No democratic hope for south Thailand

[buksida]

Thailand's Puea Thai Party won this month's general election in a landslide, pummeling the incumbent Democrat Party. But in the insurgent-torn far south, local Malay Muslim politicians who had campaigned for some form of elected regional governance lost to Democrat Party candidates who remain opposed to any regional autonomy initiatives to resolve the armed conflict.

In the lead-up to the widely anticipated July 3 general election, several parties touted political reforms on the campaign trail in the southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. Puea Thai, the party that captured a majority of the national vote, and smaller parties such as Matubhum, Prachatam and Taen Khun Paendin, all conveyed to Malay Muslim voters that they would work to ensure Bangkok grants political concessions to the region.

On the other hand, the incumbent Democrats, the party believed to be favored by the monarchy, its Privy Council and the military's top brass, did not share this political vision. Rather, the party headed by outgoing prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva suggested that it would seek to improve the region's Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center (SBPAC), whose head has always been a Thai Buddhist bureaucrat appointed by Bangkok.

To the disappointment of Malay Muslim advocates of some form of elected regional governance, the Democrat Party captured nine out of the provinces' 11 constituency seats and some 55% of the region's party list votes. In other words, voters from this historically restive region where the population is approximately 80% Muslim in effect stood by the status-quo of political power arrangements between Thailand's center and its peripheral far south.

Full Story: Asia Times Online

[cozza]

This article is I think related...from Voranai Vanijaka, who I believe is a great writer for the Bangkok Post.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... e-minister