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Thai Buddhism, Thai Buddhists and the southern conflict

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2009

Duncan McCargo
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Extract

Thailand's ‘southern border provinces’ of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat – along with four districts of neighbouring Songkhla – are the site of fiery political violence characterised by daily killings. The area was historically a Malay sultanate, and was only loosely under Thai suzerainty until the early twentieth century. During the twentieth century there was periodic resistance to Bangkok's attempts to suppress local identity and to incorporate this largely Malay-speaking, Muslim-majority area into a predominantly Buddhist nation-state. This resistance proved most intense during the 1960s and 1970s, when various armed groups (notably PULO [Patani United Liberation Organization] and BRN [Barisan Revolusi Nasional]) waged war on the Thai state, primarily targeting government officials and the security forces. In the early 1980s, the Prem Tinsulanond government brokered a deal with these armed groups and proceeded to co-opt the Malay-Muslim elite. By crafting mutually beneficial governance, security and financial arrangements, the Thai state was able largely to placate local political demands.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2009

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References

1 For background analysis of the southern Thai conflict, refer to the five reports published by the International Crisis Group since 2005, at www.crisisgroup.org; Human Rights Watch, No one is safe. Insurgent violence against civilians in Thailand's southern border provinces (New York, Human Rights Watch Report, 19, 13 (C), Aug. 2007); Askew, Marc, Conspiracy, politics and a disorderly border: The Struggle to represent insurgency in Thailand's deep south (Washington, DC: East West Center, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ed. McCargo, Duncan, Rethinking Thailand's southern violence (Singapore: NUS Press, 2007)Google Scholar (a revised version of the Mar. 2006 special issue of Critical Asian Studies, 38, 1); and McCargo, Duncan, Tearing apart the land: Islam and legitimacy in southern Thailand (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008)Google Scholar.

2 Refer to Srisompob Jitpiromsri, 40 duan khwam runraeng: sotplaichob kanchaihetphol lae samanachan [40 months of violence: Reaching the edge of rationality and reconciliation?], 4 June 2007, updated in an oral presentation for the Social Science Research Council, New York, 26 Oct. 2007. This, and other invaluable Thai-language reports on the violence, may be found at http://www.deepsouthwatch.org (last accessed on 6 Aug. 2008).

3 Information from ‘Population and households census 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000: Southern provinces’, National Statistical Office (Bangkok: Prime Minister's Office, 2003).

4 Interview with an abbot before the 19 Sept. 2006 military coup, cited in Amporn Marddent, ‘Buddhist perceptions of Muslims in the Thai south’, paper presented at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Boston, 22–25 Mar. 2007.

5 Refer to The Nation, 17 Nov. 2004.

6 In general, homicide rates are highest in developing Christian countries, and lowest in developed and Muslim-majority nations. Thailand has proportionally more murders than any Muslim-majority nation.

7 For a critical view of the Thai military, refer to Ockey, James, ‘Thailand: The Struggle to redefine civil-military relations’, in Coercion and governance: The Declining political role of the military in Asia (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001): 187–208Google Scholar.

8 Somboon Suksamran, Buddhism and politics in Thailand: A Study of socio-political change and political activism of the Thai sangha (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies), p. 7.

9 These acts are discussed in detail in Ishii, Yoneo, Sangha, state and society (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986)Google Scholar.

10 For a detailed discussion, refer to Jackson, Peter, Buddhism, legitimation and conflict (Singapore: ISEAS, 1989), pp. 63–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 The history of this suppression is explored in Tivavanich, Kamala, Forest recollections: Wandering monks in twentieth-century Thailand (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

12 Refer to Jackson, 1989, pp. 94–112.

13 Satha-Anand, Suwanna, ‘Religious movements in contemporary Thailand: Buddhist struggles for modern relevance’, Asian Survey, 30, 4 (1990): 405CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Autobiography: The Life of Prince-Patriarch Vajiranana of Siam 1860–1921, ed. and trans. Craig Reynolds (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1979), p. 32.

15 Reynolds, Craig, ‘Power’, in Critical terms for the study of Buddhism, Lopez, Donald S. Jr (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2005), pp. 222–6Google Scholar. In advancing this argument, Reynolds draws extensively on McCargo, Duncan, Chamlong Srimuang and the new Thai politics (London: Hurst, 1997)Google Scholar.

16 Refer to Buddhist warfare, ed. Mark Juergensmeyer and Michael Jerryson (forthcoming), a collection of essays covering historical and contemporary examples drawn from China, Japan, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Tibet. The volume also reviews a range of Buddhist texts supporting the use of violence.

17 For a discussion of this episode, refer to Morell, David and Samudavanija, Chai-anan, Political conflict in Thailand: Reform, reaction, revolution (Cambridge MA: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain, 1981), pp. 246–8Google Scholar.

18 For details, refer to Morell and Chai-anan, Political conflict, pp. 270–3.

19 For a critique, refer to McCargo, Duncan, ‘Buddhism, democracy and identity in Thailand’, Democratization, 11, 4 (Aug. 2004): 155–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Rob Stewart, ‘Defending the faith(s): Buddhism and religious freedom in Thailand’, paper presented at the Seventh International Conference on Thai Studies, Amsterdam, 4–8 July 1999.

21 Refer to Satha-anand, Suwanna, ‘Signs of the time: Cultural tolerance in Asia’, Asia-Pacific Intellectuals (API) Newsletter, 3 (June 2002): 3–4Google Scholar.

22 These writings are discussed in Satha-Anand, Suwanna, ‘Buddhist pluralism and religious tolerance in democratizing Thailand’, in Philosophy, democracy and education, ed. Cam, Philip (Seoul: Korean National Commission for UNESCO and The Asia-Pacific Philosophy Education Network for Democracy, APPEND Philosophy Series, vol. 4), pp. 206–13Google Scholar.