According to Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham, leaders should be more proactive and not just reacting on the spot.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai on Wednesday, security forces in Thailand’s heavy south must work more hard to stop violence and intervene more quickly to stop violent incidents.
In recent days, he was responding to a number of aggressive attacks in the southern border regions, including one that left a Buddhist amateur killed and another injured on Tuesday morning in Songkhla’s Saba Yoi area.
Mr. Phumtham, even the defense minister, expressed his concern for attacks that have taken place everyday over the past four to five days, with some involving two or three incidents occurring in a single day.
He claimed that he attended a Zoom meeting with security officials after these attacks and that he felt the need to change how violent the restive provinces ‘ residents handled the crime.
Gen. Pana Klaewplodthuk, the secretary-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, the head of the army, Gen. Pana Klaewplodthuk, the head of the national authorities, Lt. Gen. Paisal Noosang, the captain of the Fourth Army Territory, and other leaders.
After all these violent incidents, Mr. Phumtham said, they must work more positively and never wait until new incidents occur in order to regain public trust in the safety standards maintained in the far north.
More importantly, the minister said the government must respond more quickly when quite violence occurs and record it to him right away.
Chousak Sirinil, the secretary of the prime minister’s office, has demanded increased surveillance for Buddhist monks and amateurs in the southern border regions who are still required to leave each day for their day alms round.
The amateurs who were killed and injured in Songkhla on Tuesday were ambushed while traveling in a delivery truck to perform their alma mater.
Lt. Gen. Paisal reported that the two novices ‘ attack came after a string of violent incidents that appeared to have taken place on April 18 in the Raman region of Yala, which led to a deadly ambush on a Muslim spiritual teacher.
He claimed that this particular attack had been used to spread false information that it was the work of safety regulators, the same strategy that had been employed to elicit violent revolt against state officials in prior significant situations like the Krue Se and Tak Bai murder in Pattani and Narathiwat, both.
Lt. Gen Paisal ruled out a possible link between the administration’s handling of the southwestern peace deals and this string of violent incidents, saying that the health of honest people in the heavy South should never be used as a tool for negotiations with the state.