Many things can be done without the peace talk process
Besides the cessation of violence, the next foremost demand of many people in the restive deep South is not a special administrative zone or quasi self-rule as proposed by several politicians and academics but the opening up of more space to allow good people to play active role in local administration.
From my personal experience in participating in numerous informal talks and discussions with people of different occupations and professions in the southern border provinces, I found out that many of them have wanted good people to enter local politics, to become administrators in local administrative bodies such as provincial administrative organization, tambon administrative organization and municipality. Or the mandatory qualifications of these local administrators should be increased for instance a kamnan or a village headman must have, at least, graduated from a university.
For this demand to be realized, I don’t think that we have to wait for Hassan Taib or any core leader of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional to make the demand because it can be done immediately without much difficulty. And if this can be done, it will show the government is genuinely sincere towards the people.
Personally, I believe that there are several other things that can be done by the government without having to wait for the peace process to start or to bear fruit. These include ensuring justice and fairness in court cases, the easing of special laws in the region and equal enforcement of the law regardless of different religious faiths or ethnicity.
The formal peace talk between the government and nine insurgent groups, including the BRN, which started in Kuala Lumpur on March 28 should not be the only option in the search for a peaceful solution to the bloody conflict in the deep South which, for the past nine years, has claimed more than 5,000 lives, most of them civilians.
The peace talk process is just one of the mechanisms to solve the problem and we should not place all our hope on the process as if it was the only answer to the problem. As such, we would leave out other problems which also contribute to the unrest.
Although personally I do not attach much importance to the issue about the separatist leaders who joined the peace talk whether they are real and have influence over the separatists in the field, I believe that the credibility of the separatist leaders is important as far as public trust is concerned. That is if the public do not trust the separatist leaders, then there is a slim chance that the peace process will be a success.
If we believe that the separatist leaders who joined the peace process do not have clout over the separatists or insurgents who are the perpetrators of all the violent incidents, then the peace talks will be meaningless.
I used to ask my sources to contact the RKK insurgents and to ask their opinions about the peace process, the common answer from the insurgents is that they know nothing about the peace process and they have not been told by anyone to stop or ease violent attacks.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Caption : The leader of Thai delegation for peace talk
Note : Translated from the editorial of Isra News "อย่าฝากความหวังไว้แค่...โต๊ะเจรจา"