Editorial | Articles about Cambodia | Khmer
May Kunmakara
Thailand's worst floods in decades had not slowed trade with Cambodia, a Thai official in Phnom Penh said yesterday, claiming many products sought by Cambodia came from areas free of flooding.
Bilateral trade between the two countries rose nine per cent year-on-year in the first nine months to US$2.15 billion year-on-year, with Cambodia’s imports climbing 1.6 per cent to $2.02 billion, according to Thai embassy commercial counsellor Jiranan Wongmongkol.
Those figures come despite a deluge of water across 25 of Thailand’s 77 provinces that has killed more than 500 people, according to the Thai government.
“Trade exchange is normal, because the Thai products exported to Cambodia come from provinces not affected by the floods,” Jiranan Wongmongkol said.
At the same time, some factories‘ inventories had suffered damage from the floods, she said.
Cambodia’s exports, most often agricultural products, were also unaffected, given that the harvest season had passed before the flooding in both countries began.
Cambodia has suffered extensive damage from the worst flooding in 10 years.
The restoration of diplomatic ties following the election of Yingluck Shinawatra as prime minister in July was also listed as a reason for the continued trade between Thailand and Cambodia.
Yingluck is the sister of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
“If we keep good relations as we are doing now, our trade exchange will become as it was before,” Kong Putheara, director of the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics department, said, referring to the
countries’ close relationship while Thaksin was PM.
Some insiders, however, quest-ioned the notion that trade would continue without interruption.
Thai Business Council of Cambodia deputy manager Kriegn Kria told the Post both countries would feel an impact from slowdowns in farming and manufacturing.
“Things are not so good, because the floods have forced a lot of big factories to close down,” he said.
Jiranan Wongmongkol admitted that the Cambodian market was becoming increasingly competitive, which might affect Thailand’s market share in Cambodia.
Also, Cambodia was now manufacturing some of the products it had been importing from Thailand. Thailand typically exports petroleum, construction materials, food and consumer goods to Cambodia.
Jiranan Wongmongkol said the Thai government planned to boost its engagement with Cambodian traders next year by holding two, rather than one, expositions in Phnom Penh and Battambang, with the aim of growing bilateral trade another 10 per cent.
The Cambodian Ministry of Commerce will host the Ayeyawady-Chao Praya-Mekong Economic Co-oper-ation Strategy sixth annual trade fair on Diamond Island, in Phnom Penh, between December 15 and 18. At least 90 Thai companies are expected to attend.
Labels: Flood, Thailand
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By Shibani Mahtani
Southeast Asia’s battle with some of the worst floods in decades is far from over, with waters seeping deeper into the Thai capital of Bangkok. But the United Nations is already warning that parts of Southeast Asia affected by the floods are facing “serious food shortages,” a problem caused by destroyed crops and compounded by the difficulty in delivering food assistance.
A report from the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization says that significant flooding and devastation across Southeast Asia – including Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand – has caused severe damage to housing, infrastructure and agriculture.
Official estimates indicate that 1.6 million hectares, or 12.5% the total rice farmland has been damaged in Thailand alone. In Cambodia, 12% of paddy fields have been destroyed, with another 7.5% in Laos, 6% in the Philippines and 0.4% in Vietnam according to the FAO. In Thailand, while no precise crop damage estimates are available, the FAO warned that the main rice season is at the critical growth stage and is likely to be affected the most.
The region has also seen scores of livestock killed or displaced, with significant numbers considered to still be at risk. In Thailand alone, 9.9 million head of livestock are at risk according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, though this number is set to rise as the flood situation worsens.
Diplomats and representatives of countries affected by the floods have continued to downplay fears of food shortages across Southeast Asia, where rice is the most important food.
“Of course there will be less output this year, but I think there will be enough for export and for the consumption inside Thailand,” said the Thai Ambassador to Singapore, Nopadol Gunavibool, at a media briefing reported in the Straits Times.
The Cambodia Ambassador to Singapore, Sin Serey, said that some farmers in Cambodia had switched to flood-resistant rice grains which could grow even if paddy fields were flooded. Both were speaking at an event to raise funds for flood victims in Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines.
In Singapore, even though roads have remained relatively dry except for some relatively inconsequential flash floods, some in the import-dependent city-state are still worried about the availability and price of rice. The issue was raised in Singapore’s parliament, but the Ministry of State for Trade and Industry was quick to allay fears that the city-state will be affected. Though rice prices have risen 9% in Singapore since January, Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State for Trade and Industry said that Singapore imports rice from a variety of sources – including Vietnam, India and the United States.
Additionally, all rice importers in the city-state keep a stockpile of two month’s supply. The Ministry of Trade and Industry is continuing to watch the situation.
Countries affected by the floods, however, may not be as fortunate. The Ministry of Commerce in Thailand warned last week – before the worsening flood situation – that there could be a possibility of a rice shortage later in the year with 5-6 million tons of rice lost to the floods, and an additional 35 warehouses and rice mills devastated.
Labels: Flood, Thailand
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Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen in Phnom Penh on Thursday. REUTERS
by Pavin Chachavalpongpun | Today Online
09:01 AM Sep 17, 2011
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ended her first visit to Cambodia on Thursday. Her brother, the self-exiled former Premier Thaksin - still considered by supporters as Thailand's "real" Prime Minister - arrived in Phnom Penh just one day after Ms Yingluck's trip.
The twin visits to Cambodia by the Shinawatras have received much publicity in both countries and in the region. This is because they signal a sea-change in Thai policy toward Cambodia which could lead to rapid progress in bilateral ties.
These ties were severely damaged by the so-called Thai nationalists, mostly from the yellow-shirt People Alliance for Democracy (PAD), who had politicised the issues in Thai-Cambodian relations in order to undermine the pro-Thaksin regime in the past. The previous government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, with a foreign minister who was opposed to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, also had a large part in sustaining the neighbourly animosity.
Ms Yingluck returned home after a productive discussion with her counterpart, Mr Hun Sen, especially on the issue of the withdrawal of troops in the disputed areas surrounding the Preah Vihear Temple. Ms Yingluck and Mr Hun Sen agreed to allow an Indonesian monitoring team to witness the redeployment of their troops - a win-win for Thailand, Cambodia and the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN).
It was not revealed whether the two leaders also addressed the issue of oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Thailand where both countries have long engaged in a boundary dispute. But it was almost certain that both premiers would aim to proceed with joint development, rather than begin the demarcation of the maritime border which would be an uphill task.
As for a request to release two Thais from the anti-Thaksin Patriots Network charged last December with espionage and illegal entry, the Cambodian Government made it clear that both would have to serve at least two thirds of their eight-year sentences. Ms Yingluck's offer to negotiate with Cambodia for their release was meant to send a strong message that her government was willing to help its domestic political enemies walk free from a Phnom Penh jail.
Yesterday, Thaksin took his turn to visit Phnom Penh. He holds no official position in Ms Yingluck's government, but has acted as if he was serving in the Thai cabinet. He has claimed that his visit was to assist in rebuilding trust and friendship with Cambodia. Apart from meeting with Mr Hun Sen, he is planning to play golf in Siem Reap and take part in a football match between red-shirt members and Cambodian footballers.
Thaksin's presence in Cambodia will definitely irritate his opponents in Bangkok, and could therefore complicate the work of Ms Yingluck's government in the rapprochement with Cambodia.
Wanted under Thai law on corruption charges, his appearance so close to home is a slap in the face for the traditional elites who have made efforts to block his entry to many foreign countries. The warm Cambodian hospitality will have boosted Thaksin's confidence to make his case to the world that he was in fact a legitimate leader overthrown by a military coup.
As a result, his visit could open the door for the Thai elites to strike back at Ms Yingluck's administration. When he was appointed as an economic advisor to the Cambodian government in 2009, then Prime Minister Abhisit had cut Thailand's relations with Cambodia.
Now, the back-to-back visits may raise concerns among anti-government factions about possible private deals on oil and gas investments between Thaksin and certain influential personalities in Cambodia. And while Ms Yingluck did not meet up with her brother in Phnom Penh, his rush to arrive in Cambodia unfortunately eclipsed his sister's official visit.
Finally, the fact that Mr Hun Sen rolled out the red carpet for the Shinawatras, including organising a football game, underscores the fact that Cambodia is dabbling in the Thai domestic political game - and apparently with the Yingluck government's blessing. It used to be the other way round - Thailand intervening in Cambodian politics since the peak of the Cold War.
It remains to be seen if Ms Yingluck's trip to Cambodia would help heal the deep wound in Thai-Cambodian relations in the long run. There are many contentious issues, worsened by the distortion of history and the misuse of nationalism on both sides.
