Irwan Shah Bin Abdullah
🇹🇭 Former Thai PM urges political approach to ending Southern violence
Former Thai Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh on Monday urged the government to opt for a political rather than a military approach in resolving violence in the Muslim-majority region, saying only such an approach could win the hearts and mind of local people.
“The operation to end continuing violence still lacks guidance and clear direction as there are overlapping agencies working without direct command from one authoritative Source,” Gen. Chavalit pointed out.
Credited with developing a peaceful strategy to end Thailand’s decades-long Communist insurgency more than 20 years ago, Gen. Chavalit recently proposed a three-pronged formula aimed at stemming the worsening violence in the border region.
Among them, the creation of a strong community-based “Nakorn Pattani” set up with a special administrative status similar to that of the capital Bangkok, and the northern city of Chiang Mai.
He singled out the lack of understanding of local people as the main problem in the troubled region, not poverty—as was generally perceived.
The former prime minister also warned the government that there would be no end to the violence in the South if it insisted on responding only with force, arguing that the number of insurgents are now increasing to 1.5 million.
He said the insurgency movement had been campaigning to set up an independent Pattani state, and that the entity existed long before the emergence of Siam, now known as Thailand.
The general suggested that a possible counter to the escalating violence could be for the Culture Ministry to revise the office historical record –strongly-influenced by a Thai Buddhist view of history to acknowledge the local Malay Muslim view of history — in order to increase public understanding of the troubled region’s long history of struggle.
Gen. Chavalit said he was confident that his proposed strategy would eventually bring an end to the southern insurgency within 60 days if the ideas were to be translated into practice.