Nevertheless, Monday's shooting gave Governor Pracha a jolt and he went overboard in response. Almost immediately, the outspoken governor accused government-sponsored village defence volunteers of acting in collusion with the insurgents. He immediately called for a thorough investigation and said village defence volunteers assigned to the school would be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law if they were found guilty.

The killing was embarrassing for the authorities, as it comes just two months after security officials failed to rescue two female teachers who were badly beaten in the village of Kuching Reupah in the same province.

While it is natural for senior officials in the area to be frustrated with the seemingly endless string of killings, Pracha might have jeopardised a credible investigation by making such a statement rather than choosing to wait until he had a clearer picture of the situation.

When asked to explain how he arrived at such a damning conclusion, Pracha reasoned that village defence volunteers had been properly trained and that because of that such a mishap could not have taken place on their watch. He further alleged that the volunteers might have turned a blind eye to the killing.

Pracha, of all people, knows what the village defence volunteer scheme is all about and, like the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. The scheme has been repeatedly criticised for providing the volunteers with inadequate training; their place in the security scheme is often described as a time bomb waiting to go off.

To begin with, many of those serving as village defence volunteers took up their posts more often than not after having been shoved into them by district officials via village chiefs.

Like the re-education camp aimed at instilling a sense of nationalistic pride among young Malays in the region, these types of initiatives often provide officials like Pracha with a chance to score some quick political points.

There has been no real assessment to determine how effective these volunteers have been. If the past two years are any indication, they are no match for the feisty insurgents who have inflicted so much damage on security agencies through their roadside bombings followed by tense gunfights.

But once in a blue moon, an idea has surfaced that deserves to be listened to and debated further. The head of an informal club of Narathiwat kamnan and village chiefs, Mahamad Amin, suggested that local residents should be made responsible for looking after the schools and community property.

It sounded like a standard line but Amin offered some depth and reasoning for his proposal.

Instead of the Interior Ministry-initiated village defence volunteer scheme, members of the local community should take the lead in providing security for schools, Amin said.

The government should assist this village-run scheme with technical support by providing weapons and money, he added.

Interestingly, the idea was in line with what Army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin had been quietly discussing with a number of concerned parties - how to share ownership and make villagers feel as if they have a stake in the wellbeing of their community.

While a world apart in terms of social and official status, both Sonthi and Amin hit on the very notion that security should not be the exclusive domain of state agencies, but that of the local community as well.

For years, Bangkok has treated any such suggestion for dealing with the situation in the Malay-speaking South with suspicion, due to the fear that empowering locals would make them less Thai. Perhaps it's time that Bangkok let go of this "I know best" attitude and started to give locals the benefit of the doubt by permitting them to have a sense of ownership of their community and the responsibility that comes with it.