Ms Yingluck will have to try harder if she wants to seriously improve her country's relations with Cambodia. But she must do this without Thaksin standing in the background.
Pavin Chachavalpongpun is a fellow at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies.
Labels: Prime Minister Hun Sen, Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck Shinawatra
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Thailand elected its first female prime minister Sunday.
The official tally has not yet been completed, but Yingluck Shinawatra's Pheu Thai party has won 262 seats in the country's 500-seat parliament, with a little over 90 percent of the vote tallied as of Sunday.
"The first thing I want to do is help people on their economic situation," Yinluck said Sunday, according to CNN. She held off on declaring victory until the official count was done, despite the fact that minutes before, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva conceded victory to her.
Yingluck is the youngest sister of one of Thailand's most controversial figures, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 military coup.
47 million people are eligible to vote in Thailand, and Sunday's vote was held to decide Thailand's first general election since 2007, an election that many hope will shut the door on years of unrest between rival political groups that came to a head last year with protests resulting in deaths.
The split concerns the Democratic Party and the Pheu Thai party and is largely emblematic of long-standing divisions in Thai society. Over 90 people will killed last year during protests against Abhisit's government that resulted in a military crackdown.
Following the riots, the government promised to work towards healing class and political divisions, though most voters were more concerned with economic issues.
"Free education is good, care for the elderly is also good. In act every parties' policies are all good, the question is if they would ever implement them," Banorn Achiryawatkul told CNN outside of a polling station.
"There is a lot more hard work to do in the future for the well-being of our sisters and brothers, the people of Thailand," Yingluck said Sunday, according to CNN. "There are many things to accomplish to make reconciliation possible, paving the way for a solid foundation for a flourishing nation."
Labels: Abhisit Vejjajiva, Pheu Thai party, Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck Shinawatra
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Published: 16/05/2011 at 02:51 PM
Online news: Bangkok Post Learning
Agreement with Philippines for low-cost rice may cut into Thai and Vietnam market share.
Cambodia eyes Filipino market, Nascent rice exporting industry is eager to ship, offering to undercut competitors by Steve Finch
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia has held high-level talks with the Philippines that could result in the country's fledgling rice-export industry competing with Thailand and Vietnam for contracts to supply the world's largest importer.
On the sidelines of the recent Asean Summit in Indonesia, Prime Minister Hun Sen offered to sell rice at lower prices than competitors in a meeting with Filipino President Benigno Aquino, according to a Cambodian government aide. The offer was made in return for investment in Cambodia's under-developed agricultural sector, said Srey Thamrong, an adviser to Hun Sen, who was present during the talks in Jakarta on May 7.
''They expressed their desire to import rice,'' he said, adding that President Aquino told Hun Sen he would appoint a team of government officials to negotiate the arrangement.
The meeting followed a fact-finding mission by the Philippines National Food Authority to Phnom Penh early last month as part of the Aquino government's plans to diversify and reduce spending on rice imports that hit 2.25 million tonnes last year, the highest in the world.
''We are studying the possibility of Cambodia as an alternate source [of imports],'' NFA chief of staff Gilbert Lauengco told the Phnom Penh Post in April. Shipments would start ''at the very latest next year'', he added, although the exact amount and price the Philippines would pay Cambodia is yet to be agreed.
NFA Administrator Angelito Banayo told the Philippines' annual Rice Congress earlier this year the country paid an average US$630 per tonne for rice imports in 2010, or $1.42 billion overall, which represented more than 44% of the Philippines $3.47 billion trade deficit for the year.
This figure is set to fall dramatically in 2011 amid rising rice stocks and improved domestic production in the Philippines, according to government projections, providing tropical storms do not damage crops as has happened in the past in the typhoon-prone country. A Department of Agriculture report showed Philippines rice stocks reached a record 3.08 million tonnes by April 1, up 8% on the same period last year, while rice production climbed an annualised 16% in the first quarter to just over 4 million tonnes
In response, the NFA has announced plans to slash rice imports to just 860,000 tonnes this year after the new Aquino government accused its predecessors of over stockpiling rice, a move likely to further diminish opportunities for the country's two main suppliers Vietnam and Thailand as Manila also looks to add Cambodia as a lower-cost alternative.
Reports in the Philippines said the government has agreed to purchase 200,000 tonnes from Vietnam this year as part of a rice-supply deal with Hanoi, while Thailand is set to be the main supplier of the country's reduced-tariffs programme with an agreement to ship 98,000 tonnes.
In recent years Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, has struggled to compete with Vietnam to supply the grain to the Philippines after shipments of 500,000 tonnes in 2008 dwindled to 80,000 tonnes in 2009 before climbing again to more than 200,000 tonnes last year. In the past Thailand has said it hopes to ship half a million tonnes of rice per year to the Philippines
Meanwhile, Vietnam is also set to lose out if the Philippines imports rice from Cambodia, say analysts. The Thai Rice Exporters Association estimates Cambodia supplies up to 1.5 million tonnes of paddy to Vietnam every year, which is then processed and shipped on as official export produce to markets including the Philippines. But during the talks in Jakarta, Mr Aquino reportedly told Hun Sen that Manila was ready to ''remove the middleman'' - Vietnam - resulting in lower import prices for the Philippines should Cambodia become equipped to process and ship the necessary quantities of rice, which is not yet the case
''Cambodia's rice exports are mainly to Thailand and Vietnam at the moment and that is Cambodia's best option while the necessary downstream structures and logistics are not yet in place,'' said Korbsook Iamsuri, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association.
It remains unclear whether the Philippines will meet Hun Sen's request for the necessary investment in Cambodia's underdeveloped agricultural industry, subject to a formal agreement.
Although Cambodia is currently the world's seventh-largest exporter, it still has a long way to go before it can turn a paddy surplus estimated at just under 4 million tonnes this year into processed rice of a quality ready for shipment given inadequate infrastructure, high electricity prices and a lack of financing options in the industry.
''Hence Cambodian rice is not yet a threat to [the] export markets of both Thailand and Vietnam,'' said Ms Korbsook.
Labels: Agriculture, hun sen, Philippines, Rice Export, Thailand, Vietnam
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By Michael Hayes
When I was publisher and editor-in-chief of the Phnom Penh Post I was sued once by then-Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, accused of spreading disinformation and trying to create political instability. Over the years, several Cambodian government officials even accused me and my newspaper of attempting to “destroy the nation”.
At the very least I’ve never been called a spin doctor for the Cambodian government. But on the issue of the current border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand surrounding Wat Preah Vihear I’m as angry as all Cambodians are at what we perceive as a Thai-initiated conflict of grossly unjust proportions.
We are not alone. Since this issue flared up two years ago, I have not met one Asian or Western diplomat, one foreign aid worker or one expatriate businessman in Phnom Penh who disagrees. Even a few Thai friends have sheepishly expressed support for the Cambodian side on this spat.
The nagging question that perplexes us all is why Thailand is trying to export its domestic political problems and dump them on poor Cambodia? The sentiment here is that if the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts want to fight it out, do so somewhere in Thailand, but don’t use Cambodia as a scapegoat.
The view from Cambodia is simple: the issue of sovereignty over the temple was decided back in 1962 when the case was submitted to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
If Thailand didn’t want to abide by the court’s ruling then why did it agree to submit the case in the first place? And why are they groaning now and firing artillery shells at the temple almost 50 years later?
Moreover, when Thailand says: Well, we controlled the temple in the 1800s and before, the Khmers have a simpler reply: Yeah, but WE BUILT IT! We started construction in the early 9th century, modified and improved it for 250 years and then continued to pray there and celebrate our Gods for another three centuries until you guys stole it after you sacked and looted our capital at Angkor Wat three times between 1352 and 1431. Thank you very much. End of story.
Cambodia has no interest whatsoever in another protracted violent conflict with anybody. The Kingdom is still trying to recover from 30 years of civil war, Pol Pot madness and the ensuing guerilla conflict in the 80’s and 90’s that in total cost the lives of over 2.5 million Cambodians and left the country in ruins. Every dollar spent on the military conflict there is a dollar lost for building desperately needed roads, schools and hospitals.
The Thai accusation that Cambodia has had some secret plot to steal Thai land along the border is also seen as ludicrous.
Everybody knows that since 1970 Cambodia has been too consumed with domestic strife to take even one meter of land from any of its neighbors. In fact, foreign aid officials who worked on the Thai border in the 80s will readily admit that border creep worked in reverse. It was Thai farmers living in peace—and I’m not accusing the Thai government of some orchestrated campaign here—who took the opportunity to plant a few extra hectares in disputed border areas while internally Cambodia was in complete disarray.
