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Landscapes of fear, horizons of trust: Villagers dealing with danger in Thailand's insurgent south

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2009

Marc Askew
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Abstract

Thai Buddhist and Malay Muslim neighbours in Thailand's Muslim-majority deep south face the challenge of managing everyday life in the midst of an enigmatic insurgency where both ethno-religious groups are victims of violence, but where the assailants are difficult to identify. This ethnographically-focused paper examines horizons of trust and suspicion as villagers confront threats to their safety, negotiate state authorities and encounter broader narratives about identity, allegiance and enemies. Although fear and suspicion sparked by the current violence have generated Buddhist–Muslim tensions in localities, neighbourhoods and village leaders also actively resist the multiple threats to their relationships and to inter-ethnic coexistence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 59 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2009

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References

1 See for example, Satha-anand, Chaiwat, ‘Facing the demon within’, Bangkok Post, 30 Jan. 2004Google Scholar.

2 See for example, ‘Barun’ (pseudonym), Jihad Sithao – Khrai Srang, Khrai Liang Fai Tai? [Gray Jihad – Who created it? Who is nurturing it?] (Bangkok: Sarika printing, 2005); Bamrungsuk, Surachat, Kankokhwammaisangop Nai Phak Tai Khong Thai [Insurgency in southern Thailand] (Thai Security Studies Project, Thailand Research Fund, 2006), pp. 25–30Google Scholar. There is as yet no adequate published study in English on the insurgents' modes of operation and ideological orientation, largely because much documentation is in the form of classified documentation in the Thai language (such as military interrogation transcripts and captured insurgent documents). For one brief overview of the insurgents' strategy of terror, refer to Ganjanakhundee, Supalak and Pathan, Don, ‘South: From guerrillas to terrorists – New face of violence’, The Nation, 9 Jan. 2006Google Scholar. For the most comprehensive English language overview of current violence against civilians, refer to Human Rights Watch, No one is safe. Insurgent violence against civilians in Thailand's southern border provinces (New York, Human Rights Watch Report, 19,13 (C), Aug. 2007)Google Scholar.

3 For discussion focusing on Thaksin Shinawatra's rule, policies and the rise of the violence, see especially Patani Merdeka – Thailand's southern fire, ed. McCargo, Duncan, thematic issue of Critical Asian Studies, 38, 1 (2006)Google Scholar. For a critical discussion of the highly political nature of representations of the unrest, refer to Askew, Marc, Conspiracy, politics and a disorderly border: The Struggle to comprehend insurgency in Thailand's deep south (Washington, DC: East West Center, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 For survey-based research on attitudes to the violence in the southern provinces, refer to Jitpiromsri, Srisompob and Sobhonvasu, Panyasak, ‘Unpacking Thailand's southern conflict: The Poverty of structural explanations’, Critical Asian Studies, 38, 1 (2006): 95–117Google Scholar. For two useful qualitative based commentaries based on in-situ observation in the first two years of the violence, refer to Maren Schoenfelder, ‘Cross-cultural interactions in times of unrest – Takbai district in a micro-perspective’, paper presented at the Ninth International Conference on Thai Studies, Northern Illinois University, 3–6 Apr. 2005; Tan-Mullins, May, ‘Voices from Pattani: Fears, suspicion, and confusion’, Critical Asian Studies, 38, 1 (2006): 145–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 For a recent compilation of news items featuring brief portraits of villagers, their experiences and viewpoints, refer to Muea Fa Mon Chedi Hak thi Phak Tai [When the sky went dim and the stupa cracked in southern Thailand], ed. Wimonphan Pitthawatchai (Bangkok: Thai Journalists' Association, 2007).

6 See for example, Sanyan Andarai: Songkhram Klang Mueang [Dangerous signals: Civil war], ed. Phasogon Chamlongrat (Bangkok: Deep South Watch/Bookazine, 2007).

7 Refer to Cornish, Andrew, Whose place is this? Malay rubber producers and Thai government officials in Yala (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 1997)Google Scholar, based on his Ph.D. dissertation research conducted during 1985. Cornish's work, however, does not deal with interactions between Thai and Muslim villagers. Alexander Horstmann bemoans the lack of attention to Buddhist–Muslim relations in an essay reviewing the few studies of shared ritual and cosmology in southern Thailand: ‘Ethnohistoral perspectives on Buddhist-Muslim relations and coexistence in southern Thailand: From shared cosmos to the emergence of hatred?’, Sojourn, 19, 1 (2004): 76–99. A rare study on the topic is Chavivun Prachuabmoh, ‘The Role of women in maintaining ethnic identity and boundaries: A Case of Thai-Muslims (The Malay speaking group) in southern Thailand’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Hawaii, 1980). Aside from being extremely dated, this work is essentially based on a small questionnaire survey. The few studies of Malay Muslim villages have focused almost exclusively on their internal structures with some brief attention to interaction with Thai officials, for which refer to Fraser, Thomas M., Rusembilan: A Malay fishing village in southern Thailand (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1960)Google Scholar and its updated version, Fishermen of south Thailand (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966); also, Patya Saihoo, ‘Social organization of an inland Malay village community in southern Thailand (with emphasis on patterns of leadership)’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Oxford, 1974). Saroja Dorairajoo has studied the relations between Thai NGO workers and Muslim villagers in her ‘“No fish in the sea”: Thai Malay tactics of negotiation in a time of scarcity’ (Ph.D diss., Harvard University, 2002).

