Deep South Can Expect Nothing From The Govt: Thai Opinion

[webfact]

EDITORIAL

Deep South can expect nothing from the govt

By The Nation

After failing to win a single seat in the Malay-speaking South, Pheu Thai is unlikely to grant any favours to the long-suffering people there

When it comes to the people of the violence-plagued three southernmost provinces, disappointment is the one thing they can always look forward to. The feeling is that the people of the deep South are expendable and their feelings don't count when compared to the people in the rest of the country.

Talk of compensation for people killed last May during clashes between the military and red-shirt protesters overlooks a glaring double standard. Victims of the Tak Bai massacre - who died from gunshot wounds and suffocation after the military authorities stacked them on top of one another - don't seem to fit the bill for any compensation scheme.

Perhaps if their family names were like most Thais, this society might look at their losses in a different light.

In its election campaign promises, the ruling Pheu Thai Party didn't waste much time in showing the public that the deep South is taken for granted. Some may argue that Pheu Thai did not get a single seat in the Muslim-majority region and therefore it should not be a big deal if the party doesn't live up to its campaign promise of granting the region some sort of special administrative status to quell the ongoing insurgency.

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit recently said, with a straight face, that it was some other people's idea, not a policy of the party.

If it wants to shift the blame to the Army - which was set against the autonomy idea from the beginning - then Pheu Thai should get out of politics and not give in to the country's top brass like a bunch of wimps. After all, wasn't it the Pheu Thai people who gave us the impression they were going to put the military back in its place and out of politics?

Perhaps the biggest insult to the people of the region, and the men and women who serve their country there, is Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's promise to end this conflict in a year's time.

Does she have an implementation plan?

Does she even know the nature of this conflict?

If it was as easy as an issue of law and order, then she could do like her brother did - unleash massive firepower with virtually no rules of engagement and a licence to kill.

Nevertheless, a promise was made, and at the least, there should have been a debate about the pros and cons of the idea of a special region. At least other ideas could have been generated from it.

If anything, when it comes to the Malay-speaking deep South, history has shown us that the state policy of assimilation has failed. It worked with everybody else but not the Malays of Pattani.

This doesn't mean that the Muslims there want a separate state; but inclusion in the Thai state should have been negotiated, not dictated to them by Bangkok.

The choices are few: either we negotiate these terms with the Malays or we continue to kill the separatists in the hope that the unique cultural and historical narrative of the southern Malays dies with the militants. It hasn't and it won't. And this same narrative continues to breed separatist militants, generation after generation.

But Thai leaders can't seem to get out of their simple and shallow mindset. Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha recently suggested that a curfew should be imposed and that paramilitary rangers would be used on a more contingent and flexible basis.

But from the look of it, particularly this past Thursday during the three-hour shootout in Tambon Patae in Yala's Yaha district, pinning our hopes on a military solution, as opposed to a political one, doesn't seem very promising.

The target in this incident was an influential former village chief with a reputation for being shady and close to the police and military. Within a two-kilometre radius of his compound are three Ranger outposts, not counting the Army base camp just further down the road. They were pinned down by the insurgents' gunfire, and the state-friendly village chief and his family members were left to hold their ground. And we wonder why so few people in this restive region are on the side of the state.

-- The Nation 2011-09-01

[ralphlsasser]

The Nation is obiviously very bias. It seems that anything remotely connected to the Prime Minister in any way is wrong.

[whybother]

The Nation is obiviously very bias. It seems that anything remotely connected to the Prime Minister in any way is wrong.

They don't seem to be far off the mark.

[blackout]

" Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's promise to end this conflict in a year's time. "

how?

"a promise was made, and at the least, there should have been a debate about the pros and cons of the idea of a special region."

yeah people in this religion always want to be special. if we ignore them, yeah they will show us their special peaceful force!

"The choices are few: either we negotiate these terms with the Malays or we continue to kill the separatists in the hope that the unique cultural and historical narrative of the southern Malays dies with the militants."

negotiate with them, isn't that the same tactic many thai's government used to do many decades before thaksin's government?

it seem to reduce the violence enough for thaksin to declared "it is no separatists organization in the south any more, it is only small bandits groups of people".

then he close down all the local gove's backed organizations that deal with the problem for decades and we all see the hell broken loose within less than 3 months.

so go back to what the PM said " Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's promise to end this conflict in a year's time. "

how can she clean up her brother's mess?

only big talk without doing your homwork on this sensitive problem with the peaceful Muslim will end up causing more problem rather than help just like what your brother have done to the country's south.

