When it comes to the issue of the Temple of Preah Vihear, the Machiavellian and
chauvinistic politicians of the far-right wing of Thai politics always assign ML.Wanwipa
Charoonroj and Mr. Veera Sumkwangkit to drum up support from ultra-nationalists who
are considered as their magic tool to undermine their opponents.
Actually, whenever there is political in-fighting in Bangkok, they send a kind of Don
Quixote, Veera Sumkwangkit, to trumpet Thai patriotism next to the temple of Preah Vihear
with the aim of turning the tide that goes against them to the border with Cambodia.
Recently, Sumkwangkit has threatened to uproot the boundary pole No 22 at Ta Muan Toch
ruins.
As for ML.Wanwipa, she is usually charged to do with rhetoric. In January, she urged PM
Abhisit Vejjajiva to notify the World Heritage Center in Paris on Thailand’s opposition to
the Cambodian’s proposal on the administration and conservation plan for the Temple of
Preah Vihear. Later on, she sent a letter to UNESCO’s Director General in which she called
on the latter to invalidate the inscription of the Temple of Preah Vihear on the World
Heritage List.
This time, according to ASTV manager online of 7 May 2010, ML.Wanwipa submitted a
letter to the Parliament, urging MPs to reject the agenda on Parliament’s approval to the three
minutes of the Cambodian-Thai Joint Commission on Demarcation of Land Boundary
(JBC) meetings whose the first was held on November 10- 12, 2008 in Siemreap, the second
on February 03-04, 2009 in Bangkok and the third on April 06-07, 2009 in Phnom Penh.
It should be noted that these minutes had been approved in principle by Thai cabinet on 07
April 2010 and are now pending Parliament’s approval to enable the JBC to continue its
work.
As everyone knows, ML.Wanwipa’s allegation stems from old stereotyped images of the socalled “Thailand’s Lost Territories” in which the Temple of Preah Vihear belonged to Thai.
Hence, she alleged the JBC had cut a deal with Cambodia on provisional arrangements for
the so-called 4.6 Km
disputed area adjacent to the Temple in accepting the Cambodian map
in the same way as in the case of the Temple of Preah Vihear at the ICJ.
Quite the contrary, there is no question that the Cambodian or Thai map should be used to
delimit the frontier of the two countries. It is also obviously not in conformity with
international practice to draw its own map and voluntarily impose on other country to comply
with it, otherwise the entire world map would be reshaped and as a consequence, the whole
world would be in a state of war. But because of their self-image of superiority over
Cambodia, these chauvinistic ultra-nationalists ignore the existing international map which
was recognized by both countries. 2
With this regards, everyone knows the real motives behind these political manipulations. As
it was saying, the border issue at the vicinity of Preah Vihear has been politicized recently,
that is to say following the inscription of the Temple of Preah Vihear in the World Heritage
List in July 2008, by the People’s Alliance for Democracy and its New Politics Party. This
political group, which ML.Wanwipa belongs to, used this very sensitive border issue as their
powerful political tool to topple the then Samak Sundaravej and afterward Somchai
Wongsawat government.
In this connection, Mr. Vasin Teeravechyan, Thai Co-chair of the JBC, has warned Thai
politicians during a seminar at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangkok on 12 October
2009, “not to politicize the border issue for their benefit since it could jeopardize the
boundary demarcation with Cambodia” (The Nation, Oct 13, 2009). He went on to say that
the map drawn originally by France was one of many documents included in the boundary
negotiation. “Whether we like it or not, we cannot rule out the role of the map”, he said.
It is worth recalling that the Annex I map (scale 1:50,000, series L7016, Edition 1-DMATC)
what Mr. Vasin Teeravechyan referred to as the map drawn originally by France and what
ML.Wanwipa termed as the Cambodian map, was the result of the work of the FrancoSiamese Mixed Commission set up by the Franco-Siamese Convention of 13 February
1904 and the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 23 March 1907, and was recognized by the
government of the Kingdom of Siam and used by the ICJ to issue the verdict on the
sovereignty of Cambodia on the Temple of Preah Vihear and its vicinity on 15 June 1962.
Besides the map, “ Le Proces-Verbal d’abornement’’ of the Commission of Delimitation
between Indochina and Siam of 1908-1909 and its revision of 1919-1920 are being used
by the Cambodian-Thai Technical Team for fact-finding mission on the physical
condition and location of the existing 73 boundary poles.
As has been said, Thai hostility with Cambodia on the border issue at the Temple area arose
not from the lack of international legal framework and a clear demarcation of the border line
but from radical nationalism clouded by prejudice, misperception and self-image of
superiority towards Cambodia.
For instance, the honest and prominent Thai academic, historian Charnvit Kasetsiri said
clearly that “The current case of Preah Vihear reflected the kind of selective history that
stirred nationalistic feeling and led to war-mongering threats to take back lost territory”.
Giving a conference on the “The Contested Temple” at the Foreign Correspondents Club of
Thailand on October 2009, Mr. Kasetsiri showed photographs on the visit of Prince
Damrong Rajanupab to the Temple of Preah Vihear on 30 January 1929 and said that “The
Prince had accepted that Preah Vihear belonged to French Indochina”.
Furthermore, Mr. Kasetsiri recalled that Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat appeared on
television immediately after the release of the ICJ verdict on Preah Vihear to say the
government had no choice but to accept the ruling of the court.
What is more, Mr. Kasetsiri advised that Thai history school textbooks be revised and
corrected to reflect the truth. “Only that way will we be able to live together peacefully in
this age of regionalism and globalization”, he concluded (The Nation, 7 Oct, 2009).
Therefore, it is becoming clear that it is high time Thai politicians relinquished the Temple of
Preah Vihear’s issue as their hostage and ended their hostility with Cambodia over this
unnecessary dispute as soon as possible.
With this spirit in mind, everyone in Cambodia highly hopes that the Thai parliament will not
be hoodwinked by ML.Wanwipa into the untangle imbroglio of Thai politics. Everyone
wishfully believes that the parliament will take the bull by the horns in giving its approval to
the above-mentioned minutes. It is believed that the hostility cannot be solved unless Thai
politicians take resolute measures to address the wishes of our people to live next to each
other peacefully without hatred and prejudices.
In this highly interconnected world, it is also about time Thai politicians abandoned their
hegemonic and expansionistic policy towards Cambodia as we are going to build an ASEAN
Community. Instead, we should make every effort to master the demands of our people not as
it has been, but as it is and as it will be.
24 May 2010
ENG YENG
International Relations Institute of Cambodia
Phnom Penh
