Assoc Professor Surichai Wun-gaew said the commission, headed by former prime minister Anand Panyarachun, would most likely dissolve itself right after submitting its suggestions and let the government decide whether to implement them or not. “Khun Anand won’t stay on. He’s not clinging to his position,” said Surichai, a sociologist at Chulalongkorn University.

He urged the public not to assume that Thai-Malay Muslim separatists were behind all the acts of violence in the region during the last 17 months. “Some factions within the military might be behind [some of the violence],” he said. However, the Thai media in general has always been quick to blame insurgents. There was a report that as some Thai Buddhists relocate elsewhere for their safety, security personnel have been buying up their abandoned land and properties fearing that it would fall into the hands of Thai-Malay Muslims, he said. This could aggravate tensions and in effect reinforce separation in the three southernmost provinces into Buddhist and Muslim zones, which is not conducive to peaceful coexistence.

The state-centric homogeneous Thai identity is also viewed as an obstacle for respecting cultural diversity, he said. “I’m not so optimistic. The majority [Buddhists] and minority [Muslims] have already established their own positions. They don’t discuss. They just kill,” Surichai told a small group of international experts who met during the weekend at Chulalongkorn University to discuss the southern violence.

“My fear is that you’re going to make the same mistake as in Sri Lanka,” said Silan Kadirgamar, a long-time observer of the decades-long ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka that has claimed 65,000 lives.

Kadirgama said there is a need for education that fosters respect for cultural diversity and different identities. The state and the mass media often propagate bias and ignorance of others.

He told his Thai counterparts that conflicts such as the one in the southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat are often no-win situations that result in all parties losing life, property and livelihoods. Also, when the state increases its military presence in an area of conflict, the move is often viewed as directed against the minorities and “celebrating domination established by the majority”.

Pravit Rojanaphruk
The Nation