Unity cannot be ordered

The military regime says its plans for national reconciliation are moving along splendidly. The man in charge, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, has a timetable and he says everything is proceeding according to plan. By June, he will issue a social contract laying out a formal pact on national unity. The image he presents of agreement and progress is not what the public currently sees.

There have been signs all along that Gen Prawit’s plan for an army-run, top-down directive was somewhat misguided. No one, either a person or a group, is going to decide that reconciliation will be a success as of a certain date. The Thai nation will make that decision collectively. And there have been three major signs within just the last few days that Gen Prawit’s project is in peril.

Late last week, the Pheu Thai Party finally made good on its pledge to participate. But the acting party leader, Pol Gen Viroj Pao-in, deviated from the script. He did not present Pheu Thai’s grievances and suggestions on reconciliation to Gen Chaichan Changmongkol’s Unity and Reconciliation Sub-committee. In fact, Pheu Thai effectively challenged the military’s process.

Pol Gen Viroj called for the military to step aside, to let an “independent committee” take over. The current programme includes 96 generals plus the defence minister in charge. Pheu Thai said members of its recommended committee would be neutral and impartial. Where the present effort has invited political parties to speak, Pheu Thai called for an open and democratic atmosphere to hear from “academics, journalists, the public and those affected by the conflicts” and political violence.

Gen Prawit rejected and strongly criticised that proposal. He has not, however, halted the criticism and alternative suggestions. Shortly after the Pheu Thai Party’s Pol Gen Viroj failed to sway the reconciliation programme, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva spoke out strongly. Mr Abhisit made the Democrats’ presentation to Gen Chaichan, but he had quite a bit to add a few days later when he spoke with this newspaper.

In a nutshell, Mr Abhisit fears Gen Prawit and his subcommittees have got everything wrong. He believes the army holds the Democrats responsible for failing to respect the 2011 election results and thus for causing dissension in the country. Even strong political partisans must admit there is blame enough for many parties to share. Even the most committed partisans know it will take more than a military edict to put the Humpty Dumpty of national unity back together again.

Proof of that, if any were needed, came last weekend from the Suan Dusit Poll. The goal of the university’s polling unit was to judge the public’s reaction to the seizure on Feb 17 of a major cache of mostly military weapons.

The army and police touted the Pathum Thani weapons find as evidence that “one party” was planning to attack the regime and even to assassinate Prime Minister Prayut Chano-cha and Gen Prawit.

The poll found major public scepticism. Two-thirds of respondents said the weapons capture and propaganda campaign would directly affect reconciliation efforts.

While clearly hoping for reconciliation, the regime has seemed incapable of adopting the mood of unity. Gen Prawit says there will be no amnesty, but reconciliation without it will be next to impossible. Failure to include or at least invite comments from victims of political violence — partisan and state alike — will hurt the cause.

People will only agree to reconciliation and never will be successfully ordered to adopt it.

No one is going to decide that reconciliation will be a success as of a certain date.