A desperate plea from the Thai South to new Pheu Thai Government

“When people here say it’s business as usual, nothing has changed, they mean people still get killed and bombs continue to explode every day…”

A senior Buddhist monk made this off-the-cuff comment in a radio programme all the way from the southernmost district of Sugei Golok on the first day of Buddhist Lent last week.

A day earlier, I heard a veteran teacher in Pattani tell another radio programme:

“Not a day passes without people here being killed or maimed by violence from the insurgents… it’s the kind of norm that is not acceptable.”

Read more: The Nation