Tough challenges await Pheu Thai government in the deep South

Although the Pheu Thai party won the July 3 election in a landslide capturing at least 265 out of a total of 500 House seats under contest, it was roundly defeated in the three southernmost provinces by the Democrats.  The party’s complete failure in the restive region has posed a host of questions to the new Pheu Thai-led government which is yet to be formed regarding some key policies advocated by the party during the election campaign.

          Foremost of the policies is the Nakhon Pattani special administration model, a semi-autonomous body which incorporates Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces together into one single administration under the supervision of a governor directly elected by voters in the three provinces.  Besides the elected governor, there will be an assembly comprising elected representatives from every district in the three provinces.

          Mr Pakorn Pungnetr, editor of Isra news agency, noted in his recent comment that the Pheu Thai party’s Nakhon Pattani model is complicated – that is while it advocates the election of a governor for the entire region, the existing governor’s post for each of the three provinces is not scrapped.  This means there will be one elected governor overseeing the region plus three provincial governors.  The anticipated problem is that there will be a duplication of works and powers among the four governors.

          On top of that, there are the other local administrative bodies such as Or Bor Jor or Provincial Administrative Organisation and Or Bor Tor or Tambon Administrative Organisation which will continue functioning within the Nakhon Pattani special administration.

          Although a semi-autonomous body, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is different from Nakhon Pattani in one key aspect that is the city administration has only one  governor elected by Bangkok residents overseeing 50 districts each of which is led by a director.  The city has an elected assembly and each district also has an elected assembly whereas in the outlying areas of Bangkok there are still kamnan or tambon headmen and phuyaibaan village headmen.

          Another touchy issue that poses a challenge to the new government is troop withdrawal from the restive region.  There have been calls by some sectors of the people in the three southernmost provinces for troops from the other regions to be pulled out on the grounds that they are not familiar with the local cultures and language.  Only troops from the Fourth Army Region should be kept in the restive region.

          The enforcement of special laws such as the Emergency Decree and Martial Law in the three southernmost provinces is another important issue that poses a real challenge to the new government.

          Other disturbing issues include the unresolved Tak Bai massacre in which 78 Muslims died of suffocation while they were being trucked to a military camp in Narathiwat, the Krue Se incident in which 108 Muslims were killed, the suspicious death of Imam Yapa while in military detention and several other cases of alleged human rights violations.

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Captions : Yingluck Shinawatra announces the formation of a new coalition comprising five political parties.

Thanks : Photo from The Nation