Yingluck case is an opportunity to show magnanimity

If PM Prayut Chan-o-cha really wants reconciliation among Thais, I hope he’s praying for an “innocent” verdict in the Yingluck Shinawatra rice-pledging case. Letting Yingluck off the hook would do more to heal the divisions that are tearing Thai society apart than anything else I can think of.
It would also do much to restore Thailand’s earlier global reputation as a gentle, smiling Buddhist land full of happy people, and dispel its current darker image as an unhappy land of oppressed, impoverished farmers languishing under the military jackboot.
On a loftier level, it would show that Thailand heeds the Buddha’s dictum, “All tremble at punishment; life is dear to all; comparing others with oneself, one should neither kill nor cause to kill. Whoever, seeking his own happiness, harms pleasure-loving beings gets no happiness hereafter.” (Dhammapada 130-131, Narada Mahathera translation.) And it would follow Jesus’ declaration, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” (Matthew 9:13, quoting Hosea 6:6.) Both of these sentiments are far morally superior to the more vindictive “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” (Romans 12:19.)
It’s time for Thailand to display magnanimity, and show the velvet glove, not the mailed fist. The Yingluck case provides an ideal opportunity to do so.
Ye Olde Theologian