Muslim leaders and academics yesterday called on the government to make its position known over the recommendations put forward by the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), the body appointed to develop resolutions to the ongoing violence in the Malay-speaking South.

Abdulrahman Jehsae, chairman of the Islamic Committee of Yala, said the government could not afford to drag its feet because people's lives are at stake.

Ahmed Somboon Bualauang, a former member of the NRC, urged the government to make use of the findings and data collected by the government-appointed independent commission.

Professor Worawit Baru of the Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani urged the public to continue to pressure the government to act on the recommendations, which have taken over a year to be compiled by the NRC membership, which represents a broad spectrum of Thai society.

Yesterday's demands came amid signals by the government that some of the recommendations would be rejected.

Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya said he had yet to read the NRC report, while caretaker Interior Minister Kongsak Wantana questioned the appropriateness of designating Malay, which is widely spoken in the region, as the "official language".

However, the NRC report has suggested that Malay be used as a "working language", not an "official language" or to replace the Thai language.

More than 80 per cent of the residents in the three southernmost provinces are Muslims of Malay ethnicity. Thai as spoken in the central region has been an essential tool in the process of Thailand's nation-state building.

The NRC also called on the government to provide the Malay-speaking community with more "cultural space", instead of forcing them to adopt Thai culture as defined by the state, and to use more peaceful means to bring an end to the insurgency in the region.

Her Majesty the Queen yesterday donated additional money to help the family of elementary-school teacher Juling Pangamoon, who was beaten almost to death and is being treated in an intensive-care unit at Songkhla Nakarin Hospital.

The incident jolted the entire nation and drove a bigger wedge between the Buddhists and the Malay Muslims in the restive region.

Thailand's Islamic spiritual leader, the Chularajmontri, Sawas Sumalayasai, visited Juling yesterday and donated money to her family.