A mock referendum campaign by a group of Muslim students in the deep South on separatism has triggered panic across the kingdom. The move is highly sensitive and risks breaching Section 1 of the charter which says that Thailand is an indivisible kingdom.
Despite the sensitivity of the case, national security bodies must tread carefully and refrain from using stiff legal penalties. The last thing society wants to see is overwrought nationalism and rigid law enforcement disrupting the peace process in the deep South and marginalising people with different points of view.
