Article excerpt
When violence in southern Thailand resumed in late 2001, and escalated dramatically in 2004, no external country was more affected than neighbouring Malaysia. (1) For decades Malaysia has seen developments in Thailand's far south as a national security concern, and has sought to address this by enhanced cooperation with its northern neighbour. However, this has sometimes been complicated by Bangkok's mistreatment of ethnic Malays across the border, with whom the majority of Malaysia's population share a common ethnicity, culture, religion and language.