The government has defended its renewed campaign against Cambodia's listing of the Preah Vihear temple, saying it could talk Phnom Penh into understanding Thailand's stance.
Thailand's decision to maintain its objection to the unilateral listing of the Khmer ruins as a World Heritage site has upset Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who said he deeply regretted Thailand's position.
Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh yesterday took the Thai government to task for raising the matter which he said was likely to mar bilateral attempts to resolve border disputes.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday said the government has "ways" to communicate with Cambodia to avert border tension and he believed that Hun Sen would understand.
"The cabinet has widely discussed the matter because we do not want any conflict. Still, we have to defend what we believe to be our legitimate rights," Mr Abhisit said.
"If he knows our intention, there is nothing for him to regret," he said of Hun Sen's comment.
Mr Abhisit said Thailand felt the need to renew the objection because the proceedings undertaken by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) to manage the site were deemed to threaten Thailand's approach to mitigate border disputes.
"We understand that the World Heritage Committee mission is to preserve heritage sites so people have a chance to appreciate them, and that involves peace. Its objectives will not be met if its proceedings will lead to conflicts," the prime minister said.
If you look at Abhisit's record so far, he has been a complete failure at every level.
He used Preah Vihear to bring down Samak, and now he is using Preah Vihear to distract from his multiple failures as prime minister.
Cynical politics at its worse.
1 comment:
don't forget other handy distractions: baby Panda & boy Keigo ;)
BTW yesterday on Thai PBS they were showing some other gilr who is searching for foreigner father - this time not Japanese but German. this is as I expected: that more an more cases will surface of kids searching for foreign fathers.
makes me wonder though: why not make such a big publicity for those kids whose Thai father left them. is that because of shortage of such cases, or is that because NOBODY will bother to search for Thai father (unless he is some "hi-so" and rich) ? or is that because it will be not good for image of country first of all in the eyes of its own people - while such a huge propaganda going on for "unity and reconciliation" ?
or may be all together all these factors?
surely this "search for father" (especially and ONLY foreigner) will continue. because if you have allowed 1 case to be so much advertised - you can't say "No" to many more others, well at least not so easy to say "no" to them.
and hey, it gives a wonderful opportunity for Thai MSM to keep busy and ... disctract public attention from other more important issues.
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