Malaysia - HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, on behalf of Their Majesties the King and Queen of Thailand, today joins other heads of state in the Golden Jubilee commemoration of Malaysia‘s merdeka (independence). Literally, Thailand was the first country to tie the diplomatic knot with Malaysia right after its independence. The relationship was built amid regional political uncertainties, including (though not limited to) Malaysia‘s conflict with Indonesia (konfrontasi) and its battle against the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) along the southern Thai border.
Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont will accompany HRH the Crown Prince and his Royal Consort HRH Princess Srirasm to the historic celebration in Kuala Lumpur. And the prime minister has ample reason to be proud, not only because Gen Surayud is the head of the present administration but because he has succeeded in mending the strained ties caused by careless comments and the heavy-handed foreign policy of the previous administration of Thaksin Shinawatra in regard to the southern conflict.
In his speech last week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi valued Gen Surayud‘s ‘‘personal demonstration of friendship towards Malaysia‘‘ while Foreign Minister Syed Albar reaffirmed the jubilant note here this week that the ‘‘bilateral relations between our two countries are at present at an all-time high‘‘.
The personal touch Gen Surayud added to the fence-mending mission has succeeded in shifting the ‘‘megaphone diplomacy‘‘ prevalent throughout the Thaksin administration, to a subtler ‘‘quiet diplomacy‘‘.
It was unfortunate that conflicting signals still surfaced over the role of Malaysia as a ‘‘mediator‘‘ in helping defuse the southern conflict; this lingered on for several months after the two government leaders met in Bangkok and Phuket in February this year. However, thanks to the good communications between the two premiers, speculation has faded away and the relevant ministers now present the same line of comment.
For example, Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram came out with the ‘‘3 Es‘‘ (education, employment and entrepreneurship) strategy after his meeting with Mr Syed in Kuala Lumpur. Mr Syed himself erased any remaining doubts over Malaysia‘s explicit role in ‘‘fixing talks‘‘ two months ago on the sidelines of the Joint Committee meeting in Bangkok with his statement that: ‘‘Kuala Lumpur did not arrange any meetings or involve itself in talks between the Thai security and the people engaged in the southern violence.‘‘
In fact, it was the previous government that sought Malaysia‘s help after the Jan 4, 2004 raid on a military arms depot in Narathiwat province.
Naturally, immediate neighbours like Thailand and Malaysia have much to consider when engaging the other in solving their own domestic problems.
The historic case of shutting down the chapter of the Communist Party of Malaya through the Thai-Malaysian joint effort provides a good example. It took more than three decades to close that intriguing but bloody page of history, thanks partly to the invisible hand of China.
In response to Thailand‘s request for assistance, Malaysia came out in August 2004 with the Joint Development Strategy (JDS), aimed at boosting economic links between the three Thai southern provinces and Malaysia‘s more economically developed northern states.
Thai-Malaysian relations deteriorated significantly, however, over the Thaksin government‘s attempts to defeat the insurgency, with accusations that the militants used Malaysian territory to plan and train for attacks.
The October 2004 Tak Bai incident in which 78 ethnic Malay-Muslim protesters suffocated to death in the back of Thai army trucks prompted PM Abdullah to express concern that unless Thailand could contain the crisis, the violence would spread, possibly across the border into Malaysia.
Relations reached their nadir in August 2005, when 131 Malay-Muslims crossed into Malaysia claiming persecution by the Thai authorities. They remain there till today, except for Manase Jaelo, who was sent to Bangkok to face trial for masterminding the Jan 4, 2004 raid.
Former PM Thaksin neglected the results of the three rounds of peace talks brokered by Malaysia‘s former premier Mahathir Mohamad between senior Thai military officers and exiled leaders of older insurgency groups, such as the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo), on the Malaysian island of Langkawi in 2005.
The momentum of the talks was later downplayed by the current administration. The National Security Council‘s secretary-general Prakit Prachonpachanuk said such a high-profile dialogue as the Langkawi one was a ‘‘burnt‘‘ process in which key participants became too exposed and thus could not establish confidence among the concerned parties.
Currently, the two governments are encouraging businessmen to join hands in developing the economic and industrial zones on both sides of the border. Malaysia has also offered to ‘‘correct‘‘ the misperception of Muslim youths in the deep South through training and education.
Whether the warmer relations both at the state and personal levels between the two governments will yield any immediate or lasting result regarding the southern violence has yet to be seen.
After all, it is Gen Surayud who will be lauded for improving relations. He is determined to inaugurate the Bukit Bunga-Buketa bridge linking Narathiwat and Kelantan before he steps down from the premership. The bridge, which has taken four years to build, will aptly be named the Thai-Malaysian Friendship Bridge.
Source: www.bangkokpost.com (31 Agustus 2007)