In Thailand, the military stand to gain the most from this conflict. The anti-Cambodian jingoism and chauvinism being whipped up by right-wingers, paints the military as the saviours of the nation. One phrase from the national anthem which is repeated over and over again is “Thailand loves peace, but is not cowardly in battle”.

The pro-military mood is in stark contrast to the anti-military feeling a couple of years ago. In 2020 Generalissimo Prayut’s military government faced mass pro-democracy demonstrations led by young people. Eventually the movement was repressed with many young leaders being imprisoned under the lèse-majesté law. Many people associated the military’s control of political power with the monarchy, although King Wachiralongkorn is weak and does not control the military. The opposite is true. The military use the King to help legitimise their power. They also use war.

In the 2023 elections, held under rules designed by the military, the two military-run parties only managed to scrape together 76 seats in the 500-seat house of representatives. The neo-liberal Move Forward Party (now renamed Peoples’ Party) came top of the poll with 151 seats. Together with Taksin Shinawat’s Pua Thai Party, they controlled 292 seats. But Move Forward Party had no hope of forming a government for two major reasons. Firstly, the military used their appointed senate and their appointed Constitutional Court to destroy the party. Secondly, Taksin did a grubby deal with the military in order to be able to return to Thailand without having to face prison. His Pua Thai party became an agent of the military and was able to form a government with all the reactionary and military parties, excluding the Move Forward / Peoples’ Party. Eventually, Taksin’s daughter, Paetongtarn, became Prime Minister.

Taksin and Cambodia’s authoritarian elder leader Hun Sen used to be close buddies, but the friendship ended recently. Hun Sen still has immense political influence, despite handing over the office of Prime Minister to his son, Hun Manet.

In June, the Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn had a phone conversation with Hun Sen in order to try to smooth out border problems. She referred to Hun Sen as “uncle”, which is a common way to address a friend of your father. She also complained to him that the Thai army commander was too gung-ho over the border disputes. This conversation was leaked to the press by Hun Sen and led to a political crisis in Thailand. Paetongtarn was accused by the military and conservatives of “betraying her country”, while trying to defuse the border conflict. It is noticeable how the Thai military have been in charge of border policy instead of leaving decisions to the “elected civilian” government. The end result was that the military-backed Senate and the military-appointed Constitutional Court removed Paetongtarn from office.

No doubt, Hun Sen had political reasons for putting the cat among the pigeons and he is certainly trying to raise support for himself and the Cambodian government by creating a chauvinistic mood inside Cambodia. The Cambodian military’s organising of civilians to sing the National Anthem at a disputed temple site on the border was part of this. Ever since the United Nations so-called “solution” to the civil war in Cambodia in 1991, he has used various repressive measures to avoid sharing power with any opposition parties or politicians.

Taksin was angered by what he called Hun Sen’s “betrayal” of their friendship. He has called for the Thai military to “teach Hun Sen a lesson”. In choosing between Hun Sen and the Thai military who prop up the government and allow Taksin to enjoy freedom, Taksin chose the latter.

In any war there are always claims from each side that the other side started the shooting. In reality such claims are irrelevant and only serve to blind people from the real underlying reasons for the conflict between the warring ruling classes. This conflict is pathetically idiotic because it is supposed to be about a few metres of undefined land on the borders. But in reality it is about the serious interests of the two ruling classes in holding on to power over their citizens.

In the case of the Thai military, they benefit from the conflict because it puts them in a good light as national saviours and sweeps all opposition figures along in a mood of chauvinism. Many so-called radical figures and trade union groups in Thailand have fallen for this nationalistic propaganda. Across the border, Hun Sen and his allies are also using the conflict to shore up their support. The casualties of the fighting are just seen as expendable collateral damage.

Giles Ji Ungpakorn

For further reading about the Cambodian regime, see: