"The seeds of Thai-Cambodian tension"
Feb. 3rd, 2003 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldFrom Asia Times:
"The seeds of Thai-Cambodian tension"
By Alan Boyd
SYDNEY - Strident nationalism and decades of cultural baggage are weighing down relations between Mekong neighbors Cambodia and Thailand, which almost went to war last week over a reported insult by a Bangkok soap-opera star.
While Suwanna Konying denies that she called for the return of the Angkor Wat temple complex to Thailand, her reported comments triggered violent attacks on Thai property in Phnom Penh and a hurried exodus of diplomatic staff.
The consensus among regional analysts is that Suwanna was probably the unwitting victim of political scheming by elements of the ruling Hun Sen government ahead of July's Cambodian elections.
"Setting aside the obvious political connotations, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Angkor Wat has been a symbol of all that is wrong with the Thai-Cambodian relationship, of differences rather than shared heritage," said a European diplomat.
The magnificent city of temples in western Siem Reap province have been under alternate Thai and Cambodian control. Cambodian colonial master France and a succession of Thai rulers traded Siem Reap for territorial gains during the early part of the 20th century, usually with an implied threat of force from the French.
A series of accords was drawn up in 1900-04 to delimit the vague boundaries between Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, but protocols were still being issued three decades later in response to shifting commercial interests.
Among the most crucial was a 1907 delimitation protocol under which Thailand, then known as Siam, ceded the territories of Battambang, Siem Reap and Sisophon to Cambodia in exchange for Dan Sai and Krat.
France sought to consolidate these pacts into a single binding treaty in 1937, only to lose control altogether in 1941, as Japanese forces overran most of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
Ever ready to compromise, Bangkok negotiated a peace convention with Tokyo in May 1941 that handed vast tracts of Cambodian and Laotian territory to Thai jurisdiction in return for transit rights for Japanese troops, which needed an unrestricted route between India and Burma. But the returning French struck back with the postwar Washington Accord in 1946, which annulled the Tokyo Peace Convention and mostly restored the 1907 boundaries.
This satisfied neither the Thais nor the oppressed Cambodians. When French forces eventually withdrew from Indochina in 1954 after their defeat at the hands of the Vietnamese, tensions quickly boiled over. In 1958 Thailand and Cambodia fought an inconclusive but bitter war over simmering resentments that mostly centered on Siem Reap and another temple at Preah Vihear, farther to the north.
Mediators stepped in, and both countries agreed to accept an arbitration ruling in 1962 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Cambodia won, and was granted sovereignty over Preah Vihear.
Angkor Wat was never a factor in this ruling, as it was governed by the 1907 protocol. However, it remained a deep thorn in a relationship that was fractured by national pride and perceived cultural slights.
Popular opinion in Thailand has never accepted the court ruling, while Thai diplomats have sought ever since to have the French legacy purged and borders restored to their pre-1900 status.
Cambodia - ironically - has had to draw on the colonial era to justify its territorial gains, which include Angkor Wat.
"Since the judgment ... no disputes over precise alignment have been raised by either state," the US State Department reported at the onset of the Vietnam War in 1966. "Cambodia, however, in recent times has demanded that Thailand accept, at an international conference, the validity of the treaties with France delimiting the border and of the ICJ decision of 1962."
The importance of the western borders came sharply into focus as conflict broke out in Indochina. By the early 1970s, Thai troops were simultaneously struggling to contain a communist insurgency from Laos and the overspill from Cambodia's civil war.
Khmer Rouge guerrillas launched an offensive across the northwestern border after claiming vast tracts of former Cambodian territory. They were repulsed, but returned in 1979 to seek refuge from Vietnamese-backed forces in Phnom Penh.
"We then had the extraordinary spectacle of this isolated frontier becoming a Cold War sideshow for Soviet expansionism, Southeast Asian security cooperation, Chinese xenophobia - you name it. And of course the nationalists had a field day on both sides of the border," said another diplomat.
When the dust cleared it was Hun Sen's Vietnamese-installed regime that had won the day, with the help of a rigged election result. Thailand had backed the losers, and had few friends in Phnom Penh.
Even its non-communist allies were suspicious of Bangkok's motives, which appeared to be rooted in narrow commercial and territorial interests rather than a genuine desire to help a neighbor devastated by two decades of war.
By 1993, two years after fighting ended, Thai firms were being accused of raping Cambodian forests, while the government spoke of establishing a new era of cultural influence over Indochina.
When Phnom Penh began showing more favor to companies from other Asian states, most notably Malaysia and Singapore, an abortive coup attempt was staged in Cambodia, reportedly with Thai support.
Border talks have mostly been deadlocked, apart from a joint exploration agreement for offshore oil that in effect sets aside sovereignty issues until the resources have been exhausted.
Thai business is never likely to gain the foothold it wants in Cambodia until there is a change of government. But the cultural offensive has been all-pervasive and will have a more lasting impact.
Television stars such as Suwanna have become the most effective ambassadors in Indochina, feeding a daily dose of consumerism that reaches even the most remote and impoverished rural communities. As Thais parade their affluence across the cinema screens and in the new crop of Khmer-language glossy magazines, historic resentments have found a new outlet among the poorer Cambodians.
"They are jealous, sure. The Cambodians view the Thais like some sort of latter-day carpetbaggers who are out for what they can get and damn the consequences," said the European diplomat.
"But the root cause is these historic differences, which really should have been sorted out by now for the sake of a better bilateral relationship and also for the sake of a region that can ill-afford petty rivalries that really don't benefit anyone in the longer haul."
