EDITORIAL: An exercise in futility?

Without involving the BRN in peace talks on the South, the government might be wasting its time

The Nation

In the ongoing peace dialogue between representatives of the Thai government and the MARA Patani, an umbrella organisation of longstanding Patani Malay separatist organisations – all except the one that controls insurgents on the ground – it is clear that what the two sides are seeking, and what they are being offered are two different things.

The two sides desperately want a designated safety zone. They have been talking about it for almost two years now so the two sides can implement a ceasefire. They will talk about it again on Tuesday in Malaysia.

The problem here is not difficult to understand. Neither side (Thai or MARA Patani groups) controls the insurgents on the ground. It is the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) that has control over the insurgents, the one long-standing group that has refused to join the peace initiative.

The BRN refuses to join the talks because, according to reports, they do not believe the Thai side is committed to any meaningful peace settlement for Malays in the Patani region. Successive Thai governments only wanted to use money to buy out these so-called rebel leaders and if that didn’t work, the state has the troops ready to kill them.

But such an attitude has not produced the desired outcome. About 7,000 people – mostly Malay Muslims – have died from insurgency-related violence since January 2004 and Bangkok continues to turn a blind eye to the historical root cause of the conflict and the injustice that provided legitimacy to rebel groups to take up arms.

The BRN will not come to the negotiating table until its political wing is recognised and properly trained by members of international organisations – more or less in the same manner as fel?low rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) from Indonesia.

Thailand refuses to entertain the idea of permitting members of the international community to get directly involved in the peace process – at least not publicly, anyway – for fear that it would “internationalise” the conflict.

By using the term “internationalised”, Bangkok is saying in other words it does not want to debate the legitimacy of Thailand controlling the Malays’ historic homeland. No government wants such a headache. But this headache is necessary if we are to move the peace process forward.

The concept of a safe zone is a euphemism for “ceasefire”, and has been on the agenda ever since MARA Patani and the government of this current junta decided to talk to one another. The Thai side wanted to be certain that they are at least talking the people who have some control of combatants on the ground.

In May 2016, it was leaked to the press by Thai negotiators that Narathiwat’s Joh Ai Rong district would be designated a safety zone. It didn’t take BRN com?batants long to launch a massive operation in that district to discredit the so-called “breakthrough ” claimed by the Thai and MARA Patani sides.

The writing was already on the wall because from the very first meeting with the so-called Dialogue Panel (negotia?tors) and the Policy Panel for the far South, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had stated that his government would not recognise MARA Patani.

Members of the Policy Panel, which include the Foreign Ministry, Internal Security Operations Command, Defence Ministry, head of the Dialogue Panel, National Security Council, argued that recognition would lead to institutionalisation and the outcome of that would be internationalisation.

The government, besides not being willing to recognise MARA Patani, who they referred to as “Party B”, would not even entertain the idea of granting legal immunity to their negotiators, much less the BRN who really control the insurgents.

The junta in Bangkok thinks it can have the cake and eat it too. The BRN combatants on the ground, on the other hand, are telling Bangkok – not so fast.

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