THAI RAK THAI IN THE SOUTH: Former Yala MP blames PM for southern defeat

Published on February 11, 2005

Says Thaksin refused to listen to party’s Muslim members

A former Thai Rak Thai Party MP from Yala yesterday lambasted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, blaming him for the defeat of Thai Rak Thai candidates in the three southern border provinces and saying the use of force and harassment against innocent Muslims turned the voters against the party.

Burahanudin Useng, a member of the party’s Wadah group of Muslim politicians from the three provinces, said his group had failed to win a single House seat in the provinces because of Thaksin.

Burahanudin said Thaksin and his government had ignored the Wadah members’ opinions on how to deal with unrest in the deep South.

He said it would be impossible for Thaksin to win House seats in these provinces in the next election as the PM had predicted.

“He also announced this before the latest election. But I would like to tell the Thai Rak Thai leader that southern people do not like someone to challenge them,” Burahanudin said.

Burahanudin said it was untrue, as Thaksin had claimed, that former Muslim MPs in the Wadah group had not worked hard enough during the election campaign.

“We regularly visited our constituents, but we had to campaign quietly because the people there have turned against the government.

“The government never listened to the Wadah members’ opinions, especially over the use of force. We are always against the use of force because suppression is only a temporary victory.

“[We said] if the government wanted to win the people’s hearts, it needed to use peaceful ways, but no one listened to us and we became the victims of what the government has done,” Burahanudin added.

He said he was speaking out against Thaksin because he felt he had been “politically executed”.

“During the past four years, I have never agreed with the government’s measures, especially the deployment of forces in the deep South.

“The use of force made us feel very uncomfortable. We could do nothing when we saw innocent villagers arrested,” he said.

He said the Wadah members would soon hold a meeting to determine their future.

Burahanudin said the leader of the group, Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, and his secretary, Areepen Uttarsin, should leave Thai Rak Thai. “They would have no dignity if they remain there,” he said.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula said the government would take into consideration a Democrat Party proposal to curb violence in the South.

The Democrats have called on the government to re-establish the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, scrap the CEO governor-style administration and use non-violence to solve the problems.

Kesinee Jaikawang

The Nation

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