History lesson in Patani

Thai people, on the other hand, study history so they can understand the past, according to Thanet, the dean of Thammasat University's Liberal Arts Faculty. What about the future? We are still as unclear about it as ever, Thanet says.

Thanet was speaking at a seminar on Wednesday called "The Impact of Globalisation and Islamisation in Thailand and Malaysia", which was attended by Thai and Malaysian academics, and was open to the general public.

Naturally, the ongoing insurgency in Thailand's southernmost provinces was a hot topic for discussion.

It was generally agreed that the absence of an adequate presentation of the history of Patani helped fuel the historical resentment of Malays in the region towards the Thai state.

But if Thanet's take on the Thai people - that the Thais don't know how to look to the future - is correct, then we are in for a very long haul as far as the violence in the Malay-speaking region is concerned.

More than 3,300 people have died since January 2004 when the violence spiked to a level unseen in years. Since then, insurgents have succeeded in maintaining the violence at a steady level, showing the world that they are a force to be reckoned with.

One of the biggest complaints - or, perhaps, excuses - from the Thai security sector has been that there are no adequate negotiating partners, as insurgents refuse to surface. Most of the so-called dialogue since this wave of violence erupted has been conducted secretly with members of longstanding separatist groups such as the Patani United Liberation Organisation. This appears to be the only channel of communications the state has open to the militants on the ground. So far, nothing fruitful has come out of this process, partly because of the absence of political will and direction and partly because Thai security forces and agencies see it as being too costly in political terms.

It was suggested at the seminar that perhaps the Thai side should consider changing negotiators and revising the contents of the discussions.

For decades, the Thai Army has been engaging in dialogue with the separatists but nothing has ever moved forward. A Malaysian officer said that over the years a number of mid-ranking Army officers from Thailand have frequently visited the Malaysian side claiming to represent the Thai government when in fact they were sent by their respective commanders on routine assignments to collect information from exiled separatist leaders.

Thailand can carry on with the current course and more people will die because of it. Or it can make the effort to acknowledge historical differences and put the grievances of the Patani region towards the Thai state on the table for discussion. And then, perhaps, all sides, both the security forces and the armed separatists, could come to the table to hammer out their differences.