The party also stressed that democracy itself was not a problem, but implementation was.

The Democrats were the first large political party to participate in the discussion at the Defence Ministry yesterday. It was led by Abhisit Vejjajiva, the party’s leader and former prime minister.

Abhisit said afterwards that during the discussion the Democrats had only tried to provide answers to the 10 pre-set questions, particularly those relating to reconciliation and conflict resolution as proposed by the host.

He said the key point was to create a society of sustainable democracy.

“The flawed adoption of democracy in the past is the problem that needs to be fixed,” he said. “True democracy is the respect of rights and inclusive participation. They have to go together with the rule of law and limit the exercise of power of elected [government].”

With such a goal, concerned parties could then figure out the reforms that are needed, especially taking into account the conditions behind past conflicts, Abhisit said, adding that this included matters such as corruption, justice and the work of independent agencies as well as authorities.

The Democrat leader also said the self-sufficiency theory could also be adopted in politics.

He explained that everyone could take the middle path and not be too extreme in any one direction.

In regard to amnesty, the former premier said it could be a part of the conflict-resolution scheme, but it should only be limited to ordinary protesters and those committing minor offences and must exclude the leaders.

The Democrat leader disagreed with the notion of an “agreement of truth”, a contract that some authorities had said should be signed to bind all parties.

He said it was not a solution and would be meaningless if signatories failed to keep to the promises they made.

Asked what he proposed to prevent political risks, Abhisit said the checks-and-balances system of power was crucial to prevent conflict to escalate.

He said it was a misunderstanding to take democracy as solely meaning the holding of elections.

Rather, past conflicts arose from excessive use of power and violation of rights and laws, which led to confrontation, he emphasised.

In regard to justice, Abhisit said it must be maintained and the best way was to have the court establish the truth for everyone. This, he said, would help create the norms that society must stand by on diversity.

If arbitrarily turning black into white, it would only lead to more issues, Abhisit stressed, but he added that the process for abating punishment existed in the constitution.

The reconciliation talks began as part of the reform and reconciliation scheme by the National Council for Peace and Order, which was kicked off at the beginning of the week.

Maj-General Kongcheep Tantrawanich, spokesman for the Defence Ministry, which hosts the talks, yesterday provided a wrap-up of the week’s discussions which involved nearly 10 political parties.

He said that all parties had been very cooperative and that the atmosphere had been good.

On political issues, most participants agreed that corruption and disrespect of the law was the primary problem, the spokesman said.

Kongcheep added that the participants did not view democracy as problematic in itself, as the problem lay in the people’s distrust in politicians and politicians’ disrespect of one another and lack of responsibility.

As to the past conflicts, Kongcheep quoted participants as saying that it had stemmed from financiers supporting political parties. Therefore, the politicians proposed that politics be reformed by maintaining democracy together with the rule of law and limitations to the use of power, the defence spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the mid-sized Chart Thai Pattana Party proposed on Thursday four principles to bring about reconciliation – justice, morale, transparency and participation – its leader Warawut Silpa-archa said.

Apart from that, he said the government must also be sincere.

However, Chart Thai Pattana supports reconciliation as well as reform and does not need an election until the conflict is resolved, Warawut said.

Otherwise, conflicts would resurface and the need for another round of reconciliation would return, he stressed.

Similar to the Democrats, Chart Thai Pattana disagreed this week with the idea of signing a contract for reconciliation, and proposed that public participation was also necessary in the reconciliation scheme.