democracy! or democracy?

This week yet another violent attack took place in southern Thailand as a car bomb exploded injuring 18 people in Yala. The southern provinces bordering Malaysia have been a longstanding source of problems in Thailand: they remain unique because they are made up of a non-Buddhist, non-Thai majority which remains among the poorest in the country. While the Thai constitution, in theory, allows the free practice and protection of religion, Muslim-Malay insurgents have demonstrated an increasing willingness to resort to graphic acts of violence targeting women, children and monks among others, and, the military/government has responded with similarly heavy handed tactics: in some instances carrying out black-ops killings of Muslim leaders, hiring local militia, torture, and so on.

While little global attention is given to the turbulent situation in the South of Thailand, in lieu of Middle Eastern Islamicism, it remains an important underlying issue when looking at democracy in the region- specifically the treatment of minorities in emerging democracies. The alienation of a large minority that exists far from the capital and central command, the contrasting tactics of the previous and current government( one major criticism of former PM Thaksin was his indiscriminate use of police to crush separatist/ fundamentalist groups in the south- it remains highly contested whether the insurgency is religious or cultural).

Specifically, something that must be addressed within any democracy is the availability of political and civil space for opposition and minority groups. It could strongly be argued that these attacks continue to increase both in frequency and scope of violence, due in part, to the inability or unwillingness of the central government in Bangkok to address the needs of these groups through official, legitimate channels( An interesting piece of information regarding Islamic government in Thailand, should anyone care, is that most Islamic leaders in Bangkok practice a different branch of Islam than those in the South).