8 A clear admission of this poverty of basic knowledge of borderland society and ethnic interaction was shown at a seminar of the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) in Nov. 2007, when the TRF director and a number of leading Thai academics highlighted the importance of funding research on this topic. Refer to Sarnamak, Pongphon, ‘Research grants for south’, The Nation, 9 Nov. 2007Google Scholar.

9 The anecdotes and observations in this paper are drawn from the author's fieldnotes and interviews generated from field research in the periods Nov. 2005–Jan. 2006, July–Oct. 2006 and Apr.–Oct. 2007. Unless specific interviews are cited in footnotes, all material is drawn from these field research notes.

10 Jennings, Kathleen M., The War zone as social space: Social research in conflict zones (Oslo: Fafo Information Office, 2007), pp. 6–7Google Scholar. The conditions prevailing in southern Thailand, characterised by intermittent hit-and-run guerrilla style warfare directed against security authorities and ordinary villagers alike, are perhaps distinctive from those countries and regions where instability, armed confrontation and ethnic strife have attracted a new genre of so-called ‘war zone’ anthropology that has focused on Africa and the Balkans. Refer to Fieldwork under fire: Contemporary studies of violence and survival, ed. Carolyn Nordstrom and Antonius C. G. M. Robben (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995). Nonetheless, it is undeniable that southern Thailand's borderland constitutes a space of severe insecurity and violence generated by a concerted guerrilla-style insurgency. It is thus appropriate to describe it as a particular type of ‘war zone’, even if security analysts might classify it as a ‘low-level conflict’.

11 See for example, Trnka, Susanna, ‘Between victims and assailants, victims and friends: Sociality and the imagination in Indo-Fijian narratives of rural violence during the May 2000 Fiji Coup’, in Terror and violence: Imagination and the unimaginable, ed. Strathern, A., Stewart, P. and Whitehead, N. (London: Pluto Press, 2006), pp. 117–41Google Scholar.

12 Ignatieff, Michael, The Warrior's honor. Ethnic war and the modern conscience (London: Chatto and Windus, 1998), pp. 34–52Google Scholar.

13 The former mueang of Songkhla was gazetted as a province in 1896, while districts and communes (amphoe and tambon) were progressively established over the period 1893–99. Refer to Bunnag, Tej, The Provincial administration of Siam: 1892–1915: The Ministry of the Interior under Prince Damrong Rajanubhab (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 268–77Google Scholar.

14 On the Thai-speaking Muslims of Songkhla, see for example, Burr, Angela, ‘The Relationship between Muslim peasant religion and urban religion in Songkhla’, Asian Folklore Studies, 43, 1 (1984): 71–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the Siamese defeat and dismemberment of Pattani, refer to Wenk, Klaus, The Restoration of Thailand under Rama I. 1782–1809 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1968), pp. 100–6Google Scholar; Binchi, Arifin et al. , Patani. Prawatisat lae kanmueang nai lok Malayu [Patani. History and politics in the Malay world] (Hat Yai: Foundation for Islamic Culture in the South: Hat Yai, Songkhla, 2007), p. 154Google Scholar.

15 Province population breakdowns are drawn from the National Statistical Office, Population and Housing Census 2000, with figures for Pattani updated by the NSO in 2003. District and sub-district level estimates of the Muslim and Buddhist population in Songkhla are not officially available. The rough district-based estimates given here have been collated by the author from various sources.

16 Banchi Muban [List of villages], Thai military intelligence document (confidential source), dated 19 Apr. 2005. The colour coding of villages was publicly revealed in early 2005 by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra when he proclaimed his goal to deny village development funds to communities that supported militants. Refer to Pathan, Don, Ganjanakhundee, Supalak, Pinijparakarn, Sucheera, ‘PM's remedy for crisis in south: ‘Red’ villages face sanctions', The Nation, 17 Feb. 2005Google Scholar.

17 Baeng Si Muban [Division of colours of villages], Thai military intelligence document (confidential source), dated 27 Sept. 2005.

18 ‘Martial law declared in two Songkhla province districts’, Bangkok Post, 3 Nov. 2005.

19 ‘Khruekhai Klum Kohet Khwammaisangop nai khet Amphoe Thepa, Changwat Songkhla’ [Network of the group creating disturbances in Thepa District, Songkhla Province], dated 17 Feb. 2006; Phang Raichue Klum Kohet Runraeng, Amphoe Thepa, Changwat Songkhla [Name chart of the group committing violence in Thepa district, Songkhla province], dated 9 Oct. 2006. Thai military intelligence documents (confidential source).

