The Nation
Editorial
Problems in Parliament hindering bilateral talks and peace on border
The Thai-Cambodian problem, it seems, will hound the Abhisit government until the prime minister dissolves the House of Representatives and beyond. The domestic political hiccups that have prevented the Thai Parliament from approving minutes of a meeting of the Joint Boundary Commission are casting fresh uncertainties on bilateral efforts – or lack thereof – to solve a long-standing border conflict that recently erupted into fierce exchanges of shelling. Thai politicians, however, can hardly blame the Cambodians for these latest developments.
Whether or not the Thai government can go ahead with the planned next JBC meeting with Cambodia in Jakarta next week, following repeated failures to get parliamentary approval of the minutes of the earlier meeting, has become an issue of blown-up importance. The Constitution Court has virtually played down the significance of parliamentary approval, which, moreover, was never the case in the past. But nothing seems able to remove the big curse cast upon this bilateral feud and efforts to end it.
Even if next week’s JBC meeting can take place as planned, only extreme optimists can see light at the end of the tunnel. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is expected to dissolve the lower House and call a snap election within the first week of May, meaning that whatever is agreed, tentatively or not, at the Jakarta meeting could be made vulnerable by Thailand’s domestic political unpredictability during the election campaign and after the poll. The election timing will also complicate another major bilateral meeting on the border issue at the end of May.
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