Security
NEWS THINK
Military to control southern budget
Writer: King-oua Laohong
Published: 26/07/2009 at 12:00 AM
As the southern insurgency shows no sign of abating, the Abhisit Vejjajiva government has earmarked a budget of 63 billion baht for community development to spur the regional economy, hoping that it will help bring the hoped for changes in the region.
But the huge budget allocation also comes with a question: "Into whose pockets will the money go?"
The government is hoping that the fund, which is to be spent over a period of four years via a new politics-lead-military approach, would help quell the ongoing unrest.
The budget would be disbursed from 2009 to 2012.
However, it seems the government is facing problems in implementing this approach because Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Senneam has not succeeded in founding the Office of Southern Border Provinces Administration (OSBPA) as planned.
Why? Because his efforts in pushing for a new law to accommodate the establishment of the OSBPA have still not paid off.
When the OSBPA is set up, it will take over the responsibility of countering the insurgency in the restive South from the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) which is now under the supervision of the army.
But until the OSBPA is established, Isoc will handle the 63 billion baht fund.
The fund is meant to cover 53 separate plans under which 463 projects are to be undertaken by Isoc, or in other words the military.
Only a fraction of the budget has been granted for education and reconciliation projects run by the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC), the existing civilian body which addresses the southern problems. That means the military still has the lion's share.
Over the four-year period, 8.5 billion baht of the 63 billion baht would be spent in 2009, 18.26 billion baht in 2010, 19.1 billion baht in 2011 and the remaining 17.45 billion baht in 2012.
Army chief Anupong Paojinda once told a meeting of military officers that the military needed another 10 years to end the southern insurgency, and would not withdraw its forces from the region for another eight years.
Right now, the army is trying to introduce development projects to make them go hand in hand with its security operations in the region.
That means it is the soldiers who are politically active, while the SBPAC, set up to play this role, cannot afford to do so as it cannot get its hands on the money to take over the projects. Calls from academics, the business sector and local bodies that civilian agencies should be in charge of development works, have been ignored.
Panithan Wattanayakorn, the government spokesman, insists the 63 billion baht, which might be pared to 54 billion baht as projects overlap, was not allocated for Isoc projects alone, and would be distributed among several agencies.
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