Why the border conflict still festers

Duelling civilisations going back 1,000 years and a poorly drawn colonial map are to blame, says scholar, writes Dave Kendall

- Dave Kendall

The border between Thailand and Cambodia is more than just a frontier. It is the product of ancient civilisations, colonial ambitions, and a century-old map that continues to stir anger and pride.

"It goes back - you can say a thousand years. You can say a hundred years," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, on the Bangkok Post's "Deeper Dive" video podcast.

"For the Cambodians, Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, you will see a magnificent stone temple complex. One of the wonders of the world," he said.

"And this complex, a thousand years ago, extended in all directions. It was a centre of mainland Southeast Asia civilisation, and these are the ancestors of the Cambodians," Mr Thitinan said.

"The Khmer 1,000 years ago could make all these temples that extended to Laos, to Thailand, to Vietnam today, from stones. Now, the Cambodians deep down would feel that this is their hearts and their ancestry."

Thailand tells its own story of greatness.

"For the Thais, you know, over the centuries after the decline of the Khmer civilisation, the Angkor Wat era, came the rise of Ayutthaya in the 14th century, and it flourished in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. At its height, it was the main, principal, dominant power in mainland Southeast Asia," Mr Thitinan said.

"So it kind of supplanted and replaced and dominated not just the Khmer civilisation, but also Laos and, you know, even parts of Burma at one point, parts of southern China at one point.

"Big civilisation, big empire. So for the Thais, they feel that this is their heritage, this is their ancestry, the Ayutthaya period.

"It was the glory days of the Siamese kingdom. And, deep down, for the Thais, there is a lot of pride in this. There's a lot of legacy, a lot of indelible marks of memory."

COLONIAL DISRUPTION

After centuries of shifting empires, the colonial powers arrived.