Bangkok/Brussels, 11 December 2012: After a decade of violence, the capabilities
of Malay-Muslim insurgents in Thailand’s Deep South are outpacing the
counter-measures of successive governments in Bangkok that have been mired in
complacency and protracted national-level political disputes.
Thailand: The Evolving Conflict
in the South, the
latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the evolution of
the conflict and the inadequate policy responses of the past two years.
Insurgents have withstood and adapted to the military’s tactics, growing more
proficient and daring in the process. While there is greater pressure on
leaders to reduce violence and seek a resolution, political infighting and
bureaucratic inertia continue to impinge on a comprehensive approach.
“A
series of insurgent attacks in 2012 thrust the conflict into national
consciousness, and challenged officials’ assurances that they are on the right
track”, says Matthew Wheeler, Crisis Group’s South East Asia Analyst. “But this
renewed attention has not yet prompted fresh thinking or new will to tackle the
problem”.
Successive
governments have opted to muddle through South East Asia’s most violent
internal conflict, deploying tens of thousands of security forces and spending
billions of dollars to little effect. Civilian officials in the region and in
the capital have been hamstrung by the need to respect military prerogatives
and have searched in vain for a formula that can tamp down the violence without
committing to political reforms.
The
contours of a political resolution to the conflict have long been in the public
domain, but Bangkok has been unable to commit to a decisive approach. The
government needs to reverse the militarisation of the southernmost provinces,
lift the draconian security laws and end the security forces’ impunity, all of
which help stimulate the insurgency.
Thai
leaders should also work to forge a broad national consensus for bold action to
resolve the conflict, including decentralisation of political power, earnest
engagement with a burgeoning civil society movement in the Deep South and
sustained efforts to cultivate a peace dialogue with the insurgents
“As
Bangkok dithers, the insurgents are growing bolder and stronger. Thailand has
been fortunate that they have considered it in their strategic interest to
contain the fight within their proclaimed territory”, says Jim Della-Giacoma,
Crisis Group’s South East Asia Project Director. “But the violence has evolved
at a pace that is starting to challenge the ability of the government to
respond on its own terms. Without more creative thinking and deft action,
Bangkok risks losing the initiative”.
My visit to Singapore 1967 a mate and I drove up through Malaya to visit his Brother an Australian Armament expert at Butterworth RAAF base and living in Penang Barry Scott also Penang Swimming Club coach. Malay Muslims a peace-loving race and very pleasant peasants.
ReplyDeleteWe planned driving on to Kl but everyone from an Ipoh cop mate to Barry and others warned that was impossible with the constant strife between them and Southern Thai peasant forces.
By 1977 it was all over and a fine drive. Then somewhere along the way it appears to have got out of hand this story says. I don't think Militarization to play to Yankee War Corl profits is the answer, just get back to the 70'to90's harmonious Islam/Buddhist co-existence.