Thai lawmakers push for better public representation in South, scrap NCPO orders

The NCPO had been set up by the military junta that ruled Thailand from 2014 to 2019.

The lawmakers voted 421:0 in favour of the draft that was proposed by Democrat MP for Pattani Yunaidee Waba and his associates, a source said on Wednesday.

The draft seeks to annul NCPO order No 14/2016, which enhances the roles of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) and the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) in the administration of the three deep South provinces that have been plagued with insurgency for decades. The deep South comprises the provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla.

During the discussion ahead of the vote, United Thai Nation MP for Surat Thani Paramet Jina said the administration of the deep South should be adjusted to suit the current situation, ideally by boosting the number of public representatives in the SBPAC.

He added that the centre should focus more on promoting the sustainable use of coastal resources, fishing areas and tourist attractions in border towns in the South.

Zakariya Sai, Bhumjaithai MP for Narathiwat, backed the bill by saying that the hundreds of billions of baht given to SBPAC and ISOC have rarely been used for actually developing the deep South, as the two agencies comprise committees that are not local and thus lack in-depth knowledge of the region.

Chaturon Chaisang, Pheu Thai party-list MP, said in his capacity as chair of the Parliament’s ad-hoc committee on promoting peace in the deep South that the NCPO order allows SBPAC to operate without a public advisory council. He said this lack of representation has prevented the public from voicing their opinions directly to the centre.

In addition, he said, the NCPO order granted ISOC, a military unit, jurisdiction over civilian agencies, resulting in power clashes and lack of cooperation to solve problems.

No MPs from the junta-supporting Palang Pracharath Party expressed their thoughts during the discussion, the source said.