The ethnic Shan people are expected to help in Thailand's anti-drug activities - PM's Office Minister Thirapat Serirangsan has his hands full overseeing state media organisations - The King Prachadipok Institute is to set up two new bureaus, one focusing on the sufficiency economy and the other on reconciliation.
Thailand and the Shan ethnic group in Burma look set to revitalise their relations which ground to a halt during the years Thaksin Shinawatra was in power.
For more than five years, the Thaksin government put its ties with Rangoon ahead of those with the ethnic group, which has long been a buffer state assisting in drug suppression on the Thai-Burmese border.
As the formal ties with Rangoon prospered, Thailand granted a four-billion-baht loan to the junta, enabling the latter to complete a satellite concession agreement.
At one point, some high-ranking officers in the Third Region Army command, in charge of border areas occupied by Shan people, "pleased" Rangoon by pushing the ethnic group into Burmese soil and put a halt to the project to build a Shan dharma centre in Chiang Rai's Mae Fa Luang district.
Consequently, the Burmese junta relocated the Wa ethnic group to an area close to one that was occupied by the Shan. Inevitably, the move resulted in hiccups in drug suppression activity as drug-producing factories mushroomed near the border and drug smuggling became rampant.
According to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), a larger amount of illicit substances are expected to enter the country due to heavy suppression from China and better harvests of raw opium. This means demand can multiply in the market.
Considering the critical situation on drug trafficking without close cooperation from the ethnic group due to the Thaksin government's pro-Rangoon policy, the interim government now sees a window of opportunity to seek help from the Shan group again.
The ethnic group is expected to become the "eyes and ears" for Thailand to curb the cross-border drug smuggling, once the Shan are able to return to their former bases in some border areas where drug smuggling is rampant, such as Ban Pang Noon opposite Chiang Mai's Chiang Dao district.
Moreover, the joint effort would be intensified to keep drug trafficking at bay while peace in the Shan ethnic community along the border would be ensured under the auspices of
Thailand.