If there is one thing that is clear, it is that the entire border needs to be systematically surveyed and demarcated, step by step, once and for all.
As for the disputed 4.5 square kms just north of temple, why not consider this: Turn the area into the Cambodian-Thai International Friendship Park and set it up as a jointly managed enterprise by both countries’ Ministries of Tourism. Invite in hawkers, entrepreneurs, whatever from both sides of the border to set up businesses to cater to the millions of tourists who will want to visit the site in the coming decades and beyond. Tax revenues could be shared by both nations equally. Everybody wins.
It could also be a model for other border disputes around the globe.
If the Thais want a protracted, bloody fight on their hands over the temple, they’ve got one. In the 20 years I’ve been in Cambodia the Preah Vihear issue is without question the only one I’ve seen that has united the entire nation. Cambodian TV stations have been running fundraisers off and on with donations large and small pouring in from all quarters for two years. Even the normally truculent Sam Rainsy Party and others in the opposition are fully on board.
It’s clear from a visit to the temple last week that the Cambodian military has dug in for the long haul. New heavy tanks, armored personnel carriers and ammunition “donated by friendly countries” are evident all over the base of the escarpment. Battle-scarred veterans, no doubt from all of Cambodia’s four previously warring factions and including ex-Khmer Rouge who controlled the temple from 1975 to 1998, are now all operating under one flag. And yes, of course there are Cambodian soldiers with weapons bunkered around the temple. If they weren’t there the Thai military could literally walk in and take control of it in five minutes. What government in Phnom Penh could allow that?
If this dispute goes real hot, relations between Cambodia and Thailand will be ruined for years, hundreds on both sides will die needlessly and the economic costs to the two countries will be astronomical.
Cooler heads need to prevail but rest assured the Cambodians will never, no matter what the price, give up control of Wat Preah Vihear.
Why should they? It’s theirs.
Michael Hayes co-founded the Phnom Penh Post in 1992 and was Publisher & Editor-in-Chief from 1992 to 2008.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com
Labels: Cambodia Thailand Border, Preah Vihear, Thailand
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By James O'Toole
PHNOM PENH - Former Thai premier and fugitive from justice Thaksin Shinawatra's arrival on his private jet in Phnom Penh last year was broadcast live on local television, the climax of weeks of diplomatic intrigue that brought relations between Thailand and Cambodia to their lowest point in years.
Arriving nominally as an economics adviser to the Cambodian government, the ousted leader served mainly as a pawn in a spat between Bangkok and Phnom Penh that saw the countries withdraw their respective ambassadors and engage in an unflattering war of words over the next several months.
The abrupt announcement of Thaksin's "resignation" from his post last month has been cause for rapprochement, with ambassadors returned to their posts and a meeting scheduled between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva in New York next week.
Yet for all the pomp attached to Thaksin's comings and goings, the current rapprochement between Thailand and Cambodia can only steal the spotlight for so long from their more fundamental disagreement over their shared border. Ironically, Thaksin's advisory appointment caused significant economic harm for Cambodia.
In retaliation, Bangkok tore up a 2001 memorandum of understanding on joint development of a 26,000 square kilometer area in the Gulf of Thailand thought to contain significant oil and gas reserves. Cambodia's exports to Thailand plunged 50% year-on-year in the first six months of 2010, while many Thai investors have likely been dissuaded from investing in Cambodia in view of the acrimony between the countries.
Politically, though, Thaksin provided Hun Sen with a chance to ratchet up tensions with a traditional enemy and intensify his border rhetoric to a rather outlandish extent. "Do you dare to swear on magic that could break your neck, on a plane crash or a dissolution of the countries, that your soldiers did not invade Cambodia's territory?" Hun Sen said in a speech last year, apparently addressing Abhisit.
Tension over the border erupted in 2008 after the listing of Preah Vihear temple as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site for Cambodia, as both sides laid claim to a 4.6-square-kilometer patch of land adjacent to the temple. The issue flared up again last month after a meeting of UNESCO's World Heritage committee in which Cambodia submitted management plans for the temple.
The countries are in the process of demarcating their border, but talks have been stalled since last year pending approval of the latest round of negotiations in the Thai parliament. Abhisit and his Democrat party-led government are under intense pressure from hardline elements of the nationalist "yellow shirt" movement not to give any ground in the territorial dispute, and a vote in the Thai parliament to approve the latest negotiations was again postponed last month, to the ire of Cambodian leaders.
Cambodia has been pressing aggressively to bring attention to the dispute, appealing to both the United Nations and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for assistance. ASEAN assistance was required, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said, to help avoid "large-scale armed conflict" along a frontier in which at least seven soldiers have been killed in periodic skirmishes since 2008.
These appeals have irked Thai officials, who have repeatedly stated their opposition to border talks in any forum but a bilateral one. The move to cut ties with Thaksin may be the latest element of Cambodia's border strategy, said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.
"It gives Cambodia the upper hand when the Thaksin issue has been played out," Ou Virak said, with the move allowing Phnom Penh to "separate the Preah Vihear conflict or tension from other kinds of issues".
Amid its diplomatic maneuvering, Cambodia is also bidding very publicly to upgrade its military capabilities at the border. This week, the government announced the purchase of dozens of T55 tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Meanwhile, in a bizarre bit of corporate charity that has drawn condemnation from rights groups, a local television station is collecting donations to help build reinforced concrete bunkers for combat troops at the border.
Carlyle Thayer, a professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy, said these efforts were largely "grandstanding" for the benefit of a domestic audience. "You can't take it at face value - there's no way that Cambodia is ever going to acquire the military power to take on Thailand in a conventional military conflict," Thayer said.
He said the militarization that Hun Sen has been pushing in relation to the border may be an effort to consolidate his support in the military, an institution that is the only conceivable counterweight to his near-absolute power. "It keeps the military on his side if you talk about an external threat or their importance," Thayer said.
For Thailand, the border dispute with Cambodia remains a key issue in a domestic political crisis that shows no sign of being resolved any time soon.
"The real reason that the border issue is a problem is not because Cambodia has these claims - the real reason the border issue is a problem is that the yellows accuse the reds [Thaksin supporters] of giving away a national asset," said Michael Montesano, a visiting fellow at Singapore's Institute for Southeast Asian Studies.
"The government doesn't want to have to deal with large-scale yellow-shirt demonstrations, and the lives of people in the government can be made very difficult and the lives of their families can be made very difficult if they are seen as somehow stepping back from the yellow cause."
Signs do, for the moment, point to a warming of relations. With the return of their ambassadors - absent for more than nine months - Cambodia and Thailand have now resumed full diplomatic ties, and Abhisit and Hun Sen are scheduled to meet again in October following their meeting in New York next week.
Montesano said Thaksin's "resignation" had in fact likely been brokered in secret talks between the two governments, with Bangkok perhaps hoping to get closer to apprehending red-shirt leaders known to be hiding out in Cambodia after the May 19 military crackdown on protests in Bangkok.
In a surprise move in early July, Cambodian authorities apprehended two Thais believed to be red-shirt supporters and suspected of involvement in a bomb attack on the headquarters of Bhum Jai Thai, the second-largest party in Abhisit's ruling coalition. Phnom Penh handed over the suspects to Thai authorities without a formal extradition request from Bangkok.
"This is to show the willingness of the government in fighting terrorism," Koy Kuong, Cambodia's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said after their arrests.
At the very least, Thaksin's departure has given Hun Sen and Abhisit the political cover to hold talks on economic issues and other obvious common interests. The border dispute continues to loom large in their relationship, however, and for the moment, appears indifferent to external developments.
Just one day after Thaksin's resignation was announced, the Cambodian government's Press and Quick Reaction Unit (PQRU) issued a statement accusing Abhisit of becoming "an accomplice and a sponsor of criminal-prone activity" by the yellow shirts.
"Once again, the [PQRU] urges Thai political figures to put an end to the malicious campaign of innuendo, suggestion and speculation to fault Cambodia by raising the issue of the Temple of Preah Vihear," the statement read.
James O'Toole is a Phnom Penh-based journalist.
source: Asia Times Online
Labels: Prime Minister Hun Sen, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra
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Thailand seeks lead role in investment
Source: Bangkok Post
Thailand hopes to regain its leadership in foreign investment in Cambodia over the next five years now that the two countries have resumed diplomatic ties after months of strained relations.
Thai investment in Cambodia has fallen dramatically over the past seven years.
The relationship between the two soured notably in 2003 when the Thai embassy and some Thai businesses were heavily damaged by rioters in Phnom Penh. They had been reacting to fabricated reports quoting a Thai actress as saying that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand.
