A TROUBLED TERRITORY

Insight into past and present Indo-Chinese border disputes focuses on social, economic, political and cultural implications

Writer: ANURAJ MANIBHANDU
Published: 20/07/2009

Newspaper section: Bangkok Post's Outlook

For Thais following the brouhaha early this year over disputed border territory with Cambodia, and other nationals studying the country's present and past, there is no better time than now to pick up new literature on the country situated east of Thailand.

THOK KHMER LAE KHMER Rungmanee Mekhasobhon Ban Phra Arthit Publishing, 288 pp, 175 baht ISBN 978-6115360031

Rungmanee Mekhasobhon's book focuses on Cambodia since the Vietnamese-backed forces of Heng Samrin recaptured Phnom Penh from the Khmer Rouge on January 7, 1979. Some weeks after her book was launched at a book fair here, Francis Deron's book, presenting the case why there has to be a trial of the ageing Khmer Rouge, was launched in Paris on April 17, 34 years after the fanatics tortured, killed and starved people to force a new start. Late last year, a trio of Thai reporters well-versed in Indo-Chinese affairs brought out a book on the border problems that wandered through social, economic, political and cultural aspects.
Not forgetting the Thai angle as Thai reporters should not, Rungmanee credits the advisers in 1989 of then Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan with being catalysts towards peace in Cambodia. She backs that up by pointing to the agreement they obtained from the two major players in the Cambodian dispute: Prince Norodom Sihanouk, nominal leader of the tri-partite Cambodian coalition with the Khmer Rouge as its backbone, and Hun Sen, head of the Vietnamese-backed government in Phnom Penh that most of the world did not recognise.
Among these advisers was MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra, now the governor of Bangkok, who in those days was well known for his thoughts and writings on Cambodia.
But many in the foreign ministry in Thailand and other member states of Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), notably Indonesia, may be a little disappointed that there was no mention of a process that went on earlier which was also necessary.
After the second fall of Phnom Penh in 1979, it took another three years for Thailand, with Singapore's support, to put together a coalition of Khmers, which included groups led by Prince Sihanouk, free-style Son Sann and the Khmer Rouge, as well as to win them recognition at the United Nations (UN) for another 11 years until a peace agreement involving the coalition and Hun Sen's group was signed in Paris.
Without the so-called Jakarta Informal Meetings I and II (better known as JIM I and JIM II), France would not have hosted the Paris International Conference on Cambodia, and no formal peace agreements would have been signed.
However, Rungmanee does excavate another hardly known Thai angle that shows the country's skill in turning challenge into opportunity for itself and the region. In a recent interview with Gen Pattana Akkanibutr, she finds out that he and two others were sent out to China in June 1979, in the wake of conflict between China and Vietnam, the former teaching the latter a "lesson" for expelling Chinese boat people so furiously. He was then Col Pattana, Head of Intelligence, Joint Directorate, Supreme Command Headquarters.
That one of the other two was the then Col Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, at the time head of an army operation unit in charge of Cambodia, should provide an answer for anyone still wondering why his name was so sacred among Khmers on the coalition side. Also important to the Cambodian question was the instruction for the colonels to ensure that China keep up pressure on Vietnam.
The colonels were led by Lt-Gen Pin Kesorn, director of Military Operations, Supreme Command Headquarters. All three were ostensibly "on holiday" in Hong Kong and China.
Other highlights of the book include an interview conducted in November 1979 by Yodthong Thabtiewmai with Heng Samrin in Phnom Penh and another in 1989 by Sondhi Limthongkul, then director of the Manager Group, conducted with Prime Minister Hun Sen, also in Phnom Penh.
Rungmanee notes that Yodthong's interview with Heng Samrin, which the weekly Thai Nikorn of which she was editor-publisher carried, took place at about the same time as Pol Pot emerged out of the darkness to talk with a select group of Japanese correspondents. That interview is also reproduced in Rungmanee's book.
Rungmanee says she conceived the idea for this book while writing Khon Song Paendin, for which she was awarded the best book prize for 2009 by the Ministry of Education. The new book begins with an incident many reporters reporting Cambodia or border issues since the mid-1970s may have forgotten, and will be a refresher for them, though perhaps not such a pleasant one, especially for those given to vivid memories that turn into nightmares.
But there are also moments of light relief in the book, notably the descriptions of how Cambodians enjoy life at the seaside, and the first tour of Cambodia by the Songs for Life group "Caravan", thanks to Kraisak Choonhavan, then adviser to his prime minister-father.
With both books, Rungmanee has shown how someone who started off as an investigative reporter such as herself stands in good stead of going on to become an author of a book. Not only does she seem to have kept all her notebooks and tapes, she has also kept in touch with her sources and updated her material with recent interviews, as well as refresher visits to Cambodia, retracing the journeys she took those many years ago.
She seems ready to write more about this country, but joins at least this reviewer in observing that some aspects are better left unsaid.

Relate Search: THOK KHMER LAE KHMER, Rungmanee Mekhasobhon's book