PM Abhisit Defends South Policy, Admits More Needs To Be Done

[webfact]

PM defends south policy but admits more needs to be done

By Kittipong Thavevong

The Nation

Opposition MPs from the Pheu Thai Party yesterday lambasted Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for his government's failure to solve the insurgency violence in the deep South over the past two years in office.

They said that despite massive state funds being injected into the Muslim-majority region, violence still persisted with thousands of casualties.

Pheu Thai MP Virun Phuensaen said that in the two years that this government had been in power, 965 people had been killed and more than 2,000 others had been injured. Some Bt63 billion had been spent and more than 60,000 security officers had been dispatched by this government in order to quell the insurgency.

After violence resumed in 2004, more than 4,500 people have been killed and more than 8,000 others injured in insurgency-related incidents in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, and four districts of Songkhla.

More than 68,000 officials from the military, police, and civilian units have been dispatched to the area over the past seven years. And some Bt144 billion in state funds have been spent in the efforts to end the violence.

Virun said that although the number of violent incidents decreased during this government, the severity of the violence increased, such as the use of car bombs.

Pheu Thai MP Sukarno Matha from Yala said that the prime minister had failed to solve the insurgency problem despite his government spending massive amounts of funds.

Sukarno said the government's re-establishment of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre in dealing with development projects has failed to ease the violence in the southern border provinces. He also pointed to suspected irregularities in projects by the SBPAC.

Responding to the opposition's grilling, the prime minister said that his government has adopted the policy of focusing on politics, rather than the military, in tackling the insurgency problem in the deep South. The idea is to win the trust of local residents so that they support the authorities.

He said this was contrary to the coalition government in which Pheu Thai's forerunner People Power Party was the core partner. In that government headed by the late veteran politician Samak Sundaravej, the task of tackling the insurgency problem was given to the military and the police, Abhisit noted.

Abhisit said that the greater severity of recent insurgency attacks pointed to the fact that the government's politically oriented policy was successful in winning support from the locals. "That's why the insurgents opted to counter with greater violence," he added.

The prime minister said that in dealing with the insurgency problem, Thai society has to decide whether to go ahead with the new method adopted by his government or to go back to the old policy of "an eye for an eye".

He said that he was still not satisfied with his government's performance on the issue and that more needed to be done.

Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Senneam, who is in charge of efforts to solve the insurgency problem, tried to respond to the opposition's allegations. However, he was silenced by Pheu Thai MPs who said that their grilling was aimed at the prime minister, and not Thaworn.

-- The Nation 2011-03-18

[vont]

The military op in the south is similar to sending Thai boxers to play in American Football League.

It is utterly pathetic to say the least.

A total waste of human lives so far.

The Thai leaders just have no clue as to what and how to help the southerners.

Money allocated was skimmed over down the line, from the top down.

Ineffective equipments were approved and endorsed by the defense dept itself.

Just what hope the south have remaining, other than to change govt and

hope for some experienced military leaders who are less exposed to greed,

to come along and help them.

Posting with just a ray of hope left.

[asiawatcher]

To PTP - more people were killed in Thaksin's reign than Abhisit's. So just keep muck raking - every stupid accusation continues to bury you back in your own quagmire of lies and deceit! Get a life.

Edited March 18, 2011 by asiawatcher

[zzaa09]

He's seems to be mirroring Thaksin's policy towards the south. Shhhhhh, don't let that get out...

Edited March 18, 2011 by zzaa09

[Buchholz]

He's seems to be mirroring Thaksin's policy towards the south. Shhhhhh, don't let that get out...

Especially if it's not true.

Actually, they are quite different, eg. Thaksin disbanded the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC) in 2001. Abhisit opened it again in 2011.

Edited March 18, 2011 by Buchholz

[Oberkommando]

To PTP - more people were killed in Thaksin's reign than Abhisit's. So just keep muck raking - every stupid accusation continues to bury you back in your own quagmire of lies and deceit! Get a life.

Only because Thaksin's reign was significantly longer.

Since the Junta and under the Abhisit administration violence has considerably worsened in the South and that is now being admitted by Secretary-General of the National Security Council Tawin Pleansri.

[Oberkommando]

He's seems to be mirroring Thaksin's policy towards the south. Shhhhhh, don't let that get out...

A failed policy indeed except that Thaksin genuinely wanted a solution. I am yet to be convinced the military does. What Abhisit wants is neither here nor there.

The fact finding panel under former PM Anand (commissioned by the Thaksin administration FYI) came up with some good ideas for reconciliation and compromise but they could not be implemented.

[Oberkommando]

As soon as they get the Blimp operating at maximum efficiency the insurgents will have nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide.

[Buchholz]

To PTP - more people were killed in Thaksin's reign than Abhisit's. So just keep muck raking - every stupid accusation continues to bury you back in your own quagmire of lies and deceit! Get a life.

Only because Thaksin's reign was significantly longer.

It's true even on a per year basis.

[Oberkommando]

It's true even on a per year basis.

Bold is mine.

"The ouster of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a military coup in 2006 raised hopes that the generals who took over, including several very senior Muslim officials based in Bangkok, would be more conciliatory than Mr. Thaksin, who had blamed the violence on bandits and oversaw a hard-line policy toward the area. But despite an unprecedented apology for past misdeeds by a military-installed prime minister, the killings continued at the same rate — 775 in 2007."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/world/asia/01iht-thai.html?_r=2&pagewanted=2

[Buchholz]

[dunkin2012]

Makin' these soldiers some excuses to gain more weapons and pile up their stocks. Moreover, % of cash from purchasin' these deadly devices will be dumped in top rank idi*ots havin' their accounts in Singapore, Cayman Islands or Switzerland for money laundry transactions .

Have they been thinking 'bout poor families in ISAN? How much has the gov. put some money for them?.............suck...

Edited March 18, 2011 by dunkin2012