Proposal: Building Peace, Prosperity, and Mutual Understanding

through History Lesson: Historical Perspective on Thai and Cambodian

Conflicts

I) Introduction

The dispute between Cambodia and Thailand over Preah Vihear temple seems not to be
easily solved, even though it has been extended to the regional and international level to seek
for the solutions. This dispute first started from the disagreement between Cambodia and
Thailand on the inscription of Preah Vihear Temple as the world heritage to the military clashes
that led to casualties and the destroying of the civilian property (houses and market) to the
confrontation of the delegates of both countries in the 35th World Heritage meeting in Brazil.
It did not stop there. After the release of the result of the 35th World Heritage meeting, many
different interpretations were made and led the Thai Prime Minister to promise to use both the
diplomatic and military approach to solve the dispute. React to the Thai Prime Minister,
Cambodian government issued the letter to UN petitioning that Thai Prime Ministers word is
a sort of threatening to Cambodia. Then, these two countries started to make their military to
be ready to fight at the border at any time if necessary. Without any good mechanism to ease
the tension, 4-7 February marked the big scaled fighting (Cambodian government considered it
as war). The use of the heavy weapons, the cluster bombs, and the warning of the use of the air
fighting from Thai government, and the similar military respond done by Cambodian
government led to many casualties, property destruction, and the civilian evacuation from the
nearby deputed places.

However, the question can be posed: What are the real causes of the dispute? And if the
governments of both countries can solve the dispute on Preah Vihear temple at this time, can
Thailand and Cambodia make a good relationship and stop having any border disputes in the
future? The answer can be no. Actually, the recent dispute over Preah Vihear is just one of the
examples of the similar conflicts Thai and Cambodia have had. In 2003 (5 years before the
Preah Vihear conflict) Thai embassy in Phnom Penh was burned down while many business
establishment suffered from the attack and looting. This conflict happened similarly because of
the fear that the national heritage, Angkor Wat, can be taken away. In other word, the conflict
resulted from the rumor that Suwanan Khongying looked down Cambodian people and would
like to take Angkor Wat Temple, one of the Cambodian national prides, for Thailand. Therefore,
the solution cannot be provided by only the agreement from both governments to stop the

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conflicts. There should be other possible root causes that are also needed to address, so the other
proper solutions and agents can be identified and utilized.

Some scholars such as Kasetsiri (2003), Anderson (2008), French (2002), and
Winichakul (2005) found that the dispute actually results from the historiography of Cambodian
and Thai national history constructed by the nationalists sentiment. In Cambodian and Thai
national history, love and hatred have been used to inculcate into the mind of people. They
should love and sacrifice for their nation and hate those who have been elaborated as the
enemies/invaders/destroyers of their nations prosperity and harmony. As in case of Preah
Vihear temple, Cambodian have been made to believe that the Temple should belong to
Cambodia because it was built by Cambodian king since the 11th century; even though, the
temple and its complex was annexed to Thailand after Cambodian kingdom was weak, it was
returned back to Cambodia during the French colonization by the Thai French treaty in 1904,
1907, and 1946. In contrast, the Thai have been made to believe that the temple is the symbol
of losing its territory to Cambodia through the pressure from the unfair French colonials. The
temple would belong to Thailand if there was no any unfair intervention from the French
colonials.

Therefore, the recent conflict is just one consequence resulted from not being able to
learn from the history lesson that both countries have been gone through similar suffering and
need to learn to understand one another in order to build peace and prosperity.

II) Objectives

Whenever the conflict occurs, it creates many negative consequences. As it is obviously

shown, the conflict not only brings about more hostility between the people of Cambodia and
Thailand but also the burning of the Thai embassy, the military clashes which caused the
casualties, the postponing or termination of economic activities that really have the negative
impact on peoples livelihood and the prosperity of both countries. Additionally, if the border
is closed it will not only affect the people, it also affects ASEANs vision and mission, not only
in term of creating the Free Trade Area but also the Socio-Cultural and Political-Security
Community.

Therefore, in order to stimulate good relation and cooperation and mutual understanding
which will bring about peace, the economic prosperity, political stability, and wellbeing in
Cambodia and Thailand, this study is aimed to firstly document all the historical sources related
to the root causes of the repeated conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand, especially the

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historical sources that these countries have used to provoke the hatred, conflict, or war against
one another. I believe that without any understanding of this history it will not be able to find
the proper solutions. Secondly, this research is aimed to record all the solutions provided by
different people and local and international institutions to solve the conflict on Preah Vihear
and try to analyze how and why these solutions can work or cannot work. Thirdly, this study is
planned to provide the window to not only the two countries (Cambodia and Thailand) but also
the other countries that border conflict is the source of destruction of their wellbeing and
economy by documenting how much damages have been made in the context of present
Cambodian and Thai conflict over Preah Vihear.

III) Methodology

Actually, this is a very difficult study since it involves with the cross-border research
and historical documents that require the researcher to be qualified in both languages
Cambodian and Thai. However, I graduated from the Master degree in Southeast Asian Studies
from Chulalongkorn University of Thailand and was trained in the intensive Thai program of
the same University for nearly one year, I do believe that the expected problem will be reduced.

For the methodology, this study is going to use both the textual analysis and the in-depth
interview with the key informants. First of all, I will do the literature review based on the history
books and articles, especially related to nationalism which taught in the public school of both
countries, which plays the most important role in leading their people to hate those they believe
as their historical enemies; the books and journals written by the national and international
historians; and on newspapers. Secondly, I will have the in-depth interview with the experts in
history of both countries in order to receive more information related to the conflict between
Cambodia and Thailand and the comments on how to solve the problems.

IV Expected Result

Since this is the first study that includes all the historical events and the root causes of
the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, I, firstly, expect that it will help provide the
reasons behind the conflict and the destruction derived from conflict; secondly, it will be the
useful lesson for the country leaders to use as the guideline to make the policy toward their
neighboring countries to avoid any conflicts. Thirdly, For the lecturers in history and conflict
resolution, this study will be the vital tool for them to teach their students not only to understand
the history but also understand and love the value of peace rather than the war or conflict that
their ancestors used to wage and destroy lives of the people and the wellbeing of the society.

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