Battle won but strife not over

EDITORIAL

Published: 15 Feb 2013 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

The militants' attack on the Bacho marine base in Narathiwat at 1am on Wednesday was supposed to be their crowning moment. After all, an endless string of high-profile attacks since the beginning of this year had not failed to put the security forces to shame while keeping the southern Muslims in paralysing fear.

For example, the shooting of a teacher in front of his pupils, a car bomb that killed five soldiers, a bloody ambush that killed two farmers during their mission to help revive long abandoned ricefields, and the cold-blooded murder of four fruit vendors. Meanwhile, the security forces were at their wits' end when the CCTVs in various locations were torched and destroyed in successive attacks. The escalating violence has made the Yingluck administration so anxious that the curfew idea has been brought out again.

The surprise attack on the marine base was intended to be a spectacular show of the insurgents' deadly force to gain revenge for the killing of their compatriots in a recent clash. As it turned out, the fully armed militants walked into a death trap.

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bangmodken
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Discussion 4 : 15 Feb 2013 at 14.224
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I wonder where the idea of "giving back the three southern provinces to Malaysia" comes from?
These provinces were never part of Malaysia so there can be no giving back. They did however form part of the Sultanate of Pattani,together with most of the northern parts of Malaysia. That untill Siam and the Brits,who occupied Malaysia,decided to "share" it.
The old generation of freedom fighters/insurgents,like PULO,BNP and others,wants their own homeland or at least autonomy.
The new generation,well,who knows?
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Victor
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Discussion 3 : 15 Feb 2013 at 07.103
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With this one and only achievement of the government force it can be expected that the unarmed civilians, especially the teachers, in the deep south will stand even a greater risk. A soft approach must go hand-in-hand with the stick because it is the only realistic solution here.
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spiceman
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Discussion 2 : 15 Feb 2013 at 07.042
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Khun Bedouin #1, I hope you know that we are still dealing with the deadly consequence of then PM TS's newly implemented Deep Southern strategy way back then. Prior to that, the Deep South was an unofficial semiautonomous region of Thailand, where the native people's Islamic way of life, including their language, was recognized and respected. Only when the former PM TS tried to impose the majority's Buddhist way of life and Thai language, on them that problem arose. Bt the way one of the 3 colors of the Thai national flag use to represent "Religion," until the late PM Samug Shuntornrawet made Buddhism the only state religion.
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bedouin
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Discussion 1 : 15 Feb 2013 at 05.411
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If the government is not prepared to realistically give justice to the Thai Muslims in the south, then they should just give the 3 provinces back to Malaysia and compensate the Buddhists living there to ease their migration back to Thailand. How many murders and maimings do we tolerate? How many massacres? Either fish or cut bait. It is way past time this problem is solved, one way or the other so people can get on with their lives.
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Battle won but strife not over | Bangkok Post: opinion