SPECIAL REPORT

Living in shadow of fear

Supitcha Rattana

The Nation

NARATHIWAT: -- In the wake of repeated attacks on their peers, teachers and education officials in the deep South are getting badly demoralised.

"We are in a crisis," one teacher said on condition of anonymity.

He now relies on amulets to give him the courage to go to work while waiting for his transfer request to be approved.

"My school is in the red zone," he said. "Just on December 11, insurgents opened fire on a tea shop located along the route that teachers use every day."

This shooting in Narathiwat's Rangae district killed four people and injured many others.

Since January 4, 2004, when the ongoing wave of unrest erupted in the deep South, people have been living in fear, and security concerns are growing in other parts of the country. The violence has caused huge casualties as well as massive economic damages.

Among the prime targets are teachers and education officials. So far, the country's education sector has already lost 124 teachers and 34 officials to the unrest.

As many as 2,444 teachers in four districts of Yala applied to be transferred between 2003 and 2009. This is in addition to the requests submitted by teachers in other parts of the South.

"I am worried and shaken," admitted Thanaporn Maneeprawat.

The 33-year-old teaches at Ban Ta Kam Cham School in Pattani's Nong Chik district. On November 22, her school's director Nantana Kaewchan was shot dead just a few hundred metres away from the compound.

"Buddhist teachers feel they are more at risk," she said.

As a native of Pattani, she has been teaching in the South for years, but says she will never get used to attacks taking place almost on a daily basis.

She put in for a transfer and it was approved. However, she will still be working in Pattani, though at a different school.

"I've been given the permission to work at a school close to home. That gives me some sort of comfort," she said. "I feel the shorter distance I have to travel, the lower the risk."

According to Thanaporn, fear about their safety has affected teachers' ability to teach and their contribution to extra-curricular activities.

"Two people close to me at work have been attacked fatally, and both times I felt compelled to seek a transfer," this teacher said.

Ban Ta Kam Cham School's acting director Malasen Asan said he too wished to move out of the area, but had to stay put now that the school's director has been killed.

"If I leave, there will be nobody around to run the school. Now there are only three teachers hired on a temporary contract and myself at the school," he said.

Malasen's transfer request has already been approved. "But I can't go. I can't leave the students here without knowing that there is a new school director to take care of them," he said.

Though fear has gripped his heart, his love for children and sense of duty prevails.

-- The Nation 2012-12-26

AMULETS will only work if he carries an AK 47 hung around his neck and an UZI Strapped to his hip.

Better To Die Standing on Your Feet, Than Down On Your KNEES!

Edited December 26, 201213 yr by jerrysteve

When you see that the Chief of Police and his sharpshooter son are scared to go anywhere near the south it's hardly surprsiing that fear grips the place.