More TV means less Koran, say south Thai Muslims
Tue 30 Aug 2005
By Ed Cropley
BAN SAWO HILIR, Thailand, Aug 30 (Reuters) - In the wilds of southern Thailand, where people believe Islam first took root in Southeast Asia, plans to dish out cable TV with free English soccer to quell ethnic Malay unrest have not gone down well.
"The kids will just watch TV and leave the Koran and their school books behind," said Haji Mustafa Bin Haji Abdul Latif of Ban Sawo Hilir in Narathiwat, one of three provinces rocked by 20 months of violence in which more than 800 people have died.
"I don't think it's a good idea," he says, taking a long drag on a hand-rolled cigarette at his run-down tea-shop in the exclusively Muslim village deep in the jungle.
Around him, a handful of customers give similar verdicts on the proposals by Interior Minister Kongsak Wantana to use Thai TV, karaoke stars and European soccer to wean Muslim youths away from violence.
The plans, they say, illustrate clearly the lack of cultural sensibility from Bangkok's Buddhist government which critics say is fuelling resentment in the far south, where 80 percent of the population are Muslim, ethnic Malay and non-Thai speaking.
Former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun, who heads a southern National Reconciliation Commission, has said often Thailand's "mono-culture" must adapt to allow for the deep spiritualism and traditionalism of the south's ethnic Malay Muslims.
"It would be better to have TV from Indonesia or Malaysia -- TV from Muslim countries," said Haji Midbin Bin Haji Ouali, a toothless 60-year-old. "Even with the television we have now, we have to chase the children to get them to go to school."
In Ban Sawo Hilir, where there is no mobile phone reception, villagers say they can get Malaysian terrestrial TV, but the reception is fuzzy and they claim to watch it sparingly.
"During the fasting month, people like to watch the Koran reading competitions or classic Malaysian movies," said Midbin.
"MORE PITCHES"
Despite this, everybody at the tea shop confesses to supporting either Liverpool or Manchester United and can reel off a list of top-flight players -- suggesting a slightly greater love of European soccer than they would like to admit.
Others in the south, where Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has inaugurated a youth football league, say sport can be a force for good, but argue that piping in cable TV is just a cheap, quick-fix solution.
"It's a good idea in principle because the kids round here love football," said Adun Abdullah, a food company executive who coaches youth soccer in his spare time.
"But the government just doesn't understand the situation. We already have lots of cable TV football. What we need are more and better pitches," he told Reuters in a teashop which doubles as a clubhouse, with team photos and trophies adorning the walls.
Underlying it all is the fact that Buddhists from Bangkok do not understand or appreciate the Malay Muslim way of life, said Adun, a non-Malay Muslim from the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, 250 km (155 miles) to the north.
"How can those who drink beer solve the problems in a place where people only drink tea?" he said.
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