Two senior figures of the Patani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) insurgent movement will play a key role in the government's peace talks with six main rebel groups in the South, a source said Sunday.
Haji Daoh Thanam, a Pulo leader, is expected to be released from Pattani prison this week, the source said, as the government further moves to smooth the way for talks with southern insurgent groups.
Ismael Gaddafi, alias Sama-ae Thanam, 63, who was the commander of Pulo forces during the 1980s, was released from prison in Yala on Friday under a special early release programme, after serving most of his 17 years and five months jail term.
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The rebel groups believed to be behind persistent southern unrest are the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Pattani Co-ordinate (BRN Co-ordinate), Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Pattani Congress (BRN Congress), Gerakan Mujahideen Patani (GMP), Barisan National Pembebasan Patani (BNPP), Gerakan Ulama Patani (GUP) and Pulo, the source said.
Ismael would have had four more years to serve if he had not been granted the special prison sentence suspension, said Wachirawit Wachiralerphan, chief of Yala Central Prison.
The duo could become the key link between the government's peace talk team and the insurgent groups in the deep South because they were not removed from their top positions at Pulo despite their imprisonment, and they were arrested and did not surrender to the authorities, the source said.
After allowing Ismael to spend time with his family in Pattani during the Muslim Eid al-Fitr celebrations at the end of Ramadan, he would work with authorities and begin his mission of brokering peace talks, the source said. The first insurgent group he will try to negotiate with is Pulo, the source said.
Political science lecturer and security expert Panitan Wattanayagorn said the early release of Ismael was in line with the government's peace-building policy because the released Pulo figures are capable of brokering peace talks with several insurgent groups both in and outside the country.
Mr Panitan, however, refused to comment on how successful this move might be, saying he didn't know if the younger generation of southern insurgents who were now most active in the unrest would listen to the older generation.
The security source also shared similar concerns, saying the most active insurgent group was Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) and "teenage extremists".
But at the very least, Ismael's release should help ease tension in the deep South, Mr Panitan said.
Critics have made many suggestions about the government's peace talk efforts, which could be summarised into three main views.
First, some insurgent groups didn't accept peace talks between the BRN Co-ordinate and the government's team because the talks were seen to be manipulated by the Malaysian government, which allegedly selected groups and their representatives to attend the peace talks.
Leaders of these dissenting groups insisted Hazan Toyib, a key representative of the insurgent groups in the past peace talks, had lost his leadership in the BRN and could no longer control the BRN.
The groups expressed their disagreement with the peace talks by instructing the RKK, which is under their control, to step up attacks after the talks began on Feb 28, 2013.
Second, the insurgent groups which oppose the talks didn't want Malaysia to act as the go-between in every round of talks because the neighbouring country had been playing this role for more than two decades but the situation in the far South had not improved.
And third, insurgent groups weren't willing to cooperate with the Wadah group, a local political group, that they agreed was exploiting the southern situation for its own gain.
The groups also believed the Wadah group was working together with the Malaysian government in selecting groups and their representatives for the talks.
The push to get Ismael and Hayeedao involved in the talks began last year when security authorities sent a letter to both Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Deputy Defence Minister Udomdej Sitabutr explaining why they wanted the two men to help them tackle the southern violence.