Talk more, says expert
A leading Indonesian scholar of Islam has urged Muslims in Thailand and Indonesia to enhance people-to-people cooperation, saying they have much in common that could strengthen their communities.
Dr Jamhari, director of the Jakarta-based Centre for the Studies of Islam and Society, said more dialogue among Muslims in Southeast Asia would be good not only for their communities but for their nations. He suggested that Thailand's troubled three southernmost provinces could learn from how Indonesia dealt with the Pattani region as having more in common with itself than differences. "There is this romantic notion about education in the Middle East, but Indonesia also has something to offer," he said. Jamhari said education was not a cure-all for the Malay-speaking region in the south, but that dialogue among communities would promote understanding and tolerance. Don Pathan The Nation
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