Fighting with Ghosts: Querying Thailand’s “Southern Fire”

Abstract

This article explores several key issues that remain under-examined or problematic in assessments of Thailand's ongoing southern crisis. It argues that the ghosts behind the ongoing turbulence in Thailand's southern border provinces are not only mysterious insurgents, but also the imponderable and contentious issues that continue to pervade discourse and policy debate after six years of unrest. First, it addresses the problematic issue of depicting the violence solely as an ideologically-driven insurgency, highlighting the fact of systemic instability in the borderland. Noting the complexity of the violence, the paper also draws attention to the politics of naming: i.e., the concern of the Thai state to define the violence as non-political for an international audience. Secondly, it outlines the insurgency-related dimensions of the violence and the enigmatic character of the insurgents' organization, identity and aims, which ultimately lie at the heart of the key dilemmas facing the Thai state in efforts to reduce the violence. It then considers key competing public texts that have emerged to define the putative causes of and solutions to the southern problem. Finally, the paper addresses the generally ignored topic of the varied positions of the Malay Muslim population and the implications of this for discussions of the meaning and legitimacy of insurgents' political violence.