Relations subsequently improved but became strained again last year as the two countries feuded over the Preah Vihear temple, leading to their ambassadors being recalled. Both envoys last month returned to their jobs, and Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva and Prime Minister Hun Sen are expected to hold talks later this month.
Thailand's investments based on approvals by the Cambodia Investment Board totalled only five projects worth US$15.5 million last year. The country ranked sixth in project numbers and third in project value, behind China ( $42.3 million) and Vietnam ($24.7 million).
Over the past 16 years, Thai investments in Cambodia totalled 81 projects worth $362.35 million. Most were in hotels, agro-industry, wood processing, food processing, telecoms, medical services, electricity, mining, garments and shoes.
Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot said Thailand had potential to resume its leadership in foreign investment in Cambodia, if it can capitalise on the potential of National Road No. 5 as the land transport gateway to Vietnam and China.
The 407-kilometre highway connects Phnom Penh with Aranyaprathet in the Thai border province of Sa Kaeo. From Phnom Penh the road links to the Moc Bai-Bavet border crossing with Vietnam.
Mr Alongkorn and a group of Thai businesspeople recently travelled the road through Cambodia to Vietnam to explore the potential.
He said the Thai government planned to set up a special economic zone in Ban Pa Rai in Aranyaprathet to promote ties with Cambodia. It would offer comprehensive import-export services, distribution centres, customer services and an industrial estate covering about 1,000 rai.
The zone would be linked with Cambodia's Poipet O'Neang Special Economic Zone which occupies 2,000 rai opposite Ban Pa Rai.
Mr Alongkorn said the zone would be proposed to economic ministers and the cabinet in the new two weeks.
The special economic zone would be the second with a neighbouring country after the one that straddles Mae Sot district in Tak and Myawaddy in Burma. A special economic zone gives entrepreneurs more investment flexibility through such things as relaxed labour rules.
Thailand is currently the fifth largest trading partner of Cambodia behind the United States, Vietnam, China and Hong Kong. Bilateral trade between the two countries totalled $492.8 million last year, $477.2 million of which came from Thai exports.
Labels: Hu Sen, Prime Minister Hun Sen, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand
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Source: UPI.COM - Special Reports
BANGKOK, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Tensions eased between Thailand and neighboring Cambodia after the exiled fugitive former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra resigned as an economic adviser to Phnom Phen.
Thailand will send back to the Cambodian capital its ambassador, Prasas Prasasvinitchai.
He was summoned back to Thailand in November soon after the Cambodian government of Hun Sen controversially appointed Thaksin, who is a wanted man in Thailand for using his office for personal gain.
"I believe that the normalized relations with the reinstatement of the ambassadors will clear the way for the two countries to more easily resolve all problems," Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said.
Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Thaksin's resignation satisfied a Thai condition that he doesn't play a role in the Cambodian government before bilateral ties return to normal. "I would like to thank the Cambodian government for the intention to move forward our relations," he said.
Cambodia also has said it will send back its ambassador, You Aye, to the Thai capital Bangkok, ending the tit-for-tat diplomatic dispute that effectively froze relations between the two countries.
But the Cambodian and Thai governments, as well as Thaksin's lawyer, deny reports that Thaksin was forced to resign as a first step by both countries to normalize relations.
A statement by the Cambodian government said that Thaksin had stepped down "because of personal difficulties" that stopped him from completely fulfilling his role. "The Cambodian government accepts the request by His Excellency Thaksin Shinawatra, with thanks to the contributions that he has made to the Cambodian economy," a statement said.
Thaksin's legal adviser, Noppadon Pattama, said Thaksin's resignation "was voluntary to benefit ties between the two countries," he said. It was Thaksin's intention to quit as an adviser because his overseas business engagements left him no time to work for the Cambodian government, he said.
Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Thaksin's resignation wasn't connected to the Thai-Cambodian border dispute. Thaksin resigned because he was "busy with a lot of work."
Relations between the two countries dipped dramatically immediately after Cambodia announced the appointment of Thaksin. On hearing of the appointment, Thailand's Cabinet threatened to tear up a 2001 memorandum of understanding to end a sensitive maritime boundary dispute in the Gulf of Thailand.
Resolution of the dispute is for the betterment of both countries as it would allow an ordered exploitation of suspected large amounts of natural gas and oil reserves on the ocean floor.
But a much more sensitive issue is a long-simmering land boundary dispute about 300 miles northeast of Bangkok. The military of both countries periodically face each other in the Preah Vihear mountains around an 11th-century Hindu temple of the same name on land, which both countries claim as their territory.
The international court of justice ruled in 1962 that the temple was on Cambodian land. But the only access to the mountaintop building is on the Thai side, which Thai troops sealed off last summer.
Around 2,000 troops from both sides are stationed across from each other on border patrol. Cross-border incidents occasionally flare up, such as in October 2008 when two Cambodian troops died and seven Thai troops were wounded in a gun battle lasting an hour.
The diplomatic row deepened after Thailand formally requested the extradition of Thaksin under an extradition treaty signed by both countries. But the Cambodian government said Phnom Phen cannot send Thaksin to Thailand because they believe his conviction in 2008 was political and not criminal.
Thaksin, 60, was ousted from his job as Thailand's prime minister by a military coup in 2006 and soon after received a 2-year prison sentence for tax fraud. He fled in 2008 rather than serve his sentence, leaving an estimated $2 billion in frozen assets.
The Thai government continues to seek Thaksin whose whereabouts often are unknown. He is wanted most recently for allegedly helping organize the major street protests that continually crippled parts of central Bangkok from February to May, which eventually left 90 people dead and some 2,000 injured.
He has denied the terrorism charges against him and has said he called for peace by the protesters during the demonstrations.
Labels: Thailand
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By Andrew Walker and Nicholas Farrelly
Thailand’s fledgling democracy is now all but dead; bloodied and battered on the streets of Bangkok. How did this happen?
In 2005 we were in a northern Thai village undertaking field research on local economic and political issues. Our research coincided with the national election held in February that year. Thaksin Shinawatra’s now disbanded “Thais Love Thais” party, backed up by a formidable campaign machine, stormed to victory with strong support in the rural north and northeast. It was Thailand’s most comprehensive election victory ever.
In the country’s rural heartlands Thaksin’s policies of universal health care, infrastructure investment, local economic stimulus, and agricultural debt relief were wildly popular. Even the murders that punctuated his bloody “war on drugs” were applauded by many rural Thais who were fed up with the nightmare of narcotic abuse. To succeed at the ballot box, Thaksin learned to speak the language of rural Thailand in a cadence that alternated between populism and brutality.
In the northern village where we were working, Thaksin’s policies were not embraced uncritically. Vigorous debate about the positive and negative impacts of government action on local livelihoods was an everyday aspect of electoral culture. Many commentators say that rural people don’t care about government corruption. Of course they do, but they have their own ways of weighing up the contentious trade-off between private gain and public benefit.
In 2005, these debates informed a vigorous local tussle between the sitting “Thais Love Thais” candidate and a popular opposition figure who had served the area well in previous governments. This was a very real contest.
On election day the village hall was set-up to meet the strict requirements of Thailand’s electoral laws. Officials, conscripted from the ranks of local school teachers and village leaders, managed the hundreds of voters who came to exercise their franchise. The turnout was more than 80 per cent. Scrutineers nominated by the main candidates amiably watched over proceedings.
At the end of the day, once the lines of voters had fulfilled their obligations, the ballot boxes were sealed with string and wax and then transported, under police guard and with a sizeable escort, to the electorate’s vote-counting centre in the grounds of a provincial high school.
The ballot boxes from far-flung villagers were assembled for the count. Groups from each village waited patiently to empty their ballot box into the huge tub from which the votes were retrieved. College students were enlisted to count the votes and write the growing tallies on results boards.
For those, like us, for whom elections involve a night in front of the television, this was an extraordinarily open and participatory event. It was held, quite literally, in the public gaze. By the end of the night it was clear that Thaksin’s man had won, despite a strong showing from his opponent in many villages.
Thailand’s voters have been through this process twice since then. In 2006 Thaksin called a snap election in response to street protests in Bangkok. The opposition, lead by the current prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, boycotted the election, knowing they had no chance of victory. Thaksin attracted over 60 per cent of the valid votes cast. He was eventually overthrown in the coup of September 2006 and another election was held in December 2007.
Thaksin was in exile, but his political allies won again, falling just short of an absolute majority. But the anti-Thaksin forces could not accept this result either and they managed to manoeuvre Abhisit Vejjaiva into power on the back of the yellow shirt occupation of Bangkok’s international airport and the dissolution of the pro-Thaksin governing party.
