Southern Thailand's people and economy in despair
Thu Oct 13, 2005
By Chawadee Nualkhair
SUNGAI KOLOK, Thailand (Reuters) - The rolling hills and dense forests that snake along the Thai-Malaysian border used to be the perfect playground for the Kolok Mountainbiking Association.
But, like with most other businesses and ventures in the southernmost tip of Thailand, the club's future is under threat amid daily unrest that has claimed more than 900 lives since January 2004.
"Two of our members got shot," said 54-year-old Nok, president of the mountainbikers' club in this border town nearly 1,200 km (750 miles) south of the capital, Bangkok.
"But I'm not afraid," he shouted, leaping to his feet in an empty hotel coffee shop to show the handgun tucked into his jeans. "Do you want to know who is doing well in this economy? The gun-sellers and the drug smugglers."
The town of Sungai Kolok, only a five-minute drive from the boats that ferry passengers to and from Malaysia across the Kolok river, is among the biggest victims of the violence.
The hotels, restaurants and brothels in the resort town that once catered to pleasure-seeking Malaysians are shuttered and dark.
The unrest comes from a 21-month long separatist struggle in the Muslim-dominated south of the mainly Buddhist kingdom.
The southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani have borne the brunt of the insurgency, putting the livelihoods of 1.8 million people at risk.
Buddhists say Muslim insurgents are to blame for the unrest while Muslims point the finger at soldiers and police. But worryingly, the divide among the communities is spreading.
"Buddhists and Muslims are oil and water," said Patchiya Pimanman, the owner of an Islamic school in Narathiwat province. "It's not like they can't co-exist side by side, but they can't blend. The unrest in the south has made it worse."
Nok, a Buddhist rubber-plantation owner, pulls fewer punches.
"We don't trust them and they don't trust us," he said, refusing to give his full name in case he becomes a target. "We didn't before and we certainly won't now."
ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
Despite its 100-year-old rubber groves, lush orchards and plentiful fisheries, the far south contributes less than three percent to the overall Thai economy.
It produces about 20 percent of the rubber in Thailand, the world's biggest producer and exporter, and officials say the violence probably will cut output in the region this year by six percent.
And as the regional economy crumbles, analysts fear it could set off more unrest.
Foreign visitors entering Thailand at Sungai Kolok dropped 24.5 percent in July alone, according to the Bank of Thailand.
Land prices have halved from two years ago, with a typical acre (0.45 hectares) now worth around 1.25 million baht, Nok estimates.
The rubber plantations which supported hundreds of thousands of households for decades are now patrolled by soldiers warding off militants who have beheaded a string of rubber tappers working alone in the middle of the night.
Some of those beheaded were Buddhist and notes left by their bodies said they were killed in retaliation for security force excesses.
Things are not much better in the towns.
In Pattani, a provincial capital 150 km (100 miles) north of the Thai-Malaysian border, markets are all but deserted on Fridays in the wake of militant death threats against anybody who trades on the Muslim holy day.
Established businesses are also feeling the heat.
"Buddhists, Muslims, everyone, has been hit hard," said Azmi Tohmeena, a Muslim who manages lending firm Bhumiputra Leasing, which has seen loans for motorcycles and cell phones dropping by 40 percent this year.
The government is accused of either doing nothing, or -- when it does do something -- of religious and cultural insensitivity, as in the case of a soft-loan scheme which angered Muslims whose religion precludes the payment of interest.
"The interest rate could be 0.001 percent and I can't pay. I'm a Muslim!" said 22-year-old university student Sobri, who would not give his full name for fear of being targeted by soldiers or police.
Amid the despair and boredom on both sides of the divide, the demand for drugs and hooch is increasing.
A kilogramme of marijuana now fetches 20,000 baht compared to 6,000 baht two years ago, locals say, and pharmacists have noted unusually high demand for cough syrup.
"It's just flying off the shelves," said 35-year-old store owner Thong, who has stopped selling the linctus. "The kids mix it with Coca-Cola, half-and-half. It's not recommended in the instructions, of course."
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