Malaysian dispute and coup make progress unlikely
Don Pathan
The Nation
The current political situation in Thailand and Malaysia could hamper
ongoing peace talks between Thai authorities and Muslim separatists,
senior Thai security officials and separatists said yesterday.
They said political bickering between the Malaysian government and
former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who had facilitated secret
meetings with the insurgents and Thai officials, could mean an end to
Malaysia's role as a possible broker between the sides.
Moreover, a senior Thai security official said the September 19 coup
has also placed the talks in doubt as political leaders and security
planners will have to go back to the drawing board to take into
account that the current administration is a military-backed
government with no elected parliamentarians.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told Bernama news agency
over the weekend that his government has not been involved in the
talks, and won't be, unless they are invited to do so by the Thai
government.
However, Thai officials insisted that Kuala Lumpur had full knowledge
of the meetings that have been taking place on the island of Langkawi
since the middle of last year.
They permitted Mahathir to take the leading role in facilitating the
talks because that way they could refrain from any political
commitment, Thai officials said.
But the political infighting in Malaysia, as well as the coup in
Thailand, have placed the talks on the back burner. The government in
Bangkok is expected to stay in power for about one year.
But the "informal dialogue" with the separatist leaders, most of whom
are from the previous generation of separatist movements, is part of a
long-term strategy. The idea is to permit these ageing separatist
leaders back into Thailand so they could help quell the ongoing
violence being carried out by a new generation of militants who
arrived on the scene about five years ago. Mahathir's name first
surfaced in September last year when then defence minister Thamarak
Isarangura told reporters the insurgents had been holding meetings on
Langkawi, which he described as "Mahathir's island".
According to a senior Thai security official overseeing the situation
in Thailand's Malay-speaking South where insurgent violence has
claimed more than 1,700 lives since January 2004, Thamarak's remarks
were meant to discredit the talks that had him sitting on the
sidelines. Then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had given the task
to his security tsar Chidchai Vanasaditya, a close friend.
Thai officials warned against being too optimistic about these
"informal talks" achieving any meaningful breakthrough because the
Thai government has yet to work out the details of its targets.
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