Let courts sort out who needs to be punished, forgiven

I suggest that accountability is a key part of reconciliation. Waiving accountability is fatal to reconciliation.

Dear Reader, if somebody kills your innocent family, and you forgive the killer without him being identified or punished, or his behaviour changed, what is to stop him from killing again? And that certainly would not reconcile the two of you. That is why the law correctly requires alleged perpetrators to be tried, and if found guilty, punished, for serious crimes even though the harmed party may not lodge charges. I note also that in other countries like South Africa, their truth and reconciliation commissions require that perpetrators first accept accountability for their acts and then, and only then, might they be forgiven or their punishment lessened.
We should apply the rule of law to these cases, even though it means rejecting the King Prajadhipok’s Institute’s recommendation on this point. Since the sooner we reconcile the better, the fact-finding report of the government-appointed Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRCT) should be released immediately, with the names of all accused left intact. The TRCT could then probe each individual case, taking up the most serious first, and recommend amnesty or punishment for the courts to consider.
Burin Kantabutra
Bangkok