POLITICS: Regional Muslim Solidarity Puts Thailand in Tough Spot

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Analysis - By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Nov 1 2004 (IPS) - The aftermath of last week’s carnage in south Thailand is beginning to take its toll on the Thai government in the midst of vitriolic criticism from regional neighbours of Bangkok’s policies towards its Muslim minority.

There are already signs that Malaysia and Indonesia would step up their vigilance over Bangkok’s policy in the south – after the world learnt last Tuesday that 78 Muslim boys and men had suffocated to death while in military custody in the southern province of Narathiwat.

The view of one of this region’s respected elder statesmen captures the political climate the Thai government finds itself in. ”This is just like the Palestinian issue,” former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was quoted as having told a Malay-language newspaper over the weekend.

Mahathir’s choice of a parallel, between one of the Middle East’s most intractable problems and Thailand’s southern conflict, prompted Bangkok to disagree.

”We appreciate Mr. Mahathir’s concern, but the solutions have to depend on the circumstances in each country,” Sihasak Phuangketkeow, foreign ministry spokesman, told IPS.

Mahathir suggested during the interview that Bangkok consider granting a form of autonomy for the largely Malay-Muslim southern provinces to resolve the escalating violence in the region that has pitted suspected Muslim separatists against Thai troops.

As significant is the message to Thailand from the youth wing of the United Malay’s National Organisation (UMNO), the ruling party in largely Muslim Malaysia. ”Muslims worldwide are saddened and outraged by the incident,” Khairy Jamaluddin, deputy leader of the youth wing, was quoted in the Malaysian national news agency ‘Bernama’ over the weekend.

”They will not remain silent or forgive the Thai government if it fails to reveal the truth about what happened,” said Khairy, whose organisation is even contemplating giving aid to Muslims in Thailand’s south.

And in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, the Thai embassy in Jakarta has been besieged by hundreds of demonstrators chanting messages critical of Bangkok.

”These reactions from our neighbours are understandable, since the Thai government’s policies, particularly the harsh and inhumane treatment of prisoners, reflects a prejudicial policy towards the Muslims,” Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Thai Senate’s foreign affairs committee, told IPS.

Bangkok cannot side-step the multiple messages from Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, he added. ”We are in a very grave situation now.”

For the moment, the Thai government can count on an article of faith shared among South-east Asian leaders – non-interference in the domestic problems of neighbouring countries – to shape its own policy towards the Muslim minority.

Further, Bangkok has promised Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur a full account of events that led to the death of the 78 Muslims following a demonstration in Narathiwat’s Tak Bai district, on Monday, where six demonstrators were killed when Thai troops used force to end the protest.

On Friday night, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra went before the nation on television to explain what happened in the southern province bordering Malaysia and offered to compensate the families of the victims.

But what sets this problem apart from other domestic conflicts in South-east Asian countries where the policy of non-interference is faithfully followed is the sense of Muslim solidarity that cuts across national boundaries.

Malaysia’s north-eastern state of Kelantan reflects this reality. Leaders of the Partai Islam se Malaysia (PAS), an archly conservative Islamic political party that rules this state, have turned the heat on the Malaysian government by their inflammatory rhetoric.

One leader told a crowd of angry PAS supporters that Thaksin should be eliminated if he is found guilty for the deaths of the Muslim demonstrators in military custody.

The Indonesian foreign ministry wants Bangkok to prosecute the military and police officers involved in the mass deaths of the demonstrators.

Such appeals put Thaksin on the spot, more so since he has not apologised for the deaths in custody and he has tried to deflect blame away from Thai troops involved in the carnage.

Yet there are moderate voices among the country’s Muslim minority who are lending support to Thaksin by arguing that Thailand’s crisis in the south is one that has to be resolved locally, rather than bowing to outside pressure.

”This problem is an internal one and it should be our responsibility to solve it,” Abdulrahman Abdul Samad, chairman of the Islamic Council of Narathiwat, told IPS. ”Anything that affects the kingdom will have to be solved by our own government.”

The latest deaths that have taken to over 400 the number of people killed since early January, when assailants attacked a military camp in southern Thailand and cleaned out its armoury.

Bangkok accuses Muslim separatists for killing nearly 250 people, including soldiers, policemen, Buddhist monks, civil servants, teachers and villagers.

The death toll among Muslims has included the nearly 110 young men who died when, with knives and machetes, they attacked heavily armed Thai troops on Apr. 28 in the south. Thirty-two of them died when the troops stormed a historic mosque, where the militants had taken refuge.

This round of violence marks a resumption – albeit at an intense scale – of a conflict that has ebbed and waned in southern Thailand, between government troops and Malay- Muslim separatist rebels.

Malay-Muslims make up about 2.3 million people of Thailand’s 63 million population, the majority of whom are Buddhist. Over a century ago the five southern provinces belonged to the Muslim kingdom of Pattani, which was annexed in 1902 by Siam, as Thailand was then known.

Muslim disenchantment has been fed by the poor economic opportunities in the area, their distinct culture, history, language and religion from the majority and the spate of human rights violations they have been subject to by the Thai troops and police..

”The bitterness will grow, because the intelligence in the south is in bad shape and many innocent people are being arrested and tortured,” said Senator Kraisak. ”The government is forcing people to make a choice about separatism by what it is doing there, using violence.”