There is virtually no hope that the two sides of Thailand's political divide can ever reconcile or hold meaningful public deliberations on their differences while supporters of either side are consumed by hatred and their leaders manipulate feelings for their own benefits, according to Chaiwat Thirapanthu, a leading advocate of deliberative dialogue.
Chaiwat said he has given up on any idea of resolution.
"I no longer pay attention to the [political] divide," he told The Nation, adding that a few leading figures in the political divide were manipulating their supporters by perpetuating a sense of hatred that ensures no meaningful dialogue will ever take place.
Chaiwat said there seemed to be no other alternative but to wait until leaders from both sides leave the scene, perhaps when they die. Chaiwat said time was better spent concentrating on promoting public deliberation on other issues such as the environment, community revitalisation and other things.
Political "hate speech" has become common and is practised by the media and many people on both sides of the political divide. Despite that, some attempts have been made by others to hold some forms of public deliberation, such as a recently-concluded series of dialogues held over the past six-months by Mahidol University's Institute for Human Rights and Peace Studies.
Ekaphan Pinthawanij, a lecturer in peace studies at the institute, recently wrote an article which was handed to participants at the dialogue, detailing what is needed for successful public deliberation. He said a map entailing the root cause of the political conflict was needed and various players in the conflict must be identified.
What's more, the dynamics of the conflict must be understood, Ekaphan wrote.
Despite the series of deliberative dialogues by the institute, there was no immediate agreement on what to do aboutthe political division and related issues such as the lese majeste law. The institute last month vowed to continue to hold another series of deliberations in the near future.
In the book 'Politics for People' by David Mathews, president of the Ohio-based Charles F Kettering Foundation, which was translated into Thai by Chaiwat, Matthews wrote in the introduction about the need to nurture active and competent citizens. "A few good leaders won't be enough. Our communities have to become "leaderful"; leadership and citizenship must become synonymous."
Chaiwat said he felt people on both sides [in the US] have become too dependent on their political leaders, however.
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2012/11/17/is-reaching-agreement-in-thai-politics-impossible/
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