A (hot) female for PM - a way out for LOS?

[WorldFun]

Commentary: Allow this 'peace child' room to grow

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/37127/allow-this-peace-child-room-to-grow

"I won't be cautious. I will pronounce loud and clear that for me Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's 8-day-old road map to national reconciliation is the best thing that has happened to this country in years. The birth of this baby has given a lot of people room to breathe and some people an excuse to step back from the dangerous game of brinkmanship. The reprieve may look to be temporary at the moment, but the fact that the plan helped break the confrontation at probably the most dangerous moment is a cause for celebration and a reminder that it embraces a good spirit and marks a step in the right direction.

It is thus sad that the health of this baby still remains in question.

 

Even though every major stakeholder to this stifling conflict - Thaksin Shinawatra, the Democrats and coalition parties or the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) leaders - has expressed support for the Abhisit peace plan, at least in public, little has been done to ensure its future growth. Of course, one maverick soldier, Maj Gen Khattiya "Seh Daeng" Sawasdipol, the self-appointed leader of the people's army, has virtually spat on the PM's road map to peace. But are we to believe that the entire progress of the peace effort hangs on the contempt of this one man?

 

I will be equally clear also that while I support the Abhisit peace plan wholeheartedly, I do not fully agree with all of the points - not in principle nor in detail. I believe that this ability to disagree with the plan yet still endorse it is the gist of the whole moving-on and moving-forward attempt that all of us are expected to make.

 

The beauty of the peace baby that Abhisit has produced for us is that it's probably the first effort to look beyond the quagmire in which we have been stuck, to gauge the landscape of the future and find a way - as uncertain and querulous as that may be - for us all to move forward together into the future in peace.

 

Indeed, what Mr Abhisit proposed is less a road map than a framework, a draft of issues we should think about now and find ways to discuss soon so that we don't have to resort to street politics and bloody, gangster-style brawling any more in future. To treat it as a road map gives a sense that the five points are set in stone and that no individual or group should argue against any of them, when in fact these should be just starting points for discussion.

 

While I understand that calling the peace plan a Paen Prong Dong or road map towards national reconciliation is politically pleasing, I think it is misleading its true spirit. If the realities of Thailand during the past few years have told us anything, it's that our fellow citizens have starkly different views of what we are now and what our future should be. Many of these views are irreconcilable - otherwise how would we explain all these passionate confrontations and clashes, some of them with fatalities? What is the point of having a plan to reconcile the irreconcilable?

 

You may opt to call the Abhisit peace plan by any name, but the spirit of this offer should be in charting a future in which people can agree to disagree or to find a way, space, forum for people with different ideas about different things to disagree in peace. It should be a starting point for all Thais to accept the reality that the traditional hegemony - whatever it was, whoever controlled it by whatever means - has ended.

 

We are staring at a future with no consensus and no single prevalence. It is rather messy and noisy, full of contending needs and protesting voices, as the transition period during the past few years have clearly shown us. But it is not necessarily a bad thing as long as we get a grasp of what it is and come up with ways to make sure that all the contending needs and protesting voices are expressed in a lawful, peaceful and respectful manner.

 

The peace plan should not be just an effort to try to make people agree on certain things but also an opportunity to let them disagree. It should have room for both consent and dissent and be open enough to accommodate all kinds of viewpoints, not just ones that Mr Abhisit wants or agrees with.

 

At the time of writing, the UDD leadership is said to have come up with its own peace plan dubbed the Red Map. It is not known yet what issues the red leaders will put in their Red Map but as long as they represent an attempt to draw a line so that people with different perspectives on life and politics can live together peacefully in the contentious future, it should also be welcome. Our peace may still be babyish at the moment but with everyone's help it will grow strong.

 

* Atiya Achakulwisut is Editorial Pages Editor, Bangkok Post."

[Wallenda]

At the time of writing, the UDD leadership is said to have come up with its own peace plan dubbed the Red Map. It is not known yet what issues the red leaders will put in their Red Map

 

Yes they've only decided what color it should be.

[WorldFun]

hopefully it will include a clear road map or instructions how to get back home asap for every single protester & for the leaders/responsible direct in jail!