Bangkok Post
EDITORIAL
Football diplomacy moves Thai-Cambodian relations forward. It does not settle any of the outstanding bilateral disagreements. Authorities in both countries may be able to use the sports encounter to make progress at more important meetings.
Sports diplomacy is always a good tension breaker. The weekend football match in Phnom Penh was no exception. It was so diplomatic, in fact, that Cambodians joined the Thai team and Thais joined the Cambodian team. With a crowd estimated at 50,000 looking on, everything came up roses, with the team headed by the top dignitary, Prime Minister Hun Sen, coming out on top, with smiles all around. Hands were shaken. Smiles were contagious. A good mood was undeniable. But no problems were solved, and there are important and urgent disagreements between our two countries.
The idea of football diplomacy instigated by some Pheu Thai members of parliament is a good one. For sure there were political motives behind Saturday's game at the Phnom Penh Olympic Stadium. Fugitive ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had already left Cambodia for Hong Kong, but the match was about him, and about the new government led by his sister, Ms Yingluck.
Hun Sen has made, and continues to make quite a big deal out of the Pheu Thai election victory. On Saturday, he repeated his statement that the bad old days - "the nightmare era - was over. By that, as everyone knows, he meant that the Democrat Party was defeated at the polls. Hun Sen has a continuing and troubling disrespect and personal dislike of ex-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and of former foreign minister Kasit Piromya. (To be fair, Mr Kasit's attacks on Hun Sen during the 2008 yellow shirt period were equally, unfairly personal.)
It is encouraging to see Thai and Cambodian representatives smiling and establishing personal relations. It is quite another, however, for the leader of Cambodia to continuously use such visits by Thais to boost his own agenda. The Thai government has changed, but Hun Sen's policies have not. Visits by Ms Yingluck, Thaksin and the Pheu Thai football-playing MPs have not changed the determination of the Cambodian leader to claim the disputed land at Preah Vihear temple. A football match has not altered in any manner Hun Sen's claim on the probably carbon-rich waters off Trat province.
The coming of the new government should not lull Hun Sen into thinking he can divide Thais. Football diplomacy is an ice-breaker, no more. It can never lead to a new policy on important, national issues. It must be remembered that it was unprofessional of Hun Sen to push the former, Democrat-led government into deadly combat along the border. The new, friendlier diplomacy between the two countries is immensely welcome. Last week's joint decision to pull troops back from the Preah Vihear area, for example, lessens the chance of accidental war.
The agreements and disagreements between two neighbours have not fundamentally changed. Hun Sen still has an influential, nationalist group which expects him to best Thai diplomats and officers. So does Ms Yingluck. Mr Kasit was the first to tell the media that Cambodia must "never think that you will get at our natural resources and territory" via football diplomacy. As usual, Mr Kasit ruined it by adding that he suspects Pheu Thai will "give away national assets to Cambodia". They will not, any more than the Democrats gave away Thai territory or dignity during their times in office, no matter what Pheu Thai propaganda said.
Football diplomacy moves Thai-Cambodian relations forward. It does not settle any of the outstanding bilateral disagreements. Authorities in both countries may be able to use the sports encounter to make progress at more important meetings.
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