South Thailand needs honest appraisal
Don Pathan, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok
The aftermath of the April 28 attacks, in which 108 Muslim insurgents were gunned down, and others continues to weigh on Thailand's political leaders and security strategists, who continue to be on the receiving end of a faceless enemy.
Strangely, no Islamic militant group has staked claim to any of these attacks, including the Jan. 4 raid on an Army battalion in which more than 300 pieces of weaponry were stolen, or the April 28 incident, which spooked the nation's entire security apparatus because of the suicidal nature of the attacks.
While no security official operating on the ground doubts the political connotation of this spate of violence that erupted in the Thai Malay-Muslim region in the beginning of the year, Thai political leaders, until recently, had consistently downplayed the attacks as not having any ideological basis.
The denials continued as the scope of victims expanded from security officials to non-security personnel, innocent civilians and Buddhist monks.
Amid an atmosphere of racial tension between the local Buddhist community and the predominantly Malay-Muslim residents following the beheading of a rubber tapper, allegedly by Muslim radicals, and the ransacking of a shrine of a popular Chinese goddess, Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula admitted that Muslim extremism had taken root in the region.
Radical ideas brought over by Thai Muslims who had fought in the Afghan War against the Russians in the 1980s have helped provide the ideological basis and inspiration for the ongoing campaign in the South by a new generation of militants, Bhokin said in a rare and long-awaited admission.
Security officials said there was a growing perception in the region of an "us and them" mentality that sees an ethnic Malay- Muslim minority pitted against a Buddhist nation. And if this perception turns into one that foreign radical Muslim groups could qualify as "victims and conquerors", then Thailand could very well have a problem of global jihad on its hands.
Moreover, the translated copy of The Fight for the Liberation of Pattani, a text found on some of the 108 Muslim insurgents who were shot dead by security forces on April 28, said the region, once liberated, should be ruled by Muslims from the Shafii tradition.
Until Bhokin's remarks late last week, the government had tended to dismiss the assailants as bandits or drug-crazed young men lured by the teaching of certain cults. Over the past week, however, there appeared to be a change in its attitude.
A senior Army officer said that instead of going by the notion that two heads are better than one, political heavyweights chose to hold their cards to their chest as they tried to outdo each other. This was seen in the recent episode in which Thai political leaders publicly humiliated one another over the question of whether to take up an offer of peace talks from the leader of the Bersatu separatist organization, Wan Kadir Che Man.
Some analysts, including senior military officers, said that by taking up the offer, the Thai government could have shown that it was open-minded enough to meet a leader who does not necessarily share their idea of a Thai nation-state and perhaps turn over a new leaf.
But Thai politicians will be Thai politicians. Bickering will continue as agencies look over their shoulders to see who is getting what in this campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Malay Muslim community in Thailand's deep South.