"The seeds of Thai-Cambodian tension"
By Alan Boyd
SYDNEY - Strident nationalism and decades of cultural baggage are weighing down relations between Mekong neighbors Cambodia and Thailand, which almost went to war last week over a reported insult by a Bangkok soap-opera star.
While Suwanna Konying denies that she called for the return of the Angkor Wat temple complex to Thailand, her reported comments triggered violent attacks on Thai property in Phnom Penh and a hurried exodus of diplomatic staff.
The consensus among regional analysts is that Suwanna was probably the unwitting victim of political scheming by elements of the ruling Hun Sen government ahead of July's Cambodian elections.
"Setting aside the obvious political connotations, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Angkor Wat has been a symbol of all that is wrong with the Thai-Cambodian relationship, of differences rather than shared heritage," said a European diplomat.
The magnificent city of temples in western Siem Reap province have been under alternate Thai and Cambodian control. Cambodian colonial master France and a succession of Thai rulers traded Siem Reap for territorial gains during the early part of the 20th century, usually with an implied threat of force from the French.
A series of accords was drawn up in 1900-04 to delimit the vague boundaries between Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, but protocols were still being issued three decades later in response to shifting commercial interests.
Among the most crucial was a 1907 delimitation protocol under which Thailand, then known as Siam, ceded the territories of Battambang, Siem Reap and Sisophon to Cambodia in exchange for Dan Sai and Krat.
France sought to consolidate these pacts into a single binding treaty in 1937, only to lose control altogether in 1941, as Japanese forces overran most of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
Ever ready to compromise, Bangkok negotiated a peace convention with Tokyo in May 1941 that handed vast tracts of Cambodian and Laotian territory to Thai jurisdiction in return for transit rights for Japanese troops, which needed an unrestricted route between India and Burma. But the returning French struck back with the postwar Washington Accord in 1946, which annulled the Tokyo Peace Convention and mostly restored the 1907 boundaries.
This satisfied neither the Thais nor the oppressed Cambodians. When French forces eventually withdrew from Indochina in 1954 after their defeat at the hands of the Vietnamese, tensions quickly boiled over. In 1958 Thailand and Cambodia fought an inconclusive but bitter war over simmering resentments that mostly centered on Siem Reap and another temple at Preah Vihear, farther to the north.
Mediators stepped in, and both countries agreed to accept an arbitration ruling in 1962 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Cambodia won, and was granted sovereignty over Preah Vihear.
Angkor Wat was never a factor in this ruling, as it was governed by the 1907 protocol. However, it remained a deep thorn in a relationship that was fractured by national pride and perceived cultural slights.
Popular opinion in Thailand has never accepted the court ruling, while Thai diplomats have sought ever since to have the French legacy purged and borders restored to their pre-1900 status.
Cambodia - ironically - has had to draw on the colonial era to justify its territorial gains, which include Angkor Wat.
"Since the judgment ... no disputes over precise alignment have been raised by either state," the US State Department reported at the onset of the Vietnam War in 1966. "Cambodia, however, in recent times has demanded that Thailand accept, at an international conference, the validity of the treaties with France delimiting the border and of the ICJ decision of 1962."
The importance of the western borders came sharply into focus as conflict broke out in Indochina. By the early 1970s, Thai troops were simultaneously struggling to contain a communist insurgency from Laos and the overspill from Cambodia's civil war.
Khmer Rouge guerrillas launched an offensive across the northwestern border after claiming vast tracts of former Cambodian territory. They were repulsed, but returned in 1979 to seek refuge from Vietnamese-backed forces in Phnom Penh.
"We then had the extraordinary spectacle of this isolated frontier becoming a Cold War sideshow for Soviet expansionism, Southeast Asian security cooperation, Chinese xenophobia - you name it. And of course the nationalists had a field day on both sides of the border," said another diplomat.
When the dust cleared it was Hun Sen's Vietnamese-installed regime that had won the day, with the help of a rigged election result. Thailand had backed the losers, and had few friends in Phnom Penh.
Even its non-communist allies were suspicious of Bangkok's motives, which appeared to be rooted in narrow commercial and territorial interests rather than a genuine desire to help a neighbor devastated by two decades of war.
By 1993, two years after fighting ended, Thai firms were being accused of raping Cambodian forests, while the government spoke of establishing a new era of cultural influence over Indochina.
When Phnom Penh began showing more favor to companies from other Asian states, most notably Malaysia and Singapore, an abortive coup attempt was staged in Cambodia, reportedly with Thai support.
Border talks have mostly been deadlocked, apart from a joint exploration agreement for offshore oil that in effect sets aside sovereignty issues until the resources have been exhausted.
Thai business is never likely to gain the foothold it wants in Cambodia until there is a change of government. But the cultural offensive has been all-pervasive and will have a more lasting impact.
Television stars such as Suwanna have become the most effective ambassadors in Indochina, feeding a daily dose of consumerism that reaches even the most remote and impoverished rural communities. As Thais parade their affluence across the cinema screens and in the new crop of Khmer-language glossy magazines, historic resentments have found a new outlet among the poorer Cambodians.
"They are jealous, sure. The Cambodians view the Thais like some sort of latter-day carpetbaggers who are out for what they can get and damn the consequences," said the European diplomat.
"But the root cause is these historic differences, which really should have been sorted out by now for the sake of a better bilateral relationship and also for the sake of a region that can ill-afford petty rivalries that really don't benefit anyone in the longer haul."
