Thailand - Thailand's red, yellow shirts agree change is needed--study

Both the red shirts and the yellow shirts see the need for politics to change in Thailand so that power is devolved to the masses and double standards are eradicated, students from King Prajadhipok's Institute said Wednesday after visiting Ubon Ratchathani (northeast Thailand).

"Both groups do not want double standards and they agree that the justice system has problems," said Vichukorn Kamchan, a Thai Airways captain who went on the field trip for the Building Peaceful Society course.

Another observation was that members of the rival political colours tend to believe in the politicians they support while viewing the elite members of the other camp as "more problematic" than those on their side.

On December 21, 45 students from the institute, which is an independent academic organisation under Parliament, met with local representatives of the yellow-shirt People's Alliance for Democracy and the red-shirt Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship (DAAD).

They also went to communities dominated by one or the other colour - Ratchathani Asoke of the yellow shirts and self-proclaimed red-shirt villages.

General Ekkachai Sriwilas, director of the KPI's School of Peaceful Methods and Good Governance and director of the course, said the students learned that the red and yellow shirts can actually coexist peacefully by avoiding violence.

Vichukorn said he found that the rival political stripes both wanted to see structural changes in Thai politics that would empower ordinary citizens.

The residents of red-shirt villages in the northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani tend to have the same ideas, possibly because they were given one-sided information, he said.

The yellow-shirt leaders he met blamed all the problems on the red shirts' use of violence and accused them of acting for the benefit of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Kant Yuenyong, an academic who is also taking the course, said the conflict between the red and yellow shirts had a positive side--problems in society were brought out in the open that would otherwise remain swept under the carpet.

"The point is what to do to prevent violence," he added.

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