Thai Special Forces Doctrine

The Special Warfare Command, based in Lop Buri, has had a wealth of experience in the deep South. The unit's deputy commander, Maj Gen Samret Srirai, has put his finger on a major problem. In a special interview with this newspaper, he spoke of strong and covert efforts by a major southern gang to recruit youths into their violent cells. The men behind the brutality in the South have stepped up efforts to lure teenage boys into the Runda Kumpulan Kecil, a Malay name meaning Pattani State Restoration. The warning is timely, but the general should also be planning moves against such subversion.

There are highly effective, persuasive and credible ways to counter devious efforts to exploit young men in the South. Three of the tested and known counters to such recruitment rest in the family, the mosque and the community. As Maj Gen Samret says, parents in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla must be aware of the RKK's efforts to seek out susceptible young men to help their terrorist-type efforts. The message should not be coming from Lop Buri, but from those in the South.

Indonesia has long battled extremists and terrorists who have misused religion to justify their violence. The country is the world's most populous Muslim nation, and as a result has large and authoritative groups to speak out. While these national schools have millions of members, the extremists of Indonesia operate much as the Thai and Malay counterparts. They go into villages and local schools to try to "talent scout" youths who might want to join their misguided and often murderous gangs.

Just last week, the government officially began recruiting an Anti-Terror Agency to work against the gangs. One of its first and major tasks will be to work down to the village level. The aim is to get the community even more involved in the fight against terrorism.

As the Indonesian security minister explained, the fight against terrorism has to go beyond the law. Preventative measures must be taken at the local level, where the family, the imam and the village officials can counsel and show youths where they are mistaken about the extremists. In Thailand, as in Indonesia, the population, clerics and village authorities all have considered and rejected radical teachings. There is no support for terrorism.

This is the force which must be harnessed. Even in the US, communities have become concerned about the strange appeal that radical Islam has held for several young people arrested in recent months. Prominent American Islamic scholars have collaborated on a project to oppose the recruitment of young American Muslims. One of the projects is a YouTube video, Injustice Cannot Defeat Injustice' in which nine of the Muslim leaders cite religious authority that the violence of the terrorist groups is proscribed.

It is true that no two situations ever are identical. Indonesia and Thailand have different histories and perspectives. But there also are similarities in Indonesia and the deep South behind the threats of domestic terrorism, overseas allegiance and links with foreign terrorists. The reason why Thai authorities should get behind community groups is because they work. Peer pressure, family cohesion and village-backed projects are some of the ways in which local action can prevail. In the effect on local people, such influence is far more effective than sweeping government programmes which cover the whole region. It is a tactic Thailand must adopt, in order to stop the southern violence even before youths leave the village to join extremist groups.

Bangkok Post