A Catholic peace scholar has urged Thai academics and citizens to confront the human cost of the decades-long conflict in Thailand’s Deep South.
Dr. Padtheera Anna Narkurairattana appealed to the 18th National Academic Conference at Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, west of Bangkok, on July 10.
Padtheera, a Catholic lecturer and researcher at Mahidol University’s Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, has spent more than a decade working in the volatile southern border provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, as well as parts of Songkhla.
Her address served as both an academic analysis and a deeply personal reflection on a decades-old ethnonationalist insurgency that has claimed more than 7,000 lives since it reignited in 2004.
During her presentation, Padtheera outlined the fragile security situation in which recurring bombings and shootings continue to target security forces and civilians alike.
Heavy militarization under special laws, while intended to combat insurgents, has frequently led to allegations of human rights abuses, deepening local distrust of the state.
Among the casualties are ordinary citizens: teachers, children, civil servants and religious figures of all faiths.
The persistent instability, highlighted by recent coordinated attacks on fuel stations, underscores the immense difficulty of achieving a lasting settlement.
The raw truth of her presentation deeply moved the audience.
“Listening to this talk, I felt like being transported to the southern border myself,” one participant reflected before posing questions that many felt:
“What inspired you to take that risk while others were afraid to go? What motivated you to work diligently on the southern border?”
Specializing in peace education, peacebuilding and ethnoreligious relations, Padtheera said her commitment was rooted in concern for people forgotten by mainstream society.
“It started with curiosity, questions that had lingered for a long time,” she explained. “The truth that has no place in society. The voices of the marginalized who have no voice.”
A Call for Academic and Moral Accountability
Padtheera’s work extends far beyond research. It is driven by a profound empathy for the region’s youth.
“Every child who deserves the opportunity to be born and grow up well, with a good future and a good education, should not have to be born and raised in an area of violence that takes away family lives, deprives them of educational opportunities, and takes away their hopes, dreams, and desires for a better life,” she observed.
Yet she did not shy away from confronting the systemic shortcomings of peacebuilding efforts and institutional frameworks. She challenged the audience and her peers to examine their motives.
“Sometimes the question arises: are we working to reduce inequality and empower the underprivileged, or are we truly caught in a circle of people trying to maintain power within our own cliques, networks, and interest groups?”
To combat institutional complacency, she maintains a strict personal ethos: “An unchecked life is prone to mistakes and the repetition of cycles of violence, human rights abuses, and exploitation of others.”
To emphasize her point, Padtheera echoed the famous words of the late South African anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Tutu, who died in 2021, spent his life advocating nonviolent resistance. Padtheera invoked his legacy to remind the academic community that passivity in the face of continuing conflict is a choice.
Transforming Conflict Through Education
An expert in human rights and peace studies, Padtheera serves as a public communication expert for the National Human Rights Commission and an adviser to the House of Representatives’ Southern Border Provinces Peace Committee.
Her research on minority negotiations under duress, specifically a case study of Catholics in Pattani, earned her an Outstanding Innovation Award for her grassroots leadership in the project “Interfaith Friends and Sustainable Peacebuilding.”
Looking ahead, Padtheera is bringing these lessons into the classroom. Beginning next month, Mahidol University’s Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies will introduce an undergraduate course in its Thai-language program that will be open to students from all faculties and year levels.
The curriculum is designed to humanize conflict resolution by exploring violence through film, teaching conflict transformation, and fostering discussions on cultural diversity.
By incorporating elements such as “Art for Peace” and business and human rights, the course aims to equip the next generation with the tools necessary for peaceful coexistence, ensuring that the voices of the Deep South continue to be heard, understood, and acted upon.
