For the first time in nearly 10 years - a little over nine years and seven months, but who's counting? - the guns could, repeat "could", fall silent across the deep South in a little more than three weeks.
Muslim women pray as they celebrate the end of Ramadan last August at Krue Se mosque in Pattani. (AP file photo)
The government took the issue of killing, terrorism and bombing directly to the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) and won an agreement for immediate and serious discussions about a partial or even a full ceasefire in the embattled region for the fasting month of Ramadan.
Ramadan will begin on July 9 or 10, and last for 30 days.
The agreement capped a week of successive achievements by Lt Gen Paradorn Pattanatabut and his peace talks team. The Kuala Lumpur-based talks are pretty much a zero-sum contest at present, so it was a terrible week for his counterpart Hassan Taib and his BRN negotiating and propaganda team.
For the first time, the Thai negotiating team didn't just come out of the conference room with good news. It went into the Kuala Lumpur conference room with a bit of a swagger. Lt Gen Paradorn bantered with the media - but also made it clear that this time, he intended to take the political fight to the BRN.
In some views, it was about time.
From the signing of the formal agreement to hold talks last February, the Thai team has seemed tentative, even timorous at times. By ensuring it gave respect to the Malaysian side, it appeared to lose much of its own confidence.
All of that changed last week, following two events that helped boost the government's confidence, and simultaneously put a dent in the BRN's.
The more impressive to most minds was a meeting of all or most of the imams of the southern provinces. The 634 leaders of the region's mosques passed a unanimous resolution demanding that the BRN "end all forms of violence" during the fasting month of Ramadan. In a symbolic move, the imams asked Lt Gen Paradorn and his government peace team to convey the demand to the BRN at Thursday's meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
The government had the wit to lap up the compliment. Pol Col Thawee Sodsong, director of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC), told the imams that Ramadan should be a peaceful and significant month for people of all religions, and called on everyone in the deep South to make plans to perform good deeds.
About the same time, the SBPAC was also wrapping up an informal survey of southern residents on their feelings about the five-point demands of the BRN, made in a YouTube video posted in April. The results could hardly have been more favourable. Residents of the deep South were largely disengaged from the demands, and were not disposed to letting the BRN represent their feelings to the government.
There was also a clear distaste for the increasing violence in the region.
But there was far more open support, including a large, pro-government women's rally for peace, when Lt Gen Paradorn and Pol Col Thawee floated the idea of granting some element of self-rule to the southernmost provinces.
And a unique incident of violence aimed at "the aggressive Siamese imperialists" came close to a total propaganda backfire against the BRN and the violent gangs of the region.
The replica Phaya Tani cannon deserves its own lengthy story, but briefly, the actual 6.8m siege gun was taken from the old Patani empire to Bangkok after a Siamese military victory under King Rama I in the late 18th century, and it has been ensconced near the Defence Ministry ever since.
The army, at a cost of three million baht, cast the replica and had it installed on June 2 near the Krue Se mosque - another historical icon. It was probably predictable that some militants would be outraged enough at the event - at the use of a replica and at the symbolism - that they would attack it. And on June 11, they did, and broke it up badly.
There was no doubt some support, even pride at the anti-Bangkok violence.
But it seemed a solid majority of residents - however angry they might have been about having a replica fobbed off on them - were happy to have such a prominent reminder of their glory days on display at all.
In short, then, the BRN spent last week spinning its wheels as the government made its own points sharply and clearly. That is the first time that has happened since Feb 28, when Mr Taib and Lt Gen Paradorn agreed to talk about peace.
The actual talks are in recess until after Aug 9, the end of Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr (Hari Raya) festival. But for now, it is the BRN that is on the defensive, about to prove whether it really has the power over the southern militant fighters to order a peaceful Ramadan.
