Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his deputy Chidchai Vanasathidya yesterday jumped on the bandwagon of Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda who has opposed the use of Malay as an additional "official language" in the South.

"Thai must be the official language. But it's fine for the local people to use another language in their personal communication," Thaksin said yesterday.

Chidchai said Prem's suggestion reflected the sentiment of the majority of people in Thailand.

The National Reconciliation Council (NRC), an independent body tasked with looking for ways to integrate the Malay-speaking South with the rest of the country, had floated the idea of using Malay as a "working language" to make people feel more comfortable when communicating with state officials.

The decision to shoot down the proposal was deemed a major set-back for the NRC that was headed by former prime minister Anand Panyarachun.

A prominent academic and NRC member Ahmed Somboon Bualuang said Prem and the government ministers have misunderstood the intention behind the proposal.

"The idea is to make Malay a working language, not an official language as they had stated," Ahmed said.

He declined to comment on whether he thought Prem and Thaksin had used the word "official language" as a way to politicise the issue and generate opposition to the proposal.

Ahmed urged the state to be more opened-minded and not feel threatened by the Malay language, which is not only spoken in the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat but also throughout Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and the southern region of the Philippines.

Ahmed said Malay was an integral part of the southern community and was used in their daily lives - and in their teaching of Islam.

Ahmed said the fact that nearly 300 million people in Southeast Asia speak the Malay language in various dialects should prompt the state to look at the idea as an investment in human capital and in economic prospects.

"Even the Chinese in Singapore are encouraging the use of Malay language," said Ahmed, referring to next month's "blogging" contest to encourage Singaporeans to make greater use of Malay. Fourteen per cent of the city-state's predominantly Chinese population are Malays.