The detailed history of the tactics of the red shirts, since they began their current round of protests in Bangkok on March 12 will be written in the coming months and years.
There have been mistakes, miscalculations and some unedifying displays of thuggery and provocation. But the underlying motivation of the protesters is clear: they are fed up with having election results overturned.
They have gone peacefully to the ballot box three times since 2005 and each time elite forces associated with the palace, the military, the judiciary and Abhisit’s Democrat Party, have disregarded their decision. The red shirts have been told that their votes don’t count, that they are uneducated country bumpkins, and that they sell their votes to the highest bidder.
It is unsurprising that many of them were suspicious about Abhisit’s offer to hold yet another election on November 14. There were even more suspicious about the willingness of the forces that back Abhisit to respect its result. The elite’s disregard for electoral processes has opened the door for violent elements on both sides of the political spectrum.
So where to now?
Many in Thailand, including some of the villagers in the north, may be hoping that Thailand’s long-reigning king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, will intervene and talk some royal sense into the combatants as he famously did in May 1992 after more than 40 protesters had been killed on the streets of Bangkok.
But, in 2010, this is unlikely to happen again.
Quite apart from the king’s extremely fragile health, the palace has made it clear since the 2006 coup that it sides with anti-Thaksin forces. When the anti-Thaksin yellow shirts occupied Bangkok’s international airport in November and December 2008, they did so under an explicit royal banner with all of the protections that such palace endorsement implies. By contrast, the prospect of royal intervention to save the red shirts from the wrath of the military is now remote.
In fact, some are starting to wonder out loud if Thailand’s monarchy is now, in fact, part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
Decades of national faith invested in an unelected monarch as the ultimate source of authority and salvation in times of crisis has stunted the development of robust democratic institutions. Thailand has put too many eggs into the royal basket and now lacks the institutional wherewithal to constructively resolve political divisions.
There is considerable truth to the old joke that Thailand is the world’s longest lasting fledgling democracy, and that truth owes much to the fact that the symbolic power of the monarch has overshadowed opportunities for elected politicians to manage national affairs.
When the shooting and burning in Bangkok finally subsides Thailand is going to have to rebuild faith in its basic democratic institutions. Cultivating a more respectful attitude to the political choices of its many rural inhabitants would be a good place to start.
Andrew Walker and Nicholas Farrelly are Southeast Asia specialists in the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific. They are the co-founders of New Mandala, a blog on mainland Southeast Asian politics and societies.Labels: Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra
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(Reuters) – Five days of chaotic street fighting. A rising death toll. Unrest spreading to rural heartlands. A prime minister who won’t back down. Protesters willing to fight to the death.
Thailand’s political crisis has lurched from festive anti-government rallies in March to violent gun fights in April to full-scale urban warfare in May, but experts say the worst may be yet to come as thousands of troops struggle to restore order.
“The fact that so many people have died without the army having gained much ground seems like a rather ominous sign,” said Federico Ferrara, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore.
“Having already started opening fire on civilians, journalists, emergency medical personnel, and generally everything that moves, the difference between 50, 100, or 200 deaths is just a number on a piece of paper.”
The government blames those killings on unidentified shadowy gunmen allied with the protesters, adding to the fog of uncertainty over the bloodshed.
The death toll — 37 killed and 266 wounded since Thursday — has shocked Thailand as much as images of parts of its capital reduced to a battleground. Most analysts say British-born, Oxford-educated Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva won’t last long.
Whether he resigns depends on whether this operation ends in heavy losses. At the moment, that’s a strong possibility.
Neither side is backing down.
Even if Abhisit disperses the crowd, his political prospects look uncertain, dimmed by weeks of bloodshed that includes 25 people killed and more than 1,000 wounded on April 10 when troops tried but failed to end protests in Bangkok’s old quarter.
Most had expected more progress by now.
While the military has finally established on Monday a thin cordon of troops around the 3 sq km (1.2 sq mile) encampment the “red shirts” have occupied the past six weeks, it remains porous. Many red shirts are circumventing army checkpoints to join the rally, navigating small streets, witnesses say.
The second and most difficult task — dispersing a crowd of about 5,000 in the barricaded area — hasn’t even started, and the government says it has no immediate plans to do so.
BROADER CIVIL CONFLICT
As troops get closer, the severity of the fighting — snipers, grenades, petrol bombs, automatic guns — is stirring talk of a wider civil conflict that has simmered below the surface for years, broadly pitting the urban poor and rural masses against Thailand’s powerful royalist establishment.
This poses plenty of risks. If the army fails to quell the unrest, other fissures in Thai society could flare into the open, pushing the crisis dangerously close to a long-discussed and much-feared tipping point toward a mass underclass uprising.
The police, instead of stopping it, could fuel it.
Police have long been sympathetic to the protest movement and its figurehead, ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, a graft-convicted populist billionaire and former policeman revered by the rural masses and reviled by middle classes who celebrated his ouster in a 2006 bloodless coup and subsequent self-exile.
The military itself is rife with splits.
Large numbers of soldiers of lower ranks and some senior officers who have been sidelined after Thaksin was toppled sympathized with the protesters, while the military’s top brass are at the other end of the political spectrum, allied with royalists and business elites.
Complicating matters is the silence of the country’s sole unifying figure, revered 82-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The world’s longest-reigning monarch famously diffused Thailand’s last major political crisis — a 1992 middle-class uprising against a military ruler.
After a deadly crackdown, the king brought the rival leaders prostrating before him and reprimanded them. With a few words, a deadly crisis was over.
Not this time. Hospitalized since September 19, the king rarely appears in public. When he does, he hasn’t addressed the crisis. Strict lese majeste laws make commenting on him difficult.
“The political divide is increasingly hard to bridge. Hardliners are gaining ground and moderates are being squeezed out,” said Viengrat Nethito of Chulalongkorn University.
“The king as a traditional conflict resolver and figure of moral authority is in hospital. That leaves few with enough credibility and moral authority to do the job of moderator.
“Many of the country’s elders have been discredited, polarized, politicized, and pulled to one end of the political spectrum or another. That leaves no one, or no strong enough institution, to moderate the larger conflict,” he said.
With no peacemaker, the risk of unrest is growing in the north and northeast, a red shirt stronghold, home to just over half of Thailand’s 67 million people. Scattered signs of unrest have erupted in recent days. The government has imposed a state of emergency in a quarter of the country to keep order.
RURAL MASSES
Without major reforms to a political system that protesters claim favors the elite over rural masses, there’s little chance of stifling the anger that has erupted into violence in Bangkok.
Abhisit has offered a national reconciliation plan but has come under fire for failing to build political support to revise a military-written constitution that overtook a 1997 charter seen as Thailand’s most democratic constitution.
Analysts say the longer the fighting goes on — with troops opening fire on demonstrators fighting back with petrol bombs, slingshots and grenades — the weaker Abhisit looks, and the more alienated he becomes even by his own supporters.
“His position has been in jeopardy since he ordered the crackdown,” said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
“He will go down in the Thai history as a leader who ordered the killing of the people, even when it meant saving the country — and his own power position.”
If pushed aside by his powerful backers, he would likely be replaced by a coalition partner deemed acceptable to the public in a caretaker role. That would do little to resolve the problem, potentially inciting more protests and strengthening the case for immediate polls the protesters’ allies would likely win.
That political victory could bring big changes, including the ousting of generals allied with Thailand’s royalist elite, a prospect royalists fear could diminish the power of the monarchy — and one Abhisit’s backers would fight to stop at all costs.
“Even if the protestors are dispersed, which obviously will eventually happen, the underlying social tensions and political tensions will not have been resolved, and they will come up again,” said Josh Kurlantzick of the U.S-based think tank, Council on Foreign Relations.
“It’s a fallacy for the government to think they can just crush this.”
(Additional reporting by Martin Petty; editing by Bill Tarrant)
Labels: Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand
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By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - He boasts of killing 20 Thai communists and fondly recalls working with the United States Central Intelligence Agency, but denies suspicions that he leads a death squad that is involved in bombings and shootings to help the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship protest group cripple Bangkok.
Major General Khattiya "Seh Daeng" Sawatdiphol is one of the biggest reasons the government and military are afraid to attack the red shirts' barricades and clear them from Bangkok's streets.
"Every morning at 4am, I inspect all these barricades," Khattiya said in Thai during an interview next to barriers built with bamboo spikes, rubber tires, rags, flammable oil, concrete blocks and razor wire. "Every day I go out and do a reconnaissance. I do a tactical show of force."
He is wanted for questioning about a mysterious alleged death squad known as "Ronin Warriors". The government and military blame them for several recent killings stemming from dozens of unsolved M-79 grenade attacks on banks, electric pylons, army positions, an airport fuel depot, government offices and a crowd of people on Silom Road one evening near the red shirts' barricades.
