Attacks demand more credible explanations

Thailand’s restive deep South continues to suffer violent attacks by Malay-Muslim insurgents, and the country’s top security chiefs and military commanders, along with administrators, are hard pressed to come up with even a sensible explanation, let alone a solution, to the ongoing violence.

Two weeks ago, on July 13, homemade bombs planted at four ATM machines in Yala’s Bannang Sata district and an M79 grenade attack on a security outpost injured one civilian and one policeman. Five days earlier, on July 9, a roadside bomb injured two soldiers on foot patrol in Pattani’s Thung Yang Daeng district. Less than a week before that, on July 4, three homemade bombs planted in Narathiwat’s Rusoh district detonated simultaneously, wounding a dozen people, including policemen and villagers.

This past Wednesday a bomb hidden inside a parked pickup truck went off in Yala’s Raman district and damaged a vehicle carrying policemen escorting teachers to a local school. Five of the occupants were killed and one wounded. 

A week ago, on July 20, a massive car bomb in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district injured eight people and totally destroyed a shophouse, as well as a unit next to it where the vehicle was parked. Residents of the shophouse had to be rescued from the rooftop. The same day also saw a 50-kilogram bomb destroy a military vehicle on patrol in Narathiwat’s Rangae district and injure seven military rangers. 

An arrest warrant was issued that day for a suspect allegedly behind the Sungai Kolok attack, who the police said had been on the run for the past four years. It seems somewhat odd that the police knew the identity of the culprit just hours after the incident despite having chased him for the past four years. 

Here is more food for thought: the truck in which the bomb was hidden was stolen last November during a raid in which two men were shot and killed. According to the police, the licence plate on the truck was authentic but belonged to another vehicle that was stolen after an ambush on June 21, during which the vehicle’s owner was killed.

If suspected insurgents can hop around all over southern Thailand using vehicles that they or their associates have stolen, to strike as they please, something is seriously wrong with the police and security forces’ standard operating procedure. We have checkpoints all over the deep South, but are the security officials there actually looking for anything?

Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha, during his recent visit to the region, suggested that the spike in deadly attacks over recent weeks coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He said insurgents step up attacks during Ramadan every year as part of their campaign against the security apparatus. He said their actions distort Islamic teachings.

Prayuth seems to forget that, with or without Ramadan, which started on July 20 this year, insurgents have been hitting our security forces consistently since 2004. Ramadan just gives the authorities something to peg these incidents to – or perhaps they are just trying to sound smart without actually being able to offer any sensible reasoning behind their logic.

It is understandable that in these trying times the authorities want to sound like they’re in the know. But surely they can do a better job than just throwing out theories and hope they’ll be enough to ease the concerns of the general public. 

Trying to further demonise the Malay insurgents by citing certain Islamic traditions as being behind the rise in violence has not worked. Worse, this tactic by the authorities has upset Muslims in Thailand. Essentially, the conflict in the deep South is about Patani Malay ethno-nationalism, or “regionalism”. If it were about religion, Muslims all over Thailand would be up in arms against the Thai state. 

Instead of trying to sound smart by issuing cheap soundbites to the media and public, our security planners and military top brass should try to come to terms with the historical and practical reality behind this conflict.