Also, Registan continues to provide excellent analysis of and exclusive material on the aftermath of the Andijan events.

Anand Panyarachun is not a member of the Thai government, but rather the chairman of independent National Reconciliation Commission, which has taken a *very* soft line since it was set up to lead the touchy-feely approach in dealing with violence in the Deep South. Personally, I don’t think it’ll solve the problem, but acknowledge that there may be public relations benefits, both domestic and international.

A look at the ICG statement you also link to, however, suggests that even that may be too optimistic. The “Insurgency, not Jihad” headline sounds like a debunking, but whom is it trying to debunk? The word “jihad” has never entered Thailand’s public consciousness (most Thais either don’t know what it means or don’t appreciate its significance). All officials from the prime minister on down steer clear of the word “terrorists”. The Thai-language media calls Southern bombers and murderers “Southern bandits” informally and “perpetrators” and “people who cause disorder” formally. To the extent that anyone talks of “outside interference”, they more often mean the loathed United States (CIA, Pentagon, grad students, whatever) than anything else. (Here’s the URL if the link doesn’t work: http://sanpaworn.vissaventure.com/?id=104)

I hope most people will recognize the ICG narrative as a boilerplate that those so inclined could and usually do apply to any country with militancy problems without any real insight or investigation. What you may not realize, however, is that this formula has already been copied, pasted and distributed widely among the supposedly cowed Thai media, both state-owned and otherwise.

Let me be very clear here: I wrote my post (and indeed started my whole blog) precisely to challenge this sort of clichéd, uniform, and uncritical coverage about Thailand by the international media, NGOs, and Thailand’s own press. The irony I sometimes employ may not be obvious for new readers of my blog, but it’ll become clearer if you’d just look around and follow a few links.

PS The Global Voice admin may want to fix the link, which currently points to my main log as opposed to the post in question.