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.

Don Pathan

The Nation