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Published on February 20, 2008

 After all, fresh experiences have taught us that what a Thai prime minister or Cabinet member did five or six years ago doesn't count as far as political integrity goes, let alone something that took place more than three decades ago.

Character scrutiny exists in Thailand for political purposes only. Morality is cited as a pretext, just to make it sound nice. This happens everywhere

in the world, but we must top the rankings when it comes to the biggest number of character debates with the least positive outcomes.

The real question is whether our society really cares. If the academics or former activists currently making noises about "distorted" October 6 history are truly serious, why didn't they come out beforehand? The logic is simple, isn't it? If Samak's role in, or attitude toward, October 6 was acceptable to them at the time he was poised to be prime minister, it shouldn't bother them now.

Ultimately, however, caring about October 6 doesn't mean saying "No to Samak" based on the history. October 6 is always "there", like Everest. The challenge, though, is not to explore it or find the ones responsible and pillory them. What we should do is draw positive principles from those dark days and cherish them and live by them. Among the big lessons are the importance of a free media, the danger of giving any particular social force a stereotype, and the peril of politics of hatred.

Have we been able to establish longlasting values out of October 6? After more than 30 years, society's concept of a free media seems more confused than ever, political stereotyping is rampant, and spawning hatred is how you win an election. Samak being able to downplay the Thammasat massacre or his "distortion" of history is just part of the fallout of a bigger failure. A prime minister saying nonchalantly that only one "unlucky" victim died in the incident is only a result of how much Thais have learned from October 6 and the October 14 pro-democracy uprisings and the lack of evolution from the two watershed events.

October 6 doesn't challenge Samak to speak the truth; it demands that the whole society moves itself toward genuine political maturity. It calls for tolerance and transparency from those in power, and non-violence from those seeking it. October 6 is there to remind us all how easy it is to turn from an idealist into a hypocrite overnight.

Life went on after October 14, 1973 and October 6, 1976. Many of the October warriors, some of whom went into the jungles to briefly join the communists after the Thammasat bloodshed, only to be disillusioned, have stayed around. They have been contributing one way or another to society as writers, social critics or politicians. Some keep the ideology, but others are serving as the living proof of October 6's ultimate truth - that truth is nothing unless you draw from it the ultimate good, which has to be fostered regardless of one's changing role.

October 6 doesn't prohibit having a prime minister who condoned it, because if all lessons have been learned, he will be well taken care of. What October 6 is against is the collective ignorance of true democratic values, or the politics of vengeance in the name of democracy. And there is no worse injustice to October 6 than misusing its name to cause more hatred or prejudice.

October 6 doesn't demand digging into history and finding the culprits. It does allow a character scrutiny, especially of someone important like Samak, but it also calls for such an act to be carried out for moral reasons. October 6 seeks to scrutinise each and every one of us and keep us on our toes. It wants us to make sure that if Samak is to be taken to task for his role in, and ideas about, the Thammasat massacre, the move has to come from a collective social conscience.

Arguing how many died will only get us so far. To Samak, it was an unavoidable crackdown on dissent, something provoked even. To others it was a cold-blooded massacre - and the fact that Samak was seen as some kind of a freedom fighter before the December 23 general election is an irony almost unbearable. In the end, it's not what Samak says about October 6 that matters, but what we really think of that sad, historic day.

Tulsathit Taptim

The Nation