Bangkok Post
The painful memory of Thailand losing sovereignty over the 10th century Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia as a result of the decision by the International Court of Justice in 1962, should have been buried with the passing years. But thanks to the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, this pain has been revived and is firing up the emotions of quite a few people, especially people of that generation who experienced the national trauma and shame of that great loss. At the centre of the controversy surrounding the ancient Hindu temple is not that the Thai people want to lay claim to the temple. The Thai people, just as every successive government since 1962, still respect the World Court's verdict which awarded the temple to Cambodia - although they are against the decision and reserve the legitimate right to challenge the verdict if new evidence emerges.
The real issue is all about the dubious way the government _ especially the prime minister and Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama - has been handling the Cambodian application for the listing of the stone ruins as a Unesco World Heritage site. Up until the Opposition's exposure in Parliament, the public was virtually kept in the dark about details of the negotiations between the two countries regarding Cambodia's application. Even last week's cabinet resolution pertaining to Thailand's ''active support'' of the Cambodian World Heritage listing bid was not made available to the public. It was later disclosed by Agriculture Minister Somsak Prissananantakul of the Chart Thai party that the prime minister had ordered some changes to the cabinet's resolution to ensure that overlapping areas were excluded from the temple to be listed by Cambodia.
The hush-hush manner in which the government rushed to sign the joint communique pledging Thailand's ''active support'' for the Cambodian bid to have the temple listed, has led to a suspicion that there might be some hidden agenda. Equally disturbing is the question of why the government caved in so easily to Cambodia's insistence that there not be a joint listing of the temple by the two countries. To sum up, the Samak government's handling of this lacks transparency.
Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva made a valid point during the censure debate on Tuesday that the government's endorsement of Cambodia's unilateral listing of the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site could place Thailand at a disadvantage if, in the future, Phnom Penh contests Thailand's sovereignty over the contentious overlapping areas. He cited as an example the main reason for Thailand's loss in the World Court case over the temple, which was that Thai governments had never contested the French map drawn in 1907 which showed the temple inside Cambodian territory, until the case was raised in court.
The Preah Vihear temple is a sensitive and emotional issue for both countries. Therefore, it must not be over-politicised in a way which will hurt the good relations between the two sides. But as far as Thailand is concerned, the issue cannot be left for the government alone to handle, especially in light of the several unanswered questions. It is advisable that the government reconsider its position vis-a-vis Cambodia, even if it means a loss of face for the prime minister and the foreign minister. After all, national interest should come first.
Or the government can wait for a ruling from the Administrative Court today, in response to a petition seeking an injunction on the cabinet's resolution endorsing Cambodia's listing bid. And risk a crushing setback if the court rules in favour of the petitioners.
The real issue is all about the dubious way the government _ especially the prime minister and Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama - has been handling the Cambodian application for the listing of the stone ruins as a Unesco World Heritage site. Up until the Opposition's exposure in Parliament, the public was virtually kept in the dark about details of the negotiations between the two countries regarding Cambodia's application. Even last week's cabinet resolution pertaining to Thailand's ''active support'' of the Cambodian World Heritage listing bid was not made available to the public. It was later disclosed by Agriculture Minister Somsak Prissananantakul of the Chart Thai party that the prime minister had ordered some changes to the cabinet's resolution to ensure that overlapping areas were excluded from the temple to be listed by Cambodia.
The hush-hush manner in which the government rushed to sign the joint communique pledging Thailand's ''active support'' for the Cambodian bid to have the temple listed, has led to a suspicion that there might be some hidden agenda. Equally disturbing is the question of why the government caved in so easily to Cambodia's insistence that there not be a joint listing of the temple by the two countries. To sum up, the Samak government's handling of this lacks transparency.
Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva made a valid point during the censure debate on Tuesday that the government's endorsement of Cambodia's unilateral listing of the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site could place Thailand at a disadvantage if, in the future, Phnom Penh contests Thailand's sovereignty over the contentious overlapping areas. He cited as an example the main reason for Thailand's loss in the World Court case over the temple, which was that Thai governments had never contested the French map drawn in 1907 which showed the temple inside Cambodian territory, until the case was raised in court.
The Preah Vihear temple is a sensitive and emotional issue for both countries. Therefore, it must not be over-politicised in a way which will hurt the good relations between the two sides. But as far as Thailand is concerned, the issue cannot be left for the government alone to handle, especially in light of the several unanswered questions. It is advisable that the government reconsider its position vis-a-vis Cambodia, even if it means a loss of face for the prime minister and the foreign minister. After all, national interest should come first.
