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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 3. 1966.

Separate nature

Separate nature

He explains that the North-east provinces are geographically separate from the rest of Thailand The people have a tendency to look towards Laos rather than to Bangkok.

"There are many people on either side of the Mekong River who have no concept of any difference between Thailand and Laos They often have no sense of nationalism, and instead regard themselves simply as 'Pathet Lao' (a term which means Lao people)

"Communist agents are trying to encourage a separatist movement in the North-cast by showing the people that they are not Thai but Lao. The agents point out that people in the North-east speak Lao rather than Thai; that they eat 'sticky rice,' a hard lumpy form of rice,' while the Thais eat white rice; and that the Thai Government has shown no interest in the North-east."

Commenting on reports of communist terrorism in the Northeast, Mr. Harlow says that police encounters with communists tend to be overdramatised by the somewhat sensational Thai press and the communists often get the blame for the work of ordinary bandits.