Reconciliation starts now

The tragic events of last night were devastating for anyone who loves the city of Bangkok. Watching images and reports flood in of landmark buildings like the Central World mall and beloved Siam Theatre going up in flames was heartbreaking. Today many people are quite rightly feeling very angry. But anger isn’t going to get Thailand out of this mess.

A minority of protesters have without doubt acted in a senseless and mindless manner. It is hard to find any justification for these acts of vandalism and arson, the results of which will surely only serve to undermine the causes they claim to fight for and reinforce the divisions in Thai society.

How many protesters were involved in the uncontrolled rioting last night is unclear. I’ve read figures suggesting up to three thousand people. These hardliners urgently need to be brought under control and subjected to a genuine process of justice.
It would be easy to tar the entire red shirt movement with their brush. But if we do that will Thailand ever emerge from its current cycle of protest and conflict? It should not be forgotten that earlier in March estimates of up to one hundred thousand people were involved in the red shirt protests, most of whom engaged in a peaceful and positive manner. No-one who witnessed the earlier red shirt parades around the city could call them violent. Frustrating and inconvenient perhaps, but not violent.

It would also be easy to forget the large number of people who have never joined the protests but sympathise with the red shirt cause. In recent democratic elections at least half of the electorate have voted for Thaksin affiliated parties. That adds up to tens of millions of people. You might not agree with them but they can’t be ignored. They won’t go away.

Neither will endless blaming of Thaksin make Thailand’s problems disappear. Don’t get me wrong, I am no fan of Thaksin. The human rights abuses committed during the war on drugs and Tak Bai incident under his Government were despicable. I deplore corruption in any form and his moves towards authoritarianism and control of the media were deeply disturbing.

However, I strongly believe that Thaksin is a symptom of Thailand’s problems not the cause. Thaksin is a shrewd politician and publicist and he was simply the man who was clever enough to take advantage of the underlying conditions in Thai society. He worked out how to harness the divisions in Thai society and use them for his advantage. You can certainly accuse Thaksin of increasing those divisions but not of creating them. The disparities in income, education and opportunity that fuel this conflict were there long before Thaksin. To use a metaphor Thaksin may have pulled the trigger but the gun wouldn’t have worked without gunpowder.

It would be easy to take out our feelings of hurt and resentment from lasts night’s events on the whole of the red shirt movement, but if we want reconciliation and a democratic peaceful Thailand, we mustn’t do that. The red shirt movement is well known to be split and we need to engage with and empower the peaceful factions if we want to isolate and weaken the violent groups.

Tonight as you enjoy another night in under curfew shed a tear for your favourite mall and cinema but tomorrow be prepared to forgive and forget. Try to understand the motivations and demands of those on both sides of the conflict. We need to return to the middle ground if we are ever going to get out of this turmoil.