A Thammasat University symposium seeking a way out of the political crisis collapsed in finger-pointing yesterday.
The university's Law Faculty organised the "Thai political crisis: What's the Solution", but the event failed to come up with one.
Buranat Samutarak from the ruling Democrat Party said the current strife did not emanate from the 2006 coup but from abusive politicians like Thaksin Shinawatra, who rendered the checks-and-balances mechanism inoperative.
The media are also to be blamed for inflaming political hatred and spreading misinformation, he said.
Opposition Pheu Thai MP Piraphan Palasuk of Yasothon defended the red-shirt protests as crusading for democracy with Thaksin merely a symbol of the struggle.
Television commentator ML Nattakorn Devakul said people should accept company-financed political parties as a universal norm.
What is needed is more companies playing an active role so that no one or two of them can dominate any political party through their contributions, he said.
He urged people who keep saying that "elections are not the answer" to Thai democracy to stop doing so.
Praphan Koonme, a key member of the yellow-shirt People's Alliance for Democracy and who was a member of the military junta-installed National Legislative Assembly, said the problem with politics today is that corporations are dictating to political parties.