Or the government can wait for a ruling from the Administrative Court today, in response to a petition seeking an injunction on the cabinet's resolution endorsing Cambodia's listing bid. And risk a crushing setback if the court rules in favour of the petitioners.
21 comments:
irrelevant, must respect the 1962 court ruling, period!
I simply don't understand these land-grabbing Siems thieves from Nan Chao at all. How you Siems be so traumatized over something that does not belong to you in the first place?????? You stupid Siems. Preah Vihear was built by the Khmer King, for the Khmer people, and of the Khmer people. So you low-life Siems can just go die in your ancestral shitholes in Nan Chao. Stop claiming more of the Khmer temples and provinces, you lowlife parasites of the Khmer world!!!!! I wonder if you Siems don't have the Khmer land what will become of you all??? If you are so great about city building and colonizing, go down into the ocean and build something out of it and then colonize the ground area under the water. Just go, you Siems bastards!!
You are right 9:02am why the siamese keep barking that they lost preah vihear???preah vihear is not even theirs and as the matter of fact they should be very happy that they still have all the lost khmer provinces.They said they had a painfull memory over the lost of the preah vihear temple which they couldn't steal from khmer.How about khmer who lost a lot of provinces and the khmer people who were divided due to that reason,whow do we feel??how much pain do we have??can you all siamese imagine that???we khmer hAd lived with this pain for centuries.You all siamese will have to pay back for our pain one day and that day will come.As the matter of fact,we all khmer were very busy rebuilding our nation after the longest war,we had put our history book aside for awhile until the preah vihear issue has arisen.Thank to all dump/thieft siamese who remind us khmer to go back and read our history again on our break time and off work time.We khmer never forget what you had stolen from us and what you siamese had done to us khmer.Khmer economy is growing fast and our youger generation had known all about khmer history and more importantly we khmer will start talking to you siamese once we build an unbreakable foundation.So you all siamese just wait and see and be prepare to shit on your pan.Your balloon military might can't help nothing for you all siamese as they already proof at your muslim south.And one thing for you siamese to keep in mind,if one day your country has a problem,just don't think to refuge to cambodia,cause we will eat your livers and drink your blood.And that day will come soon.MAY GOD CURSE ALL SIAMESE AND THEIR PEOPLE AND GOD BLESS CAMBODIAN,THE SUCCESSOR OF THE GREAT KHMER EMPIRE.
90% of imported food, products are used by Cambodians. Khmers please replace them with Koreans, Chinese, Vietnam products. Let's close all the borders and stop purchasing Thai's goods.
After all Thais supported bloody KR who killed millions of Khmers. Now see what they are doing to us.
" The painful memory of Thailand losing sovereignty over the 10th century Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia..." ?
You stupid thief. You stole Cambodian land lots already. Now you want us to recollect all the painful memory? Let give Khmer Surin Back. We have lost 21 provinces to you. You are just a Chinese slave, thief, and betrayer to your Chinese master. You came with nothing. You fought with Cambodia and you stole our land. We acknowledged that we were so weak at that time; that's we lost most our land to you. But now, stop barking for whatever that is not belonging to you. Preah Vihear was built by Khmer King. It is belonging to Khemr forever.
You want to bet, have you ever seen any scripts on the Preah Vihear Stone describes something in your language?
Go to hell and take your karma with you too.
Die, you Thief Thai-Siam.
Cambodian Child in the RI, USA
And the Academy goes to............
It's an acting job!
Like you stated Rhode island, the inscriptions on the stone is ALL KHMER LANGUAGE.
You have to be very ignorant to claimed something that clearly inscribes in someone else language.
All UNESCO have to do is ask the Thai "is this your language on the rock?" If it's not...... than it's not yours!
And the winner is........... Khmer!
"The painful memory of Thailand losing sovereignty over the 10th century Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia..."
I'm using the same quote the siamese wrote. And I cannot comprehend the mentality of these so called civilized people, the siamese. The children of siam, though not all, are "shameless evil" from the pit of hell. They are not stupid but they are pure arrogant and evil spirited. A painful memory because you could not possess all that belongs to the Khmers? How low can you get?
"... the legitimate right to challenge the verdict.."
The legitimate right to fight for possession of a property built by others? The legitimate right? The siamese mental illness is NOT curable. Nuke'em.
LOL very good reading to understand your Cambodian thoughts.
I'm Thai (aka Siamese). And I don't want your temple and province and will happily return it to you. You might (or might not) know that in those day there was no exact border. And we were busy with our little war till the colonial came, UK and France take em all. From my point of view, that province was full of your people but no one can do anything now.
