Southern Thailand, rich in cultural identities and natural beauty, is being converted into a 100 percent Thai territory with the “taming” of Islam gaining momentum under a “democratic” government in Bangkok.

Muslims in Patani, once the berth of Malay prosperity in the region, are currently accusing the government in Bangkok of perpetuating a long war against Islam and the Muslims.

Thailand is taking advantage of the war against terrorism to continue assaults on Patani freedom fighters, say influential Muslims in the region. They support their views with allegations that violence in southern Thailand is the result of policies implemented by the Bangkok-based government.

Some of these destabilizing elements, Muslims say, include constant attacks against freedom fighters and non-respect for Muslims’ birthrights in Patani. They also argue that their language, a mixture of Malay and Thai, has been relegated to its historical vestiges and is not allowed to be taught in schools.

From kindergarten to secondary schools and into universities, Malay-Patani children are being taught a Siamese medium. There is an acute absence of any promotion of Malay language at all levels.

Thailand is also seen ready to cooperate with any side willing to quell separatism and impose what is called "Siamization", or the compelling of pro-Thailand policies on Muslims. Thailand is also known as Siam, an ancient name still in use in Northern Malaysia, Burma and other neighboring nations.

Thailand's cooperation with Malaysia is much regretted in Patani, with Muslims saying they have been given a severe blow and have no escape from the wrath of Thai authorities.

Malaysia, for its part, dealt with Patani separatists with harshness in the mid-90's; Otherwise it might have had to face the anger of its mighty Thai neighbor.

After all, Thailand is a huge country with tremendous resources and an army that outmatches Malaysia's military firepower. But there have been very few instances where tension has risen between Malaysia and Thailand. Cooperation between the two countries goes well beyond Patani or the benefit of Muslims in the region, IslamOnline was told.

After the September 11th attacks on the U.S., Thailand joined forces with Malaysia to keep a close watch on the movement of suspected terrorists in the region, with police in both countries exchanging intelligence reports on individuals allegedly belonging to extremist organizations in Thailand.

Supreme Commander Gen. Sampao Chusri of Thailand's southern army command, said Malaysian authorities told Thailand that certain elements in their country had contacted separatists in four southern Thai Muslim-dominated provinces, in what was seen as preparation for unrest.

Sources said activists in Malaysia after September 11th reportedly provided military training for Muslim youths and persuaded them to declare a "jihad" on the U.S. if it launched an attack on Afghanistan.

According to Thai sources, the activists worked closely with Thai separatists in the four southern provinces of Thailand, in a bid to create chaos in the region.

Malaysia arrested more than 40 individuals allegedly belonging to the Mujahidin Militant Group (KMM), which has been accused of attempting to topple the Malaysian government with violence.

The group has also been linked to individuals and groups in Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia. There is also a possibility that the group might be involved in some anti-government activities in countries as far as Myanmar, Cambodia and even Vietnam, where Muslims are facing constant oppression from regimes there.

In Thailand, Gen. Sampao said he had asked army chief Gen. Surayud Chulanont, and the Fourth Army Region, to keep an eye on Muslim groups in the south and investigate possible links with activists in Malaysia.

IslamOnline has come to learn that Thailand’s military is also probing, with the help of Indonesia, on links between Patani liberation fighters and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which is fighting for an independent state in Aceh, Indonesia.

Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, officially said in December 2001 that they suspected huge movements of arms and ammunition along the borders between Malaysia and Thailand, and the waters that run between Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, including Singapore.

Back in Patani, Muslims insist that Thai authorities are hampering, if not eliminating, any real hope for a revival of the might of the Patani people who want to bring back their inheritance rights in their motherland.

Muslims in Patani said the former Malay Kingdom of Patani had always been victimized by the Thais, especially after the acceptance of Islam by the kingdom.

Islam allowed the Malays in Patani to progress into the development of a new society where there was no class division among people. For about a century after her emergence as a state from a city port of Lankasuka, which was based in the present-day Patani district of Yarang, Patani entered into a formal relationship with the Thai king in Ayutthaya.

Historians say the Thai king saw this as a form of submission from Malays because Patani was smaller than Ayutthaya. In 1786, Thai’s conquered the prosperous Patani region after a long war.

Under the absolute Thai monarchy, an educational program was promulgated. Patani children not only had to attend Thai language and Buddhist culture at Buddhist Temples, but also parents had to pay fees for these courses.

Patani leaders and teachers, who fought the system with the opening of Islamic schools and furious complaints in parliament in Bangkok, were charged with treason during the early 1990s. Some of them were brutally murdered by police.

The Islamic scholar, Haji Sulong, founded a modern private Malay Islamic school plus a Thai lesson class. Thai police later killed the scholar under the so-called constitutional monarchy system.

Patani remembers this period (1930-1950) as the period of genocide against Malay-Muslim leaders in the region.

A Malay representative to the Thai Parliament for the Narathiwat constituency, Tenku (Prince) Jalal of Teluban (Saiburi), had made complaints about the malpractices of Thailand officers in Patani. He was charged with treason and forced into exile.

In 1948, hundreds of Patani Malays were massacred in Dusung Nyor near Tanjong Mas in Narathiwat Province. In 1960, Belukar Samak village, also in Narathiwat, was burned down on suspicion that it was sheltering “militants” who participated in an Islamic uprising.

Brutalities against Muslims continued well into the 1980s and a Muslim rebellion later peaked with attacks led by the Patani United Liberation Front (PULO), who demanded a separate Islamic territory for Muslims. The PULO was crushed, with Malaysia aiding in the arrest of its top leaders, who are still in jail in Bangkok, though they are being detained without trial.

Patani was annexed to Thailand in 1902. Muslims feels that a huge discrimination policy has been implemented since then to quash Malay culture and heritage. While Thailand continues its taming of Islam in the region, Muslims in other countries are slowly forgetting that there was once a rich and powerful Islamic kingdom in Patani.
 

Kazi Mahmood is a former BBC radio Africa stringer covering the Indian Ocean Islands. He worked as a journalist for the past 20 years and contributed to several London based political and economic magazines. You can reach him at kazi_mahmood@yahoo.com

source : http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1156077774329&pagename=Zone-English-Muslim_Affairs%2FMAELayou