The Analysis Of Thailand’s Southern Border Crisis Problems In Late Twentieth Century From Identity Perspective

In southern Thailand, Muslim separatism sprouted in the13th century.Since the20th century, with the influences from British colonialism, thisproblem is more prominent. So far, the southern Thailand ethnic separatism hasgone through five stages. That is, the embryonic stage of the ethnic question, thehighly.According to the reports, Since January2004separatist violence inThailand’s four Muslim-majority southern provinces has claimed the lives ofnearly5,300people.In order to deal with the ethnic separatism issues in southern Thailand,Thai government has taken lots of corresponding measures at all stages, somepolicies achieved good results. From the early1960s to the20thcentury, Thaigovernment adopted “nationalist policies”, trying to assimilate the SouthernThailand Muslim community. During1980s, Thai government adopted forcefulsuppression policies and toleration policies at the same time, which haveachieved good results in the period. Thus, Southern Thailand separatismmovements have been entering into a low tide. Since21stcentury, Thaigovernment has taken differentiated policies compared with the previous one,However, the Southern Thailand separatism movements are still at the high tide.In my opinion, the main factor which led the Southern Thailand separatismmovements entering the climax is the identity differentiation tendency of theMuslim population. Before the1980s, the identity of the Muslims in SouthernThailand was mainly ethnic identity to Malay-Muslims and national identity toMalaysia, Therefore, under the secularization policy taken by the Thaigovernment, Southern Thailand Muslim to show a relatively strong resistanceemotional and behavioral attitude. Since the end of20thcentury, the Muslims insouthern Thailand have been showing the phenomenon of identitydifferentiation, besides national identity and national identity, which is religiousidentity, or the highlights of Islamic identity. This factor is not only the new trend of recognition in Southern Thailand in the1980s, but also the main reasonthat leads to the Southern Thailand ethnic separatism movements’ new changes.