ANALYSIS: If Pheu Thai supports Phnom Penh over the Preah Vihear temple, the yellow shirts may cry foul.
6/07/2011
Saritdet Marukatat
Bangkok Post
The highly sensitive Preah Vihear temple issue will make the Foreign Ministry's top post one of the toughest jobs for the Pheu Thai Party-led coalition.
Buoyed by the landslide victory over the Democrat Party, Pheu Thai, with 265 seats in the bag, does not intend to share key ministries, one of them the Foreign Ministry, with its coalition partners. Its choice for foreign minister will be either a party insider or an ex-career diplomat who can direct foreign policy, especially on attempts to mend fences with neighbouring Cambodia.
Seeing the unofficial poll results on Sunday, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong had reason to be jubilant with Pheu Thai's victory, as Phnom Penh also expects the end of a bitter wrangle at the border and, more importantly, the issue surrounding the Hindu temple to be resolved "positively and peacefully".
The first task of the new government is to reconsider the decision by outgoing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Democrat-led government which declared its intention to quit the World Heritage Convention just days before the election.
But the most sensitive issue is an expected return of support from Bangkok for Phnom Penh's management plan for the area around Preah Vihear.
The World Heritage Committee listed Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site in 2008 but the process will not be completed until the approval of the management plan for the area that includes the 4.6 square kilometres of land claimed by both countries.
The management plan was bogged down due to fierce opposition from the Abhisit government which feared that accepting it could also imply that Thailand was surrendering sovereignty over the overlapping area.
With Pheu Thai in power, Cambodia expects Thailand to be more friendly on the Preah Vihear issue, given the close ties between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was once an adviser to his government.
Pheu Thai's predecessor, the People Power Party (PPP), which ran the country after winning the 2007 poll, supported Cambodia in listing the temple as a World Heritage site when Noppadon Pattama was foreign minister.
The support sparked nationalistic fervour and protests led by the yellow shirt People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), as it claimed the listing could lead to the loss of the disputed area. The PPP and Mr Noppadon insisted that the listing included only the temple and the overlapping area was excluded.
But public sentiment against Thai support for the temple's listing eventually pressured Mr Noppadon to resign. The PPP was later disbanded due to electoral fraud in 2008.
The new foreign minister will find himself in a difficult position as a Pheu Thai-led government has to decide whether it will reverse the Thai stance by supporting the management plan for the Preah Vihear area or continue to oppose it as the Abhisit government did over the past three years.
Supporting the plan carries a risk as the issue could return the yellow shirts to Bangkok streets to protest against the new government by banking on nationalism to win the day.
7 comments:
Thai is a disease of the skin while Vietnam is a disease of the heart.
Vietnamese live in Cambodia by million in TonleSap, on all water surface, in City, in the suburb. Vietnamese have all kinds of institution, organization, and on top of that Vietnam direct CPP ruled government. Vietnam has a history of expansion.
Thai people do not live in Cambodia.
Worry about Vietnam first before being panic about Thai.
again, it should all be about doing the right thing, i.e. respect the international treaty, the international law, etc, etc, not rankling, not using race card, not looking down on cambodia and khmer people, etc, etc! and the map must be internationally recognized, not unilateral, etc...
it is dumb and stupid and unwise policy to listen to pad thugs because they broke all the law in the book already! remember in order to work well with cambodia, use and respect the international law only, no bullying, not breaking the law, etc, etc, you know!
Bangkok post is bias and should not be respected as professonal jounalist.
Let the PAD THAI group live on the streets if they chose to do so. These trouble makers people know nothing better other than just being on the street causing trouble for everyone. They are the Thai extremist group only the outed Abhishit gov't support these people.
7:09 AM , anyone is bias . no one is 100% independent .
Thailand was born 12th century after Kampuchea but they managed to destroy Angkor, to become a big country, to be a wealthy country now. Khmer should self ask how could Thai do that and learn from them but criticizing or cursing is just to show desperate anger and could do nothing for the country. But first get rid off Vietnam colonization, get rid off Vietnamese from all Khmer water, get rid off puppet government.
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