WISP Assignment 2

Done By:Au Yeung Chun WangHuang Rui junLe Quang ThaiLim Hui Xiang HannahTan Jing Boon Brian

Historical Treatment of Thai Muslims by the Thai state prior to 2000

How Thai Muslims in Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat were treated?• The Southern Thailand was once a rich Malay kingdom till it was

occupied by the Buddhist kingdom of Siam in the late 16th century

• In 1909, it was appended by the Kingdom of Siam as part of a treaty negotiated with the British Empire.

• Served as a dumping ground for corrupted and incompetent civilian and military officials

• In a major degree of alienation due to ethnicity, which is intensified by the government misadministration

Historical Treatment of Thai Muslims by the Thai state prior to 2000

• Afflicted by a higher level of common banditry and lawlessness

• In 2000, authorities responded with military force and legal actions to the separatist activities

• In 2001, the government disassembled the suppression operations against the separatist and insurgent movements

• Abused of power by the government officials and security personnel

Insurgency Timeline in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat

By Au Yeung Chun Wang

Social Inequality in Southern Thailand

• Thailand government policy – Governed by former autocratic prime minister, Thaksin

Shinawatra – Weak democratic institutions and a mixture of military and

judiciary – Places Buddhists in Patani to outnumber the Muslims,

weaken them economically and socially

• No freedom and human rights – The government prohibited international journalism on the

internal issues in the Southern areas – Changes the names of the Muslims

Social Inequality in Southern Thailand

• Injustice and unfairness among the Thailand society and government – Not given sufficient opportunities in education – Limited chances in taking up official jobs in the government

staff

• Divided in race, religion, culture, belief, region – Racism practiced by the Thailand government – Spreads Buddhism in the Muslims' regions, changes the

places' names

By Tan Jing Boon Brian

• The majority of Thailand's 63 million people are Buddhists, while a small percentage are Muslims.

• Most of Thailand's Muslims live in the three southern provinces, namely Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.

• For years the provinces have been economically neglected by the Thai government.

• The Thai Muslims living there speak the Malay language.

• These Muslims insist on their Islamic identity by keeping their Muslim names, instead of adopting another name to hide their Muslim identity.

• The Thai Muslims have been resentful of attempts by Thai leaders to culturally transform them, as they wanted to preserve their language and culture.

• The Thai Muslims' resentment towards the Thai government has resulted in occasional attacks against the police and the military.

• The corrupt Thai government's response could provoke violent reactions from the Thai Muslims.

• The key grievances of the Thai Muslims were that most of the bureaucrats in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat were Thais who spoke little Malay.

• Their attitude towards the Malay population was also demeaning.

• Many of the students who returned to Thailand from the Middle East with Islamic credentials found themselves in a dilemma.

• These students would get a good reputation in a Muslim society due to their religious education and extensive links with Muslim movements in Islamic countries.

• However, they were rejected for leadership positions in the Thai state bureaucracy.

• The Thai government attempted to erase the Malay identity from people living in the southern provinces.

• There was a fear among Thai authorities that the rising Malay nationalism in Southeast Asia would erode the loyalty of the southern provinces to the Thai state.

• In an attempt to eradicate the ethnic divide in Thailand, the government embarked on a policy of tagging all Muslims in Thailand as ‘Thai Muslim’.

• This only served to emphasise the religious difference, as the main religion in Thailand is Buddhism.

• The tag of 'Thai Muslims' showed that the Thai government treated the Muslims in Thailand differently.

• The Thai government never took into account the education of Thai Muslims, making sure that the Thai national education system is compulsory for all students.

• There is no standardized Muslim syllabus, and the daily teaching method and its contents are left to the religious teachers.

• The religious schools continue to teach Islam as the main subject and Thai-Malay as the main language, without sufficient tutoring in other subjects such as social sciences and humanities.

• The parents do not want to compromise religious teaching classes with other subjects.

• Thus ,the children studying in religious schools are unable to compete with students from other schools.

• As the Thai Muslim youths lack proper education and the Thai language, they become a highly separated group of youngsters.

• Almost 60 per cent of Thai Muslim youth in 2003 could not get jobs due to them lacking proper education and the Thai language ability.

• Due to frustration and a sense of hopelessness, the Thai Muslim youth either join criminal groups or separatist groups.

By Le Quang Thai

• Political factors:

Thaksin regime dismantled the southern administration organization and replaced it with corrupted police force. And take over the local community leaders which are Muslims.

Discontentment in the Muslims in southern Thailand cause the growing violence during 2004 and 2005.

In the 2005 general election, all but one of the eleven incumbent Muslim MPs who stood for election were voted out of office.

• Economic factors:

Poverty and economic problems were the one of the course of the insurgency. The 3 southern provinces are the lowest average income among the southern provinces of Thailand.

• Social:

The Muslims have lower level of education and opportunities than their Buddhist neighbors.

By Lim Hui Xiang Hannah

• Anti-Malay racism

• Insurgency (def. rising in active revolt)

• More than 3.400 killed since 2004

• Are there similar instances of prejudice and discrimination which might give rise to social divisions that, if left unchecked, could make the imagined future of 2061 a reality?

