Khmer Times, Opinion, 12 June 2025 (Link)
Tensions on the Cambodian-Thai border have created a toxic atmosphere of ultra-nationalism. With assistance from Google Translate, it’s possible to understand how extremists on both sides express themselves about their neighbors on social media, using Khmer and Thai to mask international censorship of hate speech.
One group demanded that the other country be wiped off the world map.
The language of hatred and rejection of another nation, as well as the promotion of revision of history or the revival of past imperial glory, dominate their discussions.
Some asked “what if” questions, such as “if France weren’t there.”
Both sides display a condescending attitude, arguing over who is more superior, more civilised, who has more, and who loses more.
Some have accused Cambodia of playing on victim narratives. But who can escape such memories when, throughout its 500-year history, Cambodians have heard nothing but defeats, wars, invasions, and occupations?
This has been Cambodia’s position in world history. Cambodia must live with it.
Cambodia has lost more than its history can record: 500 years of chaos, internal disunity, and wars driven by contested borders, survival, and existence.
For Cambodians, remembering history means describing the vastness of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from the 9th to the 15th centuries, representing the highest level of civilisation in continental Southeast Asia, and the period of decline that followed.
These two contradictory periods have shaped the pride and complexion of Cambodian people.
But Cambodian people also understand that they are living in a modern world and that they must deal with new realities, while trying to protect what they have and what was left behind by the French protectorate.
In fact, every Cambodian feels a sense of love and hate toward France. Love because Cambodians believe that France protected a tiny territory for Cambodia, the tiniest among the countries of continental Southeast Asia. Hate because Cambodians also believe that it was France who carved out some of Cambodia’s territory to its neighbors.
But Cambodian people have to accept this reality.
If every country or nation were to seek to revive their past borders, the whole world would be a mess.
Cambodia has always respected uti possidetis juris, a principle of international law which provides that newly formed sovereign states should retain the internal borders that their preceding dependent area had before their independence.
Faced with the constant eruptions of border tensions, the fundamental question for responsible citizens in both countries is this: How can both countries guarantee a peaceful border for their children and future generations?
They cannot resort to endless mutual accusations about territorial grabbing, which lead to incessant revenge and violent bloodshed.
They need to find a lasting solution, which is the law.
In any society, law is the enduring foundation of civilised human interaction, beyond emotions, grudges, and bitterness.
In society, people must deal with differences, disputes, divisions, divorces, or inheritances. In such cases, it is the law that drives people to rationality, setting judgment independently from personal, emotional conviction.
It is the law that requires people to remain civilised, no matter how serious the disagreement.
When resorting to law, it is not a matter of winning or losing, but of accepting the truth by the parties concerned. This enables current and future generations to respect each other in accordance with the law.
If a ruling, based on international law, determines that a specific area belongs to Thailand, Cambodia must accept it, and vice versa.
Legal issues aside, it is commonly accepted among the Cambodian population that Cambodia often serves as a scapegoat for Thai domestic politics when internal rift arises, and that in such cases, border issues are often exploited.
Meanwhile, Cambodia has also been frustrated with the sluggish progress of border negotiations with Thailand, who insists on using a unilateral map, compared to Cambodia’s negotiations with Laos and Vietnam, in which 86% and 84%, respectively, of the boundary demarcation and marker planting work has been completed.
Cambodia and Thailand are eternal neighbours.
Cambodia and Thailand need to think of a lasting solution for their next generations so that both nations can co-exist peacefully based on mutual respect, mutual understanding and mutual interest, and that the border will become a border of peace, friendship, cooperation, and trading.
It is time to set the record straight, clear up confusion on both sides, and move forward toward a future of peaceful, predictable, and stable relations.
To this end, recourse to international law is probably the most realistic, most lasting and least painful solution. Above all, it is the one that does not involve bloodshed.
No comments:
Post a Comment