Thaksin the Tough Guy; Is the hard-charging leader exacerbating separatist tensions?(Thaksin Shinawatra)

Byline: Joe Cochrane

Thaksin Shinawatra, the confident Thai prime minister, spent last week doing something he undoubtedly hates: taking advice. It seems everybody, from the media to leading academics to the revered royal family, is urging Thaksin to take a softer approach to the spiraling unrest in Thailand's Muslim-dominated southern region. His tough response to armed Islamic separatists, including jackboot tactics by the Army, has created a vicious cycle of tit-for-tat killings that have claimed more than 500 lives this year. While Thaksin downplays the violence and says peace will come soon, others fret that a full-scale Islamic jihad could be in the offing unless the prime minister changes course. "He's a little overtaken by events and acts too quickly," says Gothom Arya, secretary-general of Forum Asia, a regional human-rights group. "Hopefully he'll become more mindful and accept that we have to take a more considerate approach."

It's not clear if Thaksin has gotten the message. Last week he did agree to study a proposal from a group of 28 academics calling for a "unity" dialogue between the government and Muslim leaders of Thailand's three southernmost provinces--Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani. But the prime minister continues to maintain more than 10,000 troops in the region, as well as martial law. He's also kept up threats against shadowy Muslim separatists, saying last week that they'd "not be considered Thais worthy of keeping" if they continued to attack Army troops and Buddhist residents of the region. Thaksin's critics say that his continuing bluster is curious, considering the fallout from an anti-police protest in the southern town of Tak Bai last month where at least 85 Muslims were killed, most while in military custody. Thaksin expressed regret over the incident but has so far refused to apologize.

Many worry that the prime minister, a telecommunications tycoon with an uncompromising leadership style, is tem-peramentally unsuited to the challenge of calming the restive south. "It's this 'Bangkok knows best' attitude," says former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan, a prominent Muslim leader. Thaksin has a taste for the grand gesture, as with the promises of nearly free health care he made to ...