From weed parlours to citizenship, the unexpected fallout from a jungle border bust-up

Singapore: A border skirmish in a remote South-East Asian jungle has spilled into the back streets and upper echelons of Thai and Cambodian society, threatening cannabis parlours, casinos, the ominously named “Godfather of Poipet”, and even a political dynasty.

And this improbable-seeming chain reaction of patriotism, intrigue and self-interest is not spent yet.

Cambodian Senate president Hun Sen (centre) and Prime Minister Hun Manet, his son, in January. Credit: AP

Cambodian strongman and former prime minister Hun Sen, not one to let a crisis go to waste, appears to be using the border tensions with Thailand to further entrench the power of his long-ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

On Monday, his son, Hun Manet, the current prime minister, announced the government would activate a dormant law requiring men aged 18 to 30 to serve a stint in the military. He also flagged an increase in defence spending, not only on human resources, but “equipment modernisation”.

Cambodia is one of the poorest nations in the world. Luckily, it can count China as its No.1 ticket holder.

The CPP is framing the military build-up as prudence in the face of aggression from a more powerful neighbour. And while this may be a good pitch to patriotic citizens, the policies are also beneficial to the Hun family and the CPP, which, despite their grip on Cambodia, figure it can always be tighter.

“The armed forces are certainly not an independent, neutral body,” says Gordon Conochie, an author on Cambodian democracy and an analyst at La Trobe University.

“They are used as a way of bringing people into the controlling sphere of the CPP through jobs and financial inducements. That’s why you’ve got more than 3000 generals. It’s a way of the CPP rewarding loyalty and rewarding people who do a service for them.”

The defence pronouncements come days after Cambodia’s CPP-stacked national assembly approved a draft constitutional amendment allowing the authoritarian government to strip citizenship from people it considers “treacherous”. There are fears that by treacherous, the government means critics and prominent opposition figures, many of whom live in exile in Thailand.

“I think that if there is no Cambodian-Thai border event, it is not necessary to do this,” Hun Sen said in a speech on Monday afternoon.

Cambodia’s quarrel with its neighbour relates to the ownership of a handful of sites along their border. This is a multi-generational feud with violent precedents. It again moved from background angst to open crisis following a shootout on May 28 between opposing troops stationed in a remote and mountainous border area known as the Emerald Triangle. Cambodian soldier Suon Roun was killed.

Cambodia has requested that the International Court of Justice rule on the true sovereignty of the Emerald Triangle and several ancient temples elsewhere. Thailand, being the more powerful partner, wants to sort it out bilaterally.

The dispute has played well for Hun Sen, who has presented himself as the defender of Cambodian sovereignty, even at 72 and officially now just the president of the Senate and the CPP.

For Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, of the Pheu Thai Party, however, the affair may cost her her job and end her family’s decades-long place at, or near, the top of Thai politics.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra (second left) speaks to the media following her suspension from office.Credit: Bloomberg

Hun Sen, an old family friend of Paetongtarn’s father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, is responsible for this, too. On June 15, after playing golf and taking a nap, he spoke on the phone with Paetongtarn to discuss ways through the border dramas. He recorded the conversation, which soon leaked into the media.

Thais were unimpressed to hear their prime minister criticising a senior Thai military man in what was viewed as a servile phone call with Hun Sen.

Only Hun Sen knows why he leaked the call. But Cambodia is heading towards US tariff-induced economic turmoil. Whipping up nationalism and looking strong is a trusted distraction; a reminder of who is the boss. If the Shinawatras were caught in the crossfire, so be it.

Outraged at Paetongtarn’s comments in the call, Thailand’s Bhumjaithai party abandoned the governing coalition, leaving it with a razor-thin margin and serious doubts that it could pass controversial legislation.

One such contentious bill was to allow casinos in large entertainment complexes. Accordingly, the government withdrew it last week and didn’t know when, or if, it would be revived.

On the other hand, with pro-cannabis Bhumjaithai gone from the coalition, the government felt it could move to recriminalise the sale of marijuana for recreational purposes.

Some of the country’s 17,000 licensed parlours that have opened since decriminalisation in 2022 are believed to have already closed. The rest, along with farmers, are scrambling to work out how they will keep their businesses alive.

As for Paetongtarn, she was suspended by the Constitutional Court on July 1 while it considers a petition from a group of senators alleging that the Hun Sen call undermined the national interest.

Further dimming Paetongtarn’s prospects of being reinstated, Thailand’s anti-graft body announced on Monday it was also going to investigate the call.

Before her suspension, while seeking to rebuild her political capital, Paetongtarn went on the attack, accusing Cambodia of harbouring criminal scam networks. Though Hun Sen and media cronies angrily protested and flipped the accusation back on Thailand, experts agree Cambodia is up to its eyeballs in Asian mafia.

“Endemic corruption, reliable protection by the government and co-perpetration by party elites are the primary enablers of Cambodia’s trafficking-cybercrime nexus,” Harvard University visiting fellow Jacob Sims alleged in a recent report.

Thailand’s Criminal Court last week issued an arrest warrant for Kok An, a Cambodian senator and Hun Sen associate, on suspicion of supporting scam compounds at his casino holdings in the Cambodian border town of Poipet. Police raided 19 properties in Thailand alleged to have connections with the man dubbed the “Godfather of Poipet”.

At Ta Muen Thom temple on Tuesday, one of the border sites in dispute between the two countries, dozens of Thai and Cambodian soldiers argued. Such confrontations are happening almost daily. One overstep from either side could tip the nations into serious armed conflict.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen is making hay.

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