Forget Thaksin, Abhisit, ammat (elite) and prai (grass-roots poor) for a while. The biggest reason why we need reconciliation is not that more and more Thais are wearing coloured shirts and going out to show their ideological stance. What tells us that our nation has gone dangerously too far is that when we don't have those shirts on, we are simply husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children, friends, relatives and co-workers.
We can't expect Thaksin Shinawatra, Abhisit Vejjajiva and the likes to take off their hats. They are too deep in politics, and political work through fanning stereotyping, fears and hatred. We can like them, or dislike them, but we must not let them tell us which brother to hate or which friend to love. We can't let those with political stakes exert a grip on our hearts and souls for their own interests. It's as simple as that.
If our "peace" depends on whether Abhisit will dissolve the House of Representatives or whether Thaksin will get an amnesty, that is when we truly lose our inde-pendence. An independ-ent person must be able to loath Abhisit but love those who adore him at the same time. An inde-pendent person must be able to scrutinise Thaksin and understand why others think highly of the man.
Peace efforts can't start with Jatuporn Prompan or Satit Wongnongtoey. It doesn't matter what Sondhi Limthongkul thinks or what Newin Chidchob does. Of course, they are among or part of the stakeholders who brought Thailand to this point in the first place. They cast the spells but that's all they do. They are not and never will be in real positions to revoke them.
Even if they manage to strike a deal, it will still be like those we've seen before - the Thaksin-Sondhi marriage or the Abhisit-Newin union. Like it or not, we have to try to break free from the curses on our own.
Their stakes are tens of billions of baht and political power - a world apart from ours. We have something far more important to lose - friendship, relationships as well as the human right to judge others |by ourselves and for |ourselves.
