The document summarizes the historical treatment of Thai Muslims in southern Thailand prior to 2000. It discusses how: 1) The southern region was once an independent Malay kingdom that was conquered by Siam in the 16th century and treated as a dumping ground for corrupt officials, deepening ethnic alienation. 2) Thai Muslims faced higher levels of lawlessness and were abused by government and security officials. 3) In 2000, authorities responded to separatist activities with military force and legal actions, though softened their approach in 2001. 4) Social inequality, lack of freedom, and injustice contributed to resentment among Thai Muslims towards the Thai government and occasional violent attacks.

1. WISP Assignment 2
Done By:
Au Yeung Chun Wang
Huang Rui jun
Le Quang Thai
Lim Hui Xiang Hannah
Tan Jing Boon Brian

2. 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

3. 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

4. Insurgency Timeline in Yala,
Pattani and Narathiwat

5. By Au Yeung Chun Wang

6. 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

7. 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

8. By Tan Jing Boon Brian

9. • 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.

10. • 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.

11. • 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.

12. • 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.

13. • 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.

14. • 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.

15. • 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.

16. • 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.

17. • 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.

18. • 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.

19. By Le Quang Thai

20. • 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.

21. • 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.

22. • Social:
 The Muslims have lower level of education
and opportunities than their Buddhist
neighbors.

23. By Lim Hui Xiang Hannah

24. • Anti-Malay racism
• Insurgency (def. rising in active revolt)
• More than 3.400 killed since 2004

25. • 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 riots
 1969 race riots – result of the May 13 incident
 Maria Hertogh riots

26. By Huang Rui Jun

27. • 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.

28. • 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.

29. • 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.

30. • 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.

31. • Work Place
Source: http://www.singstat.gov.sg

32. • Work Place

33. • 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.

34. • 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.

35. • 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.

36. • 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.

37. • 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.

38. 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.

39.  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:
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 "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:
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40.  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

41. Thank you for your Attention!