Secret talks not solution to political crisis
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HEALING THE RIFT IN SOCIETY SHOULD BE THE JOB OF EVERY CITIZEN
Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha has rejected the possibility of talks with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is now reportedly willing to engage in high-level negotiations for the sake of national reconciliation. It would be wrong for a state official to negotiate with a fugitive from justice, explained Prayut, adding that he was in any case impartial to opposing sides in the political conflict.
Thailand has been plagued by serious conflict for more than a decade, some observers tracing its roots to Thaksin’s premiership. A fact-finding committee set up after the 2010 political unrest concluded that the conflict began with the assets-concealment case against Thaksin in 2004, when the Constitutional Court ruled in his favour.
According to sources in the pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai Party, the former premier is now seeking talks with the country’s leaders because he had been disappointed by lower-level talks. He wants to negotiate with someone powerful enough to ensure that any agreement reached is put into practice.
Some politicians are optimistic that the conflict remains “theirs to solve” and that such negotiations represent a way forward.
That optimism should be a cause for concern among ordinary citizens. It conjures up the spectre of a secret agreement on the country’s future made within a small group of powerbrokers. Any such talks would be unlikely to address crucial questions that remain unanswered: What was the root cause of the conflict? What is at dispute? Is the conflict confined to politicians, or are all of us involved?
Without knowing the cause, it is unlikely we will achieve reconciliation. Without that foundation, how can we know where to start and what actions to take towards reconciliation?
The political polarisation has been blamed on discontent stemming from
corruption, abuse of power, failure of democracy and social inequity. It could be that the conflict is a straightforward battle for political power waged by groups who use their followers as pawns.
Street protests and shows of public discontent are part of any normally functioning democracy and rarely lead to severe conflict. However, protest in Thailand has been blighted by political violence triggered by what appeared to be attackers hired for the purpose. The violence left scores of people dead and several hundred injured and dragged the two sides into deeper conflict.
Anti-government rallies over the decades have focused on social inequity, public corruption, double standards and abuse of power.
However, those protests have often missed their mark by targeting the supporters of the government – ordinary citizens – rather than the politicians in power. More often than not, the politicians have responded in kind, rallying their own supporters and setting citizen against citizen. In this way they can maintain that the accusations against them, however well founded, are merely persecution.
At the root of the conflict is the self-serving and corrupt behaviour of politicians. Changing this, however, is easier advocated than done.
In fact, the Thai conflict boils down to one problem – too many of the country’s politicians have little or no respect for the law. Some have managed to buy their way into power, then sown this disregard for the rule of law among their followers.
The reality is that our conflict reaches well beyond political circles. It has radiated through every sector and level of society. As such it cannot be resolved with secretive talks among powerbrokers. Only thorough reform drawn from popular opinion can bring solutions to a crisis that goes this deep.
