Education and conflicts in Southern Thailand

The extrajudicial execution of a Muslim leader, Matorlapee Maesae, a member of the Tambon Administration Organisation in Bajoh district of Narathiwat allegedly by the Thailand's armed forces is another testimony to Thailand's approaches to street justice. Maesae's body was discovered on 17 January 2004, four days after he was kidnapped from his home by a group of men wearing hoods. His hands were tied with electric wire. An autopsy indicated he had been beaten and his head was held under water until he died. Lt-Gen Pongsak Ekbannasingha, the commander of the Fourth Army Region, stated that the killers would be brought to account amid rumours that "men in uniform" tortured Maesae to death.

Maesae was suspected of having links with the attackers of the military camp in Narathiwat in which four Buddhist army sentries were separated from others and executed before the attackers decamping with over 100 arms on 4 January 2004. About 20 government schools were burnt subsequently, a motorcycle bomb explosion killed two policemen in Pattani on 5 January 2004 and a police station was raided in Yala on 7 January 2003.

Thailand blamed the attacks on the bandits, a favourite epithet used by the authorities to belittle the Muslim armed opposition groups in the region. In a crackdown, government placed Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat provinces under martial law, which permits military personnel to search and detain suspects without charge or court warrant. About 300 people - some of them Islamic teachers - have been detained since then.

Since the 1960s, Southern Thailand consisting of Yala, Satun, Songkhla, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, has been plagued by low-intensity armed conflicts. The Malay Muslims who were brought under Thai suzerainty only at the end of the 18th century have been confronting the Siamese nationalists. Since 1930s, Thai nationalism has been identified with Buddhism and government took measures to suppress Islam in the south. These efforts sparked widespread discontent and, in the 1960s, gave rise to a separatist movement by the National Revolutionary Front and the Pattani United Liberation Organisation.

Apart from being geographically different from the rest of Thailand, with its thick jungles, dramatically shaped mountains and countless beautiful islands, the South is home to Malay Muslim minority who constitute about 4% of the total population of Thailand. Flanked on two sides by the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, the wealth of the south has, for centuries, been based on its rubber and tin industries.

Southern Thailand remains poor and educationally backward. People in Narathiwat provinces have three and half years less schooling, and scarcely earn one eighth than the residents in Bangkok. According to one estimate, about 38 per cent of young people between the ages of six and 24 do not attend school; therefore free schooling in the Islamic Madrasas strives to but does not succeed in filling this gap.

In 1992, Thailand government launched "Teacher's Heir" programme to alleviate teacher shortages primarily in these provinces. The project involved sending students for teacher training. Upon graduation, the student returns to his or her home provinces to teach at local schools. But, the project was shelved in 1998 amid budgetary constraints. This was followed by the government ban on private Islamic schools, known as ponoh institutes in 1999. Education in the south took a nosedive.

Schools - government run as well as ponohs - have been the target of the conflicts. Given the risks of serving in the southern Thailand, teachers at schools in selected districts of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala receive a 10% danger allowance. The recent burning of 20 schools was not the first. In 2002, five government run schools were burnt in the southern Thailand. Government run schools have been seen as agents of "cultural domination" and "Siamisation " of the Malay Muslims.

Following the January 2004 attacks, the Thai authorities launched a witch-hunt against the ponohs, which are held responsible for growing fundamentalism. According to the Education Ministry, there are more than 100 ponohs with 8,600 students. There are reportedly 87 ponohs in Pattani, 28 in Narathiwat and 12 in Yala. The army authorities, however, stated there are almost 500 ponoh schools in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Satun, 300 of which were running illegally, and 30 of which were blacklisted by the military for the alleged links of some teachers and students with the armed opposition groups. The Education Ministry has recently directed to register the ponohs. Any ponoh that refuses to register would be regarded as operating illegally

On 12 January 2004, about 50 Thai police raided Iftida Witthaya School, a private Islamic school in Narathiwat's Rueso district. After a two-hour search they left empty-handed. Intrusions into educational institutes violate the cultural space so dear to the Muslim people, stated Surin Pitsuwan, former Foreign Minister of Thailand.

Following the violence, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra pledged economic development to bring southern region into line with the rest of the country in five years; while Army Commander Lt-Gen Pongsak Ekbannasingha asked for three months to retrieve the stolen firearms and bring violence in the South to an end once and for all. In February 2003, Prime Minister Shinawatra launched a similar war against drug traffickers to end drug trafficking once and for all. About 2500 alleged drug traffickers were killed and over 90,000 suspects were detained. The violations of the rule of law in the war against drug traffickers were so blatant that His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej admonished Prime Minister Shinawatra publicly. Yet, Thailand failed to launch independent, impartial, effective and prompt investigations into the killings and drug trafficking thrives as usual.

While former Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan and present Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha may be the most well-known faces of religious minorities in Thai politics, the government and its agencies need to uphold the rule of law and guarantee equal access to health care, education, employment and to cultural rights and expressions. The problem in Southern Thailand is not simply another drug traffickers' problem. In many parts of the world, political movements for autonomy or independence sometimes degenerate into banditry by the groups. However, the failure to address the root causes and guarantee respect for equality, non-discrimination, human rights and rule of law sustains many of theses conflicts. In some of the Southern provinces where minority Muslims constitute about 80% of the total population, the success of the "winning hearts and minds" programmes launched by the Thai army depends on the respect for human rights and rule of law and accountability; and not establishing "saloons" on the roads as recently done by the Thai army. Establishing accountability for the extrajudicial execution of Matorlapee Maesae should be the starting point for the "winning hearts and mind" programmes.