February 10, 2005

COMMENTARY
Southern vote, southern voice
Sanitsuda Ekachai

Thaksin Shinawatra believes he can solve the problems of the South through money and might. Election results from the region prove him wrong. Totally wrong.

 Despite all-out support from the state machinery for the Thai Rak Thai candidates, not one won a seat in the deep South. Moreover, the party won only a single seat in all 14 southern provinces, which goes to show both Buddhist and Muslim Thais in the region disapprove of Mr Thaksin's heavy-handed policies.

 Backed by some 370 MPs from all other regions, Mr Thaksin probably could not care less. The southern snub might have robbed him of a clean sweep, but it does not stop him from having a firm single-party grip on Thailand.

 Although he has promised to listen more, critics of Mr Thaksin fear that even darker times lie ahead, given his lack of cultural sensitivity, his propensity for force and his unbending self-confidence bordering on arrogance.

 Why, indeed, should he listen? Politicians are in a listening mood only when an election draws nears. If they fail to heed the people's voice before an election, why afterward?

 To woo voters, Mr Thaksin promised to inject more than 20 billion baht into the South, believing that money and employment will win the hearts of southern Muslims and neutralise the radical elements. He also flooded the deep South with troops in the belief that a heavy military presence would give a sense a security to the Buddhist Thais, who would return him with their political support.

 Muslim community leaders have asked him repeatedly to demilitarise their home provinces in the wake of widespread abuses of military and police power.

 They also have told him again and again that what the southern Muslims want is not money from development projects that destroy their way of life and the natural environment. What they want is a chance to live a life as good Muslims.

 They also have warned Mr Thaksin constantly against labelling the southern problem separatism, as this pits people in other regions against the Muslims and sows the seeds of division in society.

 Yet, Mr Thaksin never listens.

 This does not mean the Muslim vote against Thai Rak Thai is insignificant politically. On the contrary. Before, when you encouraged ordinary people to speak up about state abuse, they would cringe for fear of being blacklisted as separatist sympathisers, which put their lives in danger. Fear of persecution forced them to keep their bitter silence.

 But on Sunday, the wall of fear came down. Ordinary people came out in full force to tell Mr Thaksin loud and clear what they think.

 What could be more politically significant than that?

 With fear erased, people dare speak up, organise and connect with marginalised groups in other parts of the country to build people's alliances against injustice. With Sunday vote, change has begun in the South.

 Mr Thaksin's landslide victory, meanwhile, shows his success in manipulating the public's nationalist sentiment and ethnic prejudices to his political advantage. These prejudices do not come out of thin air. They are created and nurtured by our ultra-nationalist history which equates the Thai identity with the Thai race and alienates other ethnic groups as outsiders.

 The support for Mr Thaksin in other regions also shows an ocean-wide gap between the the secular, money-chasing world and the pious Muslim communities. Conflicts are inevitable when the secular view the pious as backward and fanatic, and the pious view the secular as decadent and sinful.

 To bridge the gap, we need an education that fosters cross-culture respect and understanding. More importantly, we need to review what is really important in our lives so that we can renounce our total submission to money gods and the development cult which has brought us so much discord and violence.

 When we realise our fundamental problem is not Mr Thaksin but our chauvinist selves and our definition of happiness, the peace momentum will be unstoppable.

 Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor, Bangkok Post.sanitsudae