Women Seen As Force For Peace In The South: Thailand

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Women seen as force for peace in the South

Saowanee Nimpanpayungwong

The Nation

Several organisations are working to boost the role of women in helping solve the unrest in the deep South.

BANGKOK: -- Since the new wave of violence erupted in Thailand's southernmost region in 2003, it has killed more than 5,000 people and injured more than 9,000 others. During the same period, more than 5,000 children have been orphaned and 3,000 women have become widows.

Recent trends suggest that bloody attacks have increasingly affected innocent victims, especially women and children, as attackers frequently use explosives.

"Apart from casualties, the unrest has also hurt the economy, the health, the quality of life and the development in the deep South," Soraya Jamjuree said yesterday in her capacity as coordinator of the Women's Civic Network for Peace in the Southern Border Provinces. The network is functioning under the Prince of Songkla University's Pattani Campus.

Soraya was speaking at a seminar in Bangkok focused on the rights and the role of women in the peace-building process for the deep South.

Cherian Matthews, Oxfam GB's deputy director in Asia, said relevant parties should work to engage women in the process. It was not enough just to create opportunities for women because their participation should in fact become the norm.

Soraya hailed the establishment of the national-level subcommittee on women's role in the promotion of peace and security.

Sitting on this subcommittee were representatives from various agencies including the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, UN Women, and several civic organisations.

Soraya said she expected such groups seriously to promote the role of this subcommittee and integrate its work with local mechanisms.

"To create peace in the deep South, we have to work closely with local communities," she said.

Oxfam Thailand's executive Suntaree Rangkusone said women had been successful in creating peace in violence-hit areas before, as seen in the Philippines' Mindanao.

PM's Office Minister Sansanee Nakpong said the government had now provided funds for the empowerment of women and intended to offer support for women in the deep South in various ways.

-- The Nation 2012-12-19

[Sabrinus]

Seeing as how we in the United Kingdom / Eire had decades of Northern Ireland unrest, 'The troubles' as they were called, it was not until the women united together and evnetually put pressure on the men, of all sides that the fight turned into a more political state than bombs, bullets and black marketeering.

Perhaps if the Ladies of the Southern Part of Thailand were to form a united front and all sides were to force their men, teens and boys to stop this right now and seek alternative dialog via politcal peaceful means, that this fight will then take a peacful route.

Again, perhaps they should go to Northern Ireland on a fact finding mission and talk to some of the mothers, wifes, daughters that when through 'The troubles', and see if they can gain any ideas from their visit.

Peace

Edited December 19, 2012 by Sabrinus

[TheGhostWithin]

This is a very strange release. The issue at hand is taking place in the three most ultra conservative provinces in Thailand, on both the Buddhist and Muslim "sides" of the conflict.

In Islam, the role of a woman is to serve the needs of a man, and to ensure his happiness as he provides to his wife/wives and other family members. There is no place for women in leadership in Islam. If you do not understand this fact, you have no chance of getting any ultra-conservative Muslim to listen to you, and these are the people comitting a very high proportion of thw acts of agression in present day.

On the Buddhist side, you have a group of people very different than their northern brothers and sisters, much more conservative and hardened in their ways than those of the seat of power or anywjere else in Thailand. Women serve in civil positions just as often as men, but men hold the positions of power in all essential services - Police, Army, Medical. Women do not make the decisions on the Buddist side either.

To be a "force", you need to be in a position to effect change, either inhierrently or by sheer persistence and willpower. I am sure those Muslims seeking a united and Buddhist free nation state are far more determined than any of the groups pushing for an increase of western womens ideals in the South.

Good luck, but this is their home, both Buddhist and Muslim, not a place to play your feminist ideal world cards. It hasn't worked in the west with men now flocking to Thailand to get a better lady, and won't work in the south.