Thursday, July 21, 2011

Thailand too defensive on temple

July 21, 2011
Letter to The Nation

Having read the interpretation of ICJ on the Preah Vihear Temple in which the area is now declared a demilitarised zone for both sides pending the interpretation of the 1962 Judgement, I have come to the conclusion that Thailand should not be on the defensive in this matter as most of the text contained quite offensive accusations from the Cambodians, while Thailand has not shown any merit in its defensive stance.

Thailand should have contested that the whole thing was wrong in the 1962 Judgement as it was based on the 1907 map drawn by colonial France, which was not acceptable, as the map was drawn to avoid geographical delineations and benefited mostly its colonial empire.


Based on geographical lines, the Preah Vihear Temple will always belong to the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand). [For proof,] one can pour water on the temple and the water will still flow to the Thai side, plus the temple is also on the same plateau as all surrounding Thai territory, high on the cliff where one can see Cambodia territory far below.

The decision by the World Court in 1962 was based on the negligence of the Thai government in the past in regards to the Annex 1 map as the Thai government (at the time) never contested that the map was biased and not genuine. And since the map existed [unchallenged] for 55 years until the Judgement day, Thailand lost the case on a decision which was not even based on geographical matters.

One can hope that history will not repeat itself .

ARTHUR CHANCELLOR
Nakon Ratchasima

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

live with it, thailand, cambodia lost many old khmer provinces to thailand or siem during the dark ages era, and don't forget that khmer built this temple. so the least thailand can do for the sake of peace and good neighbors and shwo their appreciation for now controlling many many old khmer provinces, at least show that thailand can respect the law, like it or not! in actuality, if anybody is to rankle or upset, it should be cambodia for losing many many old khmer province to both thailand, vietnam and even laos to some extent! so, stop rankling about preah vihear temple of cambodia, ok! respect the 1907 treaty, and learn to live with it from now on!

Anonymous said...

another useless letter to the Nation.

Anonymous said...

The letter is nonsense....go ask King Chulalongkorn Rama V...he was the one who signed Preah Vihear to France in exchange for Trat, Chanthaburi and Dan Sai area to Thailand!

I suggest Mr. Arthur Chancellor send a letter to Charnvit Kasetsiri, a notable Thai historian, to shed some light on this matter.

Prasert Udomkati
Prachinburi

Anonymous said...

បើថៃចង់សើរើតាំងពីគូរផែនទីទៅនោះ ខ្មែរយើងក៏មានកន្លែងដែលយើងចង់បានដែរ គឺ៖
ខេត្តដែលមានខ្មែររស់នៅច្រើនសព្វថ្ងៃ ដូចជា ខេត្តសូរិន បុរីរម្យ ស៊ីសាកេត......
តើថៃមានបានគិតរឿងនេះឬទេ?

Anonymous said...

"Thailand should have contested that the whole thing was wrong in the 1962 Judgement."

Well, if you have waited half a century to dispute the 1962 judgment don't you think it is kind of a little too late now?

I don't know where Thais receive their education these days, but their logic and reasoning is not far beyond a third grader.

Khmer Krom said...

4:48 PM, you made an excellent point. We never once whine to the UN about those lost territories. We dealt with it. Our ancestors lost the war, you Siam stole it, we move on. Stop your whinny bi-och and live with it. Otherwise, we will bring back these issues once our population become larger and military become stronger.

Anonymous said...

every court case, especially like this has a clause like statute of limitation, if you ignore it and not do anything about it within the framework of the law, then learn to live with it for your own stupidity and violation, you know! can't just come back in 50 years or 100 years or 1000 years, or whatever to rankle about it or whatever, ok!

your dirty minded king chulalongkorn exchanged this areas to chanborei, trach, surin, buriram, sisaket, etc, so don't come back to cry about it after 100 years, ok! anybody to cry about the loss, it is rightfully khmer people for losing many many old khmer provinces to thailand under that negotiation then, you know, not the other way around, really! so, now learn to live with it, ok, siem!

Anonymous said...

trach, chanborei, boreirom, preahchonborei, nokoreachsima, surin, srah keo, etc, etc were all old khmer provinces siem king chulolonghorn exchanged with france to keep siem's independence then, why are siem thugs crying now? live with it, ok! khmer people should be the one to rankle about losing these precious khmer provinces to siem, not the other way around, you know!

Anonymous said...

The nations grow and die out;
the empires arise and fall apart.
Can Thai or Vietnam fall apart,
yes they can.
When Khmer Krom will arise and
free from Vietnam,30,000,000
Khmer in Thai will arise too.
Khmer people have a dream,their
dream will come true.
What they need are unity.