Malaysian PM Anwar urges Thailand to step up on Myanmar crisis
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Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha (left) and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim inspecting a guard of honour during an official state visit at Government House in Bangkok on Thursday.
PHOTO: AFP
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BANGKOK – Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim asked Thailand to play a bigger role in bringing stability to coup-hit Myanmar, as diplomatic efforts to bring peace there flounder.
On the situation in southern Thailand, Datuk Seri Anwar pledged to “do whatever is required” to facilitate a peaceful solution to the long-simmering insurgency there.
Mr Anwar made the comments on Thursday during a meeting with his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-o-cha. It was the first bilateral meeting between the two prime ministers since Mr Anwar won office in late 2022.
Mr Anwar was on an official visit to Bangkok.
The Thai government has faced international criticism for maintaining normal ties with Myanmar’s junta and downplaying alleged atrocities in its neighbouring country since Myanmar was plunged into chaos following a putsch two years ago.
“There’s very little we can do except to continue this so-called constructive engagement with the Myanmar junta,” Mr Anwar told reporters.
To Prime Minister Prayut, he said: “But I think you are placed, Prime Minister, in a better position to express many of our concerns.”
Thousands of the mostly Muslim ethnic Rohingya, heavily persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have risked their lives on perilous boat journeys
Nearly one million Rohingya live in camps near Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar, after fleeing a brutal military crackdown in 2017.
Mr Anwar said the close to 200,000 refugees his country was hosting were a heavy burden.
Asean has led so-far fruitless diplomatic efforts to resolve the turmoil in Myanmar, where armed “people’s defence forces” have staged anti-coup attacks since the military takeover.
There has been little progress on a five-point consensus
Late last year, Thailand raised eyebrows when it hosted Myanmar’s top diplomat at informal talks
It was the first time in more than a year that Myanmar’s foreign minister had met an Asean foreign-minister grouping in person, after the bloc snubbed the junta by barring its representatives from top-level summits over a lack of progress on Asean’s peace plan.
Mr Anwar said Asean needed “coherent, concerted action”.
At talks in Jakarta last week,
About the situation in southern Thailand, Mr Anwar stressed that the insurgency is an internal issue for Thailand.
But he said Malaysia would do whatever it can to help find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Kuala Lumpur is appointing Mr Zulkifli Zainal Abidin, 65, a former head of Malaysia’s armed forces, as facilitator of the process.
Since 2013, Malaysia has helped to facilitate peace talks between separatist groups in Thailand and the Thai government, but the process was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The latest round of talks resumed in 2022 after a two-year suspension.
Barisan Revolusi Nasional, the main insurgent group involved in talks with the Thai government, did not comment when contacted by Reuters.
More than 7,300 people have been killed since 2004 in fighting between Thai forces and shadowy groups seeking independence for the predominantly Muslim and ethnically Malay provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and parts of Songkhla, which border Malaysia. The area was part of the Patani sultanate that Thailand annexed in a 1909 treaty with Britain.
“It is our duty as a good neighbour and family to do whatever is required and necessary to facilitate the process,” Mr Anwar said.
On his part, Mr Prayut said cooperation will help address the problems in the restive provinces, specifically greater economic development and improved connectivity between the two countries. AFP, REUTERS
