Universal Declaration of Human Rights Voice Mr. Chaiwat Satha-Anan Professor at Thammasat University and specialist in Peace Studies “It is important that we re-evaluate the importance of religion in issues like international relations” Associate Professor Chaiwat Satha-Anan, a full-time professor at Thammasat University, also claims that he too has never experienced any violation of the right to religion in terms of practising or teaching Islam in Thailand. But he accepts that this problem persists in other countries. He thinks the problem in Thailand is not so much about the violation of religious rights per se, but on the difficulty in determining what constitutes a religious rights violation. The professor gave an example of the case of Pondok schools (religious education institutions for the Muslims in Thailand’s southern region). He is of the opinion that whether the Pondok schools should exist or not does not depend on permission granted by the government. Parents have the right to choose whether or not to send their children to such schools. This is true to the tradition of Pondok schools. The issue relates more to how the government controls these institutions, such as the official process for registering the schools. Some Pondok schools are not registered, but still exist because of support from communities. In his opinion, there is a fine line between what the government considers to be its duty and what constitutes a violation of religious rights. He further describes the three aspects of Thai society’s own perception about religion, which makes it difficult to determine acts of violation. “The first perception is that the Head of State is not only the patron of Buddhism but also the patron of all religions practised in Thailand, allowing equal acceptance to all religions within Thai society, though all are not exactly equal. Second, Thai society considers itself as a free state which has no trouble with the co-existence of religions due to a long experience in this regard. Third, Thai society, though regarding itself as a Buddhist nation, takes pride in the power of reasoning of Buddhism, with no worries at all about other religions.” 82 Dignity and Justice for All of Us