Thai South Needs More Than Money And Good Intentions

[webfact]

EDITORIAL

South needs more than money and good intentions

By The Nation

Only by understanding the deep-rooted antipathy of Malay people toward the state will Thailand move closer to ending the insurgency

Monthien Thammawat was stuck in traffic for three hours but it was one of the most moving experiences in her years working with grassroots communities. Vehicles were lined up bumper to bumper, trying to get into a fishing village devastated by the recent storms that struck the deep South. Trying hard to hold back tears, Monthien gave participants at a recent seminar a firsthand account of the human spirit displayed in times of trouble.

Late last week, the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Chulalongkorn University brought together local community activists, academics, students and a governor who works in the violence-plagued deep South to share their experiences and talk about how the state can build on this tragic incident.

Participants acknowledged that the floods had struck many other parts of the country, but Thailand's three southernmost provinces are different in the sense that they are also a conflict area.

More than 4,300 people have been killed in insurgency-related incidents since January 2004, and an end to the killings is nowhere in sight. Trust between the local Malays and the state agencies is at an all-time low. The violence has taken its toll on local communities, driving a bigger wedge between Buddhists and Muslims and between the local Muslim population and the state.

Thailand's deep South has not always been that way, however. During the previous insurgency two decades ago, Muslims and Buddhists co-existed side by side. The armed clashes were more or less confined to the remote jungle hills and mountains. The violence was a matter between the Thai authorities and Malay Muslim separatists bent on taking back their historical homeland, annexed by Siam nearly a century earlier.

But in this new wave of insurgent violence, which began in late 2001 but was not officially recognised until January 4, 2004 when a group of insurgents raided an Army camp and made off with more than 350 weapons, the military theatre has spread from the remote areas into the towns and cities. Moreover, criminal elements have seized on the opportunity to ride on the back of the violence. Extortion, for example, is common in the three affected provinces. Because no separatist movement has come out to take responsibility for the violence, or to make any specific demands, the general public and the Thai authorities dump all the violence into the insurgency basket.

But for a brief moment last month, the storms and floods brought down the barriers between people. Past atrocities around the world show that people are more willing to come together and help each other if the problem is not political in nature. The tsunami that hit Southeast Asia in 2004 is a case in point.

Participants at the seminar at Chulalongkorn University urged society to build on this window of opportunity, and called on the government to rethink its approach toward the deep South. The old top-down development approach has failed to win the hearts and minds of the local population in the South, and now is a good time to reconsider the entire concept.

Whether we like it or not, the historical mistrust between the authorities and the Malay-speaking community in the deep South is very much centred on the legitimacy of the Thai state in the region. Many Malays there continue to see the state agencies as illegitimate occupying forces, and themselves as colonial subjects. That's why so many have taken up arms against the state or refuse to help the authorities in tracking down or identifying insurgents.

The state would like the world to think the separatists have been taught distorted history and embraced a false teaching of Islam, but the problem lies with Thailand's nation-state building. The government is banking on the belief that development assistance will cure a problem that is more rooted in ethno-nationalist sentiment. Thailand believes that good intentions will save the day. But good intent is not policy and handouts do not equal empowerment.

Essentially, there has to be a sense of ownership. The idea should be to help people to help themselves. Appreciation could lead to the enhancement of the legitimacy of the state in the eyes of a people with a deep-seated mistrust.

Participants at the recent seminar gained firsthand experience witnessing the power of the human spirit in a time of tragedy. Such a spirit is not something that the government can buy with money alone.

-- The Nation 2010-11-17

[Piengrudee]

But they are mostly Muslim people down there. Giving them more money means buying more weapon to kill more Buddhist monks. Even now, monk in the South have to be protected by army M16 when they go out to collect offerings.

[bushwacker]

No quick fix here. This will go on for many many years. Look at the middle east, ireland, africa .... all the same shit but different country names.

[asiawatcher]

Easiest way is to ban religion of all nature - after all it is only a little more than 2,000 years old and it was brought about by humans not gods and is all about control. And the brainwashing continues.....