BANGKOK, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Thai military on Tuesday began to gather opinion from political parties on national reconciliation bids.
Representatives of minor parties, namely New Aspiration Party, Farmers Network Party of Thailand and Ordinary Citizens Party of Thailand, exchanged views on the national reconciliation issue during a meeting with a subcommittee, chaired by Defense Ministry undersecretary Chaicharn Changmongkol, at the Defense Ministry's headquarters.
The subcommittee is to collect and submit the politicians' views to the Administrative Committee under the Framework of National Reform, Strategy and Reconciliation, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Representatives of several well-known parties including Chart Pattana (Developed Nation) Party, Chart Thai Pattana (Developed Thailand) Party, Bhum Jai (Proud Thai) Party, Democrat Party and Puea Thai (for Thai) Party are scheduled to take their turn on the following weekdays.
Prayut earlier said certain political topics which might still be heatedly debatable and unconcluded will not be raised during the planned meetings between the invited politicians and the opinion-gathering subcommittee.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said it will take three months for the subcommittee to hear and gather views of the politicians from an estimated 70 existing parties. None of the parties, he said, had turned down the invitation to join in the national reconciliation effort.
