Khmerness and the Thai 'other': Violence, discourse and symbolism in the 2003 anti-Thai riots in Cambodia

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 37, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 445-468

  Hinton, Alexander ^a  

^a RUTGERS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

POLITICAL DISCOURSE; POLITICAL VIOLENCE; POPULAR PROTEST; SYMBOLISM;

ASIA; CAMBODIA; EURASIA; PHNOM PENH; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 33748454721     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463406000737     Document Type: Article

References (91)

1. Quoted in Rachel S. Taylor, 'Cambodia/Thailand: Reacting to rumors', World Press Review, 50, 4 (April 2003) (http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/ 1010.cfm, accessed 19 June 2004).
2. Interview with Vannak, 11 Nov. 2005. All quotations from Vannak are from this interview. Interviews with Cambodian informants were carried out in a mixture of two languages; their comments in English have been quoted verbatim with no editing for grammar or style.
3. Quotations are from ADHOC (Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association), 'Monitoring report on the riots against the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh from 29-31 January 2003', 3 Feb. 2003 http://www.bigpond.com.kh/users/adhoc/riot_29_01_03/ monitoring_riot_report.htm).
4. See also 'The momentum against Morning Star reaches a high point', Rasmei Kampuchea, 29 Jan. 2003.
5. See http://www.nationmultimedia.com/board/thaiso/ view.php3?id=28&offset=0.
6. Valerie Raleigh Yew, Recording oral history: A guide for the humanities and social sciences, 2nd edn (Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira, 2005) discusses interviews.
7. On the rioters see US Department of State, 'Report to Congress on the anti-Thai riots in Cambodia on January 29, 2003', Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 14 May 2003 (http://www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rpt/ 20565pf.htm).
8. The issue of online identity is discussed in Christine Hine, Virtual ethnography (London: Sage, 2000)
9. And Samuel M. Wilson and Leighton C. Peterson, 'The anthropology of online communities', Annual Review of Anthropology, 31 (2002): 449-67. Many young students in Cambodia find themselves in a difficult structural position since, despite their education, they face difficulties in procuring lucrative jobs. One difference between the cyber-discussion and the riots themselves (at least as overtly observed), was the greater participation of women in the cyber-dialogue.
10. Prime Minister Hun Sen, 27 Jan. 2003, quoted in ADHOC, 'Monitoring report'.
11. 'Miss Morning Star denies that she ever spoke down to Cambodians but instead is happy with and apologizes to the Cambodian people', Rasmei Kampuchea, 30 Jan. 2003;
12. 'Step by step: The road to a riot', Phnom Penh Post (henceforth PPP), 31 Jan. 2003.
13. 'Cambodia apologizes for riot', 30 Jan. 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/ WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/02/30/thai.cambodia.
14. ADHOC, 'Monitoring report'.
15. See http://www.nationalmultimedia.com/specials/Cambodia_riot/index1.php.
16. 'How close we came to war', The Nation, 1 Feb. 2004. (http://www.nationalmultimedia.com/specials/Cambodia_riot/RD_war.php, accessed 28 June 2004).
17. Numbers correspond to the list of postings on the Webboard; postings are quoted verbatim.
18. 'All quiet on the western front: The anti-Thai riots - seven months on', PPP, 29 Aug. 2003.
19. The 'all measures possible' quotation is from 'Border politics: Cambodia shuts its border with Thailand, protesting against unequal ties', Straits Times, 7 Mar. 2003; the 'dignity' remark is in 'Hun Sen lashes out at Bangkok: "Superiority complex" behind border closures', Bangkok Post (henceforth BP), 7 Mar. 2003. Both articles were accessed via camnewsγambodia.org.
20. 'PM softens Cambodia rhetoric', The Nation, 11 Mar. 2003. (http://www.nationalmultimedia.com/specials/Cambodia_riot/ NR_rhetoric.php, accessed 27 June 2004).
21. 'Whodunnit and why? The Post scores the theories', PPP, 14 Feb. 2003; for diplomats' views see 'Mobs go berserk in anti-Thai frenzy: Thai Embassy torched; businesses gutted', PPP, 30 Jan. 2003 and 'PM Hun Sen hints at more "removals"', PPP, 14 Feb. 2003.
22. US Dept. of State, 'Report to Congress'.
23. 'All quiet on the western front'.
24. SRP [Sam Rainsy Party] Members of Parliament, 'Fabricated evidence against Sam Rainsy', 3 Feb. 2003 (http://www.2bangkok.com/burnings.html, accessed 17 June 2004)
25. See also 'Opposition unhappy with registration at half-way mark', PPP, 31 Jan. 2003
26. Sam Rainsy's flight is mentioned in 'Mobs go berserk'.
27. The rally is mentioned in 'Elections: Hok Lundy reads the riot act', PPP, 28 Feb. 2003
28. the quotations are from US Dept. of State, 'Report to Congress'
29. See also www.sbk.com.kh.
30. The quotation is from 'Elections: Hok Lundy'
31. See also 'Demonstrations spread through capital: Old enemies of Hun Sen pulling strings', PPP, 12 Sept. 1998
32. And 'Corpses in saffron? Death toll climbs to 19', PPP, 18 Sept. 1998 (http://kyotoreview.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/issue/issue2/article_242_p.html, accessed 11 July 2004).
