Friday, February 28, 2003
ASIA FILE
Lessons in mending frayed ties
Barun Roy Published : February 28, 2003
When rioters rampaged through Phnom Penh late last month damaging Thai businesses and burning the Thai embassy down in an unprecedented outburst of anti-Thai anger, people thought it was the end of togetherness in the Greater Mekong sub-region. Luckily, their fears haven't come true. Politicians in both countries held the lid on their passions and brought a potentially disastrous situation quickly under control. The Cambodian government has since apologised to Thailand for what happened on January 29 and will pay it $50 million in cash, around 8 per cent of its international reserve, as compensation for its losses.
The Cambodian king, Norodom Sihanouk, has written to his Thai counterpart regretting the incidents. The Thai king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, has asked his people to forget their hurts. The border between the two countries is open again and Thai diplomats have returned to posts they had abandoned in the wake of the riots. But a wound has been left behind and it will take time to heal.
The Thais and the Cambodians haven't always been the best of friends, and the Khmer Rouge wasn't the only irritant. Decades ago, the two countries fought bitterly over Preah Vihear, a temple in the Dangrek Mountains north of Siem Reap, till the World Court awarded Cambodia its ownership. The temple city of Angkor had passed through alternate Thai and Cambodian control till Thailand, in a 1907 treaty with the French, gave up the Siem Reap and Battambang districts in exchange for some Cambodian territories. Angkor Wat has become the symbol of Cambodia's national identity and adorns its flag. Over the last decade, it has also come to represent the best in neighbourly relations. It's obvious, however, that the neighbourliness still rests on shaky foundations.
It took only a piece of unfounded rumour, printed by an irresponsible newspaper, to inflame popular passions and unleash a chain of concentrated rioting. It was alleged, a Thai actress very popular in Cambodia had told an interviewer that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand and the Cambodians had stolen it.
The actress, Suvanan Kongying, denied having said any such thing and the editor later admitted he hadn't verified the report before printing it. But the damage had been done and a decade of cooperation was easily fissured by a few hours of mob frenzy.
This is what Thailand should remember. Cambodians may have great admiration for Thais. They may be fanatic about Thai music, craze after Thai movies and TV programmes, and display Suvanan's posters at home, but obviously they also have raw nerves.
Anybody living in the shadow of a big neighbour would. And Thailand, as the heavyweight of the region, might have been pushing its friendliness too aggressively. In wanting to turn the battlefields of Indochina into a marketplace, it might have given Cambodians a false impression of its intentions. As Bangkok Post said in an editorial, "we appear guilty of economic colonisation."
Thai nationals run a wide range of businesses in Cambodia, including hotels, restaurants, casinos, drugstores, plastic factories, agricultural farms, transport companies, and the media. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra owns a company that runs the Cambodian telecommunications system. The Communications Authority of Thailand is working with the Cambodian postal and telecommunications ministry to link the countries through optical fibres. Cambodians along the border have jobs in Thailand and their children study in Thai border schools.
The Bangkok Hospital group runs an international clinic in Siem Reap for the benefit of tourists. Thai banks and insurance companies have opened offices in Cambodia to facilitate trade and investments. A vibrant market has developed in used Thai vehicles and spare parts.
All this is very good as Cambodia is a poor country and needs all the help it can get. It's still suffering from the effects of the disastrous Khmer Rouge regime of 1975-1979 and needs roads, power plants, communication systems, industries, and institutions to transit from an informal to an organised economy and lift its population from its heavy dependence on marginal agriculture.
Thailand is in a position to provide that help and the decade-old Greater Mekong cooperative endeavour has imposed on it a key investment role. But the riots have shown that a country at the receiving end will always be sensitive to slights and quick to take offence.
One other country will be watching the Thai-Cambodian denouement with great interest: China. Beijing is getting increasingly involved in the Greater Mekong countries and pushing for a Greater Mekong free trade area. It has invested in Cambodian agriculture, industry, tourism, and health services, and declared Cambodia a designated country for Chinese tourists.
At last November's Greater Mekong summit in Phnom Penh, China was welcomed
as a valuable development partner. China, naturally, is encouraged by its acceptance, but, as the Thais have learnt, public moods can be very fickle and easily change.
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