EDITORIAL
If there is evidence that support for the southern gangs is coming from Malaysia, Mr Samak should share such proof with his Malaysian counterpart.
The weekend elections in Malaysia were a political tsunami which may have deep and unintended results for that country and its neighbours. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi could lose his job after the worst showing ever at the polls by the ruling National Front coalition. Anwar Ibrahim, the man hounded out of government and into jail by ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad, is now one of the main leaders of the opposition.
While this voters' revolt has serious implications for Malaysia, it also could rebound to the detriment of Thailand. In any case, it turns what had been planned as a courtesy call by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej into a serious policy trip.
Malaysian voters put opposition parties in all three of the Malaysian states on Thailand's southern border. More importantly, the presence of separatist-friendly Islamist governments doubled. The Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) kept control of Kelantan state and added Kedah. For the first time, Islamist governments will rule Malaysian states abutting all five Muslim-majority provinces in the South. In addition to parts of Yala, Kedah borders the province of Satun - which has seen no violence since the southern insurgency flared up in 2004. It also borders on three Songkhla province districts where terrorist-type violence has spread. Yesterday, coinci-dentally, the commander of the Border Patrol Police in Na Thawi district of Songkhla warned that attacks on schools and teachers are likely to increase. That district, as well as sometimes violent Saba Yoi and Sadao, will now border on a PAS-controlled state.
The importance of this was stressed last week by Mr Samak at his regular news conference. He cited alleged new intelligence reports from the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) that the instigators of the southern violence are "people from outside the country".
Whether Isoc has developed significant new intelligence on the identity of the insurgent leadership is another matter. One hopes the southern command has managed to put names and faces to the leaders and their groups behind the murderous violence.
It is not beyond the realm of possibility that such groups are receiving support and even aid from extremists inside Malaysia. If so, Mr Samak should personally and carefully transmit that information to Mr Abdullah when he visits Malaysia next week. There is every reason to think the central government in Kuala Lumpur will help to locate and detain suspected insurgents.
Violence has ebbed and flowed in the South since January 2004, but the brutality of the gangs has steadily increased.
With the PAS now controlling the borders south and west of Thailand, it is even more crucial to have good relations with the central government in Malaysia. Mr Samak needs to make it personally clear to Mr Abdullah that he will neither indulge in nor encourage Malaysia-bashing about the southern insurgency. If there is evidence that support for the southern gangs is coming from Malaysia, Mr Samak should share such proof with his Malaysian counterpart. Finger-pointing will not bring peace to the South, but close cross-border relations with a cooperative Malaysia will certainly help.
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