General Sonthi went as far as to say that the way individuals came to be listed was questionable and that, in many cases, informants motivated by personal grudges put their rivals' names on the lists because they wished them harm.

While he stopped short of accusing any government agency of using the list to commit "extra-judicial" killings, Sonthi's admission was nonetheless remarkable because the list has long been associated with questionable practices by the security forces and intelligence agencies, including abductions and targeted killings, in the Malay-speaking South.

Although Sonthi's candid statement made a lot of people in the security establishment nervous and rubbed political leaders the wrong way, the general should be praised for his courage to admit that mistakes have been made and that something needs to be done about it.

But the country needs to do more than just pat Sonthi on the back. After all, he is doing what none of his predecessors have done - assuming that they had the same information at hand. While it is understandable that no intelligence or security agency should be required to put all their cards on the table, at the very least the security chiefs, along with political leaders, need to explain to the public how the names on these controversial lists are compiled.

One wonders exactly what sort of evidence is needed to have a person put on one of these blacklists.

Sonthi suggested that in many cases personal grudges, which have absolutely nothing to do with national security, were enough to get somebody listed. A thorough investigation must be initiated to get to the bottom of the matter and find out the truth - if only to separate the innocent from suspects who pose a real menace to the nation.

Unless that's settled, our leaders will find it difficult to convince the people, particularly in the Muslim South, that we are in the same boat and that all Thai citizens are equal before the law, regardless of ethnicity or religion.

It is understandable why the Malay-Muslims in the violence-prone region should be agitated by the revelation. After all, it is more or less the same as admitting that many Thais of Malay descent are being treated as "others" - denied a citizen's constitutional right to due process of law that the rest of society takes for granted.

It is imperative that the Army takes the lead in correcting its mistakes and ensuring that justice is done, if the age-old grievances between the Muslim minority and the mainstream Buddhist Thai society are to be addressed.

People in this ethnically diverse Kingdom like to remind one another that all of us are equal in the eyes of god or before the law.

Sonthi's admission should not be treated as a simple admission of guilt. At the very least, it has forced the security agencies, notorious for their lack of coordination and turf battles, to get in line and work toward a common goal under a common standard operating procedure that is acceptable in the eyes of the law as well by social and political norms.

For too long security agencies have been at each other's throats, bickering about who was getting a bigger piece of the budgetary pie and giving more priority to institutional pride than to their assignment: to bring an end to the violence and reconcile the Malay-speaking region with the rest of the country.