BANGKOK, THAILAND: In the border dispute with Cambodia, thousands of Thais have turned against their own prime minister. They rallied in the capital, Bangkok, on Saturday (Jun 28), demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
She had angered many by appearing too eager to please former Cambodian strongman Hun Sen in a leaked phone call in which she criticised a Thai army commander.
Criticising the army is crossing a red line in Thailand.
Although the prime minister apologised after the Jun 15 call was leaked, it did not stop protesters from braving heavy rain to demand her ouster. “Ung Ing, get out,” they chanted, using her nickname.
A group of senators also petitioned the Constitutional Court and the national anti-graft commission to investigate her conduct over the leaked phone call.
Her ruling coalition partner, the Bhumjaithai Party, broke away from the alliance following the leak. Weighed down by a sluggish economy, she faces a potential no-confidence vote next month.
Adding salt to the wound, even Hun Sen condemned her remarks, saying her criticism of the general amounted to an insult to the Thai king, since the monarch appoints generals.
It may seem odd that Hun Sen—whose son Hun Manet is now Cambodia’s prime minister—would speak of respecting the Thai king amid tensions between the two countries.
However, the wily 72-year-old former leader was playing to deep divisions in Thai politics.
Paetongtarn, the 38-year-old daughter of billionaire and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, leads a fragile coalition government opposed by royalists and nationalists.
Hun Sen and his family, on the other hand, had long been friends of the Shinawatras.
Roots of hostility
The current hostility stems from a territorial dispute that flared up in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a brief exchange of gunfire. Since then, both sides have reinforced their borders, closed crossings, and halted the movement of goods and people.
Paetongtarn spoke about the need to block exports that could be used by criminal gangs running scam operations in Cambodia.
An April United Nations report named Cambodia as a hub for scam operations in which workers go online to lure victims through false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches, and illegal gambling schemes.
In the heated climate, Hun Sen lashed out at the Shinawatras in an hours-long televised speech on Friday (Jun 27), calling for a change of government in Thailand.
He accused Paetongtarn of looking down on him and his son.
Hun Sen denounced Thaksin, who faces a court case over a hospital stay that spared him prison time, accusing the former leader of faking illness.
“Thaksin was not sick,” he said. “He pretended to be sick.”
Paetongtarn has since expressed a sense of betrayal. “I won’t be talking privately with him [Hun Sen] anymore because there is a trust problem,” she said.
She had trusted him during their phone call, addressing him as “uncle,” saying she was under domestic pressure, and urging him not to listen to “the opposite side”—a reference to a prominent Thai general at the border.
“He just wants to look cool and say things that are not useful to the nation,” she told Hun Sen through a translator, referring to the general. “But in truth, what we want is peace.”
Those words came back to haunt her. Hun Sen later claimed the audio clip could have been leaked by any of the 80 people with whom he had shared it.
The dispute dates back to colonial-era maps drawn by France, which once ruled Cambodia. Both countries claim overlapping areas along their 817-kilometre border.
A Cambodian soldier was killed on May 28 in a firefight near the disputed Emerald Triangle, close to the ancient Preah Vihear temple.
There had been clashes in the same area before—in 2008 and 2011. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in favour of Cambodia regarding the temple and its immediate surroundings, but Thailand disputes the ruling.
While it says it is open to negotiations, Thailand opposes having the matter settled by the ICJ.
“We’re doing everything we can to try to convince Cambodia to come to bilateral talks,” a Thai foreign ministry spokesman said.
