Poles apart in the pub

 6 dec 2004

The two Bangkok executives came through the pub doors and took up yesterday’s conversation without a break.

Amnat: I don’t know why you get so upset. These people causing trouble in the south are bad people. Some are separatists. Some are just bandits taking advantage of the mess. We cannot put up with this, killings every day. We have to crack down. Thaksin is doing the right thing.

Pranee: Bad people, maybe. I don’t defend these people’s actions. No sane person supports murderers. But who started this? Remember the drug campaign? Thousands died without legal process. What sort of message did that send? In Buddhism we believe you reap what you sow.

Amnat: But what about the human rights of the innocent people being shot, hacked, and beheaded? What sort of “judicial process” condemned them?

 Pranee: Yes, it’s horrible. But this sort of thing does not come from nowhere. People don’t turn violent for no reason. They feel something. We won’t stop this unless we ask why. This southern thing isn’t new, you know. Going on for two hundred years.

Amnat: But what do these people in the south want?

Pranee: You’re right. There aren’t any clear demands. I guess this shows it’s very unsophisticated. A cry of frustration, more than a coherent movement. And of course, all you say about being exploited by bad men is right in a way. But bad people always exploit situations like this. The solution does not lie in killing the bad men (there are always more of them), but unscrambling the situation they are exploiting.

Amnat: Surely there is more to it. There must be outsiders stirring this up. Maybe our neighbours are jealous of our success, and want to hold us back. Maybe there are international Muslim fanatics involved. Maybe, al Qaida.

Pranee: The alarmists, especially the US press, have been saying over and over again: look out, international Islam is involved, there must be links to Al Qaida. But, amazingly, it has remained confined to the three provinces. It has grown a bit more sophisticated – now they can detonate bombs with mobile phones. But it’s still local and fairly crude. Of course, that could change at any moment (God forbid!). But if this whole thing was about outsiders and fanaticism and international agendas, I don’t think it would be this way.

Amnat:  But these people don’t want to be part of Thailand. They won’t learn Thai. They hide in Malaysia and then cross the border to create trouble.

Pranee: We pride ourselves on being tolerant. We tell ourselves we are a multiethnic society. Look at the masterplan of the Culture Ministry. It’s all about “diversity”. Look at our tourism adverts – different peoples smiling together. Look at the Constitution. But now we are turning “Muslims” into the enemy. Why haven’t we heard anything from the Culture Ministry in all this mess? Why isn’t the government telling the majority of the people they are supposed to be tolerant and rejoice in diversity?

Amnat: But these people are killing Buddhists. They are trying to drive them out of the three provinces so they get their own “separate” state.

 Pranee: Maybe. The question is, what will make things better, and what will make things worse? Back in January, the troubles in the south were just a sideshow. One Buddhist monk was murdered and we all felt the hurt, but it seemed far away. The local communities, Buddhist and Muslim, were still hanging together. It was a political problem, not a communal problem. Now we are talking about “Muslims” and “Buddhists” fighting one another. We are talking about arming “Buddhists”. But look carefully. Some Muslims, people connected to the government, have been victims of the killings too. Yet now we are lumping all Muslims together. That’s why things went wrong at Tak Bai. A lot of people, guilty or innocent, were condemned to death, without process of law, because the soldiers assumed they were guilty of these killings – or wanted revenge. Can’t you see where this is going?

Amnat: Yes. More and more killings unless we stop it now, by force.

Pranee: Look, this is a classic polarisation. At the start, it looked like the old thing – burning schools, bombing railway stations. Now it’s a national crisis and a communal conflict. We have seen this all over the world. On one side, a minority community which has its own way of life and sensitivity; on the other, a nation-state which demands everybody be the same. The minority community gets frustrated. The state sends in the troops. At first, it all seems contained in a small area and manageable. But then it gets bigger and goes on for years. Northern Ireland, Cyprus, the Kurds, the Basques, Biafra, the Moros, Timor, Aceh. Lots of blood. When we have all these examples, why do we lower our heads and charge in the same direction?

Amnat: Ok. So we sit safe here in Bangkok and send down more troops.

Pranee: No. These other cases in the world have a pattern. At the start, they are crude and local. But after a bit, they develop a political wing, and launch a more aggressive strategy of violence. Think of Northern Ireland. They got fed up of fighting skirmishes with British soldiers on the streets of Belfast, and started to bomb London. The government refused to negotiate, so it went on and on for thirty years. Why are we going down this route when it’s so easy to see where it leads?

Amnat: What do you want then?

Pranee: Some sign that this government and its security forces think there is some way ahead other than getting more and more violent. Some sign we can escape the old-fashioned view of the nation. Some avenue to discuss what the southern people really want. Some admission that one part of the solution must be a change in the mindset of the majority community too.

Amnat: Whew! Drink up.