Separatist Conflict in the Kingdom of Thailand

The tense relationship between Malay Muslims of Southern Thailand and the central government of Thailand has actually been in existence since the incorporation of the Kingdom of Patanni that covered the likes of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, into Siam (later known as Thailand) in 1909. Ever since then, the Malay-Muslims have suffered from many assimilation policies created by Thai government that was originally aimed to transform Malay Muslims into Thai Muslims. The policies varied from the abolishment of Malay Muslims’ history from educational practices, religious holidays in the south were abolished, Malay Muslims were prohibited from wearing traditional dress, teaching Yawi (Malay dialect spoken in Southern Thailand), and practicing Sharia law and they were also encouraged to adopt Thai-sounding names.4 All of these policies forcefully made the Malay-Muslims in the region to abandon their customs and traditions and to accept and profess the culture of Thai Buddhists, both explicitly and implicitly.

Malay Muslims clearly resented the government’s actions and regarded them as an attack on their ethnic, religious, and cultural identity. Though the policies seemed to aim at a good thing, which is to unite the Malay Muslims with the rest of Thais, the consequences of the government policies could reasonably be said to infringe the fundamental rights of the Malay Muslims of the South and also showed lack of respect attitude toward the Muslims’ past history. With this, conflict attitude of Malay-Muslims in Southern Thailand toward Thai government has been formed.

In the year 1960, conflict escalated in the southern region. There were various armed groups covertly formed in the Southern provinces. The main organized militant groups we...

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...spiracy, Politics, and a Disorderly Border (Singapore: ISEAS, 2007), 9.Sanakorn Manmuang et al, “Understanding the Sustainability of Insurgency Conflict in Thailand.” Journal of organizational transformation & social change 10, no. 2 (2013): 178–194.

10 Duncan McCargo, Mapping National Anxieties (Thailand: Nias Press, 2012), 3.Neil J. Melvin, “Conflict in Southern Thailand: Islamism, Violence and the State in the Patani Insurgency.” SIPRI Policy Paper No. 20 (2007): 17-18.

13 Mark Askew, Conspiracy, Politics, and a Disorderly Border (Singapore: ISEAS, 2007), 12.

14 Neil J. Melvin, “Conflict in Southern Thailand: Islamism, Violence and the State in the Patani Insurgency.” SIPRI Policy Paper No. 20 (2007): 30-31Peter Chalk, “The Malay-Muslim Insurgency in Southern Thailand: Understanding the Conflict’s Evolving Dynamic.” National Defense Research Institute (2008): 5-8