20 Sarup Hetkan Khwammaisangop nai Phuenthi Amphoe Thepa. [Summary of disturbances taking place in the area of Thepa District]. Printed file of events 2003–07, kindly provided by Mr Charinsak Songsuwan, chief clerk for security, Thepa District Office.

21 Casualties caused by groups other than insurgents comprise 11 per cent of the total number reported as killed or injured from shooting and bombing attacks in Thepa District. The Pattani-based researcher Srisompob Jitpiromsri believes that no more than 15 per cent of casualties have been the result of political or personal conflicts. Personal communication with the author, May 2007.

22 Interview with Colonel Prayong Klahan, the commander of Task Force 4, Thepa, 29 Oct. 2007. Beginning in Aug. 2007, there was an increase in the capture of wanted insurgents in Thepa and key individuals in Saba Yoi connected with attacks in that district and other parts of Songkhla (including Hat Yai). See reports in Bangkok Post, 3 and 18 Aug. 2007; Daily News, 6 Oct. 2007; Thai Rath, 26 Oct. 2007.

23 Refer to ‘Vendors too scared to trade today’, Bangkok Post, 19 Aug. 2005.

24 This sprayed insurgent slogan was officially recorded by district officials on 10 June 2005. Sarup Hetkan Khwammaisangop, 4.

25 The phrase appears in the fifth line of Thailand's national anthem (the second version, with lyrics adopted in 1939): ‘Thai Ni Rak Sangop, Tae Thueng Rop Mai Khlat’ [Thais are peace loving, but no cowards in war].

26 The raid on Suan Nok village was briefly reported in the press at the time. Refer to Matichon, 3 Jan. 2006; Naeo Na, 3 Jan. 2006.

27 Interview with the deputy superintendant of police, Khok Pho District, Sept. 2007.

28 Moerman, Michael, ‘A Thai village headman as a synaptic leader’, Journal of Asian Studies, 28, 3 (1969): 535–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 See for example, Kemp, Jeremy H., ‘The Manipulation of personal relations: From kinship to patron-clientage’, in Strategies and structures in Thai society, ed. Brummelhuis, Han-Ten and Kemp, Jeremy H. (Amsterdam: Anthropological-Sociological Centre, University of Amsterdam, 1984), pp. 55–69Google Scholar.

30 Typed leaflet (in Thai) obtained by the author on 29 Mar. in Thamuang. It is entitled, ‘So these are the so-called warriors of the state of Pattani killing the people again.’ Marked as being from ‘A person who loves peace’.

31 Refer to ‘Three killed in school attack’, The Nation, 19 Mar. 2007; ‘Thalom Ponok’, Naeo Na, 19 Mar. 2007; ‘Angry Muslims stop officials from entering boarding school’, The Nation, 20 Mar. 2007; Chaiyong Moniphiluek, ‘Thap Phak 4 kap Kho On Doi thi Dong Rip Kaekhai nai Kanthamngan Muanchon nai Pho Tho’ [The fourth army and the weak point that must be solved quickly in working with the public in the area], Issara News Centre, 21 May 2007. Issara News articles can be found online at http://www.isranews.org/cms/. Notably, no journalist reported the violent words used in the chants of the protesters, nor the throwing of stones and branches at Buddhists homes, which were confirmed to me by local villagers and film recordings from their mobile telephones.

32 For reports, refer to ‘Muslim protesters clash with Buddhists’, The Nation, 11 Mar. 2007; Boonchote, Vichayant and Harai, Wadao, ‘Attack on school leads to stand-off’, Bangkok Post, 19 Mar. 2007Google Scholar; ‘Buddhists protest for troops’, The Nation, 27 Mar. 2007.

33 I encountered the same leaflet in Panare in late 2006. In Aug. 2007, a stack of the same leaflets was discovered by troops during a raid on the premises of a leading insurgent in Mayo District, Pattani (copies passed to this author by a Thai journalist who accompanied troops on this raid).

34 ‘Duan Chak Tai – Nayobai Chueng Ruk nai Kanyuetkhrongamnat Phaendin Thai phai nai 10 Pi’ (Urgent from the south, the policy to seize power over the country in ten years), leaflet distributed in Tambon Thamuang, Mar. 2007.

35 ‘Boonrawd denies rebels moving north’, Bangkok Post, 27 July 2007.

36 Refer to ‘Buddhist rally alarms Surayud’, Bangkok Post, 26 Apr. 2007.

37 The booklet is entitled ‘Khon Thai cha Yu Nai’ (Where will Thais be?), and produced by ‘The United Front of Buddhist Organizations’. It appears to have been published in late Dec. 2006. The broadsheet was produced by ‘The United Front of Thais who love the nation’, dated 1 Jan. 2007. I first encountered a copy in Mar. 2007 at a temple in Pattani Province. The abbot there confirmed that this literature came from a group in Yala.

38 This broadsheet featured many of the same photographs as the first broadsheet of Jan., but with an inset box in the top left corner printed in red, marked ‘most urgent’ advocating a ‘no’ vote in the 19 Aug. referendum.

39 Migdal, Joel S., Strong societies and weak states: State-society relations and state capacities in the Third World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988)Google Scholar.