I'm very bored with these things. I hate to admit that Thai is somewhat like cursed in this vicious circle, politics, habits.
I can understand your feeling. Bcuz it's something some Thai people have with the Burmese. They stole our gold!!! They stole bla bla bla from us. I can say that there are Thai people happy with Nargis and want to see Burmese collapse.
of course, no love is ever lost with cambodia over all of lost old khmer provinces either. we are always dream about one day we can reunite and regained all of lost khmer provinces both in thailand, laos and vietnam as well. god bless cambdoia.
hey 6:27pm, do me a favor, go tell teach and educate your siem people that it's not right for them to steal from khmer. they should give back what they stole from us and still want to continue that criminal profession even in 2008 world. enough already. teach your people to do the right thing, would ya!
"I'm Thai (aka Siamese). And I don't want your temple and province and will happily return it to you. You might (or might not) know that in those day there was no exact border."
Ah Siem dude, I am glad that you don't want anything of the Khmer. As a Khmer person, I am so digusted with your stupid retarded Siem people. Now be true to yourself and tell your government and stupid king to return all the Khmer territory back to mother Cambodia and free all the subjugated Khmer people in Thailand. You and your stupid Siem people can just pack up and go back to live your cursed shithole in Nan Chao. Amen and good riddance to all the Siems. All the Khmer people in Thailand must wake up and reclaim our Khmer territority and rechart our new destiny in the new millenium.
I am Thai, I don't want your temple. The another serious issue that fearing Thais is losing Thai territory around temple after it claimed by UNESCO.
Some Thais said that It's nonsense!, Some Thais said that It's true and not let's them happen..
I hope this conflict will solved as soon as possible.
We don't want to be enemy with you. Let's be friend and helping together develop to South-East Asia to be the powerful regions.
Yeah, but we can fixed the agreement so that Thai will not lose anything. Stop paranoid, will ya?
does USA need to give the land back to all the indians that were occupied there before ? No !
So do we!! Get back to your hole, cambodians
''After all Thais supported bloody KR who killed millions of Khmers. Now see what they are doing to us.''
Who is KR and what is the story behind?
How come you says Thais supported this massacre?
I'm just a regular Thai who have not heard about this. It would be very kind if you can put some more detail. Thx
6:27,
I would like to thank you for your acknowledgement about the issues with Preah Vihear. Though, I wish that most Thais are as understandable as you. We, as a bilateral neighbor should comes to an understanding of one another instead of provoking a massive hatred towards each other. Sad to say that the newer generation is carrying on the old traditions of hatred. There is no doubt that Thais and Khmer has a history of bad blood. All I am asking is that, kept what you already have and understand your jurisdictions......... that's all!
Peace to you and your people!
It sounds weird when Cambodian say Thais stole Cambodian land. Is that what you called when you lost land when you lost the war?
You called Thais as Chinese slave, thief, and betrayer to Chinese master, probably we were at that time. But we fought for our freedom!! unlike some coward slave with bad attitude toward brave Thais who fought for their fortune.
You just envy that we live in peace. You just envy that Thais still have a King who cares about their people.
Stop this blaspheme and perhaps someday your so called karma will probably heal your country someday.
Oh... I almost forgot... for Cambodian Child in the US, stop being hypocrite! You live in a so called mass murderer of the world! why does it sounds like you are so proud of that? I believe those Iraqi hate you as the same as you hate us.
And.. if we are stupid thief... isn't that make the owner of what we stole to be.... very stupid owner?
Hi All
I'm Thai and I'm very deeply sorry for what Mr. Apisit had said. We, and most of my peer at around age 35 -50, have no doubt whatsoever that Phra Vihir belongs to Kahmer. Beside, what we Thai have learn in school is that the 1st King of Siam was Kahmer!!!. This also apply for the following Kings.
I don't know what is the motive behid his speech (Mr, Apisit). May be he just try too hard to get rid off the priminister.
Dear Poor Cambodia
Like Siem Tribe You Just Slave Of Funan Em. and JenLa Em. Siem and Cambodia People Build Praseart For Funan - JenLa - Anceint Khmer.
"...Ah Siem dude, I am glad that you don't want anything of the Khmer. As a Khmer person...."
Aha ! Stupid bastards Cambodian. You Know Who Establish Your Country.Don't Your Foolish Ancester but FRANCE {ha! ha! ha!}also Your Stupid Knowledge was from FRANCE too.
Samre Khmer
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