Tim Rackett is currently an Associate Professor at HELP University,Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He taught and lived in Thailand for 14 years researching forms of rule and truth-telling, ethics, the politics and powers of Thai Buddhism, religious nationalism and governmentality. He has presented papers on the Southern Thai conflict for UNESCO and The Global Movement of Moderates and has two recent articles in the Journal of Religion and Violence on Buddhist nationalism and violence and a critical assessment of Michael K. Jerryson’s Buddhist Fury: Religion and Violence in Southern Thailand (2011).
Who are the mysterious and enigmatic insurgents in southern Thailand? What do they want? Who do they actually speak for? And what does a separatist struggle and violence mean for ordinary Muslims? Sascha Helbardt’s work “Deciphering Southern Thailand’s Violence” (2015) explores the main Malay Muslim group that has been spearheading the insurgency, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional-Koordinasi (BRN-C). Drawing on Helbardt’s study, this essay seeks to shed light on the BRN-C’s central role in waging the insurgency in southern Thailand — a role that until now has been poorly understood and greatly underestimated.
Putting Out the Fire in Southern Thailand: An Appeal for Truce Seeking
Observers have struggled to explain ongoing sectarian violence in southern Thailand given that both Thai Buddhists and Malay/Thai Muslims are victims of violence, have historically coexisted peacefully, and share local customs and spiritual traditions. Tim Rackett explores the role of majority and minority ethnic and religious identities in fueling sectarian violence and identifies a way out.
