In light of Bangkok's failure to pacify the insurgent movements in South Thailand by talking to the leaders of the younger and more radical groups, it is high time the Thai government return to consultations with the older, albeit less entrenched, leaders of the Muslim groups.

Perdana Global Peace Foundation executive director Mukhriz Mahathir said it was understandable that Bangkok sought to negotiate directly with the younger leaders as they are seen as being more relevant in terms of the increasing violence.

Over the past three months, however, since a peace proposal was submitted to the Thai government after a year of secret talks between Thai officials and southern Thailand's Muslim leaders, the situation has only gotten worse, said Mukhriz.

Mukhriz was among several Malaysian leaders who brokered the peace talks.

"We haven't seen a positive outcome to the approach adopted so far," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

"Perhaps it's time to start talking to the older leaders," he added.

600 schools remain closed

Bombings or killings in the south - which have increased in intensity since October - peaked in November to an average of one killing a day.

While about 400 schools have re-opened its doors to students, 600 in the southern provinces have been closed since then due to fears of attacks.

Leaders of the relatively more established groups which signed the Joint Development and Peace Plan for Southern Thailand had earlier warned of pressures to desist from peace talks with the Thai government.

Last week, they warned that Bangkok's attempts to unilaterally pacify the insurgency in Southern Thailand without consulting the older leaders were doomed to fail.

Criminal organisations as well as political and personal reprisals serve to compound the already restive provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani racked by more than four decades of separatist violence.

Radical Muslim groups such as the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Coordinate have an avowed mission of seeking total independence from Thailand.

Socio-economic discrimination and injustices have led Thai Muslim youths to sympathise with the armed attacks and to occasionally participate in the violence.