FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Birds of a feather stick together

Birds of a feather stick together

Re: “Reconciliation calls for compromises”, Letters, January 2, 2016.

The word reconciliation comes up frequently in the press but what would be considered to be the benchmark for satisfactory reconciliation?
When King Rama VII ceded democracy it came with a warning that unscrupulous people could use it to take over the country. Is there any doubt that this is what happened?
Sitting MPs were persuaded to join Thai Rak Thai in 1998, and all parties except the Democrats were invited to join the Thai Rak Thai coalition after the 2001 and the 2005 elections. 
The move by charter drafters to counter this by restricting the number of MPs from any party to less than 50 would only bring about coalitions of at least five parties. The writers of two letters on January 1, targeting Abhisit and the Democrat Party as being unacceptable should be pleased, as the Democrats will be doomed to be opposition ad infinitum.
Of course, if all the MPs who were part of the 2001 and 2005 governments and all ministers under Yingluck Shinawatra’s government who came up with bills to install Pheu Thai for 50 years were banned, the Democrats may be philosophical about it but never reconciled. 
Richard Bowler
nationthailand