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Thai-Cambodia crisis shows old hurts
By Chayanit Poonyarat and
Johanna Son
BANGKOK - Last week's dust-up
between Thailand and Cambodia has underscored how a
volatile brew made up of simmering resentment of
Thailand's role as the heavyweight in the region,
combined with a dose of miscommunication, can change
bilateral ties from cordial to downright hostile
literally overnight.
In less than a week,
Thailand and Cambodia went from being neighboring
countries to nations as far apart as they can be, after
ties plummeted to their worst in recent decades.
After anti-Thai riots peaked last Wednesday,
sparked by supposed remarks by a Thai actress implying
that Cambodia had stolen the historic Angkor Wat from
Thailand, Bangkok stopped all economic deals with Phnom
Penh, halted flights, downgraded its embassy, sealed its
borders, and evacuated more than 1,000 nationals.
Angry protests were also held at the Cambodian
Embassy here, prompting the King to call for calm, after
reports that mobs had torched the Thai Embassy and gone
after Thai businesses and nationals in Cambodia.
By Friday, relative calm had returned to Phnom
Penh amid tight security. The Thai government welcomed
Cambodian's offer of compensation - damage was estimated
at US$23 million - and the arrests of nearly 150 people
involved in the riots. One Cambodian was reported to
have died in the riots.
Phnom Penh issued an
apology and broadcast its "most profound regret", which
Thailand welcomed. But Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
also said, "The two governments are very close but the
incident is very unacceptable."
The anger and
violence left many shaken, exploding as it did so
suddenly and over remarks that the actress, Suwanna
Kongying, denies saying - and which the Cambodian paper
that first reported them said it did not verify before
publishing.
In hindsight, the actress's remarks
were but the match that ignited old issues, coming as
they did amid recent border spats.
What has been
dormant underneath Thai-Cambodian ties is
"misunderstanding and bias", said historian Charnvit
Kasetsiri of the Five Area Studies Project under the
Thailand Research Fund.
To many, the riots
underscored the resentment against Thailand - its
economic and cultural domination - by smaller, poorer
neighbors such as Cambodia and Laos.
"We have
had many things to offer to Cambodia ... economic[ally]
and cultur[ally]. The problem is that we have never
asked how the Cambodians think and feel about that,"
Kraisak Choonhawan, chair of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, said at a discussion on Friday.
"There is enormous investment of Thais in
Cambodia but nobody has ever raised the question of how
much the local[s] get from this," said Charnvit.
Indeed, Thai-owned businesses from hotels and
restaurants and firms such as Shinawatra
telecommunications - owned by no less than Thaksin -
bore the brunt of Cambodians' rage.
Those
economic ties are now in jeopardy. In the 1980s,
bilateral ties were supposed to become better after
Bangkok said it was time to turn the battlefields of
Indochina into a marketplace.
Today, "as a more
developed nation, we enjoy an advantage in pursuing
business interests in Cambodia, Laos and Burma. But we
have done this so aggressively and so successfully that
we appear guilty of economic colonization," said the
Bangkok Post in its editorial on Friday.
"Cultural dominance has accompanied this
economic infiltration so that Lao and Cambodian youths
almost exclusively listen to Thai music, watch Thai
movies and seek to emulate the singers and actors they
see on Thai television programs," it added.
"This makes it easy for Cambodian politicians
and the media to exploit a natural resentment. It is
ironic that these same tactics by our own political
leaders - stirring nationalism and anti-foreign
sentiment (in our case 'the West') - should return to
taunt us," the Post argued.
In many ways, some
say, it is like a love-hate relationship between
Thailand and its neighbors.
Despite resentment
by Laos and Cambodia, Thai culture - products, songs,
television shows, pop idols - are the craze among young
people there. Suwanna herself was among the most popular
Thai actresses in Cambodia.
Kraisak said, "It
might not be too difficult to imagine how it would feel
like to wake up having to listen to Thai music and watch
Thai television programs every day."
For
example, "young Cambodians had once displayed Suwanna's
photos in their homes, in place of their parents or the
Cambodian King and Queen", said Cambodian Prime Minister
Hun Sen, adding that after her remarks people were now
destroying her photos.
Old historical hurts and
wars have not helped any. But there have been good times
too - Thailand sheltered anti-Phnom Penh forces during
the Khmer Rouge's rule and took in hundreds of thousands
of refugees in the 1970s.
Cambodia had suspended
diplomatic ties before over insults by Thai military
strongmen. The two countries squabbled over the Preah
Vihear temple that Cambodia won in the World Court in
1962.
Likewise, Charnvit said, "In the
historical textbooks, we learn about [Thai] King
Naresuan killing the king of Cambodia as revenge back in
1593. The memory easily pops up in many Thais' minds
when talk about relation between the two.
"How
can we deal with our neighbors peacefully and
respectfully and still hold on to such perceptions?" he
asked, adding that a recent study has proved that this
historical record is mistaken.
Some Thai
analysts, along with local media, believe that domestic
Cambodian politics - general elections are due in July -
are a factor in the riots, after Hun Sen condemned
Suvanan's supposed remarks and added even more to
widespread anger.
But Charnvit says it is time
to look beyond the actress's remarks, Hun Sen's adding
fuel to the fire and his supposed use of the nationalism
card with a view to the polls, to see what has made
bilateral ties so volatile beneath the surface.
He added: "We cannot go on without fixing the
misunderstanding and bias in our minds. We should keep
in mind that history reminds us that some mistakes
cannot be repeated."
(Inter Press
Service)
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