Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has opened her great experiment to promote national unity. She presided over the first meeting of the political reform forum on Sunday. Several ex-prime ministers attended, and the forum has many more sessions to run. Next week, foreign participants will weigh in with their ideas of national reconciliation. But there is a very uncomfortable feel of smoke and mirrors in the air.
If one believes the polls, Thais in general support the goal of this process. They have, however, both scepticism and specific problems with its opening days. These suspicions add up to greater hurdles than the one cited by Ms Yingluck and her staff.
The prime minister has said for several weeks that her greatest concern for now is the boycott of her unity effort by the Democrat Party, as well as the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). She has not said this directly, but it is clear to everyone: If major opposition groups refuse even to discuss reconciliation, then there will be none.
These two major groups, as well as many other citizens, are concerned that the entire effort now under way to promote national unity is a facade and fake, with the end goal to reward and return Thaksin Shinawatra to Thailand.
Such suspicion is a direct result of the politics of division sowed by Thaksin and reaped by his political enemies over the past eight years. Ms Yingluck has the means to clear away some of these conspiracy theories. Instead she and her supporters have continued to press ahead with efforts to amend the constitution and introduce amnesty bills that obviously help her Pheu Thai Party _ and incidentally feed the suspicions of ever-tightening control by and rewards for Pheu Thai.
Credit Ms Yingluck for two years of political peace. The PAD's efforts to oust the government on the streets are in tatters; its leadership has resigned. Stability is the current rule; the military and the Privy Council chairman Gen Prem Tinsulanonda have openly backed the premier. But even if one gives the prime minister full credit for this _ a questionable assumption _ the truth is that she has consistently dropped the ball on national reconciliation.
For example, two blue-ribbon panels already have provided Prime Minister Yingluck with numerous steps towards national reconciliation. Former premier Anand Panyarachun and civic leader Prawase Wasi spent months of time and tonnes of personal effort reporting on ways to resume unity. The extended political reform forum she opened on Sunday seems an obvious effort to revisit exactly the same subjects.
In early 2011, just as Ms Yingluck was entering politics and preparing a run at the polls, these two patriots recommended an eight-point reform programme. It included steps to achieve rule of law, land management, handling national resources and proper social security. This is the troubling part of Ms Yingluck's brand new conference to discuss political reform: It is a case of deja vu. The suggestions are in. The problems are clear. The reports have been written. The new conference now under way gives off a heavy aroma of wasting time and writing slogans. No one opposes political reform or national reconciliation _ not the prime minister, not the Democrats, not the frustrated street protesters.
This forum must come up quickly with substantial steps towards unity.
The prime minister must implement them immediately. Otherwise, it will only emphasise the divisions in the country without any effort to heal them.