Yes, Aware Although not racial riot, a religious riot can cause

similarly horrible aftereffects. Casualties not only limited to non-Chinese, even

Chinese will be affected. Previous serious racial riots include:

1964 race riots1969 race riots – result of the May 13 incidentMaria Hertogh riots

By Huang Rui Jun

• Education

Provide equal chances for minority youth groups’ to be well educated.

Educate both children of the majority and minority with the concept of racial harmony via moral education.

• Education

The grudges and racist mindset is passed on from generation to generation which caused the racial riots to be endless.

Thus educate children properly is the first and also the most significant step to avoid racial discrimination and even riot.

• Work Place

Equal job opportunities for the minority races to be employed in any positions of any industries and companies they are willing and able to do.

Government may provide preferential policies for the organizations or enterprises which employ ethnic minorities.

Every company must sign an agreement with government to prohibit any forms of direct or indirect discrimination on minorities.

• Work Place

The company have to Ensure there are ethnic minorities were represented in middle management and senior positions to ensure the rights of other minorities in the company cannot be affected.

Government should give support (economic and policy) to the minorities who would like to start their own business.

Equal salary for all employees regardless of their races.

• Work Place

Source: http://www.singstat.gov.sg

• Work Place

• Work Place

From the chart above, we can see:

Malaysia is still the largest trading partner of Singapore – Malay language is Important as before.

We also see that Not so many trading with India so far.

But as we all know that India is also one of the fastest developing country besides China. Thus, the ability to read and write Tamil is an advantage to access to the huge India economy and market development as well.

Thus, minority work forces which are master in Tamil and Malay should also play an important role in the work place in Singapore. The government should provide more work opportunity for them so as to contribute to economic area for their own nation.

• Work Place

Provide skill upgrading programs for unemployed minority to ensure that they will have stable jobs and stable incomes – reduce jobless rate of minorities.

E.g. Redesign the spur program which is developed by

Workforce Development Agency of Singapore.

Suggest company to Provide free Chinese language training classes for non-Chinese employees if they willing to join.

• Public Opinion Avoid any spread of chauvinism against racial discrimination

via internet (forum) or any other media.

Cooperation among the government and the mass media to

control the broadcasting of any sensitive issues which will harmful to the racial harmony.

Most of time conflicts or even riots are just because a tiny argument or a sensitive comment in a forum or BBS.

• Culture and Religion

Conduct some activities like culture and folkways exchange between different races so as to know more about each other. (Conduct by local community club or related organization)

Respect and accept the culture and religion of the minority.

• Public Opinion can not be fully controlled by government.

• Unexpected crisis. E.g. economic recession may increase unemployment rate.

• Some individuals (especially racist) are not whole-heartedly in cooperating with the government. For people’ s mindset are not easy to be changed.

One People, One Nation, One Singapore

• Singapore government is actually doing very well in handling the racial discrimination problem and must be vigilant to learn the lesson from Southern Thailand and prevent the 1969 riot from repeating.

• Singapore is not the country only for the Chinese, Singapore is belong to all Singaporeans.

Abdul Malik Mujahid. (2009). Killing Muslims in Thailand. Retrieved July 11, 2009 from http://www.soundvision.com/info/terrorism/thai.asp

AsianRacism. (2007). Retrieved July 11, 2009 from Asian Racism: Asian Racism in Thailand: http://asianracism.blogspot.com/2007/10/asian-racism-in-thailand.html

Raslan, Karim. ﾊ "Fanning the flames of religious resentment Thailand." ﾊ International Herald Tribune ﾊ (May 5, 2004): ﾊ Opinion: ﾊ 6. ﾊ Global Issues in Context. ﾊ Gale. ﾊ Lien Ying Chow Library. ﾊ Retrieved 20 July 2009, from Global Issues in Context ﾊ via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com/gic/start.do?prodId=GIC

S P Harish. (2006). Changing Conflict Identities:The case of the Southern Thailand Discord. Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies Singapore. 10-16.

Scores of Thai Muslims Killed in Police Custody. (October 26, 2004).Retrieved 20 July 2009 from http://www.turks.us/article.php?story=20041026230151369

"Thailand spends 3.2 billion USD in solving restive South: research." ﾊ Xinhua News Agency ﾊ(Jan 19, 2009) ﾊ Global Issues in Context. ﾊ Gale. ﾊ Lien Ying Chow Library. ﾊ Retrieved 20 July 2009, from Global Issues in Context ﾊ via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com/gic/start.do?prodId=GIC

"Thai gov't to set up special cabinet council to deal with violence." ﾊ Xinhua News Agency ﾊ(Jan 13, 2009) ﾊ Global Issues in Context. ﾊ Gale. ﾊ Lien Ying Chow Library. ﾊ Retrieved 20 July 2009, from Global Issues in Context ﾊ via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com/gic/start.do?prodId=GIC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand

http://app2.wda.gov.sg/web/Common/homepage.asp

http://students.ou.edu/K/Blair.K.Kelley1/images/JHerb%20Classroom.JPGx

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleid=434405

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6170

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_race_riots_in_Singapore

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Race_Riots_of_Singapore

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_13_Incident

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Hertogh_riots

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Malay_racism

Thank you for your Attention!