Unrest and conflict in southern Thailand

Separatist violence in the Malay-Muslim provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, and Patani is not new, with a history that goes back nearly half a century.

The conflict in Southern Thailand has roots in Thailand’s 1902 annexation of the Malay Kingdom of Patani which comprised the current southern provinces of Patani, Yala and Songkhla.

Officially part of Siam from 1909, the region roughly corresponds to the former Malay sultanate of Patani. 

The people of this territory have a long history of independence, and are ethnically and culturally distinct from the majority of Thais.

Prior to the late nineteenth century, Siam claimed jurisdiction over large swatches of mainland Southeast Asia.

The Malay state of Patani paid tribute to Buddhist Siam, yet was largely self government. However, during the twentieth century this area was forcibly incorporated into the Thai state.

The large majority of people in the three southern Thailand are ethnic Malay, who speak Jawi, and are predominantly Muslim (80%), making the region distinct from a majority Buddhist, Thai speaking country. Their grievances stem from a number of related historical and contemporary developments.

First, a majority of the population has never accepted the loss of independence.

Second is a repeated attempt by various Thai governments to assimilate the local population, by repressing the local culture, language and religion in favor of the majority Thai culture.

Third, most of the local population believes the region has historically been neglected by successive Thai governments, causing its underdevelopment and levels of poverty higher than in the rest of Thailand. 

Bangkok has largely pursued a policy of assimilation and standardization, making the concessions to the distinctive history and character of the region.

A military-orchestrated shift in political power toward overtly conservative and authoritarian elements in 1947 entrenched the Thai government’s resistance to any form of regional linguistic, cultural or religious autonomy in the south.

Duncan McCargo is a professor of Southeast Asian politics at the University of Leeds summarized some of the political clashes: Some of this violence was perpetrated by the Thai state. Landmark events included the 1948 Dusun-nyor incident, the 1954 arrest and disappearance of prominent Islamic teacher Haji Sulong at the hands of Thai police and mass demonstration at the Patani Central Mosque in the late 1975, triggered by the extrajudicial killing of some Malay Muslim youths.

Radical separatist elements began waging a guerilla war against the Thai state in the 1960s: fighting was most virulent during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Unrest and conflict in southern Thailand