Thai king's adviser rejects Muslim south proposal

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

BANGKOK, June 26 (Reuters) The chief adviser to Thailand's king has rejected a proposal to make the Malay dialect spoken by southern Thai Muslims an official language, saying it would not help end a bloody insurgency in the region.

Prem Tinsulanonda's strong opposition to the recommendation made by an independent body probing violence in the largely-Muslim south in which more than 1,300 people have been killed since 2004 was reported in today's newspapers.

The National Reconcilation Commission (NRC) urged the government, which has flooded the south with troops, to embark on serious reconciliation, including giving official recognition to Yawi, a Malay dialect widely spoken in a region home to most of Thailand's six million Muslims.

''We cannot accept that as we are Thai. The country is Thai and the language is Thai,'' said Prem, a former prime minister and the top adviser to King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

''We have to be proud to be Thai and have the Thai language as the sole national language,'' the Nation newspaper quoted Prem as saying during a visit to the far south yesterday.

As head of the throne's Privy Council, Prem's words are analysed by Thailand's 63 million people for the slightest glimpse into the thinking of the king. Language is an emotive issue in the three southernmost provinces near the Malaysian border where 80 per cent of the people are Muslim, ethnic Malay and non-Thai speaking.

Many southerners complain the Buddhist-dominated Bangkok government treats them like second-class citizens and ignores their language and culture.

But Prem said it was important that everyone study and speak one official language, Thai.

''In the United States, more than 20 languages have been spoken, but the only official language is American English,'' the retired army general was quoted as saying by the Matichon newspaper.

The final report of the 48-member NRC, headed by former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun, also called for a new agency to oversee reconciliation efforts and a government fund to compensate people mistreated by security forces.

''Economic hardship, poverty and injustice have spawned conditions conducive to an anti-government campaign waged in and outside the country,'' Anand said after making the report public on June 5.

Since then, the report has been largely ignored as Thailand lurches through a political crisis with a caretaker government running the country until fresh elections on October 15.

REUTERS SHR VV 1500

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