General fights violence in South with green revolution

We went out for breakfast. A caravan of vehicles led us from the Sirindhorn military base in Pattani, which lies at the border with Yala.

Pretty soon, we reached an intersection of Ban Nieng, Amphoe Muang, Yala. We had breakfast at a cafe right near the intersection. The owner and his son, who spoke in heavily accented Thai, took good care of us. They served a very special kind of khao soi with rice and vegetables. Their old-fashioned coffee and tea were tasty. This cafe used to be a target of terrorist attacks. The son showed me a hole made by a bullet in a glass panel. "We do not want to fix it yet. But the situation has vastly improved," he said.

Everywhere Lt-General Phichet went, the local Muslim people would flock to him. They somehow saw in him a leadership quality that could bring peace and stability back to the three southern provinces. He was more like a movie star. |Phichet sat at the same table with the local Muslim people and made friends with them. There was no gap at all. This brought about trust among the local Muslims. The owner of the cafe shop proudly showed us a picture of him with the general and other members of the community.

A lady who joined us at the table said after the general's arrival on the scene, the situation and morale had improved.

It was clear that Lt-General Phichet was trying to win the hearts and minds of the local Muslim people. He would like to be friendly with them. And if they were to need anything, he would respond quickly. The military option was only used when it was necessary to fend off the insurgents. On the ground, the violence remained grave. The military had to bring the violent areas under control. If they were to withdraw, the insurgents would have returned to occupy one village after another.

Then we went in a helicopter to Ban Hutaemajae in Amphoe Waeng, Narathiwat, where rice plantation was about to be revived. Lt-General Phichet had introduced effective micro-organisations or EM fertiliser to the South. Ban Hutaemajae was one of the projects under the economic-sufficiency programme.

Several hundred villagers were on hand to greet the general and his delegation. The ladies wore beautiful dresses in different bright colours. There were shows to entertain the participants, from dancing, water play and other activities. It was a rare event for the local Muslims, who did not have many opportunities to enjoy themselves due to the spate of violence.

Most of the Muslim people were engaged in rubber plantation. The sufficiency-economy programme will introduce rice plantation to them so that they can live on their land without having to buy rice or other food stuff. Lt-General Phichet has successfully introduced organic fertiliser to the Northeast, where he previously served as commander of the Second Army Region. Crop yields from using organic fertiliser quadrupled. Likewise, when organic fertiliser is used for rubber plants, it helps to increase yield manifold.

The local Muslims, 44 of them from Ban Bangotuebnu, have also taken part in the rice-plantation project using organic fertiliser. Each is involved in rice plantation, from one to four rai of land. As for the Muslims in Ban Hutaemajae, the number of the participants was 55. They looked happy that they would be doing rice farming, which would help increase their income and also make them sufficient in food.

The barren rice fields were being revived. When you talk to the local Muslim people, you immediately find out that they are very nice people. They would like to have a good and normal life.