Funding terrorists

Funding terrorists

Few people in Thailand seriously believe the Malaysian
government supports or helps the bandits behind the violence in
the South. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Malaysians
on the Malaysia-Thai frontier. Many Thais suspect covert aid and
comfort for violent extremism flows from Malaysian border states
to Thailand.

That suspicion was magnified last week by a charge that money
was diverted from Malaysia's biggest charity directly into the
coffers of Thailand's best-known group promoting the violence in
the South.

The charge came from Kuala Lumpur, via a senior official of
the ruling United Malays National Organization. Annuar Musa
alleged a convoluted swindle of the Kelantan state branch of the
government-backed Malaysia Islamic Welfare Organization, known as
Perkim. The bottom line, according to him, was that 120,000
Malaysian ringgit, or 1,245,000 baht, was funneled out of the
charity from the border state and into accounts controlled by the
Pattani United Liberation Organization.

Malaysia must take this allegation seriously because it is
unconscionable that Malaysians are sponsoring murders in southern
Thailand. Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar quickly issued a
statement that "Malaysia does not support any group that uses
violence to achieve their objectives".

Malaysia owes Thailand a serious investigation and explanation
for this most serious charge that its national charity has been
robbed to finance violence and murder.

-- Bangkok Post, Bangkok