US is barking up the wrong tree in the deep South

It came across as a caring gesture – but when one really thinks about it, the US special representative to Muslim communities’ recent statement about the livelihood of young Muslims in the violence-plagued southernmost provinces of Thailand reflected the kind of ignorance common among outsiders, as well as Thai policy-makers.

At least the Thai policy-makers have an excuse: they don’t want to talk about the failure of Thailand’s policy of assimilation of the Malay Muslims in the deep South because it doesn’t win them votes. But Farah Anwar Pandith doesn’t have that kind of excuse.

Pandith was appointed to the job at the US Department of State two months ago. She parachuted into Thailand, talked to scores of young Thai Muslims, visited Songkhla and returned to Washington and tried to show that she is concerned.

Expressing one’s sympathy with the victims of the ongoing violence and showing solidarity with young Muslims is fine. But Pandith went one step too far and made the assumption that private Islamic schools in the Malay-speaking South are behind the ongoing separatist violence and extremist ideologies.

Perhaps she has mistaken Thailand’s deep South for the Pakistan-Afghan border. This is not to say that there is no secret fraternity in schools that talk about liberating the Malay-speaking region from Thailand, or the fact that there are other forms of associations among young people.

Remember the 14 young men who were killed execution style on April 28, 2004 in Saba Yoi district of Songkhla? Probably not. They all came from different schools but were members of the same football team. If 14 young men can talk about the liberation of their homeland at a soccer match, certainly discourse about separatism can take place just about anywhere.

Pandith said the US was concerned about “extremism” at Islamic religious schools and hoped young Muslims would stand up against it.

Perhaps nobody briefed Pandith that the conflict in southern Thailand is not about Islam and is not linked to global terrorism. It very much has to do with Thailand’s nation-state building and, for the Malays of the deep South, the failure of the Thai state to work towards a comfort level in which the two sides can exist peacefully.

Did she ever ask why the Thai state and the Malays were able to co-exist somewhat peacefully for more than half a century after the formal annexation of the region a century ago? If she did, perhaps she will realise that the problem stems from Thailand’s policy of assimilation, which the Malays feel comes at the expense of their cultural identity and historical narrative.

Yes, she talked to young men and women who wanted better education and are concerned about their social mobility. But she needs to come down further to the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, where locals speak a different language than the rest of Thailand, have their own heroes, myths and culture, and where young men take up arms against Thai government troops.

There was one positive note, in spite of its generic nature: “The young [Muslim] voice matters to us. We can work together,” Pandith said at a briefing.

Perhaps on her next trip she should talk privately with the young Malays of Patani and ask them why they haven’t come to terms with their Thai citizenship or their place in Thailand. She will probably get the same kind of answer that blacks, Hispanics and native Americans gave 50 years ago at the height of the civil rights movement in America.

Pandith might also learn that there is a culture of impunity among the government security forces. Perhaps if she takes the time to read the US State Department’s annual human rights report, she will understand this very problem.

“Many young Muslims around the world are saying this kind of ideology cannot exist in my backyard.”

Well, not in southern Thailand. Talk to any government security officers who spent time on the ground – or better yet, go deep enough into the villages and see with your own eyes – and one will realise that 90 per cent of all the villages have a separatist militant cell.

They tote their guns in and out of teashops and often set up roadside bombs that might maim or kill local residents who, by the way, are not going to turn these kids over to the authorities. And it’s not because they are scared of these young men; it’s because they share the same sentiment and grievances towards the Thai state.

If Pandith is unable to get the political context of the conflict right – that Thailand’s legitimacy in the region is in question – perhaps she needs to make more visits. And go deeper into the Malay historical homeland.