Current unrest in the Malay-Muslim provinces of southern Thailand has captured growing national, regional, and international attention due to the heightened tempo and scale of rebel attacks, the increasingly jihadist undertone that has come to characterize insurgent actions, and the central government's often brutal handling of the situation on the ground. This paper assesses the current situation and its probable direction.
This monograph examines the tragic conflict in Thailand's southern Muslim-majority provinces near the border with Malaysia. Although the conflict has attracted wide national and international interest, no agreement exists on the cause of the resumption of violence in an area that had remained free of major conflict for two decades. This monograph critically examines explanations for the conflict and traces its evolution from the early 1990s to the beginning of the Samak government in 2008. The study points to a wide variety of factors that were important in the resumption of the conflict, with policies of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra being critical in determining the timing and intensity of the violence. These conditions include: (1) the resumption of an age-old conflict between Malay Muslims from Pattani, Yala, and Narithiwat Provinces against a discriminatory central government; (2) entrenched problems of criminality in an area far from the capital and with a porous border with Malaysia; (3) the disbanding of important conflict resolution institutions by former Prime Minister Thaksin, who then gave priority to hard line (sometimes extrajudicial) security policies; (4) growing Islamic religiosity, influenced by regional reform movements and international developments, including the example of extremist movements such as Jemaah Islamiyah; and (5) the growth of southern insurgent movements--which have never issued public demands and whose real leaders remain unknown. In this complex setting, no resolution to the violence appears likely in the near future, as Thaksin's main policies have been retained since the September 2006 coup that ousted his government.
Current unrest in the Malay-Muslim provinces of southern Thailand has captured growing national, regional, and international attention due to the heightened tempo and scale of rebel attacks, the increasingly jihadist undertone that has come to characterize insurgent actions, and the central government's often brutal handling of the situation on the ground. This paper assesses the current situation and its probable direction.
In this Lowy Institute Paper, Joseph Chinyong Liow and Don Pathan examine the ongoing violence in the majority Muslim Malay provinces of Thailand's south. Through unprecedented fieldwork, the authors provide the deepest and most up-to-date analysis of the insurgency and problems the Thai Government faces in dealing with it.
This study analyzes the ongoing conflicts in southern Thailand and southern Philippines between indigenous Muslim minorities and their respective central governments. In particular, it investigates and interrogates the ideological context and content of conflicts in southern Thailand and southern Philippines insofar as they pertain to Islam and radicalism in order to assess the extent to which these conflicts have taken on a greater religious character and the implications this might have on our understanding of them. In the main, the monograph argues that while conflicts in southern Thailand and southern Philippines have taken on religious hues as a consequence of both local and external factors, on present evidence they share little with broader radical global Islamist and Jihadist ideologies and movements, and their contents and contexts remain primarily political, reflected in the key objective of some measure of self-determination, and local, in terms of the territorial and ideational boundaries of activism and agitation. Furthermore, though both conflicts appear on the surface to be driven by similar dynamics and mirror each other, they are different in several fundamental ways.
Democratizing educational access and building capacity in developing countries and amongst indigenous peoples in developed countries may be elusive but are hopeful goals. Many developing countries are striving to reengineer their incoherent education systems at a time when they are most vulnerable, particularly with susceptibility to natural disasters, political unrests, and economic instabilities (UNESCO, 2007). Similarly, indigenous peoples in developed countries are seeking more control over education as they consider the long?term effects of educational policies that have been forced on them. Research on education and social change in developing countries has a long history (Glewwe, 2002; Hanushek, 1995; Sider, 2011). However, there is limited research on educational capacity?building in developing countries such as Kenya, Honduras, Haiti, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Peru, China, and Thailand. Further, the educational frameworks by which Indigenous peoples (M?ori, Canada’s First Nations, and American Indian/Alaska Natives) have been educated have some significant similarities to those encountered in developing countries. The compilation of chapters illuminates research and collaborative initiatives between the authors and local leaders in developing countries’ and Indigenous peoples in developed countries’ efforts to solve the complexity of social inequities through educational access and quality learning. The authors draw on theoretical lens, knowledge bases, and strategies, and identify trends and developments to provide the scope of educational improvement in a globalization context (Brooks & Normore, 2010; Jean?Marie, Normore & Brooks, 2009).
