Melayu Thai Selatan Bakal Jadi Lebih Maju Dan Kaya Daripada Melayu Semenanjung

 

Here is news of yet another round of "Pattani" peace talks between the Thai government and the armed separatists from Southern Thailand, with Malaysia playing a mediator role. 

https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/other/report-thai-govt-and-southern-separatists-to-meet-in-kl-for-peace-talks-this-month/ar-AASmL6x?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

• KL Jan 3, 2022  Thai govt, Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) resume talks in KL
• first face-to-face meeting after 2 years virtual negotiations due to Covid-19 
• previous face to face talks in KL in Jan, March 2020
• BRN operates in Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Songkhla 
• facilitator is former IGP Tan Sri Rahim Noor, representing M'sian govt
• Thai chief negotiator Gen Wanlop Rugsanaoh
• BRN led by Anas Abdulrahman @ Hipni Mareh
• insurgency claimed over 7,000 lives, wounded 13,000 since April 2004

I say "yet another round" because these peace talks have been going on for years and years. For example here is Newsweek from 2017 (five years ago) :

 

And here is news of more failed Southern Thai peace talks from 2013:

So these Southern Thailand peace talks have been going on for quite sometime and they are nowhere close to coming to any final conclusion.  And my view is it will not come to any satisfactory conclusion - not in the present set of circumstances.

However lately  there might be some good news on the horizon for the Malays of Southern Thailand but it has nothing to do with any peace talks. Here is the Asia Sentinel:

• Despite violence across Pattani, Yala,  Narathiwat in 2021
• new community and micro-enterprise start-ups pop up
• rising economic activity deters ethnic, religious tensions
• SMEs increase from 30,000 in 2005 to 80,184 in 2021 

communities in Deep South thriving in mass of entrepreneurial start-ups

My comments : Well this is much better news. 

Thai Malays can be found even outside Yala, Narathiwat, Pattani and Songkhla. In Phuket I have seen Thai Muslims (Malays?) who operate tourist businesses. 

Not all Muslims in Thailand have problems. In northern Thailand there is a Chinese-Hui Muslim minority who have their own restaurants and mosques in Chiang Mai.  A former Thai Army chief was a Muslim of 18th century Thai-Persian ancestry.

But 80,000 Thai-Malay SMEs among a population of about three million Malays is indeed good news. If more Thai Malays can get involved in business and trade that may help them overcome the economic disparities which they may have faced. 

Coming back to Malaysia's role in the peace talks,  which Ministry is leading the talks on our side? Wisma Putra or Ministry of Home Affairs? The fact that the former IGP is the mediator indicates the Ministry of Home Affairs is in charge. Southern Thailand is our next door neighbour and they speak the same language. For us it is a matter of national security rather than "foreign affairs".

The other point to note is the Barisan Revolusi Nasional or BRN who are involved in the peace talks. Who exactly are they? Do they represent all the three million Thai-Malays in Pattani ? Over the years there have been  the Patani United Liberation Organisation (PULO), Patani Malays National Revolutionary Front (BRN-K), Ronda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK), Pattani Islamic Mujahideen Movement, Islamic Liberation Front of Patani.

BRN is also known as Barisan Revolusi Nasional - Koordinasi or BRN-K. Sometimes BRN-C.  So are we mediating with the right folks? All of them will claim that yes they do represent all the Thai Malays. How do we know for sure? There are no democratic elections, referendums or any census to prove their support.  

We have this same problem in Mindanao in the Southern Philippines. They have different groups all claiming to represent the Moro people yet not one group can claim to represent all the Moros in Mindanao. They have the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) the Abu Sayyaf and the latest is the  Islamic State of Lanao aka the Maute faction which created that Hollywood movie type shootout in Marawi. In Mindanao the MILF and Abu Sayyaf are breakaway factions of the MNLF.  We made a mistake of "mediating" a Peace Accord with some of the Moro groups while leaving out others. Hence the Moro attack on Lahad Datu in 2013 - as an example. 

The Moro problem has not been solved. Recently there were those weird rumours in Sabah again. 

The same with the Palestinians. Who is the rightful voice of the Palestinians? Is it Hamas, is it the PLO-Fatah or is it the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)? Hamas and Fatah kill each other. And Hamas is now more popular than PLO-Fatah in both Gaza and the West Bank. 

Then you also have what I see as the :

1. original grievances 
2. inter-group grievances, and finally
3. intra-group grievances

Original Grievances : As an example the plight of the Palestinians, Moros was the original grievance. 

Inter-group grievances: Then you had outside actors manipulating the Palestinian issue to project their own grievances. So the Muslim Brotherhood or Ikhwan Muslimin (which is based in Egypt, Qatar, Switzerland, the USA and Jalan Ampang) created Hamas and hijacked the Palestinian issue to project their Muslim Brotherhood agenda. They have been successfully disastrous.  In Southern Thailand the Salafis from the Middle East and now from other places including Malaysia, have also been stirring things up. "Political Islam" has its own agenda in southern Thailand.

In Gaza and the West Bank the bigger enemy of Hamas is not Israel but the PLO-Fatah. The PLO-Fatah is secular. The PLO-Fatah is not friendly towards the Muslim Brotherhood. The Hamas IS the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza. 

The Iranians have also infiltrated Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to steal some limelight for the increasingly illegitimate ayatollahs in Iran. Palestine is just a photo-op for the ayatollahs. 

Intra-group grievances : Then there are the power struggles within each group to overthrow the leader. Why? Because of MONEY and power. 

So in Mindanao for example "The MILF and Abu Sayyaf are breakaway factions of the MNLF". 

So by the same logic, where exactly are the Southern Thai "separatists" in this scheme of things? Do we know exactly?

I ask this question because (for example) the Salafis have now infiltrated the separatist movements in Southern Thailand including the BRN-K.  To an extent that now in Southern Thailand even the old BRN-K flag (which does mimic our Malaysian flag - their star has 15 points) is sometimes less preferred than the black Salafi flag (of the Islamic State).

And Pattani is now pronounced "Fatoni". Better watch out.

  

The population of Thailand is over 70 million of which the Thai Malays are less than 3 million. Plus they are located about 1,000 km from Bangkok. Meaning too few and too far to be a real headache for Thailand.  Among the "grievances" is that the Thai Malay separatists want vernacular education in the Jawi script. I dont think this is going to happen. Plus not all Thai Malays may agree with this idea either. In areas like Satun many Thai Malays have integrated well into the Thai language.

22 years ago (circa 2000) I was the youngest member of UMNO's highest think tank the Mesyuarat Strategi Tertinggi UMNO under TokPa.   I met some of the folks from south Thailand. At that time the Salafis had not yet influenced the southern separatists like they have today.  The Salafi influence has made south Thailand more complicated.  If the Salafis are not reversed, then the problem in South Thailand is going to go "further south". Religion is always trouble.  The extremely violent (like the RKK or Ronda Kumpulan Kecil) have to refocus.   

And Malaysia must give an undertaking that no "religious preachers" will cross over from Kelantan, Perlis, Perak and Kedah into South Thailand. No Malaysian funding of Salafi madrassas either. Leave their religion alone.  

I assume some Malaysian taxpayers money will be involved. I dont mean just the money for the air tickets, hotel, the venue for the peace talks, food, drinks  etc.  

In the past Malaysian politicians have given money to build madrassa and mosques in southern Thailand. Funds have also gone into "Islamic" education in Pattani. 

For both Mindanao and southern Thailand it will be more useful if genuine businessmen invest their own funds to develop industry and trade in these areas. What they need are jobs and economic opportunities.  They do not need any more politics. They certainly do not need any more religion.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.