Perhaps most seriously, it remains unclear that Hassan Taib, the lone BRN ‘leader’ who signed the agreement, has the standing, connections or authority to negotiate, let alone to deliver, any sort of settlement. Founded in 1960, the BRN long since split into three different groups, and while the 6-member BRN team has been reorganized since the beginning of the talks, major players in the organization remain in the wings, rather than around the negotiating table. There has been widespread speculation that Hassan Taib’s participation in the talks was arranged by the Malaysian Special Branch, and that members of the insurgent groups who have long been resident in Malaysia had little choice but to show up for the dialogue process. In other words, this was not a voluntary and spontaneous process, but one orchestrated by the Malaysian state for its own purposes.