A law granting an amnesty to political offenders charged with instigating political unrest and protests in the colour-coded conflicts could help solve old conflicts, according to a reform panel on political reconciliation.
The idea was proposed yesterday at a meeting on the national political reform plan by the national political reform committee.
The panel is one of the 13 national reform committees assigned by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to look into political, national administrative, law, justice, economic, natural resource and environmental, health, mass communication, information technology, social, energy, anti-graft, educational, cultural, sport, labour and human resource development reforms.
Pakorn Preeyakorn, chairman of the committee, said a law similar to the iconic Order 66/23 implemented during the Cold War era that granted an amnesty to surrendering communist insurgents can be applied to settle present conflicts.
Mr Pakorn said the amnesty could benefit protesters of all political groups such as the now-defunct yellow-shirt People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship and the now-defunct People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC).
The beneficiaries could be everyone "no matter what political shirts they wear", he added.
"Opponents against any government should be given chances to rebuild democracy altogether. I think an amnesty can be a solution," he said.
Mr Pakorn added the law should not cover people who were charged with corruption or other felonies.
Gen Ekkachai Srivilas, another member of the committee, said an amnesty law for crimes associated with the protests would return harmony to the country following political rallies since 2005 that have caused widening divisions in society.
The conflict is extremely deep, with hundreds of people facing legal procedures over protests.
The outcome of those cases will affect millions of people, whose dissatisfaction will only increase once the verdicts are revealed, he said.
Gen Ekkachai added that amnesty would not be new, since it was used to resolve Thailand's communist insurgency.
It was high time the government imposed a law absolving protesters who were not criminals by nature, he said.
According to the committee, hearings will be held to listen to opinions of the general public and related agencies. The meeting also discussed other political reform issues.