Party row unrelated to South attacks, say Democrats

They also believe the attacks had nothing to do with the insurrection in the far South but said they could be a result of the referendum results.

The remarks followed a series of small bomb and arson attacks in southern destinations on Thursday and Friday that included popular tourist destinations Hua Hin and Phuket. The attacks occurred less than a week after the country held the referendum on a new charter draft.

Most of southern Thailand is a political stronghold of the now-defunct People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) whose leader Suthep Thaugsuban showed strong support for the constitution and the regime backing it. Last week, the charter draft was adopted by a wide margin, with overwhelming support for it from the South, in accordance with Suthep’s call. The exceptions were the restive deep South provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat.

Satit Wongnongtaey, a former Democrat MP from Trang who was a key PDRC figure, observed that it was clear all the incidents were connected and it was highly possible that they had been carried out by a movement. But it was unlikely to be related to the persisting problem in the deep South, he added.

“The security officers have all made clear it has nothing to do with the three [deep South] provinces. Also, I am convinced this is so because the recent affected areas don’t have any symbolic conflicts like in the far South,” he said.

He said given the attacks happened so soon after the referendum, the purpose of the movement could be to challenge the authorities, to prove the regime could not truly keep peace and order.

“The timing is highly suspicious. It broke out shortly after the government announced officially the referendum results and said voters wanted the country to be peaceful,” Satit said.

He urged the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to quickly bring the culprits to justice. “This will be a test for the NCPO. If they can deal with this and root out the movement behind this crime, I believe peace and order will be secured running up to the next election,” Satit said.

Responding to the observation that the attacks could be connected with a fracturing of the Democrats, Satit said throughout the party’s history of 70 years, members could have different views but there was no way anyone would resort to violence.

Raywat Areerob, Phuket’s former Democrat MP, said he could not confirm who was behind the deadly crimes, but observed that they occurred after the referendum.

He also said the attacks had nothing to do with the Democrat conflict.

“I’m not protecting the party and the members. But members are truly free to vote however they want, though Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said he was against the charter,” he said. “We do not force one another over this matter. And there are no hard feelings.”

Raywat said he did not think the attacks were linked to the deep South conflict as he did not see why the conflict’s scale would be widened to cover the upper South.

“Also, the trouble in the deep South has been going on for more than a decade. If they were going to target the upper provinces, they could have done so long ago. It would not be now in 2016,” he said.

Anwar Salaeh, a former Democrat MP for Pattani, also said he did not think the attacks were linked to the deep South.

“Similar incidents in the areas of the three provinces have had their own timing. What happened in Surat Thani, Phuket, and other [provinces] is just something entirely different,” he said. “And I don’t see any motivation that could possibly prompt those in the deep South to go up to those provinces either.”

Asked whether he saw any patterns or means that might be similar to the insurgency, Anwar said: “I don’t think we can look at it that way. I mean, there are not many ways to make a bomb and nowadays people can learn how to make one easily from the Internet.”