[Bkkorupcountry]

" Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's promise to end this conflict in a year's time. "

how?

"a promise was made, and at the least, there should have been a debate about the pros and cons of the idea of a special region."

yeah people in this religion always want to be special. if we ignore them, yeah they will show us their special peaceful force!

"The choices are few: either we negotiate these terms with the Malays or we continue to kill the separatists in the hope that the unique cultural and historical narrative of the southern Malays dies with the militants."

negotiate with them, isn't that the same tactic many thai's government used to do many decades before thaksin's government?

it seem to reduce the violence enough for thaksin to declared "it is no separatists organization in the south any more, it is only small bandits groups of people".

then he close down all the local gove's backed organizations that deal with the problem for decades and we all see the hell broken loose within less than 3 months.

so go back to what the PM said " Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's promise to end this conflict in a year's time. "

how can she clean up her brother's mess?

only big talk without doing your homwork on this sensitive problem with the peaceful Muslim will end up causing more problem rather than help just like what your brother have done to the country's south.

I wonder who's killing who down there. These people are the real terrorists of Thailand.

[IMA_FARANG]

Yes, it's biased, but unfortuneately it has a lot of truth in it. I'm surprised to see such an article from a Thai newspaper. From my experience with many Thais, they simply stop thinking logically when the words "Thai Moslems" are heard.

Southeren Thailand, with their Malay/Moslem cultural roots is not what Thais and their central Thailand/ Buddhist cultural traditions want to think about, much less consider as part of the "real" Thailand.

But that kind of thinking isn't just a Thai thing.

As examples; the Scots and the English, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the "Yankees" to southerners in the U.S. come to mind.

And I think many thoughtful Israelis, and I've known some personally, relise that the Palestinian problem is dragging Israel down and needs to be resolved by co-operation rather than conflict.

Moslem/Malay southern Thailand is the same thing.

But like either of those, I don't expect it to be resolved soon.

[backtonormal]

The Nation is obiviously very bias. It seems that anything remotely connected to the Prime Minister in any way is wrong.

Never, getaway lad .. biased. You will have the evening shift on your case soon

[Celticabdullah]

Yes, it's biased, but unfortuneately it has a lot of truth in it. I'm surprised to see such an article from a Thai newspaper. From my experience with many Thais, they simply stop thinking logically when the words "Thai Moslems" are heard.

Southeren Thailand, with their Malay/Moslem cultural roots is not what Thais and their central Thailand/ Buddhist cultural traditions want to think about, much less consider as part of the "real" Thailand.

But that kind of thinking isn't just a Thai thing.

As examples; the Scots and the English, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the "Yankees" to southerners in the U.S. come to mind.

And I think many thoughtful Israelis, and I've known some personally, relise that the Palestinian problem is dragging Israel down and needs to be resolved by co-operation rather than conflict.

Moslem/Malay southern Thailand is the same thing.

But like either of those, I don't expect it to be resolved soon.

bang on bob,its the same allover,the ruling elite have islamic knowledge and keep it to themselves,they know clearly whats right and whats wrong,and use misinformation to confuse the people,while all the time they practice the black arts

[whybother]

bang on bob,its the same allover,the ruling elite have islamic knowledge and keep it to themselves,they know clearly whats right and whats wrong,and use misinformation to confuse the people,while all the time they practice the black arts

[Mosha]

The vast majority of the South is Democrat country, and my wife isn't expecting PTP to help people anywhere in the South.

[KKvampire]

Isaan and the The south of Thailand might just as well be two different countries, And of course the new government is only concerned will those who voted for them.

[Celticabdullah]

bang on bob,its the same allover,the ruling elite have islamic knowledge and keep it to themselves,they know clearly whats right and whats wrong,and use misinformation to confuse the people,while all the time they practice the black arts

[Celticabdullah]

wink wink

Edited September 3, 2011 by Celticabdullah