Wearing a camouflage military uniform and canteen, Khattiya denied any link to the Ronin Warriors. But his frequent warnings of grenade attacks - right before they occur - have raised suspicions.
In February, he boasted of training hundreds of former Ranger paramilitary troops to protect the Reds. "If the state clamps down on us, we have to defend ourselves. We and our red shirt brothers may need to resort to weapons," he told reporters at the time.
When he discusses military tactics, people on all sides listen because his combat experience outweighs many officers in Thailand's coup-minded army. His snarling, insult-laden warnings come at a time when the government and military are licking their wounds after the army's disastrous failure to crush the reds' occupation of Bangkok's streets on April 10, which resulted in 25 deaths and 900 injured.
Khattiya said a Ronin Warriors' M-79 grenade assault killed several senior military officers during those clashes, forcing the army's retreat. The Ronin Warriors opened fire after a rival, hooded "men in black" death squad aided the government's side and killed civilians, he said.
"The Ronin Warriors help the red shirts because the government shoots the people," he said during the interview. "The men in black come from the government."
No one has independently confirmed all the facts of who killed whom that night.
Partly due to the Ronin Warriors' willingness to help the reds fight back, the military is unable or unwilling to use force to end the red shirts' occupation of Bangkok's streets, which began on March 12.
The Ronin Warriors could protect the red shirts behind the barricades, Khattiya said.
"I think they can, because the government's soldiers are wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests, and very tight clothing, and they will get very hot and suffer heat stroke" during their assault, he said. "There is no way for the army to dig a fortified position here on these streets. The army will be standing out as targets."
The Ronin have an advantage in urban warfare against the army, he said, pointing at the nearby security forces.
"Here there is a lot of concrete, and all these places where the Ronin can hide behind," he said, gesturing at several tall buildings, including shops, restaurants, offices, a hotel and a hospital.
A publicized rift between the army and police also makes the military vulnerable.
"If the army uses war weapons, the police at the front will turn around against the army, because the police are with the reds. In that event, the Ronin will have an advantage."
He could not, however, guarantee the Ronin would appear in time to rescue the reds.
"The reds have to hang on until the Ronin come to help. If the Ronin don't come, it is over. It is like the movie Braveheart. Thailand's Ronin Warriors use the name to honor stealthy Japanese ninjas. Thailand's version has “assault rifles, M-79 bombs and hand grenades. You don't need anything more than these for close combat like this. The Ronin and the enemy army have the same capability. It is a matter of tactics now."
Another reason Khattiya attracts listeners is because he says things designed to disgust and outrage.
"It is the thought process of homosexuals, using tanks and armor against the population," he said, laughing wildly while describing the evening street battle on April 10.
"The tactics you are supposed to use are to fight early in the morning, or during daylight hours, not at night. But the army acts with homosexual emotions."
When army commander-in-chief General Anupong Paojinda reassigned him to teach aerobics in 2008, Khattiya announced: "I have prepared one dance. It's called 'The Throwing a Hand Grenade Dance'."
Born in 1951, and due to retire in 2011, he is an "army specialist" but was "suspended" on January 14 by Anupong for alleged violations. The next day, a rocket-propelled M-79 grenade exploded in Anupong's office.
"Khattiya's predictions always turn out to be true," a government spokesman, Buranat Samutrak, said in January.
"Everybody thinks that I am the Ronin leader, the samurai. I deny. I deny. I am not a Ronin," Khattiya said during the interview. "I only want to fight with peaceful means."
Cursing, he demanded the arrests of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Deputy Prime Minister for Security Affairs Suthep Thaugsuban, Anupong, and others because "the government shot the citizens" on April 10.
Khattiya was once a Ranger, an often brutal paramilitary force that includes current and former troops loyal to him.
"A true soldier like me was never promoted to the position I should be. I helped kill 20 people, 20 enemies, and I was wounded." He says they were Thai communists, “killed in a tactical conflict, an ambush” that he led in northern Thailand near the border with communist Laos in 1976.
Some speculate Khattiya is using the reds so a cabal of rightwing military officers and retirees can seize power. Police jailed him for a couple of days in March for alleged weapons possession and helping a criminal suspect escape.
On nationwide TV, Abhisit publicly named Khattiya for the first time on April 25 and said without elaborating: "Everything is connected. All names like Seh Daeng [Khattiya]" and others were "not cases of coincidence".
His website, www.sae-dang.com, is officially blocked in Thailand but his books are bestsellers and he occasionally appears on TV talk shows. The major general is friendly with Thaksin Shinawatra, the former billionaire prime minister who was toppled in a 2006 military coup. Thaksin is an international fugitive dodging a two-year jail sentence for corruption. He is close to the reds shirts.
"On March 9, I was in Dubai and saw Thaksin and spoke with him, and [on May 3], I spoke on the telephone with him. I explained to Thaksin how the army committed murder on April 10, and how they are now bringing tanks and will do it again. I told him now we have to fight. They will shoot women and children. I also described the barricades here." because Thaksin is one of the reds' top leaders.
Other red leaders have distanced themselves from Khattiya, fearing his image is too violent. In turn, he has condemned them for recently retracting a barricade from a hospital.
"The red leadership don't agree with me, and they lost all this land by moving the barricades," he said, pointing at an unblocked street in front of Chulalongkorn Hospital.
The reds were denounced as thugs when some of them stormed the hospital on April 29 to search for army snipers, and left without finding any.
"There were soldiers inside," Khattiya insisted. "The red leaders are assuming the posture of retreating, but the red citizens are not. People said the red shirts were becoming stronger than Thaksin. Now the red shirts are going over the heads of the red leaders. They are scared their leaders will give up."
He said Thaksin told him on the telephone: "'Don't let a lot of people die. I don't want a lot of deaths. You have to hold back the army.'
"Thaksin has no idea about the tactics of fighting. But he's a nice guy."
Khattiya is also fond of America, which he has visited several times, including when his daughter recently graduated from George Washington University in Washington DC, he said.
"Earlier, I took General Vang Pao, from the Hmong resistance, to America."
Vang Pao was an infamous leader of the CIA's failed "secret war" in Laos up until 1975, when communists achieved victory alongside communists in Cambodia and Vietnam against the Americans.
Khattiya said he helped smuggle Vang Pao across Thailand into Malaysia. "I stayed with him in a safe house. I took Vang Pao out to Penang, and sent him to America. I also did fundraising with Vang Pao in America, for the anti-communist effort," during the past few decades.
Vang Pao was arrested in 2007 and charged with trying to purchase an anti-aircraft Stinger missile and other weapons in California, and was jailed for several months before being released and acquitted, though others in his group were sent to trial.
"I have a history of working with the CIA as well," Khattiya said, referring to US and Thai efforts to kill Communist Party of Thailand suspects during the 1970s.
Khattiya said he had a message for US President Barack Obama: "This government is murdering people. Bring the United Nations in, because it is going to be like Pol Pot, Mussolini and Hitler."
Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco, California. He has reported news from Asia since 1978 and is co-author of the non-fiction book of investigative journalism, Hello My Big Big Honey! Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews. His website is www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com.
Labels: Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand
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Thaksin Shinawatra has continued to play a role in Thai politics, even from outside the country.
CNN
By Dan Rivers
Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- Thousands of anti-government protesters have once again brought Thailand's capital to a standstill, as they seek to unseat a leadership -- led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva -- they say is illegitimate and undemocratic.
They support Thaksin Shinawatra, who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, before he was ousted in a bloodless coup. After his removal, he continued to play a role in Thai politics -- even from outside of the southeast Asian nation.
What is happening now?
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency April 7, hours after anti-government demonstrators (known as "red shirts" for the clothes they wear) stormed the country's parliament. Three days later, the deadliest clash in more than a decade between protesters (in this case the "red shirts") and the military erupted, leading to the deaths of more than two dozen demonstrators and military forces.
Media and analysts in Thailand say civil war may be looming, with another group called the "multi-colored shirts" (supporters of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva). They are displeased with the disruption caused by the red shirt protests. They are generally middle-class city dwellers. They are not pro- or anti-government, they simply want the government to shut down the reds to end the violence and interruptions to daily life. The red and multi-colored shirts have clashed in Silom Road, Bangkok's business and financial district.
Meanwhile, Thailand's independent election commission has recommended the dissolution of Abhisit's Democrat Party after accusing the party of accepting an $8 million campaign donation from a private company and mishandling funds allocated to it by the commission. The ruling still must be reviewed by the country's attorney general's office and its Constitution Court. A democrat party spokesman maintains the party has fully complied with all laws concerning the uses of funds during the election campaign and the party says it will fight the recommendation.
