Wan Muhamad Noor Matha

Wan Muhamad Noor Matha (Thai: วันมูหะมัดนอร์ มะทา; Thai pronunciation: [. wān.muː.hà.mát.nɔː má.tʰāː]; rtgs: Wanmuhamatno Matha), also called Wan Nor, (Thai: วันนอร์; Thai pronunciation: [wān.nɔː]; rtgs: Wanno; born 11 May 1944 in Yala, Thailand) is a Thai politician. He is a founder of the Wahdah Group, a small lobby of assimilated and integrated Muslim politicians, although the name Matha (monastery) is of Hindu origin.

Early life

Wan Noor studied Medicine and Management until 1974 at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and graduated as Master of Education.

Political career

From 1979 until 1984 he represented Yala for the Social Action Party. He was elected to the National Parliament. He moved to the Democratic Party and later to the New Hope party. After 1980 he worked in the Ministry of Finance and Industry. From 1994 to 1995, he was appointed Deputy Minister of the Interior and was President (Speaker) of Parliament from November 1996 to June 2000.^[1]

Chavalit Yongchaiyudhs party and formed a coalition with New Hope that eventually merged with the Thai Rak Thai party (TRT) of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In 2001 Wan Noor became Minister of Transport and Communications and Minister of the Interior in October 2002.

As transport minister, he was confronted with a mid-2002 pilot strike. As Home Secretary, he started a war against the drug mafia. In early December, he promised to quash the Muslim uprising in southern provinces by year end. Instead, after rebel violence in 2004 captured Thaksin's southern palace in Narathiwat province. Wan Noor was accused of inaction by army chief Chaiyasit Shinawatra, Thaksin's cousin. Although Wan Noor lobby had sought economic uplift of the southern provinces and the introduction of Sharia law at the local level, he was silent following the police massacre of Tak Bai (2004). As of March 2004 he was a Minister without portfolio. From October 2004 to March 2005 Wan Noor became agriculture minister after the electoral defeat of the Wahdah Group. He became a special envoy managing the Thai aid effort following the earthquake in Pakistan.

After the 2006 Thai coup d'état and Thaksin's fall, Wan Noor was appointed Director of the National Drug Control Centre and promised vigorous action. He initially joined the TRT's successor party Phak Palang Prachachon in 2008, but at the time a five-year ban on political activity was enforced. The Wahdah Group evolved into the Matubhum Party.

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