Premier opts for forgiveness

Hun Sen escalates tensions with barbs

- MONGKOL BANGPRAPA

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has responded with a message of forgiveness following provocative remarks made by Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen during a livestream amid recent tensions between the two nations.

Neither Ms Paetongtarn nor her father, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has issued a formal rebuttal to Hun Sen’s comments. Rather than addressing the content of Hun Sen’s remarks directly, Ms Paetongtarn took to Instagram to share a reflective teaching from the late Mae Chee Sansanee Sthirasuta, a revered Thai Buddhist nun.

"Forgive. If you have the opportunity to do so... then please do. Whether they are aware of your forgiveness or not, the lightness, clarity, and ease already arise within your own heart," she wrote.

The message, shared at the same time Hun Sen was broadcasting live, was widely interpreted as a calm response, reinforcing a message of peace amid rising rhetoric.

In his livestream, Hun Sen alleged that Thaksin was not genuinely ill during his visit to Cambodia in February 2024, and that the former premier had worn medical devices merely for the sake of photographs.