Facing the hard truths of the Patani conflict

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​First, one can see the loss and violence as merely a continuation of protracted, long-running unrest by a small group of armed insurgents and retaliation by security personnel.

You can just keep ranting about the immoral and evil ‘southern goons’ or ‘jone tai’ (โจรใต้) — as they are often referred to by ordinary Thais and the tabloid press — and move on

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to the next news item of the day, repeating the same knee-jerk reaction when another major attack occurs. ​The second reaction, or alternative, is to pause for a moment and face

the uncomfortable reality of what we are dealing with. ​Let us start with a few very basic facts. First, there are some Thai-Malay Muslims who do not consider themselves Thai and

yearn for an independent Patani homeland (they spell it ‘Patani’, not ‘Pattani’ which is preferred by the Thai state), and see the use of force to fight for independence as

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‘legitimate’ in their eyes. ​Let us face the fact that there are separatists or ‘freedom fighters’ who want to see an independent Patani state, whether Islamic in character or not.

​Stop using the term ‘southern goons’, for it only obfuscates the nature of what Thailand is confronting. Thai press should also stop referring to the majority of the people in the

deep south as Thai Muslims and recognise their Malay identity and referring to them as Thai-Malay Muslims instead. ​As for the separatist movement, no one really knows how large it

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is, or how popular it is among the Thai-Malay population. There can be no official survey or poll, as under the Thai constitution, the kingdom is indivisible, and any movement to

secede parts of Thailand is illegal. ​One personal anecdote comes from two decades ago, when this writer was covering the immediate aftermath of the Tak Bai massacre in October

2004. Eighty-five Thai-Malay Muslim male protesters died: seven were shot at the site, while 78 suffocated after being hurled into army trucks, stacked on top of one another with

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their hands tied behind their backs. ​A day after witnessing mass burials at sunset, I spoke to the Patani police chief and asked whether a locally elected governor in Patani and

nearby provinces would make local Thai-Malay Muslims feel more in charge of their own destiny. The senior officer almost immediately replied that the day local governors are elec…

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