Thailand and Malaysia share a long, porous border and they have traditionally enjoyed good relations, close trade ties and other economic cooperation as well as contact between their citizens. Many Muslim Thais of Malay descent in southern Thailand have relatives across the border in northern Malaysia. Bangkok needs Kuala Lumpur's assistance to ascertain whether Islamic militants/Malay separatists responsible for the escalation of the insurgency and terrorist attacks in southern Thailand slip across the border to seek shelter in Malaysia.

But Mahathir's suggestion that Bangkok consider entering into talks with the previous generation of Malay separatists - including the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo), the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) and the Barisan Islam Pembebasan Patani (BIPP) - should be taken into serious consideration by the Surayud government. These former guerrilla fighters have not been active in the armed struggle since the Thai government successfully starved them of local support through a combination of shrewd political measures and economic incentives in the mid-1990s.

But any dialogue must be entered into on the condition that these people denounce violence and the armed struggle for independence in the Malay-speaking South. Which, according to Mahathir, is what they are prepared to do, as they do not expect the Thai government to grant autonomy, let alone independence.

If that is the case, there are benefits to be gained in engaging these people in talks that could perhaps lead to a general amnesty for the exiled leaders that would enable them to come back to live in their home provinces in the deep South. These benefits might include gaining useful insights into the long-standing grievances that continue to be felt by many Muslim Thais of Malay descent in the region and how best to address them.

Such a dialogue would be useful even though there is no guarantee that this previous generation of separatists would be able or willing to persuade today's insurgents - who may have different ideas and modes of operation on how to achieve their goals - to abandon their struggle, which has turned the deep South into a war zone.

However, the Thai government must never enter into any peace talks with active southern insurgents who have waged a campaign of terror aimed to instigating divisiveness between Thai Muslims and Buddhists in the deep South by targeting innocent civilians and schoolteachers. There will be no negotiations under fire. The only acceptable precondition for talks with currently active insurgents is for them to lay down their arms and denounce violence.

If the Surayud government still does not have a clear strategy on how to suppress Islamic insurgents and restore peace, it must come up with one urgently.

The Surayud government's peace initiatives must be implemented alongside effective military operations against insurgents who operate in small cells and live among the civilian population. That it is extremely difficult to separate insurgents from innocent civilians does not offer the government the excuse to do nothing while idly watching the situation in the South descend into anarchy and lawlessness.

In the meantime, the least that Thailand can do is to start a public debate both within the strife-torn region and the wider Thai society on viable options to bring peace and prosperity to the deep South. The debate must consider how to convince people there that regardless of their ethnicity or religion they share a common destiny with Thailand.