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