The EU’s experience from the 1950s to the 2010s reveals how regional integration can help promote peace and prosperity, in spite of domestic disagreement and periodic problems of disintegration (Berend, 2016). The cultural politics of integration often pose considerable challenges to regional integration projects. The troubled Thai-Cambodian relations, which originated from the politics and practices of memory, popular culture, and a lack of expertise at the national level have also impacted the cultural politics of the ASEAN Community.
In retrospect, both Cambodia’s initiative to have Preah Vihear listed as world heritage and the Thai government’s support in 2008 appear as responses to the development of ASEAN. In 2003, the ASEAN Summit in Bali set the goal of achieving the ASEAN Economic Community by 2020. At the time, however, ASEAN did not yet have a legal system that could be enforced against the member states. Only in 2008, a binding legal agreement came into force with the new ASEAN Charter. As a result of the push for further regional integration, the governments of the member states are now bound to take action for developing AEC as planned. One aspect of AEC is realizing fast-track economic integration in eleven priority sectors. Thailand has committed to tourism and air travel as its priority sectors. The Samak government’s support for Cambodia at the World Heritage Committee in 2008 can, therefore, be seen as one of Thailand’s first steps in fulfilling its obligations. The government at that time still observed Thaksin Shinawatra’s approach towards regional development. Thaksin, who was ousted by the military coup of 2006, had planned to expand Thailand’s export market and investment in neighboring countries and to develop the country’s tourism and air travel business through cooperation with Thailand’s neighbors. The Samak government, which supported by groups allied to Thaksin, intended to work with Cambodia in developing the areas surrounding Preah Vihear with Cambodia. However, the revival of the ‘Pra Viharn’ myth in the wake of the 2006 coup blocked this cooperative approach and thus posed a threat to the development of the ASEAN Community.
The World Heritage Convention opens a platform for trans-boundary cooperation in cultural and heritage management as a means of promoting peace. Thailand, however, has never taken advantage of this opportunity even though it is a party to the World Heritage Convention. The stance of the Thai government has resulted in unreasonable demands of Thai representatives at sessions of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) (Pawakapan, 2013; Chachavalpongpun, 2010, 2012). Ignoring the fact that the inscription of a site on the World Heritage List is not at all related to border rights, Thailand’s recent military regimes and Thai conservatives tried to convince the domestic and international public that it was ultimately Preah Vihear’s listing by the WHC that caused the military clashes with Cambodia. The modern myth of ‘Pra Viharn’ that draws on the themes of territory and heritage as two key elements of Thai national identity has thus come to play a central role in Thailand’s domestic politics as well as the country’s external relations in recent years. The escalation in Thai-Cambodian relations from 2008 to 2014 demonstrates the dangers of the heritage myth created by Thailand’s authoritarian regimes. In contrast to the Thai approach, examples of cross-boundary sites in Europe and elsewhere demonstrate that heritage sites and territories can have a meaning beyond an exclusive national association. The promotion of the ‘Pra Viharn’ myth has gone hand in hand with the growth and development of Thailand as an authoritarian state. Therefore, democratization may contribute not only to the growth of the ASEAN Community but also to the liberation of heritage from the exploitation of military regimes and conservatives in the name of narrowly defined nationalism.
Since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, ASEAN’s evolution proceeded in tandem with the demands of globalization and global actors. As a result, ASEAN adopted a charter setting the goal of ASEAN economic community to be achieved by 2015. To many observers, however, ASEAN’s integration process appears to stagnate. This assessment may result in part from insufficient attention to the dialectic relationship between the principle of non-interference and the ‘ASEAN way’, on the one hand, and the prospect of ASEAN Economic Community, on the other. The principle of non-interference does not only regard political and military affairs but also has a significant impact on economic, cultural, educational and environmental cooperation. Therefore, deepening economic integration can be seen as ASEAN’s endeavor to overcome the ‘ASEAN way’ and the principle of noninterference in the economic realm. Furthermore, as is illustrated by the European example, advances in economic integration may later spill over into other areas such as culture, education, environment, and social policies.
In Southeast Asia, the dynamics of the integration process will be complicated by democratic deficits and the stark disparities in economic development within and between the member states, which are even larger than in the European Union. At the same time, advances in economic integration and its spill-over effects hold out the promise of a fairer distribution of wealth, better social protection and opportunities, of democratization, of a higher standard of human rights protection, and last but not least of peaceful and constructive border management. Moving beyond nationalism is never easy. More often than not, nationalistic rhetoric and rituals serve as a cover for the political interests of particular groups. Nor is Southeast Asia an exception to this rule. The regimes in the region have long employed nationalism to mask democratic deficits and economic inequalities by appeals to national unity. Promoting constructive Thai-Cambodian relations may serve as a flagship project for changing politics and practices of memory, popular culture and knowledge that will not only be beneficial for Cambodia and Thailand, but also for ASEAN integration.
Preparation by Cambodia’s Foreign Relations In Regional And Global Contexts
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