The Transformative Influence of War

Cambodian soldier in Preah Vihear (Photo: Reuters)

Friday, February 11, 2011
Op-Ed by MP

Military exercise should not be staged anywhere approximate to this region, be it internationally or nationally held. Thai planes were known to have trespassed Cambodian air space in the past, on one occasion as deep as Pailin town.

The Thais never tired of offering 'apologies' to their Cambodian counterparts for rockets fired deliberately several kilometres across the border onto Khmer territory. Even Thai civilians (not driven by poverty or economic hardship, unlike some Khmer citizens) show scant regard for Cambodian sovereignty.

I would suggest that the Cambodian military takes zero-tolerance stance on such flagrant violations of Khmer airspace. There is the need to not send the wrong signal to commercial airline operators in the region, but whilst this is an understandable restraint, such caution must be balanced with the possibility of national security and Cambodian lives, military logistics etc. being compromised, as a result of not keeping Thai military excesses - disguised as 'human mistakes' - in check.

I think the US could also provide the Thai military with satellite data on Cambodian troops’ movements and logistics, so it would be wise to camouflage tanks, artillery pieces, rocket launchers, armoured vehicles etc. and disperse ground troops or frequently shift their locations to minimise concentrated losses.

One of the greatest advantages enjoyed by the Khmer soldiers is the terrain itself. A Vietnamese commander once remarked that ‘the jungle entraps the enemies, but shields our soldiers’. This is why K5, along with other wholesale deforestations that have occurred across the Cambodian terrain have been a grievous blow to Cambodia's natural defence base, which is all the more critical to a small country with numerically and financially less fighting capacity.

I agree with the call for the UN to become involved with the situation at Preah Vihea through creating a demilitarised zone immediately around the Khmer temple of Preah Vihea - now a listed world heritage site. One of the reasons for having the temple inscribed as such with UNESCO is to ensure that the UN or the world community could offer their mediation or financial involvement in respect of its physical preservation and/or protection in time of war or military tension as evidenced by this current conflict.

Thai politicians and army generals have been more united in deeds (bellicosity towards Cambodia) than they have been able to honour their own verbal promises with their Khmer counterparts. This should tell the world and Cambodia that Bangkok is learning to adapt to the limitations of the 21st century with all its non-aggression charters and the obligation to live by them as well as the incessant prying eyes of the mass media without abandoning Thailand’s traditional bullying tactics meted out to weaker neighbours. In brief, the Thai government and military are waging a 19th century war of attrition against a weak and impoverished country in the civilised lime light of the 21st century. With her annual military spending in the region of some 3 billion US dollars compared with Cambodia’s corresponding meagre budget of a few hundred million US dollars, Thailand is effectively banking on her vastly superior fire power to do all the real talking and diplomacy with Cambodia by pounding Cambodian defensive positions and morale into submission with her endless supply of artillery rockets of different sizes.

If the UN is unwilling or unable to come up with the means to protect this world heritage site, then Phnom Penh should try to redraw the battle line by pushing it further away from the temple grounds even if it means occupying foreign territory so as to provide the site with a protective buffer zone. I realise this seems somewhat unrealistic and farfetched given the disparity in material means between the two sides, but this consideration should be part of a long term strategy made necessary by the inevitability of war and its logical demands on logistics and geography rather than misplaced triumphalism we have identified with one or two self-indulgent Cambodian commanders now entrusted with the task of defending this part of the country. Other countries like the US and Israel have maintained similar military priorities over another country’s territorial locations such as US military base in Cuba, and the Sinai region in Egypt, respectively.

This conflict serves to confirm the ineffectual nature of international settlements, specifically the ICJ ruling and the Franco-Siamese Treaties at the turn of the 20th century. For any agreement to last both parties to it must mutually uphold its terms and conditions. Both Phnom Penh and Bangkok may have their motives, other than the need to defend national sovereignty, for sending their troops to fight and die over this stretch of scrub, but a more careful introspection into all the relevant forces – historical, political or psychological alike - that conspire and confluence to trigger this conflict again and again, will likely yield a conclusion far removed from what the public on both sides have hitherto been led to believe. Whilst I prefer to leave such inevitably controversial conclusion to the reader to draw of their own accord, I do feel that on balance:

1) Thai politicians are doing more than it is necessary for them to merely respond to the call to defend Thai sovereignty; a notion the Thai PM himself has never failed to emphasise before the Thai public;

2) the Phnom Penh regime’s undoubtedly poor human rights record is a quite separate realm or issue altogether, and ought not be cited in part defence and justification of Thailand’s military belligerence here;

3) Khmer posterity will look back upon this Preah Vihea conflict as a blessing in disguise, fuelled in the main by Thai rulers’ designs and vanities, if Cambodians today could face up to this provocation and challenge rationally and expediently by overhauling their own social/military systems through equitable distribution of economic resources needed to, and geared towards, strengthening their survival prospect as a people and entity; and, finally,

4) by the power of such reforms the unity and conviction of a people that have long been denied could once again be restored to the full, paving the way for the nation to acquire the power to arbitrate its own affairs and be the equal of its enemies, at least, if needs be.