Haven't these protests been going on for a long time?
Yes, Thailand has been embroiled in political chaos for years and many here are growing weary with the instability. Ever since Thaksin came to power, there have been protesters opposing his allegedly corrupt and autocratic rule. Those protesters donned yellow shirts (the color of the king) and occupied the two main airports in Bangkok, until finally the pro-Thaksin government was brought down by a court ruling. In revenge Thaksin's supporters copied the yellow shirt tactics and took to the streets in red shirts.
Why do the sides divide on colors?
It's an easy way for them to create an identity. It all started with the yellow shirts wearing a color associated with Monday, the day of the week that Thailand's revered king was born on. That was designed to show their allegiance to the king, and more broadly the traditional elite which has dominated Thai politics for years. Thaksin's supporters then picked a color to distinguish themselves from the yellow-shirts.
Why are they arguing?
Essentially this is a classic power struggle. It's easy to portray this as simply rich against poor, but it is much more complicated than that, as illustrated by the fact that the reds leader is in fact a multi-billionaire. Thaksin rode to power by enacting populist policies which gained huge support from the rural poor. His radical approach ruffled a lot of feathers among the elite, who felt he was in danger of becoming too big for his boots, and could erode their position.
The "civil society" also become concerned over allegations of corruption and his brutal war on drugs, which saw summary executions. He was also criticized for his heavy handed response to violence in the Muslim dominated south.
Finally the army decided to oust him in a coup, which had the backing of the aristocratic elite and much of the middle class, who were becoming uneasy with the cult of personality growing around Thaksin. That set the stage for an embittered power struggle, between Thaksin loyalists and those loyal to the army, aristocracy and their traditional Democrat Party.
What are the wider implications of the protests?
If the divisions in Thailand can't be healed it could lead to a deteriorating security situation which would have wider implications for the region. Thailand's relations with Cambodia are especially frosty since Thaksin was appointed economic adviser to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The worst case scenario would see Cambodia drawn into the dispute, with Thaksin using the country as a political base, adding to the already considerable tensions on the border.
So who is Thaksin?
Visionary leader or venal despot: Opinions vary, like the color of the shirts his supporters and detractors wear. If you sport red, you think Thaksin was the only prime minister to offer the rural poor a voice and real benefits; if you wear yellow, you view him as akin to Ferdinand Marcos: greedy, self-serving and dangerous.
What is not in dispute is that he won two elections, was the only Thai prime minister to serve a full-term in office and is still hugely popular. But critics say he bought his support and was only in politics to help himself.
What is he accused of?
In 2008 he was found guilty and sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for a land deal that enabled his wife to buy a valuable city plot for a fraction of its true value.
The case currently being considered by the Supreme Court relates to the transfer of shares in his communications company Shin Corporation. The prosecution alleges he illegally transferred the shares to his family, who then sold them to the Singapore government's Temasek without paying tax.
The court will also rule on whether Thaksin's government implemented policies that benefited his businesses, including a low interest loan from the Thai government to the Myanmar government to buy equipment from Shin Corp, a change in tax laws that benefited Shin Corp and changes to satellite laws that helped Shin Corp.
What does Thaksin's defense team say?
The defense team argues that neither Thaksin nor his wife owned the Shin Corp shares while he was prime minister, selling them to their son before he took office. It was their son who decided to sell Shin Corp to the Singaporeans. The defense also claims that the Assets Scrutiny Committee -- which has led the investigation in this case -- was politically motivated, having been appointed after the coup that ousted Thaksin, and therefore was biased against him.
How much money is at stake?
76.6 billion baht (about US$2.3 billion dollars). That is the total value of his and his family's assets that are currently frozen in Thailand. But there is speculation that he has a great deal more money elsewhere.
Why bother going after Thaksin when so many other Thai leaders have been perceived to be corrupt?
Well, Thailand certainly has had a checkered history. But current Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva is widely believed to be honest and free from any taint of corruption. He wants to give the country a fresh start by showing no one is above the rule of law and that means ensuring Thaksin isn't allowed to get away with his alleged corruption, even though he is in exile. However, many analysts say this case is not just about corruption, but more about Thaksin's challenge to the Thai political elite that has ruled for decades.
The theory goes that Thaksin was dangerously popular and refused to submit to powerful factions in the army, privy council and aristocracy -- hence the 2006 coup and the lengthy efforts to shut him down.
Labels: Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra
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Visitors, including Buddhist monks, make their way along a stone-paved pathway at Preah Vihear Temple on a mountaintop in northern Cambodia.
By DANIEL ROBINSON
Published: December 27, 2009
IN the wet season, the roads through the northwestern region of Cambodia turn into an undulating sea of muck, with potholes the size of cars and ruts as deep as truck axles. To figure out which routes were least likely to leave me wet, muddy and stranded, I buttonholed a dozen long-distance taxi drivers before settling on the toll road from Dam Dek, which had the added attraction of passing by two out-of-the-way Angkorian temples, Beng Mealea and Koh Ker.
My destination was an even more remote Angkor-era complex: Preah Vihear Temple, awesomely perched 1,700 feet above Cambodia’s northern plains, near the country’s border with Thailand. Designated as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2008 — not without some international controversy — it makes an adventurous alternative to far-better-known Angkor Wat. While several thousand foreign tourists visit the temples of Angkor on a typical day, Preah Vihear Temple gets, on average, just five.
I was traveling with my friend and driver, Hang Vuthy, in a 1991 Toyota Camry with a surprising New York past: according to a window sticker, it had once belonged to a member of the Yonkers Police Captains, Lieutenants and Sergeants Association. Imagining the car in a mid-Atlantic blizzard, it occurred to me that wet-season driving in outback Cambodia is not entirely unlike navigating unplowed snowy side streets. Indeed, for much of our journey we avoided the most treacherous stretches of mire and snaked around potholes of indeterminate depth by religiously following a single serpentine track rendered navigable by earlier cars and trucks.
Preah Vihear Temple — the name means Mountain of the Sacred Temple — is the most spectacularly situated of all Angkorian monuments. Built from the ninth to the 12th centuries atop a peak of the Dangkrek Mountains, it occupies a triangular plateau rising from the Thailand border to a prow-shaped promontory.
An ever-changing architectural, mythological and geological panorama unfolds as visitors progress along the temple’s 2,600-foot-long processional axis, up a series of gently sloping causeways and steep staircases through five gopura, or pavilions, each more sacred than the last.
I began my visit at the bottom of the Monumental Staircase, which, according to the Angkor scholar Vittorio Roveda, “symbolizes the laborious path of faith needed to approach the sacred world of the gods.” The 163 gray sandstone steps, partly carved into the living rock, are flanked by statues of lions and, near the top, two magnificent nagas (seven-headed serpents) facing north toward Thailand. Also intently watching Thai territory were several AK-47-toting Cambodian soldiers in camouflage.
The first structure I came to, called Gopura V by generations of archaeologists, was an airy cruciform construction once topped by wood beams and a terra-cotta tile roof. Many of the stones have tumbled over, but the delicately balanced eastern pediment has survived to become Preah Vihear’s most recognizable icon, appearing on publicity posters, patriotic T-shirts and the new 2,000-riel banknote.
In centuries past, this pavilion was where pilgrims from the plains of Cambodia, having just climbed the steep, mile-long Eastern Staircase (mined and inaccessible for decades but soon to reopen), met their counterparts from what is now Thailand, who had completed a rather less-taxing ascent from the Khorat Plateau.
Alongside a group of saffron-robed monks, I continued north on a majestic, sandstone avenue, 800 feet long, to Gopura IV. There, I came upon a particularly vivid bas-relief depicting the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, a Hindu creation myth in which gods and demons churn the primeval waters to extract the ambrosia of immortality.
Although most of the splendid decorative carvings at Preah Vihear, including this one, depict Vishnu, the temple was originally dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. In later centuries, it was converted to use as a Buddhist sanctuary, and today many of the visitors are Buddhist pilgrims.
As I continued my ascent, I walked under exquisite lintels and tympanums depicting more scenes from Hindu epics like the Mahabharata, and beneath richly carved double pediments adorned with finials and upturned gable ends — calling cards of Cambodian and Thai architecture to this day. Ancient inscriptions in Khmer and Sanskrit, bearing cryptic details about the history of the temple and the Angkorian kings who built it, were hidden here and there under a patina of lichen.
