Govt Urged To Make Malay Official Language

[george]

Govt urged to make Malay official language

BANGKOK: -- A veteran peace campaigner has urged the government to make the Malay dialect, spoken by the majority of people in the deep South, another official language of the region to help restore peace and unity.

Mark Tamthai, deputy chairman of the National Security Council's strategic non-violence committee and director of the Chiang Mai-based Phayap University's research institute, made the recommendation to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) which is finalising a report suggesting solutions to the unrest in the Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.

The NRC will submit the report of its findings and recommendations to the government by the end of next month.

Mr Mark said he believed that making the Malay dialect another official language besides Thai would give local Muslims a reason to be proud of their heritage and thus help ease tensions.

Also, it would help overcome problems arising from the use of Thai during police questioning of local suspects and witnesses, as well as ensure protection for people's basic rights.

"The government need not fear that local Muslims in the deep South will not speak Thai after they are allowed to use their own dialect as an official language," Mr Mark told a seminar on peace and tolerance in the deep South, held at the Institute of Asian Studies under Chulalongkorn University's Political Science Faculty. Dual official languages have been in use in many other countries with no ill-effects, said Mr Mark, who is also an NRC member.

Citing Spain as an example, he said this European country had been under Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who ruled the country with an iron fist from 1939 to1975. The late dictator had no respect for "regional nationalism" and regional differences. He had made Castilian Spanish the only official language and outlaw other dialects of Spain.

Mr Mark said violence and conflicts were rife in Franco's Spain, which consisted of several minority groups each of which wanted to be independent of the iron-fisted rule.

After Franco's death the Spanish government allowed their people to use their own dialects and made three more dialects official languages.

In the context of "regional nationalism", he said the government should give local Muslims more say in making policy decisions affecting their lives.

The government should study the pros and cons of peace-building efforts from other countries encountering conflicts and take lessons from them to adjust measures for peace in the deep South.

He cited Sri Lanka as a country mired in violence, saying the Thai government should also look at elements that hamper peace-building efforts in the deep South.

Associate Professor Chanthana Banphasirichote, a political science lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, said she and colleagues from Prince of Songkhla University, Assumption University and Yala Islamic College have been doing a research comparing the levels of tolerance of southern violence between Bangkokians and residents of the Muslim-dominated southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Satun, Songkhla and Yala.

Their findings will be added to the NRC's final report and recommendations.

Meanwhile, violence in the deep South continued yesterday.

In Narathiwat, Marosae Joso, 42, a rubber plantation owner, was shot and wounded by a motorcycle gunman while on his way to tap rubber yesterday.

He was sent to Narathiwat Rachanagarind Hospital where he was reported to be in critical condition.

In Songkhla, Pol Snr Sgt-Maj Jaras Promchuay, 46, was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds on a road in Thepha district yesterday. He was ambushed while on foot patrol following an assignment briefing at Huay Pling police station.

Supri Awae, 21, and Niso Ti-ngi, 25, accused of killing two marines in Tanyong Limo village last September and arrested on Saturday in Narathiwat's Rangae district, were yesterday handed over to Rangae police for legal proceedings after being questioned at the police forward command in Yala.

--Bangkok Post 2006-01-17

[ssscud]

Give an inch and 'people who want and use violence to take' will take a mile. I do not think this will help the situation in the southern provinces one little bit. So, what will help? EDUCATION funds to the provinces local 'non-muslim' islamic offices. If the local offices are islamic muslims, fire them and replace them. This situation of muslims in the south killing for what they are told to believe is simply criminal. They think that if they kill everyone that is buhddist thai or other than muslim is ging fix something they are wrong. I believe Thaksin should place military in the hw9ole area so when the sleepig demon awakes thay are ready. The demon is the fact that the people that commit these crimes are normal everyday people that become incessently angry at a given moment and commit a crime of murder in the name of their god. They are falsely led as the first thing god says

"THOUS SHALL NOT KILL"

crime is crime whether it is committed in the name of god or the name of someones enemy. all murderes and those who tell them to murder should be put in concentration labor camos and made to work for their food to live.

