Published on April 03, 2002 - Tucked away in a small street just down the road from the district office, Yusouf Longpi's two-storey house doesn't look much different from his neighbours'.

There is nothing fancy about it, except for the poultry at the front door.

"Asalaam alaikum," said the 54-year-old former leader of the separatist Pattani United Liberation Organisation, or Pulo. "Welcome. Sit down, please."

Down the street on the main road there is a constant reminder of a life he once lived. It's a bridge he tried to blow up a couple of decades ago.

He rents this house where he lives with his wife and youngest son, as well as half-a-dozen chickens and three turkeys.

"There was an attempt on my life. I had to move to the district," said Yusouf, sitting cross-legged with a handgun next to his side.

The only things that resemble furniture are the straw mats that spread out in the middle of his 4x4 metre living room. Perhaps the most luxurious item in the entire house is an old dusty portable radio that sits by the kitchen entrance.

By the window is a manual sewing machine, the tool that Yusouf now uses to earn a living, making clothes and sewing Islamic scarves for women.

Materially, there isn't much to show for after more than two decades of struggling for what was once deemed a just cause - the liberation of Pattani from the Kingdom of Thailand.

For a man who had at one time achieved prominence in this community and the foreign Islamic countries, Yusouf lives a humble life.

"This is the life I prefer. It's good and quiet," Yusouf said.

Though he has given up the armed struggle, Yusouf said his dream of empowering the Muslim community in the deep South is still very much alive.

Those who run into this former secretary-general of Pulo generally agree that the squinty-eyed little man who sounds like Marlon Brandon in "The Godfather" does not come close to anything that resembles a fanatic, as the authorities once painted him.

Not only does his hospitality and broad smile epitomise the easy-going nature of the ethnic Malay Muslim community in the southernmost border provinces of Thailand, his humility and the passion that he still has for the well-being of his fellow Muslims shine through.

Yusouf has indeed come a long way. And in the truest sense of the word, this Pattani native has "been there, done that".

Born in a poor farming village in Pattani province, the heart of the Muslim South, Yusouf's outspokenness against what he considered oppression against the Muslim community led him to prominence.

"I was a diplomat," said Yusouf, with a little chuckle at the label that he had given himself.

"We were seeking support from Arab and North African countries," he added, recalling the time he spent abroad in the previous decades lobbying for support and sympathy for the organisation that was seeking to carve out a Muslim state.

But Yusouf said his decision to take up arms was more down-to-earth.

"The police were quite abusive, slapping and kicking people at will before asking any questions," said the former Pulo field commander. "Nobody was willing to stand up to them."

One day, Yusouf decided enough was enough.

Known locally as "Yusouf Pakistan" - named after the country in which he eventually graduated with a bachelors degree in public administration - Yusouf first left Pattani on a sailboat at the age of 13, destined eventually for Saudi Arabia.

"To be able to go abroad, at the time, was a big deal in itself," he said.

Two weeks later he landed in the holy city of Mecca where he was reunited with his parents.

"They were 'Robin Hoods'," said Yusouf, using a term commonly applied to Thai nationals working illegally abroad.

Yusouf said he was awed by the majesty and beauty of Mecca and was moved by the spirit of Islam. However, it was a secular education that Yusouf chose to pursue.

Yusouf completed his secondary education six years later and went on to Pakistan where he obtained a bachelors degree in public administration.

At the age of 25 Yusouf returned to Pattani and became a teacher at a local pondok, or Islamic boarding school.

"I was among the new generation of educated people in the region. We were determined to make changes," he said. "The situation was quite oppressive."

For seven years, Yusouf helped organise public demonstrations, demanding the same civil rights as the rest of the Thai people, as well as an end to the heavy-handed tactics of the authorities.

His outspokenness and his college education was no help in trying to change the attitude of officials bent on their own way of doing things.

"Everything we did was deemed as pro-separatist activity, even though we were just calling for justice and an end to police brutality and other form of injustice," Yusouf said.

At 31, Yusouf was put on a blacklist - a status that would more or less guarantee his "disappearance". A number of religious and community leaders in the region at the time also appeared on this list and were never seen again.

Fearing for his life, Yusouf decided to flee to Malaysia and then back to Mecca where he stayed for almost a year before returning to Thailand to joint Pulo. He was assigned to lead a 20-strong unit.

"We would only attack government positions. We left the Chinese and the Thais alone as they have just as much right to be here," he said.

In the course of the next 10 years, Yusouf would take Pulo's cause to the Islamic world seeking political and moral support for its armed struggle.

Today, Pulo has given up the armed struggle but continues to work through diplomatic and propagandistic means to keep the issue alive.

In 1991, Yusouf thought enough was enough. The central government had came up with a "Tai Rom Yen" (Cool Shade in the South) programme. It was an opportunity for Muslim separatists to surrender in return for a blanket amnesty.

And so he did.

Since his surrender in 1991, Yusouf has kept a low profile, living a simple life.

Following an attempt on his life about two years ago, Yusouf decided to move to this district where he now lives with his wife and their youngest son.

The handgun at his side is meant for self-defence, said Yusouf, adding: "It's perfectly legal."

Yusouf is currently gathering input from local residents on ways and means to empower the local community.

"The new Constitution provides opportunities for changes to come from the grassroots," Yusouf said. "Changes can now come up from the bottom - at least that's what it says.

Don Pathan