Up
until now, the situation in southern Thailand is of much interest to all
involved, whether it be the government security sector, the Southern Border
Province Administration Center (SBPAC) and the general public, both in the area
and outside. And, certainly, the movement would follow
up closely on the situation, too. This is an important pivot point of the
situation, whether for the better or worse.
On the
better side, we see a cooperation between the operational core leaders of the movement and the government
security sector, even though a cooperative resolution is not certain of, yet.
However, it is believable that the violence will lessen, although other
insurgency groups may not agree with this cooperation and may continue their
operations against officials and the innocent people. At the very least,
operations by "Jeh Ali" or Waeali Copter Waji's group in its area of
responsibility will lessen. However, the situation may worsen due to those
leaders high up in the policy-making level may disagree and may order other groups
to accelerate violence to demonstrate that they still have the potential. This
is a matter of concern.
However,
the decision made by "Jeh Ali" and the 93 members has certainly
resulted in significantly troubling the propaganda machine of the movement. Twisted information has been quickly transmitted through various media, especially through web
sites and the social media, including the "ambranews.com" web site.
This site is owned by a treacherous Thai person, renting a server in Malaysia,
and specifically spreading information against the Thai security sector and
government. All the while the Malaysian side is keeping a blind eye. The
twisted information has repainted "Jeh Ali" and his other comrades
who reported themselves in, calling them rubber plantation workers. While, in
reality, "Jeh Ali" was a commanding leader in Narathiwat Province, a criminal against national security, a co-planner in the
arms heist at the 4th Development Battalion in Narathiwat
on January 4, 2004 which resulted in the deaths of four military
officials. The information has twisted the once brothers-in-arms
to adversaries.
The
web site has further cooked-up information that the 93 persons who reported in
for the benefit of peace have been paid by the security sector to start a
drama. This clearly demonstrates the deceptive ideology of the movement, insincere towards anyone, even going against those who have shared
the same ideals, for fear that they might lose their hold on the masses.
This
is the struggle by the separatists in trying to gain the masses. For it is
clear that whoever loses the hold on the masses in the region, defeat would be
near.
The
PULO has also joined in, as usual. This "money-hungry, paper tiger" group collectively posts the operations of other groups on their
web site and twists the information for their own benefits. This allows them to
shamelessly gain funds from abroad.
The
humor lies in the fact that the PULO had nothing to do with the 93 defectors
and yet made their appearance.
The
actual reason for the 93 defectors of its core leaders and united
front members reporting in was a result of networking that led to
a discussion between the security sector and members of the network, who mainly
are local politicians, religious leaders, owners of religious-schools, past
members of Ramkhamhaeng PNYS and past Indonesia-educated students, who are
against violence and want to bring peace to their homeland. This opens up the
opportunity for the pro-violence fighters to turn towards peaceful means
through a middle-link cooperation. As a result, a political party named Party
Kita was established, proclaiming "Melayu Party for the people of
Melayu". The party leader was Mukhtar Kila.
However,
such move resulted in a split amongst the movement's public affairs people,
especially the pro-violence group. This group uses violence to gain funds from
other Muslim nations, claiming to fight for their ideals, which, in reality,
these funds were distributed amongst the members for their personal gains. As a
result, Mukhtar Kila was killed on December 15, 2011. The killing was staged as
though it was to be the work of government officials. Luckily the hitman was
killed by the village security team and it was found that he was from Tanyong
Limo village, Chalerm sub-district, Ra-ngae district, Narathiwat Province, the
same village that assaulted the teacher Juling Pongkanmun to death. As a
result, the evil plan of putting the blame on the nation's security sector was
foiled.
Although
Mukhtar was killed, the members of the peaceful ideals pushed on and have thus
made contact with the group leaders to report themselves to the government, in
order to proceed with peaceful means. This has eventually resulted
in the defection of these 93 people.
The
reporting-in of the core leaders and united front members
is considered a success of the Thai government in striving to fight peacefully.
Moreover, this defection has caused a big quake in the whole insurgency
operations, all the way from leaders/united front body and
personnel/organization, domestically and internationally. This also shook the
underground businesses that supported violence, which, together, benefited
mutually. Also affected are some local NGO's which supported the dark movements
in the southern provinces.
The
resolution of the reporting-in of the movement’s core leaders
and its united front members on the 11th day of the 9th
month, which was comparatively referred to as 911 by the 4th
Army Area Commander, is still difficult to fathom. Yet, this is a
good starting point for the people of the three southernmost border provinces who can now begin to see a glimpse of peace at the end of
the tunnel, instead of the darkness under the tyranny and fear of the
insurgents. Isn't it?
I'm
here with you.