33. See David Roberts, 'Democratization, elite transition, and violence in Cambodia 1991-99', Critical Asian Studies, 34, 4 (2002): 520-38.
34. David P. Chandler, A history of Cambodia (Boulder: Westview, 1983), ch. 5
35. and Anthony Barnett, 'Cambodia will never disappear', New Left Review, 180 (1990): 101-25.
36. Chandler, History of Cambodia
37. and David Chandler, 'The tragedy of Cambodian history' and 'The tragedy of Cambodian history revisited', in Facing the Cambodian past: Selected essays, 1971-1994 (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 2000), pp. 297-309 and 310-25 respectively.
38. Chandler, History of Cambodia, p. 300
39. see also Barnett, 'Cambodia will never disappear'.
40. Ibid.
41. and Panivong Norindr, Phantasmatic Indochina: French colonial ideology in architecture, film, and literature (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996).
42. Penny Edwards, 'Imaging the Other in Cambodian nationalist discourse before and during the UNTAC period', in Propaganda, politics, and violence in Cambodia, ed. Steve Heder and Judy Legerwood (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), p. 54.
43. Ibid.
44. Barnett, 'Cambodia will never disappear'
45. Chandler, 'Tragedy' and 'Tragedy ... revisited'.
46. Edwards 'Imaging the Other', p. 68 (germs)
47. on the Khmer Rouge see Alexander Hinton, Why did they kill? Cambodia in the shadow of genocide (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).
48. This perspective was spelled out in more detail in an online essay by Khemara Jati in which Vietnam is depicted as the central mover in the riots, manipulating its proxy Hun Sen at will: 'We have just learned that there is serious negotiations in this moment for an American base installation in Thailand in order to fight against terrorism. It is very clear then. The destruction of the Thai embassy on January 29 is a warning of Hanoi against a possible agreement between Bangkok and Washington of the US base installation to fight against terrorism. Then the Chea Sophara dismissal covers another character. Besides moving the Vietnamese districts away of Phnom Penh, Sophara sold a significant piece of land by its dimensions and its site for the US embassy installation in Phnom Penh. For Hanoi it is just unacceptable.... Thus, by the destruction of the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh on January 29, 2003, the Vietnamese communists send serious signals to Bangkok and to Washington, saying that they are against the nearest installation of this US base, in Thailand, to fight against terrorism.... Pretending to ignore of these facts is to condemn itself to bury one's head in the sand: To close the eyes to try to escape to the enemy, the reality of facts. The Vietnamese communists domination on our Motherland is so obvious that Hanoi does not find anybody any more to defend its positions.' See Khemara Jati, 'Back to the destruction of the Thai Embassy on January 29, 2003', published on camnewsγambodia.org, 18 June 2003 (quotation reproduced verbatim).
49. David Chandler, History of Cambodia, 3rd edn (Boulder: Westview, 2000), pp. 166, 174.
50. Ibid., p. 85
51. on the legend see Ang Chouléan, 'Nandin, vehicle and god', in Sculpture of Angkor and ancient Cambodia: Millennium of glory, ed. Helen Ibbitson Jessup and Thierry Zephir (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1997), pp. 62-9.
52. Interview, 9 Jan. 2006.
53. Ang Chouléan, 'Nandin', p. 67.
54. On the ICJ case see David Chandler, The tragedy of Cambodian history: Politics, war and revolution since 1945 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), p. 98
55. 'World Court backs Cambodia; Thailand told to quit temple', New York Times (henceforth NYT), 16 June 1962
56. Norodom Sihanouk, War and hope: The case for Cambodia (New York: Pantheon, 1980), p. 55.
57. The court's ruling is at http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/idecisions/ isummaries/ictsummary620615.htm. The Bangkok protests are covered in '10,000 Thais in riot', 'Thailand closes Cambodian border' and 'Thais to resume Cambodian ties', NYT, 8 Sept. 1958, 26 Nov. 1958 and 7 Feb. 1959 respectively. A scholarly study of the Preah Vihear issue is Peter Cuasay, 'Borders on the fantastic: Mimesis, violence, and landscape at the temple of Preah Vihear', Modern Asian Studies, 32, 4 (1998): 849-90.
58. Quotation from 'Thailand yields sovereignty over temple to Cambodia', NYT, 16 July 1962
59. see also 'Thai vows to fight to retain temple', NYT, 17 June 1962
60. and Charles F. Keyes, 'The case of the purloined lintel: The politics of a Khmer shrine as a Thai national treasure', in National identity and its defenders: Thailand, 1939-1989, ed. Craig R. Reynolds (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 1991), pp. 261-91.
61. The sensitivity of this issue is illustrated by a more recent letter to the Bangkok Post written by Cambodia's ambassador to Thailand, which complained about an article implying that Preah Vihear is located in Thailand (Ung Sean, 'Preah Vihear is Cambodian', BP, 17 Sept. 2004, posted on camnews. cambodia.org).
62. Likewise, a recent coffee-table book on 'Khmer art and architecture in Thailand' includes a substantial entry on Preah Vihear: Smitthi Siribhandra and Elisabeth Moore, Palaces of the gods: Khmer art and architecture in Thailand (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992). On such 'politics of ruins', see Maurizio Peleggi, The politics of ruins and the business of nostalgia (Bangkok: White Lotus, 2002).
63. 'Peaceful overture held in Cambodia at disputed shrine; reconciliation invited', NYT, 8 Jan. 1963.
64. 'Preah Vihear: The jewel in the crown', PPP, 10 Apr. 1998.
65. 'Preah Vihear dispute claims new victim', PPP, 20 July 2001.
66. Jody McPhilips and Phann Ana, 'Cultural frontiers: Cambodia determined to find own route to development in Preah Vihear', 30-31 Mar. 2002, (http://www.camnet.com.kh/Cambodia.daily/selected_features/temple.htm, accessed 4 June 2004)
67. 'Border deadline passes', PPP, 4 Jan. 4 2002.
68. On a similar dispute that broke out in May 2005, see 'Troops will remain at border' and 'Phnom Penh closes Khao Phra Viharn ruins: Gate ordered shut pending negotiations', BP, 15 and 20 May 2005 respectively (articles posted on camnewsγambodia.org).
69. Interviews, Jan. 2006.
70. Unless otherwise noted, the following incidents are reported on the following Website: http://www.geocities.com/khmerchronology/2002. 'Border deadline passes' discusses the January incident. On the violence at the border see 'Thai border guards set "mine trap" for Cambodians', PPP, 8 Nov. 2002.
71. 'Thais deport 30,000 Cambodians while others continue to arrive', and 'Cambodia says Thai troops killed 300 refugees forced over border', NYT, 12 and 23 June 1979 respectively
72. William Shawcross, The quality of mercy: Cambodia, holocaust and modern conscience (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), p. 88.
73. Lindsay French, 'Hierarchies of value at Angkor Wat', Ethnos, 64, 2 (1999): 170-91
74. And French, 'From politics to economics at the Thai-Cambodian border: Plus ça change...', International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 15, 3 (2002): 427-70.
75. Thongchai Winichakul, Siam mapped: A history of the geo-body of a nation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994)
76. Peleggi, Politics of ruins discusses the role that ruins have played in the formation of modern Thai nationalist identity.
77. Puangthong Rungswasdisab, Thailand's response to the Cambodian genocide (New Haven: Yale Genocide Studies Working Paper, 1999)
78. on Thai reconstructions of Angkorean history see Bora Touch, 'A Khmer view of the Thai view of the Khmer', PPP, 17 Sept. 1999
79. Charnvit Kasetsiri, 'Thailand-Cambodia: A love-hate relationship', Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, 3 (2003), (http://kyotoreview.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/issue/issue2/article_242_p.html, accessed 11 July, 2004)
80. and Keyes, 'Case of the purloined lintel'.
81. See also 'Journalism curbing racial hatred: Cambodian media calls for more caution in news coverage', BP, 15 June 2005 (posted on camnewsγambodia.org, accessed 22 Feb. 2006).
82. Barnett, 'Cambodia will never disappear'
83. Chandler, Facing the past
84. Edwards, 'Imaging the Other'.
85. Suvanan's character is discussed in Thanong Khanthong, 'OVERDRIVE: Suvanan is a soap-opera Helen of Troy', The Nation, 31 July 2003 (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/specials/Cambodia_riot/ED_helen.php, accessed 20 June 2004)
86. and 'Editorial: Lessons on the power of a Thai Julia Roberts', The Nation, 1 Feb. 2003 (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/specials/ Cambodia_riot/ED_julia.php, accessed 20 June 2004).
87. On the ideal Cambodian woman see Judy Ledgerwood, 'Politics and gender: Negotiating conceptions of the ideal woman in present day Cambodia', Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 37, 2 (1996): 139-52.
88. Interestingly, a couple of years earlier a Thai pop star, Nicole Theriault, was the centre of another controversy for having allegedly having described Laos 'as a 'dirty' nation and not worth visiting' ('Pop star hits the wrong note', Asiaweek, 28 Apr. 2006, http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/2000/0428/as.people.html, accessed 9 July 2004). This earlier incident may have contributed to a willingness to believe that Thai stars like Suvanan were really arrogant fakes. The 'Nicole' controversy was mentioned by Norak (#85), a Thai commentator on the webboard who stated that rumours about Suvanan (whom he refers to by her Thai nickname, 'Kob') had been in circulation well before the Rasmei Angkor story broke: 'I also hear stories about Kob making inappropriate remarks with regards to Cambodia two other times before-one where she said she doesn't like Cambodian kids and the other is that she doesn't want to ever be born a Cambodian. I don't know whether these stories are true but the people who told me said they have proofs. And until I see the proofs, I won't believe these either.'
89. 'Mobs go berserk'.
90. See also Alexander Hinton, 'A head for an eye: Revenge in the Cambodian genocide', American Ethnologist, 25, 3 (1998): 52-77.
91. See the article by Penny Edwards in this issue.