The sad saga of southern discomfort
We thought never again, but we’re always wrong. The godless attack and murder of four people, including an eight-year-old boy, in Narathiwat on Thursday was the latest reminder of the longstanding deep South anguish. The death toll is nearly 6,800 and counting. A beautiful region has been cursed for 13 years and counting. A land of many faiths is being threatened by faithless goons, and the urge among authorities to tighten their grip will fan the flames of violence.
The killings were particularly painful since they happened two days after an agreement between the military government and Mara Patani, an umbrella body for the insurgent groups, to create “safety zones”. On Tuesday, negotiators from both sides reached a deal in Kuala Lumpur on the setup of safety zones in five districts. On paper, these are zones where fighting would be off-limits, a respite in a land plagued by insurgent ambushes, military retaliation and civilian grief.
So much for safety, given what happened to the family killed on the local road on Thursday. It was so sudden, so heartbreaking it threatens to undo the promise of the word “safety” altogether.
Concerns have been raised that the dialogue between the military government and Mara Patani, an umbrella group for rebels, is a welcome move but it is riddled with loopholes. Mara Patani, it has become obvious, can’t control the separatist combatants and their violence. And while the militant wing of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) is not taking part in the talks, any guarantee of safety is tenuous. The hardline BRN refuses to come to the table because, in a mindset deeply rooted in its own nationalist history, they never trust that the Thai side will ever acknowledge their demands.
Along the treacherous road, those who suffer are innocent civilians. It’s not right to take comfort in the fact that violence in the deep South has declined in the past few years — the same that it’s not right to fool ourselves that the country is at peace since the military took over and orders everyone to be happy. What we see as the “southern problem” is the tip of a hidden mountain — a massive, tangled matrix of history, politics, culture, language, religion and imagination, combustible into a bonfire through the Thai state’s own set of history, culture and military fists. The killings on Thursday — an eight-year-old child, God help us — betrays the vulnerability of it all.
I was in Pattani briefly last month. My cursory impression is that the centre of town felt more relaxed than I remember from my previous trip a few years ago, though checkpoints and gun-toting soldiers are always in sight. In Yarang district, I visited Muhammad Anwar bin Ismael Hajiteh, a respected activist who was released from jail in January. The details of his case — how this peaceful social worker was accused and convicted of being part of the insurgency — have been extensively reported. But one thing Anwar said during our conversation struck me as pertinent. Everybody talks about peace, he said. “But the definition of ‘peace’ is different to each party in the conflict. To the state, peace means everyone stops fighting and talking, and everything goes back to what it was before. To academics, peace means structural change within the bounds of the constitution. But to the people, peace means all of that and something more.
Rightly, the National Human Rights Commission and deep South-based civil groups condemned the killings in Narathiwat. But at the same time, we shouldn’t overlook another report surfacing this week: On Wednesday, the United Nations Human Rights Office criticised the Thai government for dropping legislation that would criminalise torture and forced disappearances. “This is not an acceptable state of affairs for such serious human rights violations,” said spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani. She was referring to the National Legislative Assembly — which is incidentally made up largely of soldiers and policemen — having shelved the proposed law.
The gist of the criticism is that the lack of a law on disappearances leaves a legal loophole that allows impunity of security officials who abduct people and kill them. While the deep South isn’t specifically mentioned — cases of enforced disappearances such as that of Somchai Neelapaijit come to mind. Amnesty International, in a separate report, recently slammed Thailand’s “culture of torture”, which they claim has become worse since the coup of 2014.
When brutal killings such as the one in Narathiwat happen, they make news. They shock and disgust and rally empathy. But injustice and cruelty come in many forms, sometimes in shadows and camouflage. For peace to return, all of them — not just one — must be brought to light. It’s not easy, and southern discomfort looks set to last a long time.