Restaurant owner pleads innocence

The misunderstanding arose after media reports on Pol Colonel Thavee Sodsong, secretary-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, talking to representatives of a separatist movement in March, showed a photo of Wansamsuding meeting Thavee.

Emphasising that he was not Samsuding Khan but only had a similar sounding name, Wansamsuding said he had nothing to do with the separatist movements in southernmost Thailand and had never supported them. He said the meeting between him and Thavee was about financial aid to Thai restaurants in Malaysia and work permit procedures. 

He lamented that some 200,000 Thai workers in the “Tom Yam Kung” restaurants in Malaysia were affected by this rumour. 

“Some press published my picture and said I was Samsuding Khan, which is not correct. As a result, Thai restaurants in Malaysia came under the scrutiny of Malaysian authorities. Also, Thai workers were assumed to be bad guys by society despite the fact that they had nothing to do with the separatist movements,” he said.

He said the restaurant owners had jointly hosted the press conference to express their innocence. 

Wansamsuding said he was a Yala native and had moved to open a Thai restaurant in Malaysia some 20 years ago. As his family was still in Yala, he often came to visit during festivals, including the previous national elections during which he closed his restaurant and returned home to exercise his political rights as a Thai citizen.

Wansamsuding said he was directly affected by the rumour and the number of customers to his restaurant went down. Calling for justice, he said there were some 2,000-3,000 “Tom Yam Kung” restaurants in Malaysia, owned by Thai people, which hired some 200,000 Thais. They had nothing to do with the southern violence and had no ill intention towards Thailand.

Wansamsuding said most workers at the “Tom Yam Kung” restaurants were from Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat and they were required not to be involved with drugs. Although admitting that it was difficult to do a background check on each worker, he affirmed that they worked very hard to gain income for their families back home. He said many parents of the young workers wanted their children to return home because they didn’t want them to be seen as wrongdoers by society.

Lala Tom Yam Kung restaurant owner Apichat Lemsoh said the “Tom Yam Kung” restaurants in Malaysia were run by fellow Thai Muslims from five Southern provinces and they had helped each other out regarding jobs funds and livelihoods in Malaysia for the past 20 years. He said their gathering was to help Thais stay safe and had nothing to do with insurgent movements as news reports had claimed.