SOCIETY-THAILAND: Violence Threatens Record of Ethnic Harmony

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 12 2004 (IPS) - The phrase ‘race riots’, which strikes a painful chord in some South-east Asian countries, has remained alien to the modern political vocabulary of Thailand – as alien as the idea of government-led assaults on the country’s leading minorities.

But while this record may continue to hold, the recent spate of violence in the country’s Muslim-dominated southern region is posing a challenge to the political and social formula that has shaped a predominantly Buddhist country that is tolerant and committed to ethnic harmony.

Already, some academics interviewed by IPS argue that the government needs to pursue a new blueprint for social and ethnic cohesion if Thailand is to retain its edge as a tolerant society over neighbours like Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia and even the Philippines.

”We have not had race riots, but there have been sporadic cases of race-related violence. And for that credit must go to the elastic character of the Thai social fabric to accommodate social and cultural differences,” says Chaiwat Sath-Anand, director of the Peace Information Centre at Bangkok’s Thammasat University.

However, the violence that has erupted in the south in recent weeks reveals ”new and deep cracks” in Thailand’s policy toward its minorities, adds Chaiwat, a member of the country’s Muslim minority.

The Thai central government, he asserts, may have to abandon the central pillars of its policy toward minorities – assimilation and integration – and opt, instead, for ”a policy where Muslims are accepted as a people with a different cultural identity who want to live in Thailand”.

A leading Thai anthropologist concurs, given mounting evidence that government officials and bureaucrats have contributed to Muslim restiveness in the south due to a lack of ”cultural and religious sensitivity and (their) being unable to speak their language”.

”There is a need for a special policy and this is a challenge for the ministry of the interior and the ministry of culture,” says Chayan Vaddhanaphuti, an anthropologist at Chiang Mai University, in northern Thailand.

The government should not expect the policies that work for other minorities to be amenable to the Muslims in the south due to their particular history and to the numerical edge they enjoy as the majority in the southern provinces, he observes.

Since Jan. 4, Thailand has been facing a new security challenge, following a series of attacks on schools, police posts and, most significantly, a major military camp in two southern provinces.

Four soldiers and two bomb disposal experts have died due to the violence, which the government says is the work of Muslim separatists in the south.

Bangkok’s response has been tough. Martial law has been imposed, a large military presence has been ordered and close to 30 Muslims with alleged links to Muslim separatist groups have been taken in for questioning.

”The attacks mark a new type of violence that requires new thinking to address the emergence of militant Islamic movements in the air,” says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a national security expert at Chulalongkorn University here.

The consensus among some analysts here is that if the Thai government hardens Muslims’ views due to its harsh measures, this can trigger a rise in support for the few Muslim separatists active in the area.

”At their highest, these groups had about 500 supporters but now some have about 200 each,” adds Panitan. ”The limited number of support these militant groups have indicates that the people are largely peaceful and that previous government policies have worked to an extent.”

The usual suspects in the latest attacks as identified by the Thai state have been the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO), Barisan Revulsi Nasional (BRN) or Revolutionary National Front and the Gerakan Mujahideen Islam Pattani (GMIP) or Movement of Islamic Mujahideen in Pattani.

PULO, one of the oldest southern separatist groups, began its struggle in the early 1970s. Over the past three years, attacks in the south have resulted in the deaths of over 50 government officials.

Although the Muslims are Thailand’s largest minority – there are an estimated six million of them out of the country’s 63 million population – they are not all from the same ethnic stock. Their historical relations with Thailand and their location in the country vary, too.

The smallest group among them came to this country from India, southern China and the Middle East and are scattered in urban centres like Bangkok or the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Not so, however, for the largest group among the Muslims in this country, those Muslims in the south who have been in the spotlight due to the recent burst of violence. They have strong historical and cultural bonds with Thailand’s southern neighbours, the Malay Muslims.

What set these Muslims apart from the rest of the Thais are not only their religious beliefs, but their cultural traditions and language. What is more, the Muslims in the five southern provinces of Thailand – Narathiwat, Pattani, Satun, Songkhla and Yala – have their own unique history. Just over a century ago, they belonged to the kingdom of Pattani, which was annexed in 1902 by Siam, as Thailand was then known. ”In their case, the Thai state came to them – and they were expected to be members of it – (unlike) the other Muslims, who came to Thailand,” says Chaiwat.

Since those days, they have been expected to adhere to the requirements of being Thai, including loyalty and respect to the country’s monarch, speaking the Thai language and even taking on Thai names. Regard for Buddhism and its symbols are also essential features of being Thai.

”Thai nationalism was stressed to all citizens after World War Two, during the dictatorship of Phibun Songkhram,” says Chayan, referring to one of the many military strongmen who dominated the country’s political landscape till the early 1990s. ”The Muslims were forced to adapt practices not familiar to them.”

Consequently, the southern Muslims have over the years felt that their cultural space ”is being violated,” wrote Surin Pitsuwan, Thailand’s former foreign minister and one of the country’s most prominent Muslim politicians, in a commentary in Thursday’s ‘Bangkok Post’ newspaper. ”A sense of alienation pervades the whole area.”

”It is essential to give them (the southern Muslims) assurances that their cultural space will be respected, their religion and tradition protected, and their participation welcome,” he argued. ”That is the crux of the matter.”