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Dream of making South autonomous
By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
Published on November 5, 2009
Chavalit's proposal cannot be delivered because it's coming from the wrong side
When former prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh proposed a form of autonomy for the deep South he was offering a compromise between history and the modern times so the predominantly Malay-Muslim region could continue living peacefully in Thailand. However, this dream will never be delivered.
Violence in the deep South did not just begin in 2004, but was ignited a long time ago. Pattani in modern history has been struggling against Bangkok since it was annexed more than a century ago.
Basically, the fight for self-determination has many shades. Some in the struggle want independence, while some want autonomy within the Kingdom. It is obvious that they are not fighting for development projects.
It was not just Chavalit, but many other people including leaders from neighbouring Malaysia, who have proposed some form of autonomy for people in the deep South.
Former Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad proposed this a few years ago and the current Prime Minister Najib Razak suggested just two weeks ago that Thailand offer a form of autonomy to the restive South.
Chavalit said the southernmost provinces - where a vast majority of the population is different from the rest of the country - should have an administration unique to the region.
In fact, he went down South on Tuesday to sell his idea to local leaders. Unfortunately the reaction from various factions, notably the government, appeared to be negative.
Apparently it is not the right time for him to float such ideas, especially since the country is dominated by conservative figures. Even though this might be the only option available to resolve the conflict, the ruling Democrat Party would never listen to Chavalit because he is now standing on the wrong side of the tracks.
It is politically incorrect for any government to accept an idea put forward by the opposition after all. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban and many others who appear to be concerned about the South came to the same conclusion - that Chavalit's idea is nonsensical and deserves no further discussion.
The government's spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn, who is an expert on security affairs, went even further by saying that Chavalit had just borrowed the idea from a separatist group championing for the return of the Sultanate of Patani.
People in power see Chavalit's proposal as a decoy to gain support in the deep South for his Pheu Thai Party. According to Suthep, Chavalit proposed this idea when he was deputy PM during Thaksin Shinawatra's time, but failed to deliver.
Suthep could be right. Whether or not one has ruling power, nobody can deliver any sort of autonomy for the people in the deep South. It is taboo. The elite who run this country would never allow it partly because they are afraid of losing this part of Thailand. Any discussion of autonomy, even among the academics, is rare in Thai society these days.
Even smart and well-educated people like Abhisit would not dare to define or spell out the term "autonomy" in the Thai context. The term itself is problematic and very difficult to distinguish between special administration and self-rule, he said. The premier tried to mix the idea up with "de-centralisation", claiming that his government was working to offer some kind of power to the local people.
Like the rest of the country, the three southernmost provinces - Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat - have the same form of local administration. There's the Tambon Administration Organisation, Provincial Administration Organisation and the municipality - all forms of de-centralisation - but it means nothing to the people.
In fact, the Democrat Party's Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC), a super agency in the deep South, cannot be called a de-centralised form of administration. Actually, the SBPAC is a simple executive branch under the prime minister. The latest proposal about SBPAC - waiting to be read in Parliament - is to transform it from a bureaucratic unit at the Interior Ministry into one in the Prime Minister's Office. It would have its own budget and the SBPAC secretary general would be on the same level as a ministry's permanent secretary, with local people being invited to sit in as consultants. However, it all depends on Bangkok.
Though this might solve the problem of having overlapping agencies in the bureaucracy, it is not necessarily a political solution to end conflicts in the region.
-- The Nation 2009/11/05
