Published on November 23, 2005 - Calls for autonomy for the mainly Muslim deep South will from now on be taboo. And the “megaphone” diplomacy between Thai and Malaysian officials will be toned down to more civil discussions.

These two agreements were made in two separate meetings between former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who is on a visit to Thailand, and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Monday and National Reconciliation Commission head Anand Panyarachun yesterday.

Mahathir, whose comments on the continuing violence in Thailand’s deep South angered Thai officials, was in Bangkok on a two-day visit to exchange views with Thaksin and Anand, after receiving an invitation to come from the NRC chief.

The former statesman, who was escorted around with a motorcade, received red-carpet treatment in Bangkok. Mahathir attended a dinner hosted by Thaksin on Monday and was granted an audience with His Majesty the King yesterday.

In November last year, Mahathir compared the violence in the deep South to the perennial conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The Malaysian leader, who is in retirement but still carries clout in regional politics, went on to recommend that Thailand grant autonomy for Muslims in the troubled region.

Thaksin dismissed the suggestion as “unconstructive.”

Anand, who met Mahathir yesterday, said he had asked the Muslim leader to refrain from using the term “autonomy” as a proposed solution to the problem in Thailand’s deep South.

“We must not use the term ‘autonomy’ in this country because the word, when translated into Thai, can mean independence,” Anand later told reporters.

“Of course, there is a distinction between autonomy and independence, but when you use the term autonomy in Thailand, it could be translated into independence,” he added.

Mahathir promised not to float the suggestion again. “I don’t want to discuss it here if it could mean something else,” he said.

Unrelenting violence in the deep South has strained relations between Thailand and Malaysia. They reached a low in late August after 131 Muslim villagers from Narathiwat crossed illegally into northern Malaysia and asked for political asylum.

The Malaysian government has repeatedly expressed concern over the unceasing violence and urged Thailand to control the situation and prevent hostilities from spilling across the border. Over the past months, officials on both sides have exchanged in a growing war of words.

Mahathir said yesterday that during his one-on-one meeting with Thaksin on Monday he agreed that Thai and Malaysian officials must desist from their “megaphone diplomacy” over the issue of violence in the troubled region.

Mahathir said he was sure Thaksin’s Malaysian counterpart, Abdullah Badawi, would also agree.

“I will talk to [the government in Malaysia]. In fact, this is what they have said from the beginning: that a shouting match never solve problems,” he told reporters.

The former Malaysian leader also asked Thai officials not to persist in their suspicions that he was manipulating the situation in Thailand’s South from the island resort of Langawi, where he spends much of the year. Mahathir said all he does on the island is give advice on development matters.

Defence Minister Thamarak Isarangura had earlier charged that Langawi sheltered and facilitated militants engaged in hostilities in Thailand’s South.

“I have never thought anybody would say I get involved in such things. I have no such contacts at all,” Mahathir said.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee