Religious identity at the centre of deep South conflict (Thailand)

Published: 17/09/2012 at 01:49 AM

After the end of the cold war and while the capitalism-vs-socialism conflict was subsiding, many more issues emerged that were dubbed as either religious or ethnic conflicts. But I would argue that the nature of those conflicts is still primarily political, while ethnicity and religions are contributing factors. According to one estimate, there have been about 100 violent political conflicts (with 100 deaths or more per year) since 1990. More than half persist till today, while new ones emerge. The conflict in the southernmost region of Thailand is one of them.

One of the significant points about the deep South is that 80% of the population is Melayu-Muslim and the insurgents are exploiting this identity for their cause by insisting that this is the only identity that counts.

This dualist approach _ dividing the population into us-and-them along a single ethno-religious line _ is particularly useful to mobilise youths into joining the insurgency. One mobilising line is as follows:

There once was an Islamic state called the Patani Sultanate, but the Kingdom of Siam occupied its lands by force more than a century ago and has been trying to make it predominantly Thai-Buddhist.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/312673/religious-identity-at-the-centre-of-deep-south-conflict