In Pattani, the checkpoints are frequent, more frequent than Islamic prayers. Every few turns, your van goes through one. Sometimes the driver is asked to lower the window, other times the armed soldiers just peer inside and wave the vehicle onward.
That was two months ago when I visited this deep South province. Then on a quick visit to Pattani again last Saturday, I also saw soldiers, guns slung from their shoulders, patrolling the streets in broad daylight -- not at checkpoints, but on the footpaths near Prince Songkhla University and other areas. In the centre of town, cars and pickup trucks are instructed to park in the middle of road, and not on the side next to the footpaths. The security wants the vehicles, which can be turned into destructive weapons, in full view with no hidden angles, and so you have this strange sight of cars lined up mid-road next to traffic island, for the sake of public safety.
It didn't work, apparently, and it's hard to stomach that it didn't.
The car bombs at Big C supermarket in Pattani on Tuesday were a real shock for many reasons, and we thought nothing could shock us when it comes to bad news wafting from the far South. First, the attacks were in Pattani centre -- and not in the outlying districts marked as red zones -- this has happened before but it has not been commonplace. It was ugly, godless and a naked provocation to the authorities which, as mentioned, seem to concentrate their security efforts on populous areas. The explosions, which injured scores and miraculously caused no deaths, exposed the lapses in the military tight-fistedness and those ubiquitous checkpoints.
Secondly, that Big C is a crowded supermarket, a haven of shopping and family activities that's also, symbolically, a picture of normalcy in an area plagued by violence. Pattani locals live their lives too; they eat, shop, take their kids to play, just like everyone else in other parts of the country. I can't confirm this, but many southern friends told me this branch of Big C is one of the most crowded in Thailand, simply for the lack of competition. Not only Pattani locals shop here, since every day you see pickup trucks coming from Yala and Narathiwat carrying whole families and going back with piles of shopping bags. Ramadan is starting in two weeks, and it's horrible to imagine what would have happened had the incident taken place later in the month with even more shoppers on the premises.
Finally, the shock was especially heart-rending because of the nature of the attack: the "double-tap" tactic, with the first explosion as a decoy then a larger one meant to kill. It was cold-blooded terrorism, and Human Rights Watch is right to condemn it as "a vicious disregard for civilian lives," and "may amount to crimes against humanity".
On my visit last week, a friend took me to a tea shop -- a cool, hipsterish place where you can sit on the floor or at one of the benches set in a pleasant courtyard with a view of a river. A lot of young people were there that evening, many clad in hijabs and at one table everyone was taking selfies. It was a scene of hope, of gentle defiance, a display of the basic human right to feel safe, carefree and happy even in the face of unpredictable terror. When news of the Tuesday bombings broke, I wondered if any of the people I saw that day were among the injured.
Next comes the hard part, as always. The ongoing "peace dialogue" and the plan to designate "safe zones" now face a question mark -- what safe zones? Analysts believe the Tuesday attacks were likely carried out by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the armed group that controls most of the ground insurgents, and yet their ghastly strategy to force themselves to the table and force the Thai state to acknowledge their demands is an unswallowable bitter pill. They can't win this way, and they know it. And then, the elephant in the room is our security intelligence: national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said the authorities had been tipped off just one hour before the attacks. It was too short a time frame given all the checkpoints and the report of the stolen vehicle, yet at the same time one hour seemed long enough for preventive measures.
Lastly -- and here I quote Human Rights Watch -- "HRW also remains deeply concerned by violations of international human rights law and the laws of war by Thai government security forces and militias. Killings, enforced disappearances, and torture cannot be justified as reprisals for insurgent attacks…".
As we curse the villains and pray for peace, it's important to ensure that Pattani doesn't descend into a vicious cycle. Like those kids in the tea shop, hope is still present, however fragile.
Kong Rithdee is Life editor, Bangkok Post.