NRSA member Sompong Srakavi.
They agreed that those of any colour-coded faction who had committed minor political offences should be given amnesty, in order to help create the right atmosphere for reconciliation. However, they did not elaborate on the definition of “minor political offences”, Sompong said.
The group also agreed that those who had committed serious offences of corruption and lese majeste, as well as those who had fled justice overseas, should be excluded from consideration for any amnesty, he added.
Sompong said the group were in agreement that the reconciliation proposal proposed by the now-defunct National Reform Council’s study panel should be brought up for review. But they didn’t touch on the controversial issue of a national strategic reform and reconciliation committee.
Sompong said the group’s topics for discussion would also be high on the NRSA agenda for action, though the NRSA vice chair, Alongkorn Ponlaboot, told The Nation that the workshop was just a preliminary review. Potential reform agendas would be reviewed in NRSA general debates on the Assembly’s road map next month before being finalised for implementation.
