Analysing the Causes of Unrest in Southern Provinces and Its Impact on Democratization of Thailand

Abstract

The southern region of Thailand consisted 5 changwat or provinces namely: Pattani, Songkhla, Narathiwat, Yala and Satun. The majority of the population i.e. 94% called Malay Muslims who speaks Yawi. Historically Pattani was a part of Malaysia, annexed and divided into 3 changwat: Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat by Siam (Thailand) in 1902. This region is the center of insurgency and violence which intensified in 2004 caused more than 6000 deaths and 10000 left injured and aggravated security issues throughout the country. Afterwards the mishandling of the issue by Thaksin administration with a hardline approach and the mistrust among the Malay Muslims towards Thai Buddhist state left the region in chaos. Though the country is prone to coup culture and political instability, the southern violence presents a unique opportunity to analyze the causes of the insurgency which re occurred at a time when Thailand was considered as democratic having people’s constitution of 1997 in force. The last elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra astounded everybody by declaring the start of a peace exchange with key political figures of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional- a separatist group, yet the discourse came to halt after 3 meetings. In 2014 another blow accompanied with overthrow of Shinawatra government by military coup after which junta set up safety efforts on June 22, 2014 in an effort to tackle the situation in the region. From then onwards the political eventual fate of Deep South is by all accounts unverifiable. The article examines why the democratization has failed to curb the violence and what are the reasons behind the dissatisfaction among Malay Muslims which force them to claim a separate identity and an autonomous region based on religious or ethnic ground.

Keywords: Violence, Insurgency, Thainess, Resistance, Democratization, Human Rights