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Lt-General Phichet Visaijorn is facing a test of his time as commander-general of the Fourth Army Area. But he relies on an unconventional path to try to bring peace and security back to the three southern provinces of Thailand. He prefers to rely on the political path to unravel the deep-seated problems there. A military option is secondary. By doing so, he has followed the wisdom of His Majesty the King. To tackle the southern unrest, we must have a real understanding of the people, we must win over the hearts and minds of the people and then we must assist them with development so that they can live normally in society. This is the right prescription.

As the death toll continues to mount from the insurgency, Phichet cannot avoid the harsh criticism. When is the rampant killing going to end? When can the authorities bring normalcy back to the South? Is the military pursuing a sound strategy that will eventually bring about a fruitful result?

These are legitimate questions. But they are open questions that nobody can realistically provide a satisfactory answer to, as the southern problems are multidimensional. As far as Phichet is concerned, he only tries to do his best. He has displayed his leadership quality. He lets his actions do the talking.

Phichet's strategy is unconventional because he spends most of his time on development. He and the authorities now have a very good understanding of the roots of the southern unrest, a combination of separatist and Muslim-led ideals to create an independent Pattani, the drugs and other vices as well as political intrigues at the local and national levels. But the authorities just can't go after them without concrete evidence to arrest the suspects and place them under the due process of law.

But Phichet and the Thai authorities still have a lot of work to do regarding winning the hearts and minds of the Muslim locals, many of whom still have a sense of alienation or dual personality living in the Kingdom of Thailand. This will take time. There are some 1.8 million Muslim-Thais living in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, compared to about 150,000 Buddhist-Thais. Less than 1 per cent of the Muslim-Thais are involved in the insurgency or separatist movements, which have also mustered international support and training. Phichet has worked hard to try to separate the good Muslim-Thais from the insurgents so that the insurgents can't have influence over them.

At the same time, Phichet is introducing innovative development projects to the Muslim-Thais. In front of the Sirindhorn Commanding Centre, he has developed a learning centre on sufficiency economics. Every day sees the Muslims from different villages arrive at the centre to learn how to establish a basic living standard. With a small plot of land, one can dig a small pond to raise as many as 1,000 fish, plant vegetables and raise livestock. Phichet is encouraging the local people to turn to organic fertiliser, known as EM or effective micro-organisations, to help improve the crop yields by at least four times. From his experience as commander of the Second Army Region in Nakhon Rachasima, Phichet played an active role in restoring health and productivity to the farmland in the Northeast. Drug addicts undergo rehabilitation at this centre. Those who have played a part in supporting the insurgents one way or another in minor offences are also given a chance to return to their home after going through rehabilitation. A lot of carrots are handed out.

 At the same time, the military servicemen have been working almost 24 hours a day to try to contain the violence. Some 60,000 military and police officers as well as civilian volunteers have formed a force to deal with the insurgency. Casualties are occurring almost on a daily basis. But the violence appears to have been brought under control to a certain degree as the authorities have been able to penetrate most of the villages. But whenever calm appears to have been restored, the insurgents would strike again to create even more damage for psychological reasons. For instance, when the red-shirt protesters and yellow-shirt protesters roam Bangkok streets to air out their political grievances, the southern insurgents lay low. They know that their subversive activities would not make headlines because of the coverage of the news on the red-shirt and yellow-shirt protesters. Now the insurgents are trying to dominate the newspaper headlines again. It is a war of attrition that needs patience, time and wisdom to resolve.

Phichet has so far done a good job in his strategy for the South. He is encouraging local people to create a network of volunteers for self-defence. His "pineapple eye" project is an innovation. In this pineapple eye network, local volunteers are given walkie-talkies so that they can alert on the first signs of unusual or violent incidents. This project is working well in Hat Yai, Songkhla. It is now spreading out to other parts of the South. Who can provide better security protection to the communities than the local people living there themselves? If they learn to cooperate and work with each other to defend themselves, they will achieve the best result. That's the philosophy of Phichet, at times called the EM General.