Conflict, Legitimacy and Government Reform: Equitable Allocation of ...

Innovation for Political Conflict Resolution Through Thai Local Wisdom and Socio-cultural Capital 157
local communities and prepare them for the participation with a
feeling of equality and freedom of expression.
2) How a feeling of distrust will be eliminated quickly so that
government officials, people in the mainstream society and
southern border provinces will adequately understand, accept and
recognize the values of diverse cultures and the identity of local
people to a degree that they are no longer suspicious that such
diversity would pose a threat to peace and serenity Instead, such
diversity should turn into a positive force in the Thai society, thus
creating public confidence and faith in the government, especially
on the issue of equality.
Directional framework for rectification of the problem:
Solutions to the problem must be under the framework of peaceful
means, whereby politics truly takes the lead, not the military. Peaceful
means do not reject military intervention but the military must be
deployed to support law enforcement efforts and must abide by the rule
of law in order to control the spreading of violence. In addition, the
military must support and fulfill only the goals of political works. Aside
from using political works to develop quality of life of local people, the
state still need to use proactive political works to deal with the groups
with opposing viewpoints in local societies, thus enabling them to accept
each other to a level that they can live side by side with dignity and
equality.
Recommendations for proactive political works
The following nine recommendations pertain to the use of proactive
political works to quell the unrest in southern border provinces for good
based on the principles of creating trust – creating equality – opening
spaces/spaces for participation – listening – creating understanding –
conforming to identity.
1) Organize a peace talk with adversary groups through a systematic
process which follows suitable procedures, thus creating trust for
in-depth discussion and collectively seeking peaceful and