Different versions of the truth and recollections of the April and May 2010 demonstrations, clashes and military crackdown is making it difficult for the community to gain a common vision for the future and reconciliation, a symposium has concluded.
He was speaking at a symposium on political memory and violence organised at Suan Ngerm Mee Ma under the auspices of social critic Sulak Sivaraksa.
Columnist for Prachatai online newspaper Atikit Sawaengsuk, also known as Bai Tong Haeng, said there already exist at least three versions of the events - those from the memories of the red shirts, those of the yellow shirts, and those who are not yellow shirts but support the government and mostly watch state-controlled Channel 11 and are Facebook fans of popular government figures.
This, together with the lack of structural change in terms of power, will not lead to reconciliation.
Sirote said people who supported "the government's killing of red- shirt protesters" should recognise that even if their hands are not covered in blood themselves their hearts are.
"If we live in a society which condones killings, then social coexistence will be difficult," he said. Sirote urged Thais to stop believing that Thailand is a non-violent Buddhist society in order to re-examine themselves, and added that political killings occur in Thailand every dozen years or so.
"You can only thrive in this society if you can tolerate political killing. How can we coexist in a society which regards such killing as normal? Perhaps we have to become less expressive and behave like others in order to survive."
Sirote said the government is now trying to shut down a different version of memory through the clampdown on red-shirt media. He criticised the ICT Ministry's recent self-congratulatory and proud remark of having shut down more than 40,000 websites as "ludicrous" and something that would never have occurred in a democratic society like the United States.
Atikit said people responsible for the deaths on both sides much be punished so society can move on.
"I forgive but cannot forget. People who did wrong, starting from those who supported the 2006 coup, must come out and apologise."