Preah Vihear is
rightfully ours inheritance and Cambodian should be proud of
it! The border dispute
with neighboring countries Thailand-Vietnam with
Cambodia is nothing new. In
2008, only weeks in the lead-up to the national
election, the issue of Preah Vihear has reemerged
–old story in a modern-day history. The issue
often triggers ultra-nationalism time-and-time
again. What to do about it? How to deal with it?
Twelve Simple Strategies -By Ronnies
Yimsut
Our common approach
to solution is to boycott Thai products. But
Cambodian tends to overlook who is buying and
selling Thai products, and illegally runs cross
border trade with Thailand. We like to think
that Cambodian military strength would overrun
the Thai with more state of the art superior
military might only to show the ultranationalist
Cambodian is. Some would think that Cambodia
would punish Thailand with economic sanction. To
engage war with Thailand, Cambodian needs more
than patriotic acts and gift donations. One
can't be independence unless one is sufficient.
Let’s not forget
that Thai had gone through financial crisis in
1997 and reemerge relatively in a short time.
This simply meant that Thailand had mastered the
basic rules of modern economics. They
liberalized their economies, encouraged foreign
investment flows, and practiced thrifty in
fiscal policies. The high level of domestic
savings gave them a comfortable economic buffer
than Cambodia.
We like to live
believing that we are in our prime of
psychological warfare. War is not a liable
solution to the problem for Cambodia. There is
nothing wrong to be pride of oneself. Cambodian
needs to rethink of ourselves and confront the
issues that are facing us today. Cambodia’s best
result is to engage it with diplomatic means.
Economic independence may well be a good place
to start.
Cambodia-Thailand-Vietnam has a
border-dispute-trade-love-hate relationship.
According to
The US International Trade Commission, Thailand
exported $1.4 billion worth of goods to Cambodia
compared to $49 million exported to Thailand in
2007. India’s exports to Cambodia totaled $31
million in 2007, while Cambodia's exports to
India totaled $500,000. Is it trade deficit?
Everyone
is unbridled greed and corruption. Our foreign
policy inspires more by opportunism than by the
desire to preserve national independence, of an
economy and a political system that are rapidly
coming apart.
We are accustomed
to feed ourselves too much of foreign goods, we
begin to feel that Thai is in needs of our
micro-household-economy of fourteen millions
population.
For any undeveloped country, the
first challenge in the development of any
society is economic and –a change of attitude
may well be the one Cambodian needs and
diplomatic approach is the best alternative to
war.
Cambodian’s
feeling toward neighboring counties remains
unchanged. Thai is well structured in terms of
economic and military strength despite no major
war engagement in the last 50 years.
Vietnam, on
the other hands, has many that both Cambodia and
Thailand want in exchange. Cambodia has no match
with Vietnam and Thailand, should the war break
out.
One lesson in
history is that unity is formed from within and
is difficult to impose from the outside. The
battle of wills is a start but the conflict will
destabilize the peace and security in the
region.
Political unrest in Thailand, with Samak
Sundaravej facing overwhelming opposition and
ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of
corruptions charges; and the National Election,
should not be viewed as diplomatic breakdown for
bilateral negotiations over the Preah Vihear.
Let’s not forget that it is rightfully Cambodian
to keep!
Revolution
does not happen in fairytales, but in a social,
political, cultural, and economic context. To
make the most of this extraordinary change, one
must be aware of the changes that surround you.
And indeed, there have never been more resources
and ideal since the collapse of the post Khmer
Rouge era.
Should diplomacy exhausted,
never misunderstood that our reluctance for
conflict be misjudged as a failure of will when
action is required to serve and protect our
sovereignty. And war may well be a resort to
peace. But that only makes diplomacy more
important.
As we move
toward this extraordinary time, the mythology of
the events consciously or not, is reengaging,
the rulebook has been rewritten for the
development of our war-ruin country. Our
rhetoric "Proud to be born Khmer" Are we? -Acts on it
accordingly!
About the Author:
Vorak, Ny is the founder of www.khmerwriter.com
About this article:
There are some sources and quotations on this website. Credit is given where possible. There are instances where we are unable to trace or contact copyright holders. If notified, www.khmerwriter.com will be pleased to acknowledge the use of copyright material.
Disclaimer:
Views or opinions presented in
www.khmwewrite.com are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent www.khmerwriter.com
