Imagine the following scenario: a hard-core red shirt and an equally hard-core yellow shirt follower are put in the same prison cell together with a rabid dog.
Yellow and red shirt supporters throw objects at each other and trade blows in a clash outside the Crime Suppression Division office on Phahon Yothin Road in September. The yellow shirts turned up to support a woman summoned for questioning over the alleged harassment of red-shirt activist Darunee Kritbunyalai. SURAPOL PROMSAKA NA SAKOLNAKORN
Common sense dictates that the two political opponents should set aside their political differences and join hands to get rid of the rabid dog.
After that, they can fight each other until both of them get hurt and become exhausted or even one of them gets killed.
Or if common sense prevails after the killing of the rabid dog, they can make peace and share the same prison cell without talking to one another or talk about whatever matter they like except politics.
But in today's Thailand where colour-coded politics runs deep and divides families, friends, colleagues in the same office, classmates in the same school, people in the same village and society as a whole, the most likely answer to the above conundrum is that the two hot-headed political rivals will do the absurd thing _ that is to settle scores and leave the rabid dog untouched.
Our political divide is unprecedented, so widespread that barely any institution or organisation is unaffected to the point that some nonsensical critics have said that if Thailand is to fight Cambodia today over a territorial dispute, we Thais of opposing political colours may fight among ourselves first while the Cambodians just watch on the sidelines, laughing their hearts out at our absurdity and childishness.
Reconciliation remains elusive and such a distant dream that most of us are not sure whether it will ever be achieved or when the opposing camps of the great political divide lose patience and go for each other's throats in a final showdown.
But amidst the bleak prospects for reconciliation and widespread mutual mistrust commonly shared among the different colour-coded groups, it is quite amazing and encouraging that some red shirts currently serving prison terms have shown compassion and extended an olive branch to a jailed yellow shirt member in a rare show of brotherhood among political prisoners.
Though it's just one small incident involving just one yellow shirt and a handful of hard-core reds, it represents a flicker of hope _ that there is still common sense amidst the perceived hopelessness of the protracted political conflict.
The incident, which happened recently, was disclosed in a letter from a jailed red shirt by the pseudonym of Noom Daeng Nont (Nonthaburi young red) posted in an online social network by Anont Nampa, a red-shirt lawyer.
Noom talked about his encounter in the prison with Preecha Tricharoon, a yellow-shirt follower who was sentenced to 34 years imprisonment for ramming a pickup truck into a group of policemen in a rally organised by the People's Alliance for Democracy in 2008. Following are excerpts from his letter:
"After we heard that he [Preecha] would be sent to our prison, some of us red shirts discussed what to do with him _ to teach him a lesson.
"Those from a minority were angry and wanted to intimidate him. But most of us, including Surachai Danwattananusorn and myself tried to calm them down, telling them that although we are of different political ideals and colours, we can live together.
"The result was that myself and Surachai were ridiculed _ which is very regrettable."
Noom said the red shirts had been in the prison for quite some time and were capable of doing anything they wished, "but we chose to have sympathy with our opponent".
He admitted he had been beaten up in the prison and didn't want this to happen to anybody else, "especially those who are political prisoners like we are".
Noom recalled that Preecha looked frightened when he was introduced to the red shirt prisoners. "I told him straight up that we are red shirts and he wai-ed us".
The red-shirt inmate said he was surprised to learn that some red shirts in the prison had wanted to exact revenge on Preecha.
"What has happened to Thai people these days? We are divided because we use emotions rather than reasoning _ the reds hate the yellows and the yellows are angry with the reds without forgiving one another to the point that we seem to have forgotten that we all are Thais, like brothers. Would it be better for us to take one step back to give us a chance?
"Has either side gone so far to the point of no return?" Noom said in his letter, adding that he fully agreed with a New Year's remark by Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda that it is fine for Thais to have differences of opinion just so long as they maintain their friendly relationship.
Thanks to the help provided by Noom and Surachai and other red shirts, Preecha was safe in the prison until he was transferred to Klong Prem prison recently.
I do hope that this small but beautiful lesson from a prison serves as a reminder to all the hard-core leaders of the red shirts and yellow shirts to tone down their political agendas, to sit down together to give reconciliation a chance.
Veera Prateepchaikul is a former editor, Bangkok Post.