Tearing apart the land pdf

McCargo states that the army and police have in many ways aggravated the tensed situation through their abusive actions and policies. These actions are particularly seen from the year , where the intensity of the violence experienced a spike. McCargo also demonstrates that there is little evidence to connect the recent spate of violence to the former separatist movements, rather a new breed of loosely structured organisations that act in a similar form of a franchise, that have been responsible in the violence.

McCargo further explains other concepts of legitimacy which have been employed by the Bangkok political elites that are not entirely applicable and recognized in the Malay-Muslim context.

This and other forms of legitimizing tools of the Thai state like representative politics have in fact disenfranchised the Malay-Muslims even more, especially since the discontinuing of the SBPAC, or the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre.

The abandoning of the SBPAC, has in fact been viewed by McCargo as one of the significant reasons for the spike in violence because it was a pragmatic approach to the conflict, albeit its shortcomings. As much as McCargo attempts to adopt an objective and balanced study of the conflict, where he highlights several instances of sincere approaches by the security forces in solving the conflict through goodwill gestures to the Malay-Muslim community and a conscious attempt to be sensitive to local customs p , his unfavourable perception towards Thaksin is rather obvious, which can be seen as biased.

Though the intensity of the southern violence is most worrying after Thaksin assumed the premiership, a more representative history of the policies of regimes from pre-Thaksin era would have been more useful in the discussion of the topic because the argument is after all about the questions of legitimacy of the Thai state. Furthermore, McCargo has not mentioned Malay-majority Satun, where a comparative study regarding the experiences of the Malays between the conflict ridden and the peaceful provinces would be useful in understanding the failures of the policies in the mentioned provinces.

In doing so, McCargo has provided new information and dimension in discussing the conflict in the south where he has moved away from the lines of arguments of other authors regarding the situation. All in all, the book is recommended to those who are keen to have a more holistic comprehension of the conflict where the author seeks to understand the latent causes and the developments of the wider Thai political scene in influencing the conflict.

Of utmost value is the fact that McCargo goes to great lengths to extrapolate and distinguish the conflict as different from the wider narratives regarding it. Politics and International Studies. Accessed on 1st October Find out more about OverDrive accounts. Duncan McCargo. Cornell University Press. Since January , a violent separatist insurgency has raged in southern Thailand, resulting in more than three thousand deaths.

Though largely unnoticed outside Southeast Asia, the rebellion in Pattani and neighboring provinces and the Thai government's harsh crackdown have resulted in a full-scale crisis. Tearing Apart the Land by Duncan McCargo, one of the world's leading scholars of contemporary Thai politics, is the first fieldwork-based book about this conflict.

Drawing on his extensive knowledge of the region, hundreds of interviews conducted during a year's research in the troubled area, and unpublished Thai-language sources that range from anonymous leaflets to confessions extracted by Thai security forces, McCargo locates the roots of the conflict in the context of the troubled power relations between Bangkok and the Muslim-majority "deep South.

This successful strategy was upset when Thaksin Shinawatra became prime minister in and set out to reorganize power in the region. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of the region, hundreds of interviews conducted during a year's research in the troubled area, and unpublished Thai-language sources that range from anonymous leaflets to confessions extracted by Thai security forces, McCargo locates the roots of the conflict in the context of the troubled power relations between Bangkok and the Muslim-majority "deep South.

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Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless. Institutional Login. LOG IN. In this Book. Additional Information. Table of Contents. Cover Download Save contents.