What a difference just a short distance from parliament made

Outside Parliament, the yellow shirts gathered to oppose the reconciliation – aka amnesty – bill. On that day, the red-shirt war drums were also beaten.  All parties are poised for a bloody confrontation.

Whether all of this was a trick or a reality show, it’s hard for us mere mortals to know. One thing quite certain is that the most fitting term to describe our national political state of affairs is “Snafu”.

On that same day, a few metres away, the scene could not be more different. At the Chaipatana Building, Chitralada Palace, 74 school students, mostly from primary schools, and their 40 teachers were having an audience with Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirinthorn. These students, aged 11-16, representing 28 schools from across the country, were presenting pledges as their three representatives stood before Her Royal Hughness.

“We, the Young Ambassadors, having joined the ‘Young Ambassadors of Virtue for the Strength of the Land’ project, request the permission of Your Royal Highness to present the collection of pledges that we have made, and shall use as our guid, to foster harmonious unity in our nation, along the lines espoused by His Majesty the King.

“A pledge is a promise that we shall keep and follow accordingly, to foster and nurture national harmony and unity, which is the prerequisite of our nation’s sound progress and sustainable prosperity. We, being aware that we are the future of our country, shall collectively help shape our destiny, both for today and tomorrow.”

The honesty, simple and unpretentious, that permeated the air gave spectators, even the most jaded ones, a glimmer of hope. Maybe there will be light at the end of this dark tunnel we have travelled along for the last several years.

The project is under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. One of the underpinning principles is the broadening of children’s horizons by giving them a chance to visit schools from different parts and regions of the country, as well as to get in touch with their counterparts overseas. 

The core activity of the project – the Partnership Exchange or “Yao-Yuen” programme – is to pair schools from different provinces and regions, and to facilitate exchange visits of students and teachers between the pairs. The Foundation designed the programme of activities in order to encourage students to share their backgrounds and cultural heritage with each other, to look for goodness in others, and interact with local individuals who have done good work for their community, and in some cases to participate in their works. The programme was born out of the conviction that if young people get to meet and interact with those they do not know, and can open their hearts to each other, they will be more inclined to get along with each other and try harder to work for the betterment of society. They will also learn that the world is not, as the Thai adage goes, as large as a dry coconut shell, and they are not the frogs living in that shell, thinking that it is the entire world.

That same principle underlies the activities of the Seeds of Peace Foundation in New York. Its initial main objective is to bring children from Palestine and Israel together in joint activities for a period of time so they can learn to understand and sympathise with each other. In doing so they will learn that they do not need to be enemies, and that their presupposed enemies are very much like them.

Maybe someone should try to create a similar programme for Thai adults and politicians. Members of our different political hues could come together in apolitical activities, getting to know each other, having a chance to join hands constructively. They do not have to abandon their political beliefs, but in such camps, political factions are not a factor. 

It may be an extreme simplification, but it is still accurate to say that it is not much of an ideology that separates the yellow shirts from the red shirts.  The division is essentially over one person, our former prime minister, and is between those who oppose and those who support him. “Blind allegiance” is the term that can describe the sentiments, convictions and judgement held by many members of both camps. That polarisation has been allowed to fester for so long that it has turned into hatred, stereotype and mistrust. It has got to the point where the same person in question paradoxically personifies both a saint and a devil. 

As ever, the truth may lie somewhere in between. But at this point in time, that truth matters no more. The effects of hateful conflict have taken their toll.

The Young Ambassadors of Virtue for the Strength of the Land project was carried out over one year between 2011 and 2012 to commemorate the 84th birthday of His Majesty. It focused on younger students and provided a chance for them in their early formative years to explore the meaning not only of peaceful coexistence, but also of friendship and commonality, despite their differences. The positive change in behaviour of some youngsters confounded even their families and communities, and they in response started to join the Foundation’s activities during the student exchange visits. 

If the programme continues uninterruptedly, maybe, and just maybe, there will be an eventual realisation among us that there is actually no “other side”, that all Thais can peacefully coexist, and the nation is indivisible as we rise and fall together. In politics there are winners and losers, but as a nation we share the same destiny – the destiny we all take part in shaping, either directly or indirectly. 

For all Thais, it’s our shared future we must care about.