A bad start to the battle for hearts and minds
A culture of impunity in the deep South continues to pose a major obstacle for meaningful reconciliation between the state and the Malay-speaking region
The government of Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has allocated a development budget of Bt7.79 billion for the strife-torn deep South.
The Army says the money will help win the hearts and minds of the predominantly Muslim populace and thus aid its battle against Malay separatists.
The budget is huge, but it isn’t clear how much will actually go to improving citizens’ lives.
The spending is being be supervised by Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan and will involve 55 government agencies working in the South.
However, experience suggests a rocky road ahead. In the past 10 years development work overseen by the military has made little headway in terms of quelling insurgency violence. It is not clear how the government is going to achieve its stated goal this time.
Prawit has told military units in the southernmost provinces that they are there to serve and protect the residents, not to fight them.
If he meant those words, he should examine the conduct of the region’s security agencies. A culture of impunity among them continues to pose a major obstacle for meaningful reconciliation between the state and the Malay-speaking citizens.
Killings by “rogue” soldiers and credible reports of cover-ups have also played into the hands of the insurgents, who cite them to justify their violent attacks.
A spike in tit-for-tat attacks over recent months is taking a toll. Narathiwat has witnessed the killing of a young girl in Bacho and a teenage boy in Si Sakhon at the hands of marines and paramilitary rangers. The shooting deaths set the stage for a spate of retaliation by insurgents who, according to official sources, murdered a young student in Narathiwat this week.
Unlawful violence must be condemned whether carried out by state forces or non-state actors, but government security officials have a duty to admit and apologise for their “mistakes”.
When it is obvious that one of their own people has violated the law, the military must not hesitate to punish the culprit. Such as was the case when a ranger was found to have planted a weapon on the body of the teenage boy he had just shot in Si Sakhon to suggest he was an insurgent.
The government can talk about peace and reconciliation all it wants, but only action counts in forging a peaceful future for the deep South.
Of late, the talk among policymakers and leaders in Bangkok has focused on setting up more military units and pouring in more money for newer weapons to solve this problem – like 2,700 Heckler & Koch assault rifles for the Defence Volunteers.
Instead of addressing the root cause of the violence, which is the deep-seated mistrust between the state and the Malay-speaking people, the government is hitting the wrong note, even on matters with which it is supposed to be familiar.
Defence Minister Prawit said the recent spike in violence might stem from the militants’ desire to push for a new round of peace talks. Wagging his finger at such a tactic, he said the militants should cease their attacks. But wishful thinking and flawed logic won’t get him anywhere.
Unfortunately, he neglected to say anything about the need to stamp out lawlessness among his own men.
As long as the leader’s words fail to reflect on the actions of officers, Prawit can forget about winning hearts and minds.
