Songkhla, Thailand - After finishing his education in Cairo, Egypt, 10 years ago, Abdul Halim Lateh returned to work at his father`s pesantren, or Islamic boarding school, in his hometown in Chana, along the Pattani-Songkhla border in southern Thailand.
"Back then, the condition was very peaceful here. Several years later, murders and bombings began to take place and the pesantren was accused of being a training ground for radicalism," he told The Jakarta Post last week after performing Friday prayers at a mosque inside the school complex, around 1,000 kilometers south of Bangkok.
A resurgence in violence by guerrilla groups in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, the three southernmost provinces of Thailand, began in 2001. But bombings and killings significantly increased after 2004 in the three provinces, the only Muslim-majority areas in the predominantly Buddhist country.
Violence has slowly spilled over into neighboring provinces and is threatening to spread to Bangkok.
The conflict has resulted in more than 2,500 deaths in the past decade, with more than 2,300 occurring since an escalation of violence in January 2004. Now killings and bombings occur almost daily.
After his father died, Halim decided to transform the school from a traditional study center with a religious-based curriculum into a modern school using the national curriculum.
He collected almost 10 million baht (US$300,000) of his own money and donations to expand the school into an educational center from play group up through high school, with improvements in the curriculum and the quality of teachers.
"I think radicalism and separatism can only be eradicated through equality in education, economic opportunities and politics. And I chose to educate my people so that they have the same ability as others. Education also enables us to gradually phase out radicalism with moderate Islamic teachings," Halim said.
In September 2006, army commander Sonthi Boonyaratkalin and the Thai military seized power from prime minister Thaksin. Realizing that military force would not be enough to curb attacks and bombings in the south, the military junta begin reconciliatory gestures.
The new government decided to grant full subsidies to finance the operational costs of madrasah or pesantren that registered with the government and adopted the national curriculum, while giving a half subsidy for traditional pesantren but with moderate teachings.
"It is very fortunate. Every student gets 10,000 baht per year. There are hundreds of modern pesantren in the southern part of the country with tens of thousands of students. And most of them have turned modern with the national curriculum although religious teaching still makes up a big part," Halim said.
And Halim`s hard work seems to have paid off as almost 90 percent of his students have passed university exams and continued their studies.
An Indonesian studying Islam in Yala, Dedi Susilo Sahri, 22, said his pesantren played a crucial role in making militant Muslims more moderate, as almost none of the students or teachers believed in violence to achieve their goals.
"Thai authorities trust us. Every month, they send several local Muslims they accused of being militants to learn at our pesantren. And it looks like these people changed," Dedi, an Acehnese who with 30 other Indonesians is studying the Koran in Markaz Yala, told the Post.
While acknowledging that it was difficult to fight radicalism and separatism, one of Yala`s religious leaders, Abdul Hafiz, said he and other local figures were trying to squelch radicalism by advancing moderate teachings at their pesantren.
He said most of people in the area were against separatism and violence, and that the situation had made their lives very difficult, with no businesses willing to invest in the three provinces, resulting in high levels of unemployment and crime.
Both Halim and Hafiz accused drug lords of taking advantage of the situation to create chaos, to allow the south to serve as a transit point for opium and other drugs moving from the Golden Triangle to the north to destinations in Southeast Asia.
"The drug trade has attracted many of our youngsters looking for quick and easy money," Hafiz said.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com (17 Oktober 2007)
