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Sentiments of the Cambodian people in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap
Many people in Phnom Penh still hate Suwanan

By: Bhanravee Tansubhapol

Sours Vichet, a student at Bak Touk High school, displayed no fear as he walked around Phnom Penh. In his hand, he carried a notebook with a picture of Suwanan Kongying, a famous Thai actress, on its cover. Cambodians also know this Thai actress as Prakray Pruak.

“I’ve used this notebook for my special English course for quite a while now,’’ said Vichet, 22, “To me, it’s just a picture’’, he replied to my question with a shy smile.

On the night of January 29, 2003, the Thai embassy and some Thai business properties were ransacked and razed by a group of angry rioters. The plain motive behind the burning was the rumor that Thai actress Suwanan had made an inflammatory comment about Cambodia’s famous Angkor Wat. She allegedly said that the world-famous temple belonged to Thailand. The actress held a press conference later to deny such a statement. She said that if she had, it must have been uttered as a line in one of her old drama scripts However, the Cambodian newspaper “Rasmei Angkor” that ran the actress’s comment could not find any substantive evidence to support its report.

Now, five months have passed and the governments of both countries have already normalized their relationship. But not all Cambodians share the same idea as Vichet. Many young Cambodians, especially students, still remain sceptical about the actress’s denial.

“Don’t the Thai people like the Cambodian people?’’ “Do the Thai people really believe that the Angkor Wat belongs to Thailand?” These are the questions I was asked by students and young people during my one-month stay in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap last June.

Although the allegation has still not yet been proven, many Cambodians, especially the young, have already established a prejudiced mindset regarding what Suwanan had been quoted as saying. Some students see the incident as politically motivated while others simply dislike the Thais

because they feel the latter have historically hated the Cambodian people.

However, this feeling was different among older Cambodians and business people. They did not feel hatred to the Thais but yet felt things would not be the same after the incident.

“The relationship between Thailand and Cambodia would not be the same as before. But the Cambodian people just don’t want to talk about the incident anymore,’’ said a Cambodian businessman, adding that rumors could be spread like wildfire in Phnom Penh and this incident is one good example.

“Rumor City” is the name that some educated Cambodians call their capital Phnom Penh. It has no guarantee that the country would be safe from rumors in the future.

“Everything can happen here and rumors are part of a very big issue for poor countries’’ said the same businessman. For example, for the last two months, there had been a rumor that eating green beans helps protect people from contacting the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus. This sent the price of green beans up ten times from its normal price in just one day.

Siem Reap is not as critical but also hurt by the incident. Despite the strong reactions in Phnom Penh, in the tourist town of Siem Reap, the anti-Thai sentiment is not as strong as in Phnom Penh.

Most vendors and students here are also angry with the Thai people, especially Suwanan. However, they are more concerned about their daily income than getting angry with the Thai people. They are not anymore interested in the January incident and would often say, “We didn’t know about it.’’

They accepted the incident as a problem between the two governments of Thailand and Cambodia.

“ It’s nonsense,’’ said Cear Mom, a motorcyclist.

But they do voice concern over the claim of Thai tourists towards the Angkor Wat that it belongs to Thailand.

Clothes vendors at the Pas Jas market, the motorcyclists as well as ticket sellers at the entrance of Angkor Wat’s tourist sites have called on Thai tourists to be careful in talking about the temples belonging to Thailand in public as there are many Cambodians who understand and speak Thai well.

“I feel very angry when I hear the people saying that. I often argue with them. I admit I hate some Thai people, but not all. I still like listening to Thai songs,’’ said a ticket seller speaking Thai as she gave me a Thai song tape-cassette to transcribe for her.

Impact of the incident

A Thai embassy staff in Phnom Penh has cautioned that the sentiments of the Cambodian people toward the Thais are not stable. The embassy has to be extra careful.

“ I don’t know when the rumor about Thailand will be spread again,’’ said the Thai staff.

While many are still stunned and doubt the cause of the incident and the magnitude of it, Cambodian authorities have tried to clear these doubts by attributing the incident to some parochial politicians who wished stir up a confrontation between the government and students.

Cambodian Information Deputy Minister Khieu Kanyaridth said some politicians who wish to create a confrontation between the government and students created the incident. This, he added, was caused merely by internal factor rather than true nationalism.

But the Cambodian people are trying to show their nationalism all over in Phnom Penh by placing Cambodian flag stickers on their bicycles, motorcycles, and trucks to show the pride of their nation. Hundreds of shops and stalls in Phnom Penh that sell pictures of Thai actors and actresses do not sell Suwanan’s picture anymore.

Rasmei Kampuchea Daily Editor Pen Samitthy agreed with Mr Khieu, saying that some politicians had tried to take advantage of the public’s sentiments for their benefit in the upcoming election. But he did not believe Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the action.

‘’Prime Minister Hun Sen doesn’t need the anti-Thai sentiments for promoting his credibility anymore because he has holds the biggest power now,’’ said Mr Samitthy, who is also the president of Cambodia Journalist Association, adding that the January experience was a big lesson learned by the Cambodian people.

“Many people I talked to feel ashamed to what the students had done. I hope this [the anti-Thai riot] is a wake-up call for everybody and this incident will not happen again,’’ said Mr Khieu.

After the Cambodian government paid US$250 million to the Thai government for compensation in March, the two nations have agreed to establish a joint cultural committee to help prevent such incidents to recur in the future.

Aiming at resolving the problem and launching a forum for joint reflection on historical and cultural education, notably about school textbooks, the joint cultural committee will meet every three months and a general meeting every six months, said Sorn Samnang, president of the Royal Academy of Cambodia.

“I don’t want to talk about the past. I think we should talk frankly and have open-minded discussions to resolve all misunderstandings about history and culture,’’ said Mr Sorn Samnag, who also heads a commission for joint cultural research with Thailand.

The riots, however, have caused tremendous adverse affects to the Cambodian economy. The tourism industry bore the biggest brunt of the incident as it saw the number of tourists in Siem Reap dwindle significantly. Hotel rooms booking are almost zero and Thai-speaking tour guides are forced to learn other languages in order to serve tourists from other countries. Thai-language classes, which used to be very popular among the young Cambodians, have also seen the number of their students going down as people fear of being attacked by the radical anti-Thai fanatics.

Siem Reap Deputy Governor Suy San said the number of foreign tourists, including Thais, have steadily dropped from March to May this year – 27 percent, 42 percent, and 68 percent respectively – when compared to the same period last year.

Thai tourists are rarely seen in Siem Reap these days partly because they are concerned about their safety, while the SARS outbreak has also added misery to the shrinking tourist influx in the province.

But Cambodian and Thai staff at the hotels admitted that if there is no SARS outbreak, at least Thai tourists would have have been flocking to Siem Reap at this time: hotel bookings would be up to 40 percent. However, at present, it is less than 10 percent.

At least six hotels in the province have been temporary closed because there have no bookings and many people who work in the tourism industry, including those selling the tickets at the historic sites and travel agent staff, have seen their incomes set back drastically. Some were asked to leave their jobs without pay or to work only half a month to save cost. The situation is even bleaker in Battambang, a province next to Siem Reap.

The impact of the Suwanan incident has also changed the opinion of a Thai-speaking Cambodia tourist guide: he is learning to speak English while his other friends have chosen to learn to speak French, German and Japanese.

There are 73 Cambodian guides who can speak the Thai language.

“After the anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh, I was hired to be a Thai tour guide for only three days a month instead of 15 days as it used to be. I got only US$20 per day, not enough for me,’’ said Chhoun Chhai, a tourist guide who learned speaking Thai since 1982 and is now working with Khmer Angkor Tour Guide Association.

As a historic guide of Angkor Wat, Mr Chhai admitted Angkor Wat used to belong to Thailand three times – in the late 13rd-15th century, the 18th century until 1907 and during the World War II from 1941 to1946.

Thai guides should make it clear to the tourists about the rule of Siam in Cambodia, and not only only say Angkor Wat belongs to Thailand. “History is history,’’ accepted the Cambodian guide.

Although the sentiments of the Cambodian people in Siem Reapare not as strong as in Phnom Penh, some 200 strong hotel staff have asked their hotels to set up labor unions to demand job security from Thai employers.

The popular Thai soap operas have also been effected by the incident. In Phnom Penh, at least two TV stations, Channels 3 and 5, do not dare to show Thai dramas anymore because they do not want to go against the tide of anti-Thai sentiments as the film culture and tradition are similar to Cambodia’s.

