An exclusive interview with The New Pulo Leader
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Nur Abdulrrahman was recently elected the new leader of the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo), succeeding Kebir Abdurrahman Tenvira who died in exile in Syria’s Damascus last year.
Nur Abdulrrahman who is believed by the Thai Special Branch police to be the same person as Arbae Kamae or Kamae Yusoh gave an exclusive interview to Adem Ozkose, a reporter of the World Bulletin in Turkey. In the interview, he talked about the origin of his family, his education, his joining the Palestinian resistance movement and then the Pulo, the ties between Pulo and Iran.
The followings are excerpts of the interview:
Nur said that the present Muslim population in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand had ancestors who came from many countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Turkey. His own ancestors were from Istanbul who settled in the region which was then known as the Pattani Caliphate during the Ottoman Caliphate.
“My deceased grandfather told us when we were young that we were of Turkish origin who came from Istanbul. Also, when he was upset he would speak in Turkish. He also used Turkish language when cursing the Thai military. Sometimes he would say that one day Turkey would come to our rescue to save us from Thai occupation.”
Nur was born in 1948 in Yala province which he said was part of Pattani. He said he was sixty years old but he felt like he were 18. He attend his primary and secondary schooling in Yala but, at the same time, he also attended pondok religious school where he took lessons in Quran, Arabic, Tajwid, Akaid and Fiqih.
Like most of his high-school classmates, Nur said he knew from his childhood that Pattani was occupied by Thai Buddhists and that he believed that, one day, the people of Pattani must have their own government.
As high-school students, he said he and his friends held secret meetings for the struggle for Pattani’s freedom. But when Kebir Abdurrahman Tenvira formed the Pulo and called for the independence of Pattani, he and his friends answered the call.
After finishing high school, he said he went to Saudi Arabia and then to Syria’s Damascus to attend the university there. In 1973, Nur and two friends contacted resistance movements in Lebanon and received training in camps in southern Lebanon to support the Palestinians in Israeli-occupied Lebanon. He joined the Palestinian resistance at the age of 24 and spent a year with the resistance movement before returning back to studies.
Towards the end of 1974, Nur said Thai-Muslim students studying in Damascus were brought together to form the Pattani Student Union. In that same year, he was sent back to Pattani by Pulo leader to organize protest against what he alleged as the Thai military’s oppression against the ethnic Malays. The protest lasted 44 days, the longest ever held against the Thai administration, he said.
After the protest, he returned to Damascus and then to Libya. Their relationship with the Libyian was so good that they were allowed to set up training camps there. From Libya, he proceeded to Iran where the Pulo was allowed to set up an office.
Nur said relationship between the Pulo and Iran turned sour after Tehran wanted Pulo to spread the Shiite sect in the three southernmost provinces. But since most of the Muslims in the region were Sunni, the Iranian’s proposal was rejected, thus the Iranians’ anger. Eventually, the Pulo office in Iran was closed.
As for his relationship with the late Pulo leader Kebir Abdurrahman Tenvira , Nur said his father liked Tenvira very much and the two families live in neighbouring houses. Tenvira, he said, was one of the most important people in Pattani and was the founder of the resistance movement in Pattani.
Regarding the problem between the ethnic Malays and the Thai administration, Nur said: “The Pattani society and the Thai society are two different societies. The Pattanis are Muslims and the Thais are Buddhists. We speak the Malay language, they speak Thai language. The Pattanis have a completely different culture. Our ancestors established the Pattani islanic kingdom and lived freely in the Pattani state. Also the Pattani culture is not all the same with the Thai culture. In spite of all these differences, the Thai government occupied our land want to alienate us from our own culture.