Thailand tames separatists with democracy

By Peter Janssen

BANGKOK (DPA): Two decades ago Thailand's southernmost provinces were a hotspot of Muslim unrest, characterized by periodic bombings of trains and public buildings, kidnappings and widespread violence, much of it directed against ethnic Chinese also living in the area.

The Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) was then actively carrying out its decades-long armed separatist struggle to withdraw the predominately Muslim provinces of Naratiwat, Pattanii, Yala and Satun from Buddhist Thailand.

Now Thailand's separatist movement, unlike a similar struggle in Mindanao of the Philippines, is dormant if not dead.

"At this moment, in Thailand, we can say that the separatist movement has died down," said Jaran Maluleem, an expert on Muslim issues at Bangkok's Thammasat University.

"It has died down because basically the people in those provinces have been given more political rights, and more religious rights," said Jaran.

Thailand's national religion is Buddhism, the faith professed by nearly 90 percent of the kingdom's 62 million people. Islam is the second most popular religion with some 7 million followers, most of whom live in the South.

Islam is believed to have been introduced to Southeast Asia as early as the 7th century by traders from the Middle East, but it only took off when the religion was adopted by the sultans of the Malacca Straits in the 15th century.

It spread up to the area that now comprises the four southernmost provinces of Thailand, which were then still under a Malay sultan, but ran into cultural resistance in the upper South and mainland Thailand, which was already Buddhist.

"Before Islam could spread upwards to the north, Malacca fell in 1511 to Portuguese invaders," said Abu Bakar Abdul Majeed, senior fellow with the Institute of Islamic Understanding in Malaysia.

"Also, Thailand was Buddhist by then which was also strongly linked to its cultural identity. My speculation is that it was not easy for Islam to penetrate Buddhist territory," he added, in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur in Kuala Lumpur.

Thailand only conquered Pattani State in 1780, under its new monarch King Rama I, founder of the still reigning Chakri dynasty that moved the capital to Bangkok after the fall of Ayuthaya.

Despite several mass relocations of Pattani's Muslim population to the Bangkok area, a militant separatist movement was only sparked in the border area in the post World War II era, when Thailand's military-led governments tried to create a sense of national identity based on ethnicity, Thai language, the monarchy and Buddhism.

In the deep South, efforts were made by the central government to prohibit the teaching of the Malay language in public schools. Muslim practices, such as morning prayers, were prohibited in public schools and Thais of Malaysian decent were forced to adopt Thai sounding names.

The unpopular policies started to be dropped 10 to 15 years ago, when former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda began to take a more enlightened approach to southern separatists and Thai politicians started to seek out votes in the deep South.

Another former prime minister, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, arguably advanced the Muslim cause when he appointed Den Tohmina, the son of a famed separatist leader in Pattani, as the deputy leader of his New Aspiration Party.

Since Thailand's first elected government came to power in 1988, southern Muslims have gained considerably in political representation.

There are currently 13 Muslims among Thailand's elected 366 members of parliament, and seven Muslims among the recently elected senators.

"I don't think you'll find any country in the world where the national religion is Buddhism but the president of the Lower House is a Muslim," noted Jaran.

Wan Mohamad Noormata, Thailand's current House Speaker is a Muslim M.P. from Yala, while Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan is a Muslim M.P. from Nakorn Sri Thammarat.

Over the past 10 years, Thai governments have eased their restriction policies on the four southernmost provinces, allowing public schools to teach in the Malay language, one of the major key demands of former separatists, and allowing citizens to take on Arab Muslim names.

As a sign of the eased situation in the South, Thailand has earned itself observer status at the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference, at which the Philippines is still barred.

"We think that at the moment the Thai Muslims can fulfill their own wishes through the political process, so there is less conflict. Democratization has helped Muslims in the South," opined Jaran.