The People's Alliance for Democracy has outlined four key factors to bring about reconciliation, its leader Sondhi Limthongkul said on Wednesday following his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart.
The four factors are:
1. Uphold the rule of law. The litigations linked to the turmoil, including those involving the PAD and ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, must be resolved through the judicial process. Thaksin must stop undermining the rule of law, directly by resorting to violence and indirectly by using the political party to fix his legal predicament. The PAD is determined to fight all charges and will accept the judicial decision.
2. Uphold the monarchy. All activities deemed offensive to the country's revered institution must cease.
3. Root out courruption. To achieve this, politicians must reform themselves because most graft violations have stemmed from politicians.
4. Oppose amnesty. The PAD suspects the amnesty bill has an ulterior motive to absolve officials involved in the botched operations to rein in protesters. Under the draft article 6, all officials responsible for the crowd control will be pardoned and shielded from prosecution. The bill will benefit former Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat and his deputy Chavalit Yongchaiyudh rather than those participating at rallies since they were not targetted to strand trial anyway.
Sanan said he agreed with the PAD on reconciliation.
"I want all sides to let go of the past and start looking forward for the next 20 to 50 years, otherwise the country will move nowhere," he said.
In regard to the push for amnesty by Bhum Jai Thai Party, he said he had not had a chance to study the draft bill. In his view, the amnesty should happen after a conviction and not before. He said based on his experience, he was convicted to life imprisonment for treason and served eight months and eight days before receiving a pardon.