THR PROBLEM OF ETHNICITY : A CASE STUDY OF THR CONFLICT IN SOUTHEN THAILAND

Conflicts in the southern provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, close to the border with Malaysia, reemerged in January 2004. Since then, bombings and killing have been almost daily happened. Many civilians and officials have become victims of these surges violence. News reports about these southern conflicts have been published and broadcasted locally and worldwide. Fueled by the issue of transnational terrorism, which is often associated with violence against groups with different religions or sects, most media view the southern conflicts as resulted from religiously separatist struggle of Muslim Malays. However, the southern conflicts have more aspects than that. The conflict’s root cause can be identified not only with religion, but also with ethnicity. Writer discusses the conflicts with more focus on ethnicity as a major cause. Its main analysis is that the conflicts have been based on the ethnic conflicts between the ethnic Malay population as a minority and Thai population as the majority.