Letter From Phnom Penh

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Letter from Phnom Penh

By Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

Published on November 11, 2009

Letter from Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh's roads are crowded with cars as usual. But these days vehicles have to give way frequently to heavily-guarded motorcades as two famous figures are in town at the same time

One is the world-class martial arts actor from Hong Kong, Jackie Chan, and the other is the fugitive politician from an undisclosed location, but very close, Thaksin Shinawatra.

The two have contrasting backgrounds and intentions but both claim they will speak only good things to Cambodians.

Chan will deliver the keynote address in the Peace Foundation's "Bridges" series on Wednesday. His talk on "Arts and culture as a pathway towards peace" is scheduled to be held at the University of Cambodia.

The next day, former prime minister of Thailand Thaksin will lecture to a forum of some 300 economists from the public sector, hosted by Cambodia's Ministry of Economy and Finance. Thaksin will discuss a "Strategy to Fight the Financial and Economic Crisis" on Thursday.

People in Cambodia expect different things from the two different guest speakers who would appear at different forums for different purposes.

Chan will talk on peace, which Cambodia is about to reach now, while Thaksin will show them how to develop a good economy, which this country is still far from reaching.

Thaksin's arrival in the capital is the talk of the town here. People love to discuss the topic if they know the foreign guest is a Thai.

Immigration officials who usually are not so friendly to journalists gave a quick clearance to Thai reporters who told them that they came to cover Thaksin's story. All media were allowed to witness Thaksin's landing and took pictures when he got off the plane at Pochentong airport. His plane was allowed to park at a military base at the airport.

Heng Ly, a taxi driver, said he liked both Thaksin and Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, who he believes could make the Cambodian economy get better.

Thaksin could help Cambodia to become rich like he did for Thailand years ago, he said with high hopes.

Nobody here wants to discuss Thaksin's corruption as they say it's a Thai problem. Cambodians are also familiar with the case but don't want to talk about it now.

Thaksin's presence in Cambodia has raised tensions in Thailand but nothing like that would likely be seen in Phnom Penh as residents here are still friendly with Thais.

A local media colleague said this time is absolutely different from 2003 when a rumour sparked anti-Thai sentiment and an arson attack was launched on the new Thai embassy.

This time Prime Minister Hun Sen has stepped forward and kept the conflict with Thailand only at the government level, he said.

Cambodians know those who stirred up the conflict over Preah Vihear Temple are in the current Thai government and Hun Sen told his citizens that he would deal with those people by himself.

Economic retaliation by Thailand wouldn't be really painful, said Heng Sring, a motorcycle shop owner. "Yes, we import a lot of motorbikes from Thailand but now we have a lot of choices from other countries too," he said.

"We don't expect Thailand to seal the border to block goods but if your government really tries that, we won't get hurt anyway," he said.

Life in Phnom Penh goes on as usual. Ordinary people do not care much about the dickering between the two governments. Hun Sen can deal with it, they say.

-- The Nation 1009/11/11

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[Old Man River]

The Times on Line has published the full, unedited transcript of their interview with Thaksin. It runs to 12 pages.

I would say without doubt that the original story that sparked all the mayhem did contain remarks by Thaksin that were "taken out of context" and to an extent they sensationalized the story in order to obtain maximum effect - which of course they were successful in doing.

I would say, without doubt, that his remarks as communicated in the transcript were over the line. We don't agree on this and perhaps I am wrong and you are right, but that is not up to us to decide.

[jayboy]

I would say, without doubt, that his remarks as communicated in the transcript were over the line. We don't agree on this and perhaps I am wrong and you are right, but that is not up to us to decide.

So whose role is it to decide?

[mca]

What Hun Sen should do is have a photo shoot on his sofa with him sitting next to Thaksin, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Hulk Hogan and Mr T. All draped in Cambodian flags and giving well hard stares.

Aphasit would say

"Temple? Border dispute? Extradition? Interview with The Times newspaper? Nah. Dunno what you're on about mate."

Edited November 11, 2009 by mca

[Chunkton]

What comment can one actually make about a Nation article of any sort? They are all biased reporting to hammer home the papers point of view. One can only assume that Thai Visa officially endorses the Nations viewpoint as they seem to be a partner company.

[Chunkton]

What comment can one actually make about a Nation article of any sort? They are all biased reporting to hammer home the papers point of view. One can only assume that Thai Visa officially endorses the Nations viewpoint as they seem to be a partner company. The Nation appears to be widely ridiculed by numerous blogs and yet their opinion is almost exclusively posted, is there a credibility problem here?

[MaiChai]

Does Taksin actually have the qualifications to be an 'economics advisor'? A degree in economics and solid background in banking/finance is the normal requirement for such a role. Taksins success in Thailand was in a bull environment in the world economy and could it be said that he directed contributed to this? If you read some history of Thailand you will see that economically Thailand has had good annual growth since the 1950s, and this can be attributed to a developing economy with lots of natural resources, growing consumption internally, and (cheap) competiveness in a global context. Very little of this has been attributed to who holds the reins of power (apart from enabling a more open market).

[h90]

Does Taksin actually have the qualifications to be an 'economics advisor'? A degree in economics and solid background in banking/finance is the normal requirement for such a role. Taksins success in Thailand was in a bull environment in the world economy and could it be said that he directed contributed to this? If you read some history of Thailand you will see that economically Thailand has had good annual growth since the 1950s, and this can be attributed to a developing economy with lots of natural resources, growing consumption internally, and (cheap) competiveness in a global context. Very little of this has been attributed to who holds the reins of power (apart from enabling a more open market).

If you know Hun Sen and the Cambodian government he has a lot to teach. They also want to take billions on their private bank accounts. It is not that easy to set up hundreds of companies in tax free countries and reroute the money to it.

[salty]

A new airport in Phnom Penh perhaps.

[Scott]

"What comment can one actually make about a Nation article of any sort? They are all biased reporting to hammer home the papers point of view. One can only assume that Thai Visa officially endorses the Nations viewpoint as they seem to be a partner company." -- Chunkton

I doubt that that is true. I am sure some of us would be instructed to tow the party line if that was the case and up to now, we haven't.

That said, I find a lot of Nation articles worthwhile, but this one is a bit of a space filler or so it seems.