Malaysia yesterday reaffirmed its willingness to help facilitate the peace process in the deep South, suggesting that trust building between Thai authorities and the insurgents would take time.

Visiting Prime Minister Najib Razak said Malaysia understood that the situation in the South is Thailand’s internal affair, but Malaysia would help build trust among all stakeholders.

Najib yesterday met Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at Government House.

This is the sixth annual consultation between the two countries, and the peace process is among the main items on the agenda since Thailand urged Malaysia to facilitate peace talks with MARA Patani, an umbrella organisation of rebel groups in the deep South.

Prayut expressed his gratitude to Najib and said his government would continue the dialogue to establish peace. “We are now in the stage of trying to understand each other,” Prayut said about the talks with MARA Patani.

The previous discussion between the government representatives and MARA Patani in Kuala Lumpur on September 2 yielded no concrete results although they said they could reach common ground on the terms of reference for a peace process.

The peace talks are aimed at ending the violence in the deep South, which has killed more than 6,500 people since early 2004.

Thai authorities have expressed doubts over MARA Patani’s claim to represent the various militant groups, and also the claim by Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) to have been behind recent high-profile attacks.

Local media reported that BRN was also involved in bomb and arson attacks in seven provinces in the predominantly Buddhist upper South of Thailand before and on Mother’s Day last month.

Army chief General Teerachai Nakwanich yesterday said the August 11-12 attacks in seven tourist towns, including Phuket and Samui, were not linked to the deep South separatist group BRN.

Teerachai briefs security officers

Teerachai yesterday visited the southern border province of Pattani, where he attended a meeting at the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 Forward Command to provide a policy briefing to security officers.

The Army commander urged people not to get confused because the police probe into those attacks had made much progress, and everything pointed to various groups in the area benefiting from the incidents.

He said Army chief adviser General Aksara Kerdphol who led the Thai delegation to the Kuala Lumpur talks last week had discussed the matter with separatists at a recent session with MARA Patani and learned that they were not behind the attacks.

Also on the agenda of the two premiers are cooperation in security issues including terrorism, cross-border crimes, human trafficking, dual nationality and border security.

Problems in Thailand would have some implications for Malaysia hence the two countries have to find solutions through exchange of intelligence and immigration control, Prayut said.

Prayut and Najib witnessed a signing of cooperation in the Rubber City project between Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand and Malaysia’s Tradewinds Plantation company.

On the economic front, Prayut said both sides aimed to boost two-way trade from $21 billion (Bt735 billion) at present to $31 billion by 2018 by supporting the role of the private sector in driving economic cooperation as well as developing the economy to raise the standard of living and well-being of people in the border areas of the two countries.

The two countries agreed to build bridges across the Kolok river, which borders the two countries, by next year, Prayut said. He added that both sides would expand rail links as well as upgrade the border market at Songkhla’s Sadao checkpoint.

Both sides also agreed to explore the possibility of having a high-speed train link between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur connecting to Singapore, Prayut said.