Preah Vihear a disaster for bilateral relations

By The Nation
Published on August 15, 2008

Unclear plan for troop pullout no cause for celebration as politicians put their citizens at risk

After months of sabre rattling, Thailand and Cambodia have finally agreed to pull back their troops from the disputed Preah Vihear Temple starting this weekend.

The agreement was reached yesterday in Phnom Penh after a meeting between senior military officials from the two sides.

But don't hold your breath. Just like with everything else, the devil is in the details.

As expected, no exact figures or schedule for the pullout of soldiers from the temple area was provided, but the fact that the two sides agreed in principle should be welcomed. Then again, what other choice do we have other then welcoming it?

In many respects, the Thai and Cambodian people are held hostage by their immature political leaders.

If Thailand and Cambodia had capable leaders instead of these morons who are too preoccupied with scoring political points, soldiers on the two sides would not have to come face to face on an ill-defined mission with unclear objectives. Armed troops coming face to face on a border that has yet to be demarcated is a recipe for disaster.

The bottom line is that the two neighbours should have never come to this juncture. The fact that we did raises the question of what went wrong.

For whatever it's worth, this diplomatic and military stand-off has been quite an absurd episode in the history of Thai-Cambodian bilateral ties.

The two governments pretend as if this so-called political border was written in stone when the vast majority of it has yet to be demarcated. Most, if not all, behave as if this is a matter of life and death, and explain that this is why they have to behave in a tough and militaristic manner.

But looking at their faces it appears they are more concerned about their political life, not the life of the ordinary people who will most likely bare the brunt if fighting erupts between the two sides.

For as long as anybody can remember, Asean members have enjoyed boasting about their progress, the documents they sign, and the pledges they make. But the reality on the ground tells a different story. Burmese soldiers, for example, have no qualms about pointing their rifle in a person's face if he or she gets too close to the border.

A country that has healthy relations with its neighbours doesn't need to go through a spitting contest, as has been the case in this latest Thai-Cambodian fiasco.

Like it or not, the border around the country is a legacy of the colonial period. A nation-state border does not constitute a cultural/ethnic boundary. Look at the Malay-speaking South and the Khmer-speaking provinces of Surin, Buri Ram and Si Sa Ket.

And if the nation-state has problems about where the border should be drawn, perhaps they should take it up with their former colonial masters instead of putting locals at risk. Along the way, they blur the line between nation-state and civilisation, arousing their citizens until they end up screaming for blood. Shamelessly, they don't see the consequence of their action.

Over the past year, there have been a couple of idiotic Cambodian politicians who called for "the return" of Surin, Buri Ram and Si Sa Ket. But we don't see anybody in these three provinces jumping to that offer. Surprised?

The same could be said for the Malay-speaking South. Despite talks of liberating Patani from the invading Siamese, the highest turnout of voters in the country has consistently been the Malay-speaking community in the deep South.

The fact of the matter is that residents along the common border, regardless of whether they are Thai, Lao, Khmer, Chinese or Vietnamese, have come to terms with their respective nation-states. In the case of the Malays, they are trying to negotiate their membership within the Thai state, but in a way that saves them from having to lose any part of their culture and identity.

Taking on an identity, regardless of whether it's manufactured by the nation-state or by one's respective community, is a powerful thing. But political leaders should not pretend that this is the only thing.