Page 2 of 2 Cambodia, Vietnam re-affirm their vows
By Stephen Kurczy
Meanwhile, there are widespread rumors circulated by some Thai media outlets
that Thaksin's on-the-run protest leaders have taken refuge across the border
at Cambodia's Koh Kong island and that the exiled former premier earlier this
week paid them a clandestine visit. Cambodian authorities have consistently
denied that Thaksin has entered the country, including earlier this week.
The ongoing turmoil has made Thailand a less attractive business partner,
prompting Cambodia to seek alternative diplomatic ties, some analysts say.
"Since the ousting of Thaksin, Thailand has been quite unstable, resulting in a
slowdown in its economic growth," Kheang Un, a visiting fellow at the Center
for Asian
Democracy at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, said recently by e-mail.
As a result, he added, Cambodian businessmen are reluctant to invest in and
trade with Thailand.
Trade between Vietnam and Cambodia jumped 31% compared to the previous year in
2008, to nearly $1.7 billion. Bilateral trade with Thailand is still larger,
but only increased 17% to $2 billion in 2008. Vietnamese goods dominate
Cambodian markets, and in 2007 and 2008 Cambodians bought more Vietnamese
consumer goods than they did products from any other country, VNA reported in
early April. Sales of Vietnamese products to Cambodian consumers totaled $988
million in 2008, compared to $674 million of Thai goods.
"All the local investors here want to do business with Vietnam, and all the
Vietnamese businesses want to do business here," said Cambodia Chamber of
Commerce President Nguon Meng-Tech. "If relations are good from one government
to another, that's better than with another government with problems at the
border ... I don't think [Cambodian] businesses will do much business with
Thailand."
Opportunistic diplomacy
Vietnam is bidding to take competitive advantage of Thailand's internal
political upheaval and simmering border conflict to replace it as Cambodia's
primary trade partner, said parliamentarian Sam Rainsy, the leader of
Cambodia's largest opposition party and a frequent critic of Hun Sen's ties to
Hanoi.
"This is part of a larger geopolitical play in this region - the current
tension with Thailand benefits Vietnam, as Vietnam can increase its influence
over Cambodia," said Rainsy, who likens the situation to 2003 when Hun Sen's
comments alleging that a Thai actress had claimed the Angkor Wat temple
belonged to Thailand prompted anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh.
Cambodians burned the Thai Embassy and vandalized Thai businesses, causing
millions of dollars in damage. "Trade from Thailand declined [in 2003] and
Vietnam got a stronger political influence over Cambodia ... The armed conflict
at the border is having the same effect, but more prolonged," said Rainsy. He
believes pro-Vietnam elements within the CPP inflamed anti-Thai sentiment to
"weaken relations with Thailand, including commercial relations, and boost
relations with Vietnam".
Cambodian government officials aligned with the CPP downplay those criticisms.
The recent flurry of diplomatic and commercial agreements is "nothing special",
said Cambodia's Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan. Government
spokesman Khieu Kanharith also disputes this is an unusual trend. "If there was
increased cooperation with Vietnam, it would bring suspicion from China and the
United States," Kanharith said.
Scholar Kheang Un counters that neither the US nor China, nor even Thailand,
are particularly concerned by stronger Cambodia-Vietnam relations. "None of
these three countries see Vietnam as a threat to their national security as
they did during the Cold War era, during which they viewed Vietnam as Moscow's
agent in Southeast Asia," he said. "[A]s soon as Thai politicians put their
house in order, Thai-Khmer relations will normalize."
Some human rights groups remain apprehensive about Cambodia's shift east, as
the country's alleged mistreatment of ethnic Montagnard and Khmer Krom
minorities has shown that Cambodia is willing to take instruction from its
larger, wealthier neighbor. The Montagnards, ethnic hilltribe people living in
the highlands of central Vietnam, have for years entered Cambodia seeking
asylum with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees only to be forced
back into Vietnam by Cambodian authorities.
In addition, the six million ethnic Cambodians living in Vietnam's southern
Mekong Delta area, known as the Khmer Krom, have been targeted and in some
cases imprisoned by Vietnamese authorities for practicing Buddhism. They have
also faced oppression from the Cambodian government for protesting their
treatment in Vietnam. Human Rights Watch, a US-based rights advocacy group,
said Hanoi has an active agenda to monitor, infiltrate, and silence Khmer Krom
activists.
"Our government would like so much to please the Vietnamese government," said
Kek Galabru, the founder of local human rights advocacy group LICADHO. She
first met Hun Sen in 1983 in Angola, where her late husband was serving as the
French ambassador. She invited Hun Sen to her home, and the then young foreign
minister convinced her he "was not a Vietnamese puppet", she told journalist
Elizabeth Becker in the book When the War was Over.
"Now, my opinion is different," Galabru recently told Asia Times Online. "Since
I came to Cambodia in 1992, I can see that things are run differently."
Rights groups point to the case of Tim Sakhorn, a Khmer Krom monk who
distributed bulletins and organized protests demanding Vietnamese authorities
compensate Khmer Krom for allegedly stealing their farmland. He was defrocked
by Cambodian authorities in 2007 and deported to Vietnam, where he was jailed
on charges of "undermining solidarity" between the two countries. He has since
sought asylum in Buddhist-majority Thailand.
"Who gave the order to disrobe Tim Sakhorn? What wrong did he do but to shout
when there were violations of the Khmer Krom?" said Son Soubert, a member of
Cambodia's Constitutional Council and the son of former Cambodian premier Son
Sann. The gag on public demonstrations against Vietnam, he said, is one clear
marker of Hanoi's 30-year supervision of the CPP. "You don't see [Vietnam's]
presence, but they're present ... You can accuse me of being biased or
paranoid, but in the eyes of Cambodians, that's the reality."
While the Cambodian army defends against Thai soldiers crossing into territory
near Preah Vihear temple, Son Soubert said in comparison that 89,000 square
kilometers of Mekong Delta land is occupied by Vietnam that arguably belonged
to Cambodia until 1949, when the colonial French National Assembly formally
ceded it to Vietnam. He said the current border skirmish with Thailand
distracts from Vietnam's more serious border infringements, which as a matter
of policy are overlooked by Hun Sen's allegedly Vietnam-aligned government.
Real or imagined, Soubert contends that sentiment is spreading, evident in a
joke now making the rounds in Phnom Penh. Spoken in the voice of a Vietnamese,
the nationalistic jab goes: "The Thais are stupid because they try to steal a
stone," referring to the Preah Vihear temple. "We are smarter, we just steal
the land."
Stephen Kurczy is an Asia Times Online contributor based in Cambodia. He
may be reached at kurczy@gmail.com.
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