Most people in Thailand's southernmost provinces think the security situation over the past 20 years has been as bad as ever or worsened, and the government pays little attention to resolving unrest in the region, according to a Nida poll.
The survey, titled “Two decades of solving the conflict in the southern border provinces”, was conducted between April 28–30. It gathered opinions from 1,100 residents aged 18 and over across the conflict-affected provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala. Respondents came from diverse educational, occupational, and income backgrounds.
When asked about the security situation in the deep South over the past two decades, 33.45% of respondents said conditions are as bad as ever. In contrast, 20.36% believed things had remained steadily positive, while 18.55% felt the situation had slightly improved. Meanwhile, 14.64% said the situation had somewhat worsened, 10% felt it had deteriorated significantly, and only 3% said there had been a major improvement.
A significant majority of respondents, or 42.36%, believed the government pays little attention to resolving unrest in the far South, with 31.82% saying the issue is completely neglected. Only 18.82% felt the government shows moderate concern, and a mere 5.91% believed it is a top priority.
Regarding regional development, 42.18% said there had been modest improvements over the past 20 years. Still, 37.45% felt development had been minimal, 14.55% believed there had been no development at all, and just 5.82% said the region had improved significantly.
As for the relationship between state authorities and local communities, the answers were as follows:
33.55% said relations had stayed consistently positive
30.64% slightly improved
19.91% remained strained
7.09% slightly deteriorated
3% worsened notably
5.64% improved significantly
0.17% did not answer