Schools battle for hearts, minds

Schools in the deep South have become an ideological battlefield, as reflected in the high number of teachers being attacked by separatists, said an analyst of the conflict in the three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.
 “Teachers are at the centre of an ideological contest. Schools have become an ideological battlefield,” said Rungrawee Chalermsripinyorat, Southeast Asia analyst at International Crisis Group.
 Since the January 2004 raid on an Army weapons store by separatists, 148 schoolteachers have been killed in the three provinces. Rungrawee believes teachers are targeted because they are regarded by Malay separatists as agents of Thai nationalism.
“Teachers in state schools are viewed as government agents who indoctrinate [students with] Thai nationalism. The attacks [on teachers and schools] are symbolic attacks on the state. This explains why teachers are being targeted.”
Today, virtually all of the 27,000 teachers at 1,305 schools in the deep South carry handguns and are escorted by police and soldiers to and from school, said Boonsom Thongsrirai, president of the Confederation of School Teachers in the Three Southernmost Provinces.
Boonsom, who carries a .38-calibre handgun, said teachers had to remain vigilant all the time. A native of Pattani, he said he agreed with Rungrawee’s view but added that teachers were seen as easy targets because they were spread out and not properly trained to fight back.
Every time a separatist is arrested or becomes the victim of an extrajudicial killing, state schoolteachers are targeted, he said.
“Things are not getting better,” Boonsom told The Nation by phone from Pattani. “We live day by day.”
He acknowledged that some Thai-Malay Muslim parents do not trust state schoolteachers, while officials could do more to provide security to teachers.
Rungrawee said a huge amount of money had been spent on providing security for schoolteachers and that it was hard to expect greater efforts in that area. At the same time, the issue cannot be resolved until the larger issue of how Bangkok treats Thai-Malay Muslims in the deep South is tackled.
She advocates genuine dialogue with the separatists as well as administrative reform that would lead to autonomy or decentralisation with genuine participation from locals.
“In the past, things have been handled in a top-down fashion. Agencies [and officials] from Bangkok are dispatched.”
As for how the state schools can be viewed as less of an agent for nationalist indoctrination, Rungrawee said that although the government had tried to win hearts and minds by introducing bilingual lessons, the educational reform introduced in the area might be too little too late.
With attacks continuing and Buddhist families increasingly choosing to leave the region, Thai-Malay Muslim students are becoming increasingly isolated and lack the socialisation skills needed to live with people of other faiths or ethnicities.
“This is worrying,” Rungrawee said.
Boonsom said teachers were preoccupied with security issues, as they tried to tackle the twin tasks of winning the hearts and minds of Thai-Malay Muslims while keeping themselves alive.