平和
和平
평화
ASEAN
22 March 2014
Prime Minister Tony Blair

Tony Blair advises Thailand

Tony Blair recently delivered in Bangkok the first of the Special Lecture Series on "Uniting for the Future: Learning from each other's experiences".

On 2 September 2013, Tony Blair delivered in Bangkok the first of the Special Lecture Series on "Uniting for the Future: Learning from each other's experiences".

Thailand is a country that has suffered immense internal conflict over the years, especially between the urban middle classes and the poorer rural populations.

In introducing Blair, Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck noted that the challenge is to "ensure an environment where all are given equal opportunities to prosper". This has certainly not been the case in Thailand.

She also stressed the importance of democracy. "And when I talk about democracy, ... I mean a culture where all citizens respect each another’s views and where the rule of law is enforced and respected by all ... democracy respects diversity and allows any differences to be resolved in a peaceful manner."

Following these words of inspiration, Blair drew five insightful lessons or principles from his experience in engaging in peace process reconciliations in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. Here they are:

First, "reconciliation happened when the sense of shared opportunity is greater than the separate sense of grievance ... That shared opportunity becomes more important for people to achieve than to dwell on past grievances ... (Thailand) needs is a united determination to overcome the strong feelings about the past in order to develop and exploit that shared sense of opportunity".

Second, "the past can ... never be judged in a way that is going to be to the satisfaction of everyone ... you have to accept there are going to remain two sides with their own narrative about the past ... the hardest thing is to be able to accept that that sense of grievance will never be fully healed, but nonetheless to accept that you are going to move forward in any event ... reconciliation is never going to be about people changing their mind about the past. It is really going to be about changing the mind about the future."

Third, "the essence of reconciliation is at least to be able to establish a framework for future cooperation that people regard as just and objective, and where the root causes of the dispute or the conflict can be addressed".

Fourth, the "future framework (must) be anchored in democracy ... democracy is not just a way of voting but a way of thinking ... part of the trouble is when democracy is seen as a kind of winner takes all ... and the minority feels as if they are kind of shut out and excluded ... (there must be) a shared space in which people cooperate and work together and actually share certain basic values ... and it is buttressed by ... the rule of law ... and the rule of law is independently and impartially administered."

Fifth, "reconciliation is easier to achieve if the politics of a country as a whole is seen to be effective in delivering improvement to the people ... you deliver most when you reach out and try and build bridges in a non-partisan way".

Blair's concluding thought is that "the important thing about reconciliation is also never to give up on it".

Blair's lessons are simple, and yet very profound. While they are very relevant to Thailand, they apply with even greater force to the relations between countries in East Asia. We can only hope that these countries, especially China, will read this article.

Author

John West
Executive Director
Asian Century Institute
www.asiancenturyinstitute.com
Tags: asean, Thailand, conflict, reconciliation, Tony Blair

Social share