Scepticism over Zamzamin’s recent role in Thailand

Malaysia’s peace talks facilitator’s recent public appearance and his role in meeting the Thai media to talk about the southern peace talks have been viewed with skepticism from security experts and officials of Thailand.

          Mr Ahmad Zamzamin bin Hashim gave a press conference on peace talks process to a group of reporters from the three southern provinces in Kotabaru in Malaysia’s Kelantan state on February 19.  He  is to visit Chiang Mai on February 25 and meet the Thai press on the following day.

          During his interview in Kotabaru, Ahmad Zamzamin stressed Malaysia’s sincerity and readiness to help in the peace talks process and said that the Barisan Revolusi Nasional has not walked out of the process despite its announcement last year that it decided to opt out because the Thai government had rejected its five demands.

          Dr Surachart Bamrungsuk, professor in international relations at Chulalongkorn University’s political science faculty, said he felt Mr Ahmad Zamzamin might want to show off to help the Thai government regarding the peace talks process which was heavily criticized as a failure because it has failed to curb violence in the Deep South.

          Mr Zamzamin’s visit to Thailand can be viewed as an attempt by Malaysia to keep the process alive otherwise the image of Malaysia as the facilitator might be affected too and Malaysia itself might come under more suspicion in Thailand if violence in the strife-torn region has escalated, said Dr Surachart.

          However, he noted that Zamzamin’s visit while the Thai government is embroiled in political crisis would not be significant as peace talks could hardly be revived for the time being and in the near future as it was a big question about how long the current government would be able to survive and whether the National Security chief Lt-Gen Paradorn Pattanathabutr, chief negotiator of the Thai side, would still keep his position.

          To sum up, he said that Zamzamin’s role now was just a publicity effort to show that Malaysia was still willing and ready to help Thailand finding a peaceful solution to the southern unrest problem.

          Former NSC chief Thawil Pliensri, meanwhile, said Zamzamin’s  role now was just an image-building effort to show that the peace talks process was not dead yet.  He doubted the revival of the peace talks would work as there is no functional government for the time being and restrictions from open peace talks.

          However, a reliable security source insisted that the BRN had walked out of the peace talks process citing a recent meeting of separatist groups in Indonesia in which no decision-making representatives from the BRN attended.

          PULO and BIPP representatives at the meeting signed a document expressing their intention to join the peace process, said the source who however added that those men have no control of the field insurgents who have been terrorizing the people in the region.

          However, a Malaysia-based senior Thai authority said that BRN’s participation in the peace talks was important.  He added that he himself and many Malaysians believed that talking with the right separatist groups which have the real say over the unrest problem would help ease violence and eventually lead to the restoration of peace.

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Caption : Dr Surachart Bamrungsuk