SPEAKING FREELY The truth about pondok
schools in Thailand By Dr Joseph
Liow
Speaking Freely is an Asia
Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Pleaseclick hereif you are
interested in contributing.
SINGAPORE -
Though they are part of the predominantly Buddhist
nation of Thailand, the inhabitants of the southern
provinces of Songkhla, Satun, Yala, Pattani and
Narathiwat share historical, ethnic, cultural and
linguistic characteristics with the other Malay-Muslim
peoples in the Malay Archipelago. Their distinct
identity has been a source of tension with the Thai
national identity. This Malay-Muslim consciousness has
been fed and nurtured by the Islamic system of education
that has been prevalent in southern Thailand for more
than a century, and that is built around pondok schools.
The pondok tradition Patani was a
regional center for Islamic learning in the 19th
century; Muslim students from archipelagic Southeast
Asia would sojourn at the pondok in the province before
going to the Middle East to further their Islamic
education. Patani Muslims were also prominent educators
in major Islamic institutions in the Arab-Muslim World,
most notably the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Patani scholars
and Tok Guru (religious teachers and principals of
pondok schools) were also instrumental in translating
religious commentaries and sermons from Arabic to Jawi
and Malay.
In the pondok tradition, teaching is
done in Malay and Arabic, and the emphasis is on
religious learning. There is no system of assessment in
place, and hence these schools are not accredited by the
government. Lessons revolve around prayer and memorizing
the scripture (Koran), commentaries and exegesis
provided by Tok Guru.
There are nevertheless two
lingering misconceptions regarding pondok education in
Thailand. First is the mistaken assumption that southern
Thai pondok schools teach only Islam. This is not
necessarily the case as many pondok do integrate secular
and vocational subjects into their syllabus as well.
Second is the popular perception that Muslim parents
prefer to send their children to pondok rather than
state schools. This, too, is not entirely so. Recent
research conducted by the Prince of Songkhla University
(Pattani) has found that up to 64% of the people desire
general education for their children. Nevertheless, they
also want secular education to be balanced with
religious instruction from the pondok.
'Siamizing' the system Given the important
role that pondok schools play in reinforcing
Malay-Muslim identity through religious and language
training, these institutions have posed a major
challenge to the Thai government, which views education
as the central instrument for assimilating and
integrating minorities into the nation-state.
In
the 1930s and 1940s, attempts were made by the
government of Phibun Songgkram to assimilate the
Malay-Muslim community into Thai society by changing the
medium of pondok education from Malay-Arabic to Thai.
These policies sparked an immediate reaction from the
Malay-Muslim community, which viewed them as a threat to
their identity and way of life. Consequently, rather
than transforming into channels of national
consciousness envisaged by the government, pondok
schools were mobilized to disseminate ideas of pan-Malay
nationalism and Islamic revivalism.
Similarly,
policies of later Thai governments to transform pondok
schools to private institutions eligible for state
funding but subject to government regulation were met
with resistance. Such policies of the Sarit Thanarat
administration toward pondok schools in the early 1960s
laid the ground for two decades of separatist violence,
with pondok schools choosing to disband themselves and
move underground rather than be absorbed into the Thai
education system.
Aside from cultivating
separatism and the mushrooming of a host of underground
religious institutions, another critical consequence of
forced assimilation policies was that it impelled many
potential pondok students to pursue religious education
overseas, primarily in the Middle East and South Asia.
Furthermore, up to 85% of Muslim students from southern
Thailand studying overseas are believed to be sponsored
by their host institutions. Returning students nourish
the pondok system by proceeding to establish their own
schools in various kampung, with some registering
as few as three to four students.
Thailand's
pondok policy Today, more than 500 pondok operate
in southern Thailand, but only about 300 of them are
registered with state authorities. It is no secret that
the Thai government suspects that some of these
traditional schools foster religious extremism and
harbor militants. About 30 of these 500 are suspected to
be preaching violence in the name of Islam.
Since the resurgence last January of violence in
the south, government security forces have instituted
regular searches of various pondok, particularly in
Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala. These raids, however, are
increasingly undertaken without warning, and are viewed
as violations of their religio-cultural space by the
Muslim community. The government has also revived
attempts to register these schools in order to regulate
pondok education. Yet given the arbitrary way by which
pondok schools are created, this policy is proving
increasingly difficult to implement. Moreover, many
pondok have gone underground for fear that registration
will encourage further government incursion into Muslim
education, and through that into Malay-Muslim society.
On the other hand, government funding to the pondok
system remains paltry, a mere fraction of the budget
allocation for southern provinces.
Of greater
concern though, is the belief among the Malay-Muslims of
the south that since the April 28 massacre at the Krisek
Mosque, the government has pursued a policy of abducting
and murdering Tok Guru suspected of teaching separatism
and violence. This perception, fueled by the fact that
several pondok teachers have gone missing since April
28, only serves to feed further the climate of suspicion
and distrust in the south.
The traditional
pondok remains central to Malay-Muslim identity and
lifestyle in southern Thailand. Like other such
institutions in Southeast Asia, however, the pondok of
Thailand are confronted with the challenge of making
themselves relevant in the context of social, political
and economic changes taking place in their environment.
Some have chosen the path of greatest resistance and
preach the message of separatism and jihadi violence
against the "oppressive" Thai government.
The
vast majority of pondok, however, are significantly less
threatening, and have chosen to focus primarily on
encouraging a deeper knowledge of Islamic holy scripture
among their students while acquiring secular skills. In
this respect, the challenge for the Thai government will
be to refrain from approaching the pondok "problem" with
a "one size fits all" policy that will only serve to
alienate the Malay-Muslim community further and heighten
the legitimacy of radicalism and separatism among the
religious teachers in the south.
Dr Joseph
Liow is assistant professor, Institute of Defense
and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have their
say. Pleaseclick hereif you are
interested in contributing.
