Published on February 17, 2005 - Areas judged as sympathetic to militants to be denied SML funds

Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra took the fight to southern insurgents yesterday with the introduction of a drastic political measure, the first of its kind since the anti-communist struggle of the 1970s and ’80s, denying funds to villages whose administrations are believed to be sympathetic to militants.

Villages and areas deemed to be in this category have been labelled “red zones”.

Speaking in front of a crowd gathered to greet him here, Thaksin said he would not give a single baht from his Small Medium Large (SML) village-fund scheme to red-zone villages.

“The government will give more than Bt20 billion to villages across the entire nation by April, but I will deny development budgets to red zones, to make it impossible for insurgents to survive,” he said.

Thaksin justified his action by saying, “I don’t want money going towards supporting insurgents in red-zone villages, to be used to buy bombs and guns.”

“No one can use our money to separate [the deep South] from Thailand,” he told thousands of villagers present.

The categorisation of villages into security-sensitive areas was first used during the fight against communism in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time, the government used the designations “red” to represent communist zones, “pink” for areas with some communist activity and “white” for communist-free zones. Unlike Thaksin, however, the authorities of the time poured in money to develop the red zones and win the hearts and minds of the locals.

Thaksin defined red zones as the most violence-laden, least cooperative and most difficult areas to access, where most people are sympathetic to the insurgents. Yellow represents moderate resistance to state authority, and green zones are simply obedient to the authorities.

Out of 1,580 villages in the deep South, 358, including 200 in Narathiwat alone, are classified as red zones, 200 villages as yellow zones and the rest green, said Lt-General Pisanu Urailert, secretary of the Southern Border Provinces Peace-building Command.

Thaksin’s drastic action prompted a negative reaction from religious leaders in the deep South. They said it would push ordinary villagers into the hands of insurgents.

Neemu Magajeh, deputy chairman of the Yala Provincial Islamic Committee, questioned the zoning method, saying officials might show bias when placing villages into categories.

“I totally reject the idea, because every village has an equal right to the national budget,” he said, adding that local residents might react harshly towards the government.

Neemu said religious teachers in the deep South who have brainstormed about the problems there will raise their concerns with Thaksin when they meet him for a 15-minute meeting today in Yala.

Niphon Boonyamanee, acting secretary-general of the opposition Democrat Party, which won the majority of House seats in the deep South in last week’s general election, said Thaksin is treating residents of the so-called red zones as if they are not Thai citizens.

“Fine, if the government does not tax people in red zones. If the government does not give them any of the budget, I think people there have a right to ask if they should still pay taxes,” he said.

A local Muslim activist who declined to be named said Thaksin’s action would leave “unwanted” citizens in poverty and thus force them to adopt a negative attitude towards the state, as they will feel they are being treated unfairly.

Thaksin likely came up with the measure as political “revenge” against local residents, after his Thai Rak Thai Party failed to win a single seat in the deep South in the election, he said.

Thaksin admitted to thousands of people in Betong that he was disappointed with the election results but said he did not take the poll failure into account in formulating the new policy.

Don Pathan,
Supalak Ganjanakhundee,
Sucheera Pinijparakarn