As the long weekend kicked off late on Thursday, seven provinces in the upper South were rocked by a wave of bombings and arson that targeted popular tourist destinations. Four people were killed and dozens injured.

When observers pointed out similarities and connections to separatist militant attacks in the deep South, authorities were quick to rule out any link and even quicker to say that the attacks could have been motivated by political resentment over the referendum result. A number of red-shirt leaders have since been detained in connection with bombings.

Officials have yet to offer concrete evidence to support their argument that insurgents are not to blame. Meanwhile, experts say the attacks bear hallmarks of the separatist Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) – particularly in the use of twin bombings, a tactic often employed by the militants group. The size and type of explosive also matched the BRN‘s typical modus operandi, experts said.

Anders Engvall, an academic who has studied the Southern conflict for more than a decade, reported at the New Mandala website that there have been an average of five bomb attacks each day in the far South since the beginning of August.

If last week’s deadly assaults do indeed have connections with the insurgency, the government has a duty to inform the public accordingly. For our basic safety, we citizens have the right to know whether the BRN has now developed the capacity to carry out attacks outside the border provinces.

Meanwhile, as a military-led administration, the government seems to be under-performing in its specialism – security issues. Surely more could have been done to foresee and prevent the 50-plus bomb attacks that have occurred so far this month.

More importantly, Bangkok must call a halt to its knee-jerk blaming of red-shirts, which conveniently avoids the truth that they, as a military-dominated government, have failed in their handling of the far South issue.

Most of all, nobody – neither soldier nor politician – should be permitted to exploit deadly attacks on innocent people for political gain.

If it turns out the attacks had nothing to do with separatists, then the focus must switch to a review of the security apparatus and the military. If they have failed to fulfil their primary task of providing security, how can they be trusted to write a national strategy plan for the next 20 years or select senators who can vote for a prime minister for the next eight years?

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