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Separatist Group Attacks Thailand Policies in Pattani
by Kazi Mahmood
JAKARTA, Aug 3 (IslamOnline) - Thailand authorities are facing growing discontent among the Malay-Pattani population in southern Thailand, sources in Yala said on Friday.
Islamic leaders and opposition groups are vehemently opposed to plans by Thai authorities to turn Muslim-majority areas in the south into fully Thai-owned territories.
They also said the education system imposed on young Malay-Pattani children in the schools "went against the struggle of the Malay people in Pattani."
The rise in activism in southern Thailand has caused serious concern among the Muslim population, which has said the rise in activism is part of a refusal of the "Siamesation" of the southern provinces. Siam is the Malay name given to Thailand.
Muslims say they fear brutal reprisals from Thai authorities who said a few weeks back that they would deal with attacks by suspected freedom fighters with violence.
Six members of an underground mujahidin group had been arrested in early July and charged with the murder and abduction of several persons in southern Thailand.
They are said to be members of a splinter group from a known separatist movement in the region, that includes the Pattani Liberation Front (PULO).
PULO, however, accused Thai authorities of doing everything in its power to dislocate Malay-Pattani's in the southern regions and said the Thai government seemed to be successful in its attempts to crush the Malay people's struggle in the region.
The Malays, PULO said, have been fighting for independence of Pattani, and bordering regions, for more than 200 years.
It is currently opposing the "Siamesation", of the southern region and strongly refused the fact that Malays will soon be subjected entirely to Thai regulations.
In the past, Malays in the region enjoyed total freedom of organizing and developing the region in southern Thailand, especially within agricultural areas. This right has been removed since June, PULO said, adding that this represented a move to "kill the Malay culture and people from the southern region."
"The roughening of the Pattani people is an attempt to cause a loss of identity of the Malay people. However, this attempt will fail. The harder the Thai authorities will attack the Malays, the more resistant they will be," said PULO in a message published on its website.
It, however, accepted that fact that with the changes in the education system, as proposed by Thai authorities, "The changes in the education system seem to be successful and the Thai authorities might succeed in the long run to overrun the Malay culture."
Southern Thailand has been the berth of Pattani (Thai-Malay) freedom fighters who do not accept the rule of Buddhist Thais on their "captured" territory.
Before the advent of British colonialism in the region, Pattani was a prominent and powerful Malay kingdom. It underwent several attacks by Buddhist invaders before it was subdued.
The British takeover did not alleviate matters for the Pattani, who did not agree that their territory be handed over to the Thais after the independence of Thailand.
The major secessionist group, PULO, suffered serious setbacks when Malaysian authorities decided to join Thai police in a clean-up operation directed against them in late 1990s.
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