Malay minister suggests racially based breaks for Thai Muslims

KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 Kyodo

Thailand should consider introducing an affirmative action policy like Malaysia's to narrow the social and economic gap between the Muslims and non-Muslims and to put a plug to the surging violence in southern Thailand, the chief minister of Malaysia's Kelantan State said Thursday.

Nik Aziz Nik Mat, chief minister of the only state ruled by the opposition Pan Islamic Party, made the comment to Surapon Petch-vra, new Thai consul general in Kelantan who made a courtesy call to Nik Aziz on Thursday.

''The Thai government can emulate this theory because it can narrow the economic gap among the races,'' Nik Aziz, who is also PAS spiritual leader, was quoted saying by the official news agency Bernama.

He was also reported to have called for Muslim-Malays in southern Thailand to be given autonomy but maintained that a demand for independence is not feasible.

Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country but Muslims form the majority in the south, a region where bloody attacks have become a daily occurrence as rebels step up a campaign for an independent Islamic state.

Nik Aziz is concerned because Kelantan shares borders with Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, three Thai provinces at the center of the conflict.

Nearly three years ago, 131 Thai Muslims sought refuge in Kelantan, saying they feared for their lives after soldiers arrived in their villages hunting for insurgents.

They have since been detained in an immigration depot in neighboring Terengganu State.

Nik Aziz said Malaysia's affirmative action policy, officially known as the New Economic Policy that was introduced after a May 13, 1969 race riot, brought considerable progress in uniting the various groups in Malaysia.

The NEP seeks to give majority ethnic Malays a bigger piece of the economic pie largely controlled by minority ethnic Chinese.

The Malays were given special privileges from higher quotas in university entrance to discount housing.

They get priority in government contracts and the government insisted a 30 percent equity share in businesses go to Malays.

But even as Nik Aziz proposed an NEP for Thailand, calls are getting louder in Malaysia the NEP to be scrapped following criticism that it has bred a ''subsidy mentality'' among Malays and that wealth is only being redistributed to a small pool of politically well-connected Malays.

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