2011 Thailand General Election: Patani Conflict Solution

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva  had dissolved the parliament on May 10,  2011 and stamped the July 3, 2011 as the election date. The 2011 general election is very important for Thailand in the sense of  country transformation or  transition because it is the fight between  two big parties who totally stand opposite to each others, good in  ideology, policy or  national  interest; Democrat party is the conservative who represent the royal interest lead by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Pueuthai party (Red Shirt)  who goes against the royal interest and had been excused to overthrow the Thai royal families and kingship institution  in Thailand lead by Yingluck Shinawatra, youngest sister of the former Thailand Prime Mhinister Thaksin Shinawatra, now exile in Dubai.

There are  40 registered political parties getting contest in this election, many of them are new parties while the old small-medium parties are also ready for the election.

Expectation

Pheuthai party is in the lead according to every ‘publications poll’ and every ‘Major Medias’  in the country and of course,  in the position to form up the government to run the affairs of the nation, Democrat party try hard to stop Pheuthai party by occasionally sent the army commander to play the  sophisticated ‘blocker role’ and ‘dirty trick’ as usually practice by the army in the previous time, on May 25, 2011 at Rajaprasong Democrat Rally, Suthep Thueksuban-Democrat’s Secretary said that elect Phuethai is for overthrow the king institution (the dangerous and sensitive accusation so far), however in order to get the sympathy from the voters, Democrat has to do this dirty trick. Pheuthai party also infiltrated in to the previous Bangkok Democrat last election stronghold, the  commentators said that Phuethai will get more than 70 percent seats in the Bangkok Metropolitan constituencies.

Yingluck Shinawatra/Pheuthai

Southern Border Provinces

In the upcoming general election, scheduled for July 3, Thai voters will vote for two types of candidates to be Members of Parliament (MPs). One is the voting on a party-list basis, or under the proportional representation system, and the other is the voting on a single-member constituency basis, this rule is applied country wide including Malay ethnic of Patani, Yala and Narathiwat province, Lanna North and Esarn people.

The 11  MPs seats of lower house  will be elected  in  11 constituencies in the conflict 3 southern border provinces, seats will be divided as follow:-

Patani             4 seats/ 4 constituencies

Yala               3 seats/ 3  constituencies

Narathiwat     4 seats/ 4 constituencies

Abhisit Vejjajiva/Democrat

Expectation

There are many political parties who propose their candidates to contest in 2011 Thailand general election in Patani, Yala and Narathiwat but  the most influential parties who take part in this election are as follow:-

Official Election No.  1    Pheuthai party and country wide Pheuthai candidates

Official Election No. 7     Prachatham Party and country wide Prachatham candidates

Official Election No.10   Democrat party and country wide Democrat candidates

Official Election No.26    Mathuphum Party and country wide Mathuphum candidates

According to the Prince of Songkhla University ‘Southern Borders Poll’ conducted on 13-19 June 2011 are as follow:-

32.40    percent want Democrat Party to  be the government

21.6        percent want Pheuthai Party to be the government

8.30          percent want Mathuphum Party to be the government

Mukta Kila/Prachatham

New Phenomena

The very interesting and most important phenomenon appeared in this general election is  that the establishment of Prachatham Party (Pracha= people, Tham=justice) by the Malay ethnic, marked as the first Malay ethnic party in the history of political movement in this country after the annexation of Patani kingdom by Thai North. Mukta Kila is elected as the leader of Pracahtham Party, carry a clear policy of peace solution to the Patani conflict ‘ We volunteer as the legal platform to end the conflict here in the south, we start our engine and gear ahead because we believed that no one know and understand better than us, the son of the Land(Bumi Putra) to end this problem in peaceful mean, we are in the middle between the Merdeka(independence)liberation fighters and the failure Thai government’ The members and candidates of Prachatham party are ‘No Name’ in Thailand political sphere.

Apart from this, Pheuthai party had a strong policy to solve the conflict by offer ‘Nakorn Patani’, the decentralization for integrated  or united Patani as in the historical past, this include Yala,  Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla province.

Nakorn Patani or Patani City state is a revival of semi-Patani kingdom in the past. Pheuthai Party is in favor of demolish the re-established Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center (SBPAC) by democrat party.

Sonthi Booyarakalin/Mathuphum

Democrat party offer the same concept of current policy, decentralization through Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center (SBPAC) under the direct supervision of Prime Minister by elected the advisory council from various part of society, SBPAC is the legal juristic person under the concept of Thailand integration not separation and deny the existence of ‘Malay ethnic’ in the main stream society but ‘Thai M uslim’ instead.

Mathuphum party under the leadership of Muslim from Bangkok, the former September coup leader-General Sonthi Bunyarataklin hope to gain more seats to the parliament in these border provinces by persuading the former Muslim Malay MPs from Pheuthai party and Pheupandin party to work together in Mathuphum party. ‘Self Rule’ is the way out for the conflict south by offering the education in conformity with locality and the election of provincial governor in the southern border provinces.

Yingluck/ Sothern Campaign

2011 general election is the starting point of a more positive ‘peace solution to the conflict’ chapter, after seven years of New series of Patani liberation fight for Patani Merdeka(Free Patani or Independent of Patani) by the armed group of Patani Liberation Movements in the country and Diplomatic Movement out side the country, to day what Patani river has seen is the progress of ‘peace dialogue’ between the independent fighters and the Thai government in and out side the country sponsored by different world  peace organizations, the free speech and reduction of  suspicion to the local Malay politician in the country and pay more respect to the liberation fighters are really a good sign to the road of sustainable peace in the area.