Cambodia rattles Thailand's chain
By Craig Guthrie
HUA HIN, Thailand - Cambodia's long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen, with a
thumping parliamentary majority and a war-traumatized electorate fearful of
change, may well have one of the safest jobs in world politics. This certainly
seems the case in comparison with neighboring Thailand, where the premiership
has changed hands four times in the past two years.
Nonetheless, Hun Sen is likely grateful for the popularity boost Thailand's
government may have handed him through its heated response to his recent praise
of and job offer to former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Hun Sen appointed
Thaksin, who has been criminally convicted on corruption charges, as an
economic advisor. The latter, who was toppled in a 2006 military
coup, now lives in exile. Last month, Hun Sen hailed Thaksin as a "great
friend" and a victim of a politically compromised judicial system.
The Thai government has viewed the offer as interference in its internal
affairs and downgraded diplomatic relations. Angry protests have erupted at the
Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok, and both nations last week recalled their
respective ambassadors.
Armed troops have also lined up to defend the Thai Embassy in Cambodia's
capital, Phnom Penh, but few Cambodians expect a repeat of the 2003 anti-Thai
riots, which saw the embassy burned to the ground and Thailand ready airplanes
to evacuate its nationals in a dispute sparked by a Thai actress' alleged
comments over national ownership of Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple.
Some Cambodians, accustomed to Hun Sen's well-known tactic of bolstering his
political clout by offering loyalists plum advisor posts, see the latest spat
in less emotive terms. In the leadup to 2008 elections, Hun Sen's ruling
Cambodian People's Party (CPP) attracted many high-level defectors from the
main opposition, the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), to join his army of over 100
well-paid advisors.
Hun Sen has said he would refuse to honor a bilateral extradition treaty with
Thailand that would require him to arrest and deport Thaksin, who faces a
two-year jail sentence in Thailand on the corruption conviction. Although
Thaksin remains a divisive figure with great sway in Thai politics, Bangkok's
reaction may be over more than political insecurities.
Billionaire Thaksin was appointed by royal decree last Wednesday as an advisor
to both Hun Sen and Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. He is scheduled to land in
Phnom Penh on November 12 to deliver a lecture to Cambodian economic officials
and there are rumors circulating that he might meet with a group of Thai
"red-shirt" protest leaders near the Thai border.
In Cambodia, the monarchy is seen as fair game for criticism by both the media
and public. After observing for years former king Sihanouk's extravagant
lifestyle and constant shifts to ensure his political survival - as well as
political forays by other royal princes and princesses - many Cambodians are
skeptical of the monarchy. The situation is very different in Thailand, where
the monarchy is widely revered and where any perceived criticism of the crown
can result in harsh jail sentences. One motivation cited by military
coup-makers for their 2006 putsch was that Thaksin was disloyal to the crown -
charges he's denied.
The differences between the two nations' histories and economic situations seem
personified by their leaders. Thailand, one of the region's wealthiest nations,
is led by Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Cambodia, still impoverished after a three-decade civil war and traumatized by
the killings of the genocidal Khmer Rouge, is led by Hun Sen, a once barefoot
temple boy who lived on handouts from Buddhist monks before becoming a teenage
soldier. He first fought for the Khmer Rouge - a struggle that cost him his
left eye - and then as part of the Vietnamese offensive that liberated the
nation from the same radical Maoist regime in 1979.
Abhisit may have had a comparatively privileged upbringing, but Hun Sen enjoys
political advantages. A seasoned leader, Hun Sen is in his 25th year in office
- making his one of the longest-running premierships in the world. He led the
CPP to 58% of the vote at general elections held in 2008, eclipsing widely the
opposition SRP.
Abhisit, on the other hand, took charge last year as a result of Thailand's
Constitutional Court disbanding the Thaksin-aligned ruling People's Power Party
(PPP), which defeated his Democrat party at 2007 polls, on electoral fraud
charges. His predecessor, Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin's brother-in-law, was in
the job for only 75 days. Somchai's PPP predecessor, Samak Sundaravej, lasted
only nine months after he was ousted by a Thai court on corruption charges.
