Malaysia-Thai relations are tempered by an irreconcilable problem - the four Malay provinces of south Thailand. Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur views them through their respective national perspectives, making a permanent solution all but impossible.

When Britain demarcated its colonial borders with Thailand in 1897, Bangkok ceded sovereignty of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu but retained Pattani, Narathiwat, Satun, Yala. The Malays in southern Thailand then fought with Bangkok for a Muslim space in a Buddhist nation.

Bangkok tolerated it though, in the main, did little to correct the grievances. Over the past five decades, especially after Kuala Lumpur's independence from Britain in 1957, this plight of the southern Malay Thais has attracted attention.

All post-independence Malaysian prime ministers - from Tunku Abdul Rahman to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi - have had an important role in the southern Malay Thai convulsions. None would talk about it, but the hidden Malaysian hand was clear.