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In the middle of this year, Vaipot jolted the National Legislative Assembly and military-appointed government when he lashed out at the government's policy for the southernmost provinces, where more than 2,600 troops and civilians have been killed in the past five years of daily rebel violence.

Vaipot was suggesting to fellow NLA members that the gov¬ernment was digging graves for the young soldiers dispatched to the deep South to contain a new generation of Malay sepa¬ratists.

During a recent visit to Singapore, where he attended a workshop with security chiefs from Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as international experts, on the sticky issue of dialogue with insurgents, Vaipot chose his words carefully but didn't shy away from controversy.

He said too much had been pegged on the upcoming gen¬eral election and the country, including its political leaders and parties, had to take the long view.

"If you ask people in the country, most will tell you that they don't trust the next government, regardless of which political party comes to power, to tackle the key problems facing the coun¬try. And because of the general perception that the next gov¬ernment will be shortlived, perhaps the general election shouldn't be the answer," he said.

The country's political leaders need to look for "additional options to move the country forward". Being a hostage to poli¬tics has also taken its toll not only on the country's development, but also that of the southernmost provinces.

"We can't afford to come up with a brand new blueprint for the South each time a new government comes into power. There has to be a continuity of political will and policy that is not bound to an administration, keeping in mind that essentially the prob¬lem in the South will be solved through political, not military, means," he said.

The former chief of the Armed Forces Supreme Command's Security Centre, who took up the post of National Intelligence Centre director following the September 2006 coup, insisted that the military was not the solution.

While the unremitting violence has frazzled the fabric of local communities, in many cases pitting Muslims and Buddhists against one another, Thais have to "look beyond the daily vio¬lence and politics of the day and make the needs and benefits of the local community the centre of the debate. We don't and can't see the groups behind the unrest as a conventional enemy, because they are Thais. They are our citizens."

By Don Pathan, The Nation