Most Cambodian students still believe in what they learn from their history books. An official from Channel 5 in Cambodia said they could not separate the past from the present in history.

The decision to broadcast Thai dramas again will be made after the upcoming national election on July 27, said the official, adding that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen still wants his people to support him and does not want people to feel against something they detest.

‘’We have to give the Cambodian people more time,’’ said the same officer.

Fewer Students for Thai Classes

In addition, what has changed after the incident is the decreasing number of Cambodians learning to speak Thai.

Aeill Aeing, a Cambodian teacher who teaches spoken Thai around Baktouk high school, accepted the number of his students has declined by more than half.

“Some didn’t go to study Thai because they fear of being attacked by anti-Thai fanatics. I believe that once the two governments resume their relationship and the border trade improves, bringing more Thai traders and tourists back, the Cambodian people will come back to learn and speak Thai again.’’ said Mr Aeing or Chairat in Thai. He has been teaching how to speak Thai for eight years.

The main reason for the Cambodian people to learn to speak Thai is because they want to work with Thai companies. But there are also others who just learn it for fun. Some learn to sing Thai songs while some just learn it to be able to understand Thai dramas.

Mr. Aeing said he used to ask some Cambodian students about the feeling of anti-Thai. His students said Thailand and Cambodia are neighboring countries> They must be able to understand and must rely on each other.

“If the two countries can’t get along, they can’t stay together,’’ he said.

Mr Aeing is optimistic about the return of Thai-language classes as he believes that many Cambodian people still want to learn the Thai language and the government is not against it.

“If the Cambodian people hate the Thais, they would not learn to speak Thai. And if the Phnom Penh government has the same thinking, it would not allow schools to teach the Thai language,” noted Mr. Aeing.

Business Reactions

As the affected Thai businesses still have not received compensation from the Cambodian government, new Thai investors are reluctant to come to Cambodia.

A Thai businessman working in Phnom Penh for 10 years said doing business in Cambodia is tough after the incident. No one, especially new investors, dares to invest here because the incident that occurred has illustrated there was no protection for foreign businesses in Cambodia.

He conceded that some Cambodian people felt that Thai businessmen were exploiting them.

But another Thai businessman living in Cambodia for nine years said he understood the feeling of some Cambodians who felt that Thai businesses, especially the advertising business, have advanced far more than other countries. They feel as if they have been defeated and taken advantage of by the Thai businessmen.

“But this feeling is reflected only off a small fraction of people who refused to sell goods to the Thais after the riots. Most vendors still welcome the Thais,’’ he said.

However, the incident has not led to a radical ‘ban of Thai products’ movement just yet because people in Phnom Penh still use Thai consumer products because of the better quality and cheaper prices as compared to those from Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and China.

To prevent recurrence of the incident, the Phnom Penh government should provide the students with accurate and unbiased information, especially those related to the history of the two nations. “The Thai government should also provide scholarships to Cambodian students to study in Thailand by which they will understand Thai culture and the Thai way of thinking better,” said a Cambodian lecturer on Thai-Cambodian relation.

Meanwhile, Thai tourists should be more concerned about issues that are sensitive to the Cambodians and must avoid mentioning them while they are in Cambodia. They must not use words that are deemed insulting to the Cambodian people, such as calling Cambodian people “Khmer” instead of “Cambodian People”.

Finally, there are many development assistance projects, such as the construction of schools and irrigation system that Thailand has provided to Cambodia. The two governments should publicize these projects to make the Cambodian public aware that Thailand does not aim to take advantage of the Cambodian people, but rather it tries to help its neighbor in developing its country.

Mr Samitthy, president of Cambodian Journalists Association, reiterated that the anti-Thai sentiments have never been used for an election campaign, unlike the anti-Vietnamese sentiments, and this incident should not be involved in the upcoming election as some observers had noted.

Thailand is closer to Cambodia than Vietnam and they share certain cultures, traditions and language.

While rumor has cost Cambodia a great in the wake of the Suwanan incident, the compensations for Thai businesses are still up in the air. But what is certainly sure is Thai actress, Suwanan, has no more chance to be a rising star in this country for a long time to come.