MY two cents on this subject,

Thank you

Govt urged to make Malay official language

BANGKOK: -- A veteran peace campaigner has urged the government to make the Malay dialect, spoken by the majority of people in the deep South, another official language of the region to help restore peace and unity.

Mark Tamthai, deputy chairman of the National Security Council's strategic non-violence committee and director of the Chiang Mai-based Phayap University's research institute, made the recommendation to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) which is finalising a report suggesting solutions to the unrest in the Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.

The NRC will submit the report of its findings and recommendations to the government by the end of next month.

Mr Mark said he believed that making the Malay dialect another official language besides Thai would give local Muslims a reason to be proud of their heritage and thus help ease tensions.

Also, it would help overcome problems arising from the use of Thai during police questioning of local suspects and witnesses, as well as ensure protection for people's basic rights.

"The government need not fear that local Muslims in the deep South will not speak Thai after they are allowed to use their own dialect as an official language," Mr Mark told a seminar on peace and tolerance in the deep South, held at the Institute of Asian Studies under Chulalongkorn University's Political Science Faculty. Dual official languages have been in use in many other countries with no ill-effects, said Mr Mark, who is also an NRC member.

Citing Spain as an example, he said this European country had been under Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who ruled the country with an iron fist from 1939 to1975. The late dictator had no respect for "regional nationalism" and regional differences. He had made Castilian Spanish the only official language and outlaw other dialects of Spain.

Mr Mark said violence and conflicts were rife in Franco's Spain, which consisted of several minority groups each of which wanted to be independent of the iron-fisted rule.

After Franco's death the Spanish government allowed their people to use their own dialects and made three more dialects official languages.

In the context of "regional nationalism", he said the government should give local Muslims more say in making policy decisions affecting their lives.

The government should study the pros and cons of peace-building efforts from other countries encountering conflicts and take lessons from them to adjust measures for peace in the deep South.

He cited Sri Lanka as a country mired in violence, saying the Thai government should also look at elements that hamper peace-building efforts in the deep South.

Associate Professor Chanthana Banphasirichote, a political science lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, said she and colleagues from Prince of Songkhla University, Assumption University and Yala Islamic College have been doing a research comparing the levels of tolerance of southern violence between Bangkokians and residents of the Muslim-dominated southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Satun, Songkhla and Yala.

Their findings will be added to the NRC's final report and recommendations.

Meanwhile, violence in the deep South continued yesterday.

In Narathiwat, Marosae Joso, 42, a rubber plantation owner, was shot and wounded by a motorcycle gunman while on his way to tap rubber yesterday.

He was sent to Narathiwat Rachanagarind Hospital where he was reported to be in critical condition.

In Songkhla, Pol Snr Sgt-Maj Jaras Promchuay, 46, was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds on a road in Thepha district yesterday. He was ambushed while on foot patrol following an assignment briefing at Huay Pling police station.

Supri Awae, 21, and Niso Ti-ngi, 25, accused of killing two marines in Tanyong Limo village last September and arrested on Saturday in Narathiwat's Rangae district, were yesterday handed over to Rangae police for legal proceedings after being questioned at the police forward command in Yala.

--Bangkok Post 2006-01-17

[cclub75]

Citing Spain as an example, he said this European country had been under Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who ruled the country with an iron fist from 1939 to1975. The late dictator had no respect for "regional nationalism" and regional differences. He had made Castilian Spanish the only official language and outlaw other dialects of Spain.

Typicall of the lack of knowledge and common sense of the so called "academics"...

How can he compare spaniards from Castilla (Madrid) and Cataluna (Barcelona) with the situation in south Thailand ?

In the first case, they are all spaniards, share common cultural, historical and religious grounds...

On the other hand, well we have a malay territory, annexed by Thailand 100 years ago. So what's the point ?

The people in the deep south are not thai. Period. They dont share the same language, religion, history etc. So I don't believe that this story about official language can solve the problem.

On the contrary it can be worse.

[OZONE]

After the killing of the 2 Thai military men a few months ago in Pattani, I could careless what happened to them. As far as I'm concerned, the Thai Military need to set standard the same as israel. You hit us once and we'll hit you twice. If you are living in those 3 provinces and a muslim fundamentalist than you must suffer the consequences