Lack of unity hurts fight against rebels

Poll candidates say there are too many agencies with responsibilities that overlap.

State authorities need to improve their cooperation in responding to the southern violence, a Bangkok Post forum was told by politicians with a special interest in the area.

FROM LEFT Matubhum party-list MP candidate Areepen Uatarasin, Pheu Thai party-list MP candidate Wiroon Fuensaeng, Democrat MP candidate for Songkla Thaworn Senneam and Chartthaipattana party-list MP candidate Muhammad Sulhan Lamatha share their views on the southern insurgency during a forum held at the Bangkok Post on Tuesday. KOSOL NAKACHOL

Four election candidates from the Democrat, Matubhum, Pheu Thai and Chartthaipattana parties were invited to offer their views on tackling the southern unrest and all agreed that state agencies and the military need to work together more closely. During the forum, they raised questions about the role of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, which coordinates the response to the southern violence.
They said the government should allow local people a bigger say in running the provinces and developing the local economy, rather than relying too much on administrative bodies.
Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Senneam, a Democrat candidate for Songkhla, said unity of responses under the SBPAC could not be guaranteed, as it also had to deal with the army.
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd armies had been asked to help tighten security in the three-insurgency torn southern provinces, in addition to the 4th Army, which is normally in charge.
Mr Thaworn said the 4th Army, which is based in the South, should be the single agency that is authorised to do the job.
"Local soldiers can do the job best," he said.
The Democrat-led government has tried to strengthen cooperation among various state security authorities by having the prime minister supervise both the SBPAC and the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), a military-dominated body which deals with security-related matters throughout the country.
Narathiwat veteran politician Areepen Uatarasin, a Matubhum party-list candidate, said the SBPAC alone cannot tackle the problem.
He suggested that the government establish an administrative commission, at the same level as a ministry, in Pattani province and give it broad powers to carry out its mission.
"We need a bigger agency," Mr Areepen said. "The SBPAC should work as a coordinator."
The SBPAC was restructured last year to shift the agency from military control to a civil agency under the Prime Minister's Office.
The SBPAC's secretary-general has the same status as the permanent secretary of a ministry.
However, Mr Areepen said, many ministries are also dealing with problems in the far South, but that they operate in their own spheres of responsibility.
"They have no unity. Their policies clash and overlap with one another while certain jobs cannot be ordered across ministries," he said.
Mr Areepen backs greater decentralisation for the region, which he said could also help reduce the southern violence.
Pheu Thai party-list MP candidate Wiroon Fuensaeng agreed that local people should be given a role in solving the unrest.
"We should not bring Yasothon and Chiang Rai soldiers to die in the three southernmost provinces," Mr Wiroon said. "We need people who really understand local problems."
Further discussions would be required on whether the three southernmost provinces should be given the same level of autonomy to run their affairs as the wide powers given to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
For his suggestion on the SBPAC, Mr Wiroon was worried over its structure under the command of the prime minister.
He said caretaker Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva seemed to have interfered too much in the agency's affairs.
The prime minister should appoint a minister to oversee the operations of SBPAC, Mr Wiroon suggested.
Muhammad Sulhan Lamatha, a Chartthaipattana MP candidate, did not see the prime minister's supervision of the SBPAC as a problem. Yet he agreed there was some disunity in the agency.
His party, which was in the caretaker coalition government, supported the restructuring of the SBPAC.
During the forum, he also called for more agricultural development in the deep South.