The state cannot understand that people remember

It’s somewhat pathetic that some spin doctors in the Army’s Fourth Area Internal Security Operation Command (Isoc) were trying to suggest that the recent spate of bombings in the deep South has nothing to do with the deaths of at least 85 unarmed demonstrators in Tak Bai, Narathiwat, seven years ago.

There was a report quoting an Isoc spokesman as saying that the Malay-Muslim militants wanted to steal the headlines from the floods north of Bangkok, and so they decided to carry out the series of attacks.But with or without the floods, the Thai and foreign media hardly ever comment on the ongoing insurgency anyway. Most of the reports that do emerge are unbalanced because no one can speak for the militants operating on the ground.

And so what’s left is the military-led Isoc, which tries hard to spin the conflict in such a way that makes it look good – as if they are in some strange beauty contest in which the contestants are also looking for public sympathy. Perhaps one of the reasons why public sympathy is needed is because trillions of baht of taxpayers’ money has been spent on this conflict which has no end in sight.

The Tuesday bombings were a grave reminder that the Malay-Muslim insurgents are not going to let this massacre drift away from the public’s attention, no matter how much the Thai state wants people to forget about it. The only meaningful effort to come to terms with Tak Bai was a public apology from the then interim prime minister, Surayud Chulanont, in 2006.

Both the Thai general public and the authorities were indifferent to his apology and never really cared to follow up on the moment. In other places, such an apology would have gone down in history, along with monuments, holidays or other ways in which societies decide to show that they have come to terms with mistakes.

Germany turned the gas chambers that the Nazis used to kill millions of Jews and others during the Second World War into museums. America has named roads, cities, parks, public holidays – including its fighting helicopter, the Apache – after “enemies of the state” and people who challenged the interpretation of the country’s constitution.

But not in Thailand. The general attitude is that the Tak Bai demonstrators got what they deserved. Perhaps if their family names were different – more Thai or Chinese – perhaps society would feel differently about their plight.

While we in no way condone the violence in the deep South, it would be wishful thinking to ask the Malays of the region, and the militant separatists, to let bygones be bygones – especially when hardly any of us feel any remorse for the atrocities committed seven years ago at that border town.

We were quick to praise PR events like the dropping of one million origami crane birds in an unusual peace bid in December 2004 despite warnings from Muslim clerics and academics that, in Islam, such action means battle. They pointed to Sura 105 of the Koran, “The Elephant”, in which God sends down “birds in flocks” upon his enemies to flatten them like blades of grass.

Let’s not forget the bullet monument at a Narathiwat police station, built to commemorate the Dusong Nyo massacre of 1948 when scores of Malay villagers were gunned down by government troops.

Two centuries ago, when Siam defeated Patani, two cannons were taken up to Bangkok. They now sit in front of the Defence Ministry. For the Malays, it is a reminder that they are a defeated people.

The state tells the Muslims from Patani that they should drop their Malay identity and become Thai, like all of us. But it has been more than 200 years since that historic defeat and the Malays of Patani still do not wish to accept this advice.

Our options aren’t many. We can kill off all the militants and hope the historical narrative dies with them, or we can negotiate a peaceful coexistence. Perhaps somebody should suggest a monument for the Tak Bai “victory”. What would the plaque say? “Here lies a bunch of ungrateful Malay-Muslims who had the nerve to question the conduct of state officers. Learn to live with us; you are a defeated people”?