It is not the first time that Hun Sen has capitalized on political turmoil in
Thailand, especially since bilateral tensions were re-ignited last year over
the contested ownership of the land surrounding the ancient Preah Vihear
temple, perched atop a steep cliff on the Thai-Cambodian border. When a United
Nations body sided with Cambodia's claim, Thai nationalists ran across the
border, prompting a military build-up by both sides.
Phnom Penh first appealed to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
and then to the UN Security Council to take note of the issue, taking the
diplomatic high road. It is unclear how the Preah Vihear dispute would have
played out if Thaksin, also Hun Sen's golfing buddy, had still been in charge
in Thailand.
Some critics say the current tension is in part due to false assurances given
in the past by Thaksin to Hun Sen about border delineation near the temple and
other overlapping claims by the two countries. Thaksin's critics claim that he
was willing to offer territorial concessions to Hun Sen in exchange for
personal business interests, claims the exiled former premier has denied.
Thaksin last year proposed a multi-million dollar deal with Hun Sen to develop
Cambodia's southwestern maritime province of Koh Kong, telling Thai media that
he wanted to turn it into a "second Hong Kong". Hun Sen hailed the proposal as
an opportunity to reduce poverty in Cambodian-Thai border areas.
Hun Sen's main domestic opponent says the premier's overtures to Thaksin are
not motivated by scoring political points or a desire to uphold Khmer
nationalism, but instead are due to pressure being exerted on him by Vietnam,
the invading nation which initially installed him as premier in 1985 and which
the opposition still claims has influence over the CCP government.
Sam Rainsy has called the argument between Thaksin and Abhisit a "political
game" to turn the Cambodian public's attention to the west, in the direction of
Thailand, while ignoring the east, towards Vietnam. Antagonism among Cambodians
- over inward migration and alleged land grabbing - is much higher towards
Vietnam, which occupied Cambodia between 1979 and 1989, than towards Thailand,
which has made less controversial service-sector inroads into the country.
"There is no doubt in my mind that Hun Sen is trying to show that he is the
defender of the national interests of Cambodia and that Thailand is the real
enemy of Cambodia and not Vietnam," said United States-based Cambodian
economist Naranhkiri Tith.
When the Thai government last week recalled its ambassador, Thai Deputy Prime
Minister Suthep Thaugsuban asked what the Hun Sen government would say if
Rainsy were appointed as the Thai government's economic adviser. Rainsy
replied, "It would never cross my mind to serve a foreign government that is at
odds with my own country."
Rainsy, in referring to an unnamed "foreign government", could at the same time
have been making an allusion to the Cambodian prime minister, having constantly
charged that Hun Sen is a "puppet" of Vietnam who consistently undermines the
national interest to maintain close ties to Hanoi.
Hun Sen's comments suggest his provocative moves towards Thaksin may be linked
to his perennial mistrust of Rainsy in a domestic political spat that has
spilled over into international relations. On his arrival in Thailand for the
15th ASEAN summit in late October, Hun Sen said, "If Sam Rainsy can come to
Thailand as he did recently to make statements against the Cambodian
government, why can my good friend Thaksin not come to Cambodia?"
Hun Sen was referring to Rainsy's critical comments on his government's
human-rights record and economic management when he spoke at the Foreign
Correspondents' Club of Thailand in Bangkok in September. There, Rainsy echoed
claims made by civil society groups that since the CPP won the 2008 election,
it has cracked down in authoritarian fashion on dissenting voices, including
journalists, civil society and opposition politicians.
Rainsy also raised sharp questions about the underlying health of Cambodia's
financial system in the wake of the global crisis, insinuating that Hun Sen had
motivation to divert national attention from his government's troubles and
towards an old adversary in Thailand.
Abhisit's popularity soared after downgrading relations with Cambodia,
according to one poll. Yet some analysts feel he's misplayed his diplomatic
cards. "Abhisit has also made mistakes," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a
political science professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
"Allowing Sam Rainsy to speak out in Bangkok against Hun Sen and not doing
enough to rein in right-wing groups who demonstrated at Preah Vihear areas
certainly irked Hun Sen and rubbed the Cambodians the wrong way. This is why
Hun Sen is unlikely to face a domestic uproar at home for being seen as
standing up to Thailand."
Craig Guthrie is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
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