By Atiya Achakulwisut
Bangkok Post
Move over 400-million-baht hunk Mario "Pi Mak"
Maurer. National heartthrob Nadej Kukimiya doesn't stand a chance
either. This very minute, thanks to his star performance at the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week, it's the bespectacled,
career diplomat Virachai Plasai who has stolen the show and shot up the
celebrity ranks to become the country's hottest personality.
Mr Virachai, the Thai ambassador to The Hague and former chief of
the Department of Treaties at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, heads the
legal team representing Thailand at the ICJ in the Preah Vihear
territorial dispute.
The case concerns a petition by Cambodia asking the court to
interpret its 1962 ruling which awarded the temple to Cambodia, but
which fell short of ruling on the area around the temple.
Mr Virachai and three foreign members of the legal team - Alain
Pellet, his assistant Alina Miron and Donald McRae - received a hero's
welcome when they arrived back in Thailand on Sunday.
The team also met Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday,
apparently to receive thanks from the government for having done an
excellent job defending the country.
Don't get me wrong. I believe Mr Virachai and the legal team deserve
the honour and the gratitude of the government and people of Thailand
for the work they did at the ICJ - work they have stuck with for more
than three years.
The honour is especially deserved for Mr Virachai, who has borne not
only the hard work of leading the defence, but the heavy burden of
expectation. Sharp-edged politicking and extreme nationalist fervour
back home could have made the job much harder for a less steady
character.
Amid the euphoria and feelings of triumphalism however, there are many things we need to remember.
We should not forget that what Mr Virachai and the legal team
achieved last week was simply wrapping up the case _ delineating the
Thai position one last time and delivering a closing statement. There is
no doubt they did well, but they have not won the case yet.
The ruling won't come until at least October, and no matter how
appreciative we are of the team, nobody knows for sure how the court
will decide.
It's alright to praise the team for giving its best at The Hague, but
it would be irresponsible to get so carried away in nationalistic
sentiment as to make it appear the Thai team did better than Cambodia.
We don't know that yet. Nobody does.
Only the court can make that decision, and it has not yet done so.
To lead the public on with a misinformed nationalistic bias at this
stage will make it much more difficult later to accept the verdict
should it not conform to what people have been led to believe.
We should not forget either that Cambodia asked the court to
interpret whether the "vicinity" of the Preah Vihear temple follows the
line shown on the Annex I map, which would put the 4.6-square-kilometre
disputed area inside Cambodian territory.
We should not forget that the court in 1962 already recognised that
map, not as a representation of the local area's geography but as a form
of treaty between Thailand and Cambodia _ through France, which acted
as Cambodia's protectorate at that time _ about "the general character
of the frontier", if not the exact boundary.
True, Mr Virachai and Ms Miron clearly demonstrated to the court that
the Annex I map can't be trusted as a representation of the real world;
that it contains many errors and is in essence a sketch with arbitrary
lines that would engender more disputes if used as a reference for
border demarcation.
But we should not forget that Cambodia has its point too, that the
1962 verdict stating the temple was on the Cambodian side was based on
the territory as marked by this exact map.
We do not know how the ICJ will consider this point. We should not
interpret the hearings and decide for ourselves that we have won or
should have won the case based on the weight of our argument as we see
it. The World Court is best left to do its job.
Atiya Achakulwisut is Deputy Editor, Bangkok Post.
2 comments:
No way in hell that ICJ alter the previous verdict in 1962.I believe the court will interpret in favour of Cambodia like the original verdict.
Yobal Khmer
oh my gawd! These Thais are so ridiculous. They are funny as hell! They already think they have won the case! How retarded they really are!
First of all, by pointing out the World Judges that the Annex I map is unworthy because it is only a sketch is to INSULT the World Court Judgment of 1962 that based its decision of the location of the temple itself on that VERY Annex I map. Take that Thailand!!!
By arguing that only Thailand's unilaterally created map without the participation of Cambodia, this alone shows clearly to the world that Thailand is still a sore loser. According to the French lawyer, "In English only little boys are bad losers, but never governments."
If anyone has any brain at all, the Thai legal team acts as deceptive land thieves trying to justify this and that without end. Remember, the entire Thailand territory itself was of the Khmer people. So all you landgrabbing thieves need to stop making more excuses to steal more from Cambodia. We have had enough of your land stealing. You Thais just need to stop stealing. Just stick to the Annex I map your ancestors did with the French back in the day. So learn to live with it. The Thai legal team leader was so pathetic at the end throwing his hand up in the air to the World Judges as if to demonstrate how powerful Thailand is or something. His slippery slope logic is the most stupid of its kind. The only ones who will choose to commit atrocities and clashes will not ever be Cambodia but only Thailand.
Team Cambodia = 1; Team Thailand = 0. Glory to the Khmer people!!!
Post a Comment