ABSTRACT

Peace In Patani: A Minority Rights Approach to Reconciliation in South Thailand

by Aaron Choo

Since 2004, a violent insurgency has been taking place in Thailand's Southern
provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat, and Yala. This diesis is a qualitative literature-based
study, comparing varying interpretations of die conflict and efforts at ending the violence.
Official Thai explanations tend to downplay the role of die local population; authorities are
reluctant to acknowledge that the people of the region are dissatisfied with the state.
Meanwhile, international observers typically characterise the conflict as Islamic terrorism.
Yet neither of these interpretations is sufficient. Ultimately, die conflict is being driven by
the grievances of a minority group, the Malay-Muslim people of the region. Therefore peace
depends on respecting the minority rights of the Malay-Muslims. Unfortunately relatively
little attention has been paid to minority rights in existing literature on this conflict.

In theory, Thailand has responsibilities to its minorities under national and

international law. In practice, Thailand does not do enough to defend minority interests.
State schools in the Southern provinces have been attacked by insurgents who view state
education as a threat to their way of life. Thus there needs to be significant educational
reform in the region, giving more support for the local culture and language. One possible
way forward is to involve Malaysia, using a European kin-state model of bilateral
cooperation for minority protection. As kin-state to the Malay-Muslim community, Malaysia
could assist in creating new curricula in Thailand or extend some cross-border education
privileges such as scholarships. This could build peace without threatening Thai sovereignty.
To my knowledge, the European kin-state model has not been applied to this conflict before.
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