66/23 Order should be adapted to bring about reconciliation: NRSA panel
A reform panel on reconciliation has insisted that the iconic Order 66/23 implemented during the Cold War era that granted amnesty to surrendering communist insurgents should be applied in the ongoing attempt to achieve political reconciliation.
The suggestion is included in a report on a research study conducted by the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) subcommittee on reconciliation research. The sub-panel is subsequently under the NRSA’s political reform committee.
The sub-panel’s secretary and adviser General Ekachai Srivilas reiterated to The Nation Monday that the concept of adopting a political policy to settle conflicts, despite different contexts, can be applied in the present times.
With the junta’s stance opposing amnesty as a part of reconciliation building, Ekachai said such a term is not mentioned in the subpanel’s report.
“But we did raise that opponents against any government should be given chances to rebuild democracy altogether,” he said.
Order 66/23 was issued in 1980 by the government of General Prem Tinsulanonda to alleviate a spread of communist influence in the Kingdom. It involved amnesty given to defecting students, sympathisers and communist militants.
The idea of adopting an Order 66/23 policy was also backed by Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin, a coup-maker-turned-politician who conducted a research on reconciliation in 2012, Ekachai said.
