Without tolerance, no chance for democracy

I wish I could agree with Mr A Johnson, who says that, since all parties are held back by corrupt politicians, instead of opposing Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, politicians should cleanse their parties. “Normal social standards have to be established in Thai politics,” he writes, “so that the parties themselves kick out the rotten eggs forever.”

But no matter how corrupt politicians are, they can be no worse than those who voted them in. 

You and I, dear reader, must support leaders who put national interests before their own, those who will think of other people – including those who oppose them – and not just themselves. 

Thailand cannot exist as half “yellow” and half “red” any more than in Lincoln’s time, when America was half slave and half free. 

We must practise political tolerance, for, as Anand Panyarachun wrote in The Nation on April 2, “Real democratic values are how to reach a consensus, how to tolerate other people. These are the core values that we have not tried to learn or to emulate, or understand.” We must learn that others have valid points to make, reach out to them, negotiate in good faith, and work out over-arching goals to reach by working as a team. Thus, we will have sustainable buy-in from all. 

Now, we have near-zero tolerance. Even if voters wanted to consider other viewpoints, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan has told us, “You can think, but don’t express your thoughts.” 

We have been subjected to “attitude adjustments” for asking Prayut for the rationale for his “12 Values”, rather than telling us to just memorise them. The Democrats couldn’t even hold an internal party meeting to discipline the Bangkok mayor for not following its policies.

Prayut talked the democratic talk when he said, in a four-page newspaper ad, that a politically active citizenry was at the core of democracy, which would emphasise strengthening horizontal power and lessening vertical power. He should now walk the walk.

Burin Kantabutra