More needs to be done in the far South

Ambulance and police vehicles, as well as ordnance teams, were seen rac?ing up and down the city’s roads like there was no tomorrow.

Nearly 30 small bombs went off on Thursday evening. The following morning, four more blasts occurred and yesterday morning, a furniture store, along with nearby shop houses, went up in smoke.

In a sign the culprits gave no heed to security forces, some of the bombs on Friday morning were tossed, whereas they had been set off remotely the previous evening. 

Temporary roadblocks went up all over the city but they don’t seem to serve any meaningful purpose except to slow down traffic. 

Officials told people to stay at home but no curfew was set, possibly out of concern that it would generate more bad press for the city and the country. 

The blasts were not just a slap to the face of security chiefs. They also pose a big challenge to the security grid put in place to combat them. 

Fourth Army Area commander Lt-General Prakarn Chollayuth said the attacks were efforts by insurgents to boost their morale. 

The Fourth Army’s spokesman also suggested that they may have been done in retaliation for the fatal shooting of a suspected insurgent in Mayo district in Pattani on Thursday. 

According to a photo circulated on social media, the suspect, Niyiduerae Jaehae, 28, was handcuffed. 

The official explanation was that he was released to go back inside the house to retrieve another handgun he admitted having. But once the weapon was retrieved, the suspect shot at three police, who then returned fire and ended in his life. 

Sounds fishy, indeed. But the general public doesn’t seem to care much about the details, especially when it comes to questionable conduct by the authorities in this historically contested region. 

As for the local Malay Muslims, such explanations do little to bridge the long-standing mistrust between them and the state. 

Speaking to reporters in the aftermath of the attacks, Prakarn pointed out that a number of Muslim residents were injured and that some bombs were set off in old Muslim quarters. 

What he didn’t say was that most of these bombs were not packed with shrapnel, or that the real target was the credibility of the state security apparatus. 

Prakarn was correct to point to the irony of the attacks – that the people the insurgents profess to be liberating are being injured by their actions.

But the spin about local Muslims being affected can only go so far. Because in the final analysis, Prakarn and the state cannot dismiss the political underpinning of these violent acts. And if they are willing to acknowledge this, they will understand that this political conflict requires a political solution. 

The state can start by coming to terms with the fact the country’s policy of assimilation has failed. There has been talk about kicking off another round of peace talks with insurgents. But more than a year after taking over power through a coup, the junta still has little to show in relation to this. 

Spinning and demonising opposing forces can only do so much in terms of generating sympathy from the public. 

Sad to say, Thailand’s spin doctors have been sounding like a broken record for some time. The violence has claimed more than 6,000 lives since early 2004 and an end is nowhere in sight. It’s time to change the tune. 

Essentially, the military will have to acknowledge the historical root causes of the conflict. But reconciliatory action and gestures must follow.