The temple’s culminating point, geographically and symbolically, is Gopura I, whose mandapa (antechamber) and Central Sanctuary, now a jumbled pile of carved sandstone blocks, are surrounded by galleries that call to mind a French Gothic cloister, except that here the windows are rectilinear and the galleries covered by corbelled vaults. (The Khmers, for all their architectural genius, never mastered the keystone arch.)
The entire structure is inward-looking, its outer walls almost devoid of openings despite the sweeping views just outside. Scholars speculate that while the site was considered holy in part because of its spectacular situation, the ancient architects may have believed that picture windows would distract both priests and pilgrims from their sacred tasks.
As I approached the rocky tip of the promontory, just beyond Gopura I, a breathtaking panorama came into view. Cambodia’s verdant northern plains extended majestically toward the horizon, and in the distance I could just make out Phnom Kulen, about 65 miles to the southwest, where the Khmer Empire was founded in A.D. 802. (Angkor itself lay hidden in the haze, 88 miles away.)
To the east, toward Laos, and the west, the Dangkrek Mountains stretched into the distance in a series of serrated bluffs. Looking north, almost everything I could see was in Thailand, rendered remote and mysterious by its inaccessibility.
Thailand ruled much of northwestern Cambodia, including Preah Vihear Temple, from the late 18th century until 1907, when the French colonial administration forced the Thais to withdraw to the current international frontier; Cambodian sovereignty over Preah Vihear was confirmed by the International Court of Justice in 1962.
Thailand, despite unresolved land claims, initially supported Cambodia’s Unesco bid for World Heritage status, but the temple soon became a pawn in Thai and Cambodian domestic politics, unleashing nationalist passions in both countries.
In July 2008, according to Cambodian authorities, Thai soldiers intruded into Cambodian territory near the temple. The Thai government denied that any border violations had taken place. Since then, a total of at least seven soldiers from both sides have been killed in intermittent exchanges of fire, according to local news reports. At the time of my visit, though, the frontier had been quiet for several months.
Curious about what the standoff actually looked like, I asked my guide, conveniently a moonlighting army officer, if I could get a glimpse of the Thais. He took me to the bottom of the Monumental Staircase, where I could hear the distant sounds of war — air-raid sirens and shooting — but the combat was taking place on a tiny television, which off-duty soldiers were watching with rapt attention.
We walked along a forest trail past a volleyball court and trenches, passing soldiers in hammocks with their wives stealing a moment of intimacy in an encampment with little privacy, to a forest clearing with a bamboo table at the center.
About 20 yards in front of us stood a line of neatly built bunkers; uniformed men could be seen among the dark green sandbags. “So those are Cambodian soldiers?” I asked, trying to get my bearings. “No,” my guide answered, “those are Thais. Over there” — he turned 180 degrees and pointed to a line of bunkers 20 yards in the other direction — “are Cambodians.” The table, I realized, marked the midpoint of no-man’s land.
The Cambodians’ front-line bunkers, made of disintegrating sandbags sprouting grass, were shaded by blue and green tarpaulins and surrounded by orderly gardens. Their raised observation post, topped by a thatched roof, looked as if it might have been on loan from “Gilligan’s Island.” I was in the middle of a very un-Korean Panmunjom, a laid-back, tropical version of Christmas 1914 on the Western Front.
I soon learned that the Cambodian soldiers stationed there call the site Sambok Kmom, or beehive, because, they say, the area’s many wild bees leave Cambodians unmolested but set upon any Thai who encroaches on Cambodian land. Moved by national feeling, domestic tourists wearing krama (traditional checked scarves that serve as something of a Cambodian national symbol) wandered by, distributing cigarettes and other morale-boosting gifts to the soldiers who were deployed to help the bees protect Cambodian sovereignty.
Around the clearing, soldiers from both sides, unarmed and without body armor or helmets, were relaxing in front of their own front-line bunkers. Cambodian officers seemed to find the bamboo table, shaded by trees tall enough to let breezes through, especially congenial. A few paces away, the Thais had strung a hammock between trees, and one soldier, lounging in a white T-shirt, black combat pants and black military boots, was engrossed in a cellphone call.
Despite the apparent tranquillity, I knew that if the order were given, the men on both sides of the invisible line would not hesitate to shoot. In fact, many of the Cambodian troops stationed around Preah Vihear are battle-hardened former Khmer Rouge fighters. For now, though, relations are casual and, I was told, some wary friendships have developed.
The best staging point for a visit to Preah Vihear Temple is Sra Em (also spelled Sa Em), 19 miles by road from the temple. Two years ago, it was a sleepy crossroads hamlet with a single grimy restaurant and one rundown guesthouse. These days, in the wake of the area’s military buildup, it feels like a Gold Rush boomtown, with haphazardly parked four-wheel-drives instead of tethered horses; karaoke bars sporting pink fluorescent lamps and colored lights, instead of saloons; and the gleanings of Cambodia’s recently doubled defense budget, instead of gold nuggets glinting in the stream. Armed men in camouflage uniforms abound.
Sra Em’s accommodation options are rudimentary, to put it politely. My room’s star amenity was a cold-water spigot for filling the plastic bucket used both to bathe and to flush, and below the cheap plastic mirror and its public access comb, dust bunnies had formed around the hair of guests past. Each time I returned to my room, I found a dead cricket, a new one every day, hinting, perhaps, at the presence of some sinister insecticide.
Preah Vihear Temple is, obviously, not quite ready for mainstream tourism. During the two days I spent at the temple in October, I saw only four other Westerners, including an unhappy German couple whose day trip from Angkor Wat had been rather more trying than expected, and perhaps 50 or so Cambodian tourists. But intrepid travelers who brave the diabolical (though improving) roads, substandard accommodations and alarming government travel advisories are richly rewarded.
For 40 generations, Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims have trekked to this temple, seeking to ascend toward the holy and the transcendent. Today, the awe-inspiring nature of this Angkorian masterpiece, accentuated by the challenges of getting there, confer on every trip the aura of a pilgrimage.
NAIL-BITING TAXI TRIPS AND A VOLCANO AT YOUR TABLE
GETTING THERE
With the visa-free crossing from Thailand closed for the foreseeable future, getting to Preah Vihear Temple requires battling Cambodia’s famously potholed roads, which are at their worst during the wet season (about June to October).
Share-taxis, which have no set schedule and depart when full, link Sra Em with Siem Reap via the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng ($7.50 a person; 130 miles; three hours) and with the provincial capital of Tbeng Meanchey ($6.50; 65 miles; two hours). The U.S. dollar is widely accepted.
The taxis, usually “jacked-up” Toyota Camrys, carry six or seven passengers in addition to the driver, so if you want the front seat to yourself you’ll have to pay two fares. Ante up six times the single fare and you’ve got yourself a private taxi.
From Sra Em, a ride to Kor Muy on the back of a motorbike will run about $3.75. Then the three-mile ride up the mountain to Preah Vihear Temple, on a concrete road whose gradients will impress even San Franciscans, is $5 by motorbike or $20 to $25 by four-wheel-drive pickup.
WHERE TO STAY
Glassless windows, sinkless bathrooms, towels with the absorptive capacity of a plastic bag, fans that run only when a generator is sputtering outside your window (usually from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.) and laissez-faire housekeeping are, alas, the norm in Sra Em’s guesthouses. I should have stayed at the 25-room Tuol Monysophon (855-99-620-757), which opened this year. A brown, barn-like structure topped with a red tile roof, it has basic rooms downstairs with private baths, mosquito nets and wood-plank floors, for $10; smaller upstairs rooms with shared facilities are $7.50. To get there from the triangular crossroads, head west (toward Anlong Veng) for 500 yards.
WHERE TO EAT
The Preah Vihear area’s best restaurant, hands down, is Sra Em’s Pkay Prek Restaurant (855-12-636-617), an unpretentious complex of open-air, fluorescent-lit pavilions with plenty of geckos. The specialty is phnom pleoung (hill of fire; $3.75), a meat and veggie feast you grill yourself at your table on an aluminum “volcano” suspended above glowing coals.
SAFETY
Before setting out to Preah Vihear Temple, check the Phnom Penh Post (phnompenhpost.com), the Cambodia Daily or other reliable sources to make sure that Thai-Cambodian tensions are not rising.
According to the Cambodian Mine Action Center (www.cmac.org.kh), the immediate vicinity of the temple is now safe, having been cleared in recent years of more than 8,800 anti-personnel mines. However, nearby areas are still heavily mined, so do not, under any circumstances, wander off the footpaths.
WHAT TO READ
The most useful guidebook in English (and Thai) to the temple’s architecture, symbolism and history is “Preah Vihear” by Vittorio Roveda (Bangkok: River Books, 2000), but it may be difficult to find.Labels: Preah Vihear, Preah Vihear, Thailand
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