Thailand's usual excuses on separatists do not wash

The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

Seven policemen were killed in a renewed outbreak of violence in Muslim-majority provinces in the past week. The assailants fired on police checkpoints with automatic rifles in a series of well-coordinated ambushes in Yala and Pattani. Initial reactions from security officials were tediously predictable. The incidents, they said, had nothing to do with Muslim guerrillas fighting for a Muslim homeland, covering Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, part of Songkhla and part of Satun.

They argued, as they always have, that splinter groups of armed separatists have become too weak to mount such audacious attacks. Besides, separatist fighters are no longer popular among local residents whose support they sorely need to put up an armed struggle against the authorities.

Meanwhile occasional bombs continue to go off in public places, causing deaths, injuries or damage. Police and military commanders responsible for keeping peace and order in the South tend to dismiss out of hand the theory that separatist guerrillas are capable of this type of violence.

Even more fanciful is the theory that most, if not all, acts of violence in the four southern provinces have been the handiwork of "disaffected elements", including police officers or local crime bosses, who perpetuate a cycle of violence in order to discredit senior police officers responsible for law and order in the region.

These explanations and excuses seem to generate their own system of reference, feed on their own perverted rationality and even gain some credibility on repeated use. But to write off the decades-old secessionist aspiration among the predominantly Malay population and to deny that the problem is there will not make it go away.

The Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center, whose job it is to coordinate the political, social and economic efforts by all government agencies to bring peace and prosperity to the region, may have over the years made considerable progress to win the hearts and minds of the local people. But obviously it could have done much more to get the state apparatus to work together for the benefit of the local people, who must also be encouraged to participate more fully politically, economically and socially.

Without peace, the local economies will continue to stagnate as investors and tourists stay away from the violence-prone region. A relatively poor economic performance over the years has confined the local population to a lower standard of living because the region's economic potential, including rich natural resources, has not been realized.

If the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States offer any valuable lesson for the government, it is that poverty is a breeding ground for terrorism. Another relevant lesson is that today's terrorists no longer need the support of the local population to undertake acts of terrorism that can have grave consequences in terms not only of loss of life but also of the destabilization of a country.

It is time the government acted decisively on terrorism in the deep South. For too long the government has been complacent and in denial mode. Terrorism in any guise cannot be tolerated. Fledgling terrorist organizations, regardless of ideological or religious affiliation, must be nipped in the bud.