CHAPTER III - Thai-Cambodian Cooperation on the Preah Vihear Temple

Summary

The Thai-Cambodian Joint Communiqué, an agreement between Thailand and Cambodia to promote the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site, was signed on 18 June 2008 by the Thai foreign minister Noppadon Pattama and his Cambodian counterpart Sok Anh. Noppadon had earlier been a lawyer for Thaksin Shinawatra. The Thai government coalition at the time was headed by the pro-Thaksin People Power Party, though Thaksin himself was in self-imposed exile. The anti-Thaksin movement later claimed that Thaksin and his proxies had “sold the motherland” in exchange for Thaksin's business advance in Cambodia. Using nationalist rhetoric, the movement claimed Thailand would gain nothing from the inclusion of the temple on the World Heritage list other than a little tourist business in the temple vicinity; meanwhile Thailand risked losing sovereignty over 4.6 square kilometres of land around the temple to Cambodia.

This allegation dominated the Thai public's perception of the conflict over the temple. But, as I have elaborated in the previous chapter, the temple was only one issue in the fast developing and multidimensional relations between Thailand and Cambodia since the early 1990s. This is not to say that Thaksin had no business interest in Cambodia, but until now no proof has been produced so the allegation remains hearsay. Some of PAD's claims were simply fiction, as I will discuss in the next chapter. Moreover, Thaksin's background as a transnational businessman and the conflict of interest evident in some of his domestic policies should not overshadow the development of Thai-Cambodian relations in the last two decades. In other words, it is imperative to consider the temple issue within the context of Thai-Cambodian socio-economic relations since the end of the Cold War. The bilateral cooperation over the temple of Preah Vihear was not the decision of one man but involved several successive governments and several state agencies in charge of economic affairs, foreign affairs, and national security.