Yesterday was no run-of-the-mill Thursday; rather, it was a red-letter day marking the decades-long violence plaguing the three southernmost provinces.
On Jan 4, 2004, militants raided a soldier's camp in Cho Airong district of Narathiwat province, looting an arsenal of 413 weapons and torching schools to spark a fresh wave of separatist violence.
Over the past 20 years, 4,577 people have been killed by militant attacks or state crackdowns in this troubled region, including over 2,700 innocent civilians.
Close to neighbouring Malaysia, the southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat have been among the most 10 poverty-ridden for over 15 years. Since 2004, half a trillion baht has been spent on boosting security in the deep South.
During this period, every government, be it civilian or junta-run, has tried with limited success to solve this nagging problem.
On the plus side, the death toll and injuries tied to these attacks have been substantially reduced from three digits a year to two. And like its predecessors, the administration of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin will face an uphill task to douse the fires of this southern violence.
Over the past four months, Mr Srettha deserves credit for trying to jump-start the nation's flagging economic engine. In November, he met with his Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim, and launched bilateral activities. These include the plan to build a border bridge over the Sungai Kolok River, and the axing of border passes to facilitate tourism.
As a highly successful businessman, Mr Srettha firmly believes that economic prosperity and market forces are among the main antidotes to war and violence.
But there is more here than meets the eye. The threats are not restricted to the separatist movements in the area. The central government's suppressive policies and the strong military presence are also part of the problem.
Indeed, the human rights violations perpetrated by state security officials play into the hands of the separatists, with bloody crackdowns turning some local communities from friends to foes.
Security laws in place for over a decade are also seen as a de facto cage that has frozen these restive provinces in quasi-flashpoint zones. News of budgetary corruption at the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) -- a security body staffed by police and soldiers on loan -- has even sparked rumours that the violence in the region has been used as a pretext to obtain a bigger budget.
The solution is not doubling down on security resources, despite this being a tactic of the latest elected government. For fiscal 2024, the government is ramping up its security budget for this restive region to 6.65 billion baht -- over 400 million baht more than in 2023.
After renewing the emergency decree three months ago, the cabinet is likely to extend it again this month. And instead of toning down the military presence, the government has snubbed a proposal by the Move Forward Party to disband Isoc.
Make no mistake, the region requires policemen and soldiers to provide security. Yet the presence of the state security apparatus cannot and must not continue as it is. It is time the government came up with a plan to phase out the military and bring in civilian officials.
After 20 years of almost relentless violence, it's high time to ditch the use of its old playbook and take a different tack.