Campuccino #93

Sou Sdei and welcome to Campuccino, your bi-monthly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia with a dash of opinion.

To new subscribers, welcome! I’m Darathtey, a communication consultant, writer, and researcher. Learn more about my work here.

Hello there. It’s been a minute. With the border crisis between Cambodia and Thailand dragging on, I didn’t want to flood the space with more information. I also needed the time to digest the crisis and tried my best to make sense of what was going on, which, at times, felt like a lot. Now, I think it’s been long enough and I had sufficient time to process the issue and can speak about it with a bit more clarity and less emotion. Things at the border have also calmed down significantly which allows me to feel a bit more alright to include other stuff in the newsletter with a lower level of guilt. Let’s go.

- Darathtey

Let’s start with the border crisis which at a certain point I called an armed conflict. There was heavy artillery from both sides. There were casualties. People had to evacuate. People lost loved ones and their homes. I was stunned into silence. But whatever was happening at the border was only half of the crisis. The other half happened online, on social media, from both sides. On social media, it felt like a war – a war of disinformation and misinformation. This has fueled extreme nationalism which drives hatred and racism on both ends. From where I stand, nobody was winning. I didn’t understand this conflict. Tried hard as I did, I couldn’t wrap my head around why it started and why it still goes on. This was a question I am posing to the situation, not to any side of the border. One thing I know for certain is that I wanted it to be over. My reaction to this ongoing conflict has felt like seven stages of grief. Since the escalation of the conflict which was towards the end of July, I went through all the seven stages. I think it is only fair that I only write to you now that I have reached a certain level of acceptance.

Before reaching this stage of acceptance, a few questions were swimming around my head: What do both countries have to gain from this? Why do all the information I receive confuse me more than inform me? What are the leaders not telling us? Why is there so much hatred?

There has since been much coverage of the event to help me, and you, to understand and hopefully get some answers to the questions I had above. I will list a few that I’ve read and found useful below. Before I do so, I want to confess that while I was asking the above questions mostly internally, I felt guilty. Or at least the Cambodian social media space makes me feel guilty somehow. I am Cambodian but I am not fuelled by blind rage, extreme nationalism, hatred for my neighbouring countrymen and women. Does that make me any less Cambodian? Does that line of thinking translate to a disservice to my country? I really do not know but one thing I am certain of is that every day I choose to love, and be kind, to everyone. Therefore, it brings me immense sadness to see so many Cambodians, including friends and colleagues who I used to respect and look up to, feed into this overly nationalistic narrative, spreading unverified or unverifiable news, and choose the path of racism and hatred disguised under the cloak of self-defense and nationalism.

While Cambodia and Thailand have ceased fire, the consequences of the conflict remain, and for some, it is just the beginning of the impact. One, Thailand still holds 18 Cambodian soldiers hostage. Two, a huge influx of migrant workers returning from Thailand raises questions of their uncertain future and job security at home. Three, Cambodians’ self-imposed and at times blinding boycott of Thai brands and products put many businesses, especially small ones, in Cambodia at a very difficult juncture. It became so trivial and ridiculous that Cambodian netizens called out local coffee shops for using Meiji milk which was imported from Thailand. It was a whole level of naming and shaming that was so unnecessary. Of course, life goes on, but I fear we look at trying to solve a problem whose shape we are yet to be able to quantify. Let’s hope the domino doesn’t fall too fast.

Resources:

• Nationalist zeal & AI slop fueled the Thai-Cambodia conflict | Kouprey 🔗

• Why Cambodia Is Losing the Information War With Thailand | The Diplomat 🔗

• Peace gives Asean a chance | Dari Mulut ke Mulut 🔗

• On the "Domestic Rivalry Theory" and the "International Family Feud Theory" | The Coffee Parliament 🔗 — At the peak of my frustration, I texted a friend for some consolation. Apart from a very practical tip on how to handle my whiskey which I would need considering the situation, they shared this analytical piece which provided a lot of nuance and had helped me expand my perspective on the issue. (and yes, that was an em dash you saw, I, a human being, consciously decided to use it.)

• Showdown in Banteay Meanchey & citizenship revocation law | Kouprey 🔗 (spoiler alert, septic tank was involved).

Border conflict aside, our new sparkling Techo International Airport (KTI) is officially open. It looks beautiful and quite impressive. I can’t deny that. Full disclosure, I haven’t been there yet. Having said that, it is hard to miss because my social media, from Facebook to Instragram to Tiktok, is full of content about this airport. I came up with a theory that one of the government bodies mobilised content creators to explicitly make content about the airport. I said it is a theory because I can’t verify this. My inquisitive brain also questions whether the influencers were paid to make content or were they being guilt-tripped to do so. If any of you readers know, give me a shout so I can put that question to rest. It does look like one massive nationwide campaign to say “Look, here’s a new fancy airport. We’re cool!” Who doesn’t enjoy hearing influencers admiring something like a control tower? I reckon that a flight control tower is indeed useful for an airport.
On the one hand, you see people getting excited about this new airport. On the other hand, I came across loads of people making social media posts reminiscing about their memories of the old Phnom Penh International Airport which ceased operations on 9 September. I found it quite intriguing to see the nation able to move on quite swiftly from a few weeks of posting content about conflict and displacement at the border to posting about their excitement surrounding a $1.5 billion airport.

While we’re at it, here’s a reminder of other aspects that this airport costs. Seized lakes: How Cambodia's airport boom is breaking a fishing community by Phon Sothyroth for HardStories examines how residents of Canal 94, a fishing community, have been barred from accessing their traditional fishing grounds due to development sprawl around the new airport. Unfortunately, I don’t see any influencers talking about that.

Visually Pleasing

Arts & Culture

🖼️ The Particles (Aug 1 - Oct 10), an exhibition by Rith Bonrotanak, presents a new way of viewing traditional Khmer art silhouettes. When I first saw it advertised online, I was skeptical. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I went to see it at Rosewood, a few weeks ago. I didn’t think I could see another Khmer ancient carving in a new way but at this exhibition, I could. While there were some predictable pieces (for me), there were some really nice ones, and it was fun that they change colours when you shine light on them. Worth checking out if you’re in town.

🎨 In August, I checked out Sar Modern Art Museum in Siem Reap. Wedged between row of shophouses just a stone’s throw away from Pub Street, Sar focuses solely on modern and contemporary art in Cambodia, seeking to revive the memory of modern Khmer artists, who thrived under King Norodom Sihanouk before the Khmer Rouge era, while featuring the current generation of contemporary artists. The museum feels a bit rustic to me and the air condition wasn’t on when I was there. This made me question if those conditions were optimal for storing and displaying the artworks. Obviously, it is not my expertise to question the technicality of a museum. I just like to question things, to open up discussion, you know. Nevertheless, I’m glad Siem Reap has a new addition to its art scene, and I did have a great time walking around and looking at different art pieces that I’d never seen before. The museum charges a minimal admission fee.

Campuccino is a fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia, written by @DarathteyDin.

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