What was old, old news was the revelation that the Thai authorities were talking to militant groups in Malaysia. Indeed, some of the first acknowledged dialogue meetings took place under Malaysian auspices, when former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad convened a couple of meetings on the island of Langkawi, in which Thai officials, including the then head of the National Security Council and a senior general, took part. Shazryl Eskay Abdullah, the honorary consul at the Royal Thai Consulate in Langkawi, served as a facilitator, along with an ex-police chief of Malaysia. The government in Kuala Lumpur was kept informed, but no serving Malaysian officials took part. Former Thai prime minister Anand Panyarachun, who was serving at the time as chairman of the government-appointed National Reconciliation Commission charged with recommending solutions to the conflict, also joined the talks. Other participants included representatives from the militant groups BRN (Barisan Revolusi Nasional), GMIP (Gerakan Mujahideen Islam Pattani; Malay, Pattani Islamic Independence Movement) and PULO (Patani United Liberation Organization), as well as Dr Wan Kadir Che Man, a former head of the now-defunct Bersatu (aka Council of the Muslim People of Patani).