PM says govt opposed to southern autonomous areas
- Published: 5/11/2009 at 05:54 PM
- Online news: Local News
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has told parliament the government disagrees with the idea of establishing autonomous areas in the lower South, as it was not a solution to the problem.
Mr Abhisit was responding to a question from opposition Puea Thai Party MP for Narathiwat Waemahadi Waedaoh.
He asked about the government’s plans to decentralise administrative power in the three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.
He also asked Mr Abhisit to clarify to all MPs a news report in Malaysia that he had agreed to discuss the establishment of autonomous areas in the three border provinces with Malaysian Prime Minister Rajib Razak.
Mr Abhisit said the Malaysian media report was without foundation. He did not support the idea of autonomous zones in the far South. He believed the Malaysian prime minister fully understood the government's position that the unrest in the far South was an internal matter for Thailand to settle itself.
He admitted he really did not understand Puea Thai chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's rather vague “Pattani City” idea.
But he was confident that ensuring justice for the people and helping develop the three provinces would lead to an end to the southern violence.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who is in charge of security affairs, said the government had nothing to fear from opposition Puea Thai chairman Chavalit's plan to discuss his proposal for an autonomous 'Pattani City' with the Malaysian prime minister in Kuala Lumpur.
However, the southern insurgency was an internal issue that Thailand must solve itself, he said.
"The government has never been shaken by Puea Thai's political activities," Mr Suthep said.
He also believed the call by a foreign-based separatist group for the Malaysian prime minister to mediate an end to the violence in the lower South was not likely to happen.
"I personally believe the suggestion made by the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) would not actually work, but I'm not going to say anything that will create a dispute," he said.
Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's legal adviser Noppadon Pattama said Gen Chavalit's Pattani City proposal was only a form of special administration similar to Pattaya City or the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to decentralise power to the people of the lower South. It was not about secession.
