YouTube video a good publicity for militants

Drive-by shootings by insurgents in the deep South occur every day now, causing havoc, emotional distress and fear. Many members of the security forces, teachers and innocent villagers, have been killed and injured during the past eight years of senseless violence in the restive region.

          But the drive-by shooting which took place in Mayo district of Pattani on Saturday July 28 morning is special because the dramatic event was fully recorded by well-hidden surveillance cameras which were installed at the scene. It is pointless for me to describe the grisly shooting because the video footage of the carnage has already been uploaded onto YouTube and anyone can view it if they want to.

          What is interesting about this drive-by shooting is that most of the 15 or so insurgents involved in this act of cowardice did not bother to hide their faces with hoods or masks. This has led some security officers to suspect that the insurgents might have actually wanted to expose themselves to challenge the authorities, they knew there were hidden CCTV cameras at the scene of the attack and in adjacent areas. But whether this assumption is right is debatable.

          Here are a few questions I would like to raise about the assumption that the insurgents knew beforehand about the presence of the CCTV cameras. If it is true, how could the insurgents time their attack to occur at the exact spot where the cameras were installed as the pickup trucks they were travelling in were chasing after the six army patrolmen riding three motorcycles?

          Did the drivers have the time to watch for the spots where the cameras were hidden? And if the insurgents did want to publicise the incident to trumpet their success, they should have released their own footage. The truth is that the footage was leaked by local authorities to the media who posted it in the social media.

          Also, wearing hoods or masks while riding on the back of a pickup truck would have unnecessarily attracted the attention of security forces and the public. After all, in most previous drive-by shootings, the assailants did not cover up their faces anyway.

          Now the question of uploading the footage to YouTube. First of all, it is free publicity for the insurgents. My first impression after viewing the clip on YouTube is how emboldened the insurgents have become to pull off such a mission in broad daylight and before the cameras. The insurgents did not speed away immediately after the shooting but remained there for a couple of minutes before splitting up and going off in two directions.

          My heart-felt sympathy goes to the four fallen soldiers who, obviously, were totally defenceless when they were attacked.

          The other two were luckier, although they, too, were shot and wounded.

          As for the decision to leak the footage of the incident to the media which then posted it in the social media, I strongly feel this step was not carefully thought out because the footage appears to benefit the insurgents by giving them free publicity, although it has also generated a strong reaction against the insurgents.

          Angkhana Neelapaijit, widow of missing Muslim lawyer Somchai and chairwoman of the Working Group on Justice for Peace, said that after she saw the images captured by the cameras she wanted police to bring the perpetrators to justice as quickly as possible.

          Ahmad Somboon Bualuang, a former member of the now-defunct National Reconciliation Commission, however, blamed the state of emergency in the deep South for being the cause of endless violence in the region.

          This outrageous drive-by shooting, the deadly bomb attacks and other violent incidents which have taken place during the fasting month of Ramadan should send a clear and no-nonsense message to all lovers of peace, the insurgents have no respect whatsoever for Islam and will stop at nothing to achieve their goal, even if more people, including innocent children, pillars of the community and bystanders are killed or maimed.

          There are numerous causes for the seemingly endless violence, among them the sense of injustice felt by many Malay Muslims toward the government and anything associated with the government, drug and contraband trafficking, insurgency, business conflicts and personal revenge. Military solutions amount to the wrong prescription which will never solve the unrest.

          I admit I don't have any answers. Revoking the special laws put in place in the area, such as the emergency decree, as suggested by Somboon Ahmad Bualuang will not solve the problem either because this will serve only to encourage the insurgents who will be able to roam more freely.

          At least last week's shooting should serve as a lesson for the top brass at the Fourth Army Region to consider how to provide better protection for its patrolmen, especially those riding motorcycles on dangerous assignments to provide protection to teachers. More importantly, government units working in the deep South, especially those responsible for security, must work together as one unified team.