Abdulroya Panaemalae, a lecturer in the Political Science Program at the School of Political Science and Laws, was a member of the research team for the project “Pembangunan Model Pengurusan Keamanan Amalan Surin Pitsuwan di Nakhon si Thammarat” (Development of a Peace Management Model according to the Model of Dr. Surin Pitsuwan in Nakhon Si Thammarat). The research was sponsored by the Fund Research Grant Surin 2020 of the National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia: UKM) and was directed by Dr. Muhamad Razak Idris of the Faculty of Islamic Studies as the research team’s leader.

Dr. Surin Pitsuwan is recognized as an influential politician and scholar who has played a significant role in many areas for the local, national, and ASEAN communities. According to Dr. Surin’s views, this research project proposes research issues and seeks to investigate the function of peace management in multicultural and belief-based communities. Since the project’s launch in 2020, Abdulroya and his Malaysian research team have been doing fieldwork on a continual basis. They have been gathering pertinent written documents from different sources and, in particular, have been visiting Nakhon Si Thammarat to interview Dr. Surin’s relatives, family members, acquaintances, and close associates.

This research effort is part of a cross-institutional academic cooperation involving School of Political Science and Laws staff and academics from other countries. It was a project that supported the transmission of information about people and local communities in Nakhon Si Thammarat to the perspective and understanding of adjacent academic communities, in addition to sharing expertise and developing academic relations with neighboring countries.