News:

On 5^nd May 2014, Women News Network (WNN) reported that the marginalized position of women and the lack of health services is leaving many women affected by the conflict with nowhere to go for support or employment when their husbands are killed. There are an estimated 3,000 widows in the region. Many are struggling with trauma. According to the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), a military unit in charge of security in the region, at least 5,926 people have been killed over the past 10 years, both by security forces and insurgents who have been fighting for increased autonomy in Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla provinces. The Muslim majority provinces formed part of the independent Sultanate of Pattani before being annexed by Thailand in 1909 and the region has seen intermittent unrest ever since. "Often women have no voice in the south. They are supposed to stay at home and take care of the family. Nothing else," said Neelapaijit, whose husband, a human rights lawyer, disappeared 10 years ago.

Comment:

The insurrection in southern Thailand is a separatist campaign located in the Patani region dominated by the Malay ethnique and is actually built from four southernmost provinces of Thailand: Songkhla, Patani, Narathiwat and Yala where the fighting spirit has then flowed to other districts. The conflict actually began in the 1930s after the revolution in Thailand where the Thai Absolute Monarchy system turned into a Parliamentary monarchy system where its membership was dominated by the military. The change of the system made the central government increasingly radical especially towards the Southern districts in Thailand. In this Parliamentary monarchy system era, the representative system for Malays living in the south of Thailand have been eliminated. Since then, the upheaval in south Thailand started to erupt between the Muslims and the Buddhists community. Although the separation struggle has existed for decades in that area, this separation has dramatically increased in the year 2004.

Since this upheaval, the officers posted to Pattani are those without integrity and actually have a filthy agenda of their own. This can be clearly seen when there are officers who kill and rape according to their desire. The Thailand Southern provinces are still behind in terms of social and economic development compared to the central area of Bangkok, Thailand even though the Pattani people are forced to pay taxes on the ground for the development of the country. From the economic perspective, the Pattani Province is among the most left behind province in Thailand. This is due to the unfair distribution of financial funds by the federal government as it is influenced by racial and religious sentiments. This can be evidenced by the widening gap between rural residents in other areas than Patani. The average income of the residents in rural areas are higher where the average income of its population is 1269 Baht compared to only 568 Baht gained by a Patani Muslim.

This is the Kufr system forced upon them. However, this situation has been neglected by their neighbouring country, Malaysia even though the majority of Malays are Malaysians who are similar to the Malays in Southern Thailand. The instillation of the nationalism spirit within the Malaysian society has especially made their suffering prolonged until now. Stress in living and mental stress faced by the communities in southern Thailand will be endless as long as the Nationalism barrier is not demolished.

According to reports, tens of thousands of Muslims have been killed and captured since the turmoil erupted. Sufferings faced by women who are abandoned by their husbands due to being killed and captured were revealed through this news report. It is estimated that there are 3,000 single mothers who are afflicted with mental stress and trauma. This shows how huge their suffering is and there is no assistance or aid given to them even though their neighbors come from the same origin as them. Nonetheless, because of the nationalism spirit, the community and the leaders of Malaysia are becoming blind and deaf towards their cries.

O' Muslims, remember the hadith from our Prophet saw from Jabir bin Mu'tim,

«ليس منا من دعا إلى عصبية، وليس منا من قاتل على عصبية،. وليس منا من مات على عصبية»

"He is not one of us who calls for asabiyyah, (tribalism/nationalism) or who fights for asabiyyah, or who dies for asabiyyah."

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Sumayyah Amar

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir