World’s oldest conflict at Malaysia’s doorstep
The area could easily be mistaken for one of the most hostile zones in the world, similar perhaps to Iraq or Afghanistan. Up to a point, that is true. More than 6,000 people have been killed since 2002 when an unspoken truce fell apart and simmering tensions erupted into violence.
Ian McIntrye, The Ant Daily
History tells us that the longest war ever fought was the Hundred Years’ War of the Middle Ages. It was fought between England and France and later Burgundy. It lasted more than a century – 116 years to be exact.
Closer to home is a conflict history seems to have ignored, even forgotten. It is a war between the Buddhists and the Muslims of Thailand and it has been fought since 1786, the year Captain Francis Light laid the foundation of British rule in Penang. That would make it a 228-year conflict.
Today, the conflict is no closer to resolution than it has ever been. Reports of shoot-outs, executions, beheading and bomb blasts in the five southern provinces of Thailand continue to hog the headlines.
These five provinces – Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Satun – share the same border with the four northernmost states of Malaysia, namely Perlis, Kedah, Perak and Kelantan.
The area could easily be mistaken for one of the most hostile zones in the world, similar perhaps to Iraq or Afghanistan. Up to a point, that is true. More than 6,000 people have been killed since 2002 when an unspoken truce fell apart and simmering tensions erupted into violence.
For Malaysians, who have long considered southern Thailand as a holiday destination, the past 10 years or so have been difficult. Many with relatives across the border worry for the safety of their kinfolk who have been displaced by the fighting. Yet others long for some respite from the fighting so they can hop over for a much-needed break.
Many Malaysians have had to interrupt their stay in tourist destinations such as Haadyai (the largest city in southern Thailand) as well as border entertainment strips such as Danok and Golok because of intermittent bombings since 2002.
Malaysians have not been spared.
As many as 20 Malaysians have been killed after being caught in the middle of shoot-outs or being in the vicinity of a bomb blast.
Family, tourists and Malaysian officials can only watch in despair as the violence grew from bad to worse in the last 12 years.
For those who still dare to venture across the border, they have to leave their handphones with Malaysian SIM cards behind because these can be used to set off bombs.
The conflict in southern Thailand began with a battle for supremacy between two rival kingdoms – the Siamese from the north and the Pattani Malay Sultanate in the south. According to the head of Research and Education for Peace centre at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Prof Kamarulzaman Askandar, the Siamese kingdom had waged a brutal war against the Pattani sultanate in 1786.
By the early 20th century, the once proud Pattani Empire which some historians say extended to the borders of Thailand’s ancient capital Ayutthaya had crumbled.
The Pattani Empire was a force to be reckoned with in its days. At some point in its history, its influence spread as far south as the Malacca Sultanate.
However, the constant wars with its northern neighbour, the Siamese kingdom, wreaked havoc on the Pattani Sultanate. Internal bickering also contributed to its downfall.
Half of southern Thailand’s Malay kingdom was later annexed by the British under the Treaty of London signed between the British colonists with the Siamese kingdom. The British, who were already showing an interest in the Malay Peninsula apart from Penang, felt compelled to broker a peace deal between the Pattani Sultanate and Siam.
Under the deal between the British and the Siamese, the five southernmost provinces once controlled by the Pattanis came under the control of Siam (now Thailand) while the British were given nominal control of the states of Perlis, Kedah, Perak, Kelantan and Terengganu in the Malay Peninsular by becoming resident advisers to the rulers of these states.
One landmark episode was in 1947 when a Pattani chieftain named Haji Sulong Al-Fattani made several demands of Bangkok during an uprising. Some of these demands have still not been dropped, such as making Islam the official religion and for government officials to be appointed from among the local inhabitants.
However, the Thai authorities back then opted to take the more aggressive path. It waged an all-out war against the Pattani rebels.
Haji Sulong was arrested and subsequently went missing while under detention. He is presumed to have been killed.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, various organised insurgent groups out for independence or autonomy began to wage a guerrilla war against the Thai security forces.
Names such as the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) grabbed the headlines.
At the same time, Malaysia was preoccupied with her own guerrilla war – the fight against the communist insurgents.
Some of the most gruesome battles were fought along the Malaysia-Thai border by all sides and it derailed efforts to develop the same border between the two countries. It has remained porous until today.
In the 1980s, the Thai security forces scored several resounding victories and the insurgency in Pattani petered out.
In the aftermath of the defeat, the Pattani insurgents took steps to merge into one umbrella group to recoup their strength and resources. However, the pact lasted only months.
Infighting and the egoistic Pattani concept of gedebeh (boldness) led the insurgents to quarrel among themselves, and they broke up into splinter groups.
Pulo split into three factions and BRN was divided into two groups. This derailed any momentum to sustain an offensive.
In 2001, the violence flared up again when the insurgents coordinated a raid on a military installation in Narathiwat, stealing hundreds of weapons and ammunition in the process. It signalled a new phase in the conflict, says Kamarulzaman.
