FAQ on the Patani Issue: Part 1

Ø What exactly is Pattani or Patani?

o “Pattani” is a modern-day province of Thailand. It is one of four provinces in southernmost Thailand with Malay majority populations. The others are Narathiwat (Menara), Yala (Jala), Satun (Setul) plus four districts in Songkhla (Singgora).

o “Patani” (with one “t”) was a Malay Muslim Sultanate that was annexed by Siam in 1902. Patani encompassed the present-day provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and four districts in Songkhla.

o The present-day Thai-held provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and parts of Songkhla are referred as the Patani Region. With Satun they constitute the Malay Muslim belt currently administered by Thailand.

o This Malay Muslim belt encompasses 16,500 sq km and a resident population of almost three million, of which ethnic-Malays make up about 80%.

Ø What is going on in the Thai Deep South?

o An ongoing struggle for emancipation by the people of a nation invaded and held captive by a colonising adjacent state.

o The actions of the colonising state to steadfastly cling to a colonised land no matter at what cost to the captive populace or to world opinion.

Ø When did Patani became part of Thailand?

o The Malay Sultanate of Patani was annexed by Siam in 1902 when its last Sultan, Tengku Abdul Kadir Kamaruddin, was abducted by Siamese forces, forcibly shipped to Bangkok at gunpoint and held captive in Phitsanulok prison.

o Siam’s occupation of Patani was sanctioned by the British government upon the signing of the Anglo-Siamese Treaty in 1909, although this captive state was not specifically mentioned in the Treaty. Addendums to the Treaty reaffirmed Britain’s special interest in the occupied Malay lands up to Bang Tapan near the Isthmus of Kra.

o The Patani populace were neither consulted nor participated in the Treaty deliberations.

Ø Why didn’t the seven principalities of the Sultanate of Patani as well as adjacent Malay-populated states occupied by Siam (Setul, Singgora, Ligor, Trang and Bedalung) be systematically detached from Siam and amalgamated with the Malay states of British Malaya?

o Britain’s plans to incorporate these northern Malay states within British Malaya were scuttled by the advent of the First World War, which diverted British attention to other theatres of conflict. The Second World War and subsequent American-induced decolonisation of Southeast Asia effectively pre-empted any British solution to the plight of the captive Malay states.

Ø Are the Thai Muslims of the south different from other Thais?

o They are not “Thai Muslims.” The Patani populace are ethnic Malays, with close linguistic and cultural affinities with the ethnic Malays of Malaysia’s Kelantan state. They profess the Islamic religion.

o The Patani Malays have their own language, culture, history and identity and are not part of the “Thai” social milieu centered on the ethnic-T’ais of the Central Chao Phraya basin.