Repeating The Same Old Mantra In The Deep South: Thai Editorial

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EDITORIAL

Repeating the same old mantra in the deep South

The Nation

The southern insurgency will not end until the Thai authorities begin to understand the true grievances of the Malay-Muslim people of the region

BANGKOK: -- Almost immediately after the Yingluck Shinawatra government came into power nearly a year ago, there was talk of placing the multi-agency Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) and the Army-dominated Internal Security Operation Command (Isoc) under one umbrella that would have a civilian at its head.

But the Thai Army never liked the idea of civilian supremacy and made a big huff and puff. Bureaucratically, the head of the SBPAC holds a higher position than the regional Isoc commander, who is also the commander of the Fourth Army Area.

But in this restive region where more than 5,000 people have died since January 2004 in insurgency-related violence, the men with the guns call the shots. The Army has been dominating policy for the region in various aspects, even though nothing it has done so far has helped improve relations between the state and the people of the Malay-speaking region.

But during her recent visit to the restive region, her first since taking over the premiership, Yingluck toyed with the same idea again - civilian supremacy in this violent region where the traditional security approach has failed to deliver a desirable outcome.

Theoretically, the idea of placing the military under civilian rule is not a bad one. But such a policy must be sound for the military, as well as bureaucrats, to take up the challenge.

About a year ago, Yingluck proposed retired police officer, Police General Kowit Wattana as the possible head of a peace-building bureau that would place the military and the SBPAC under one roof.

This time around, almost a year later, she named retired General Yuthasak Sasriprapha, who was pushed out of the Defence Ministry portfolio after the first Cabinet reshuffle because he failed to get the military top brass to accept legislation that would give civilians the right to appoint military leaders throughout the chain of command.

Somehow, Yingluck thinks Yuthasak can serve as a link between Isoc and the SBPAC. She believes that improved relations - or less rivalry - between agencies can translate into a better security situation for the three southernmost provinces that have been hit by the devastating insurgency.

Theoretically, that might be true. But the problem in the Malay-speaking South is much more complicated and requires policy-makers to go beyond typical bureaucratic means.

Since the Thaksin administration, every government has not failed to employ the traditional, bureaucratic textbook approach to the deep South. No one seems able to think outside the box, partly because they don't - or don’t want to - understand the true nature of the conflict. If our policy-makers looked through a different lens rather than security, they would see that the problem is deep-rooted on a wide range of issues - from separatism to criminal activities, from justice, or lack of it, to equality, and the lack of social mobility for the Malays.

We have spent much of the past century trying to turn the Malays of Pattani into something they are not, and that approach hasn't worked. A failed assimilation policy has turned into abusive practices, while the Thai ethnocentric attitude becomes arrogance when the Pattani Malays refuse to let go of their historical, mythological and cultural narratives. The failure to find a comfort level has translated into conflict and separatist violence.

It's easy to label the Malay-speaking people of the region as ungrateful for their unwillingness to cooperate, and to accuse the militants of embracing a false teaching of Islam and a distorted history. The state's solution is to pour billions of taxpayers' baht into the region to various government projects that don't seem to reach the grassroots level or improve the livelihood of locals in any meaningful way.

Our leaders have lost their way when it comes to the deep South, and refuse to admit it because they are more concerned about getting re-elected than thinking of more creative and innovative ways to deal with the Muslim-majority region.

Unfortunately, Prime Minister Yingluck, during her recent visit, didn't say anything much different from other leaders before her.

-- The Nation 2012-05-09