A dozen reasons why we're doing it the wrong way
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To go by Somkiat Onwimon's logic, this article doesn't matter much. Which is too bad, because I sort of like the media veteran's idea that national reconciliation should be an issue for people under 40 to tackle. Having been young and now in that stage of
Countering the prime minister’s initiative to set up a national council or assembly to work out a new political formula for strife-torn Thailand, Somkiat has come up with a drastic proposal. Somkiat, who is considerably older than me, has practically said that people of his age should kick off their shoes and go to bed. Our political course, he stated on Facebook, is up to the younger generation.
The thing is, if Somkiat is sincere about this, he’s an exception and not the rule. Old people are willing to sacrifice many things but the ability to control. “It’s your world” we often say to young people, but if you don’t see clenched jaws with that utterance, it’s probably a lie. Everyone wants to be relevant, and the older you are, the more so. Have you ever taken a trip when everyone goes photo crazy on the last day? Life’s journey is the same. Only it’s not photo-taking we want to do before checking out.
But let's ignore those who are reluctantly at the exit doors. They won’t heed Somkiat’s proposal anyway. This article is meant to support his idea without offending people who can count me among their peers. Simply, let me speak for the young, and here are the reasons why I think they should take centre stage in formulating national reconciliation:
1. First and foremost, it’s an irrefutable, scientific fact that they will have to live with any peace formula longer than older people.
2. For a generation that is growing up watching “Game of Thrones”, they should have a better perspective on “power” than their parents or grandparents.
3. If there are people under 30 posting offensive political remarks on Facebook or Twitter, I’d like to know them. Young people are using the social media to socialise, not spawn hatred.
4. The new generations are more creative than previous ones. This is a basic evolutionary rule.
5. If they screw up, it’s they, not the older generations, that will have to live with the consequences.
6. If they screw up, it won’t get much worse. Really.
7. If they aren’t allowed to take the lead in finding reconciliation now, they will have to do so when they get older anyway. By then they will likely have been consumed by an “old people’s mentality”, and Thailand will risk going back to Square One.
8. For a generation that is growing up watching “Fringe”, they should have the urge to compete with “The Other They” in parallel universes. They are unlikely to write a rubbish reconciliation plan just for the sake of writing it. (This is assuming that it has also dawned on “The Other Older Generation” in a parallel universe that they should wash their hands of politics.)
9. They will mention the older generations fondly in the history of Thailand. “Although the country was nearly torn apart,” they may write, “our ancestors did one thing that would eventually save Thailand: they formed a political reform assembly and decided not to be part of it.”
10. Enemies can’t sit at the same table and draft a peace plan unless one side has won a war and the other has lost it. It’s as simple as that. And as of now, Thai political enemies are mostly those above 40. We need relatively neutral and less antagonised people to come together and propose ways for Thailand to move forward.
11. The younger generation is a role model for even younger generations (teenagers and little kids). If they can promote true peace and love, it will be very healthy for Thailand. No offence to the older generation, but every single one of its peace formulas has sent chills down the spines of neutral observers.
12. If older people continue to monopolise the drafting of “peace roadmaps”, at this rate we will achieve genuine reconciliation around the year 2075. That is an optimistic prediction, of course.
There, I’ve made my points. They are not legally binding, so I hope Somkiat will understand this input from someone above his proposed age-limit for being involved in effecting a peace plan. And here’s another thought: If old soldiers never die, maybe we should deploy old people in combat and cap the maximum ages of MPs and senators at 40. Perhaps “the other us” are already doing this.
