Cambodian Nationalism Unleashed

Posted Aug. 1, 2008

Cambodia went to the polls on July 27 and secured a fourth consecutive landslide victory for the incumbent Cambodian People’s Party, which currently projects a sweeping 90 or more seats out of the National Assembly’s 123 total.

The CPP has successfully dwarfed its opposition—more than ever—since the first U.N.-brokered election of 1993. The liberal Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), named after the former Cambodian Minister of Finance, is set to win an estimated 26 seats, slightly up from last election's 24. The royalist Funcinpec party, once co-rulers alongside the CPP, may only secure two seats this election since internal schisms led former leader Norodom Ranarridh to form the Norodom Ranarridh Party (NRP), which may also secure two seats. (Official results will be available next week.)

A cloud of nationalism hung over these latest elections. Cambodia and Thailand faced off in an intense border dispute around the Preah Vihear temple and as the two sides transported troops, artillery and tanks to the border, ruling party members were busy galvanizing Cambodian support against perceived Thai aggression.

This is hardly the first time the Preah Vihear temple has been at the center of a brewing storm. The formerly Hindu, now Buddhist, temple was erected during the ninth century AD as a monument to the god Shiva and was occupied by various conquerors throughout the ensuing centuries. In 1904, Thailand and the French administration in Cambodia agreed to grant Thailand the land around the temple, but to Cambodia the temple itself. The U.N. World Court later ruled the temple to be Cambodian in 1962 following a dispute with Thailand.  (For more on the history of the conflict, read Bertil Linter’s account Temple Furor Exposes Delicate Ties in the July/August edition of the REVIEW.)

And now, the timing could not have been better for the CPP. As the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy in Thailand accuses Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej of ceding temples for business concessions—much like they accused ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 before a coup—Thai politicians have initiated the conflict under pressure. The CPP, therefore, did not create this dispute, but has rather capitalized on it out of luck.

A few days after UNESCO listed the temple as a World Heritage Site on July 9, Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister Sok An was greeted at Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium by a massive fireworks display and an estimated 8,000-person crowd.  Sok An did not use the celebration only to delve into the contentious temple’s Khmer heritage. Instead, he spent 30 minutes crediting himself and other CPP leaders with securing the listing.

But now that incumbent politicians have released the nationalist genie, can it be stopped? Recent events suggests that this is unlikely.

Shortly after the listing, senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap also proclaimed a major boost for the ruling party. While campaigning in a border province, he boldly announced to voters that the UNESCO decision was a result of Hun Sen's charismatic leadership.

The same week, Cambodia's CTN news channel had announced the decision with a photograph of Prime Minister Hun Sen encircled in stars and, for background music, the stately national anthem being performed. As Thailand persisted in its border zone claims, text messages began circulating throughout Cambodia calling for immediate action against its neighbor. Last week, Cambodian vendors and consumers boycotted Thai fruits and cosmetics, once popular items in Cambodia.

According to the Phnom Penh Post, one customs chief at the Thai-Cambodia border estimated that imports from the country's neighbor had dropped 30 percent. Thailand is Cambodia's second biggest source of imports.

In any case, Thai-Cambodian clashes have become routine. A similar chain of events was underway six months before the 2003 election, reaching a climax when an angry mob torched the Thai embassy in Cambodia following allegations that a Thai celebrity proclaimed Angkor Wat to be of Thai heritage. Although such an extreme outcome is unlikely in 2008 as the Preah Vihear situation cools, the dangers of ultra-nationalism around election season are still there.

When Thailand sent troops to Preah Vihear in response to three protestors illegally crossing into Cambodia, CPP campaigners quickly transformed their platforms from issues such as corruption and inflation to a single one that appears black and white: Hun Sen and his close allies were strong but peaceful leaders, solely responsible for uniting Cambodians against Thai aggression.

“We are peaceful people,” Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan told a group of reporters at Preah Vihear, including myself, when tensions first flared. “Thailand is worsening these problems, not Cambodia.”

Negotiations between Thailand and Cambodia failed before the polling. Interestingly, the day after the elections, both sides agreed to begin withdrawing troops, though authorities have denied this relates to the elections. But ever since the voting concluded, Preah Vihear retreated to a back issue in Cambodian local media for now.

If there is a broader idea to be drawn from all this, it is that nationalism has recently shown itself to be a recurring force in Cambodian politics. Khmer pride and aggressive confrontation typically flare around Cambodia’s election seasons, such as in January 2003, with the Thai embassy incident. The CPP, nonetheless, emphasized Khmer temple heritage as a major selling point in the July 2003 election.

Roderick Brazier, the Cambodia country representative for the Asia Foundation, thinks the fervor will subside as it has in the past, but noted that Cambodia has historically been defensive—even chivalrous—when neighbors encroach its culture. “Thailand and Vietnam have constantly needled away at Cambodia's borders and heritage,” he said. “When Cambodians feel they're losing their culture, they get angry.”

In 1997, Hun Sen capitalized on Cambodia's pride against Khmer Rouge aggressors, accusing then co-prime minister, Norodom Ranarridh, of illegally bringing Maoist soldiers into the capital. A coup against Prince Ranarridh ensued. Cambodia went to the polls about one year later in July 1998, with the party-dominated media shouting slogans that reminded the public how the CPP saved Khmer heritage against the communists, who tried to wipe it out in 1975.

Before the CPP re-lit the torch of nationalism in 2003 and 2008, its platform was always the same: curtailing corruption, upholding the United Nations-backed Constitution, developing the starved countryside, and attracting foreign investment. While it has recently found nationalism an effective way of ensuring support for the regime, whenever the nationalist flame has spread, the results have shown the potential to lose control.

Geoffrey Cain is a Phnom Penh-based author for Global Voices Online, a media project at Harvard Law School.