Vihear and loathing

Unless you’ve been vacationing on another planet, you’ve by now heard that Unesco approved the Cambodian temple of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site last week. Depending on your political leanings, this is cause for either dancing in the streets or contemplating suicide.

Khmerization reflects:

I am sad because I felt that it is a Pyrrhic victory due to the fact that there is a possibility that Cambodia might lose the ownership of the 4.6 square kilometres to Thailand. The fact that only the temple proper had been listed and the surrounding areas, including the staircases and the reservoir, had been left out of the listing suggested that Cambodia will face an uphill battle to recover the 4.6 square kilometres claimed as a “disputed zone” by Thailand.

Sokheoun over at Son of a Khmer Empire waxes even more despondent: “I personally see it as a loss and feel so much pain in my heart without proper words to express.”

Such glorious melancholy is hardly necessary. As the organization’s name rather unambiguously states, Unesco is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. As such, its designation of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site has absolutely zero influence over Cambodia-Thai border negotiations.

The inability of the opposition to view anything without anti-Hun Sen glasses really is mesmerizing. The Unesco designation will bring huge benefits to the people of Preah Vihear — the province and the temple. Preah Vihear is now effectively Angkor Wat II. As such, its popularity, singularly driven by the Unesco listing, will skyrocket. Tourism will explode and restoration projects will flourish. So will business aimed at serving the leisure market — hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, art shops, etc. The effects are certain to reach west to Anlong Veng and south to T’Bang Meanchey, and over time likely even to Kompong Thom.

Since getting the news a week ago, much of the country has been celebrating. Phnom Penh officials last week threw a concert at Wat Phnom. There’s another one scheduled for tonight at Olympic Stadium. Ten thousand Tens of thousands are expected to turn up. Meanwhile, opposition voices remain fraught over the possibility that at some uncertain point in the future, Thailand might be able to use the Unesco decision to its advantage in negotiations with Cambodia over the two countries’ disputed border.

The demarcation issue is certainly an important one. Nobody should ignore it. But the benefits of the Preah Vihear decision are both real and great, too. In the remote villages of Preah Vihear province, the listing will likely change a lot of people’s lives for the better. That’s no reason for despair. As for the border issue, the chances that Cambodia will cede land to Thailand based on something Unesco says seems remote, to say the least.