No realistic person could expect concrete results from two sessions of formal peace talks on the South. But the meetings with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) are taking an oddly skewed format. The militants have clearly settled on a hard-line course of high-profile violence on the ground, combined with antagonistic rhetoric both in public and in the formal meetings with Thai officials.
It should be no surprise to peace talks chief Paradorn Pattanatabut and the government, then, that the public has reacted with deep concern over its latest moves on the deep South. Lt Gen Paradorn, who is head of the National Security Council, has announced two major decisions. While the government has not linked them to the peace talks, they appear to be a direct answer to the harsh demands of the BRN's top two negotiators, Hassan Taib and a militant ideologue, Abdul Karim Khalib.
The first act will be to revoke and cancel some or all arrest warrants on suspected militants. The official reason is that local people in the deep South think the warrants are "unfair". This is nothing new, however. A constant complaint by communities and groups in the South has been that security officials arrest, mistreat and sometimes even torture innocent villagers. These complaints predate the current upsurge in violence, which began in 2004.
The second decision is to cancel the enforcement of the government's draconian emergency decree, and replace it with some less intrusive system. Again, Lt Gen Paradorn points to public resentment of the emergency laws.
But the resentment is hardly new. It has been present since the harsh decree was first imposed in 2005 under then-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. The hard feelings have continued, like the decree itself, without any break and under every government since then.
To the public, the government's decisions appear to respond positively to the BRN demands. The April 25 YouTube propaganda video by Mr Taib and Mr Khalib, which caught the government by surprise, included this demand: "The Siamese authorities must release all detained suspects without conditions, and must suspend and stop issuing additional arrest warrants for other suspects." Lt Gen Paradorn's announcement that warrants will be revoked seems to respond to this demand.
Of course the government has many responsibilities in the deep South, not just attending to Mr Taib's negotiating team. Thaksin's emergency decree, which has long since morphed into government policy, has never sat right with either the people in the region or those who are concerned about civil rights.
The question of the warrants, however, is troubling. Lt Gen Paradorn's quick explanation that the warrants are deemed "unfair" hardly holds up to close examination. Arrest warrants are produced in a legal process which considers the possible case against the subjects named on the warrant.
Given the amount of crime and violence in the deep South, it is neither logical nor credible that a large number of such warrants are unfair or unjust _ except to the BRN and its supporters, who have explicitly claimed the murders, drive-bys and bombing attacks in the South involve "the struggle of the BRN [which] can lead to peace and justice".
The next session of peace talks has been pushed back from June 13 to June 29, according to the NSC chief. He and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra owe the nation a better explanation of the moves under way in the deep South. If peace talks are to be successful, the government cannot be seen to be caving in to BRN demands.