A leaked phone conversation between Thailand’s prime minister and Cambodia’s Hun Sen about a worsening border dispute pitched the Thai government into crisis as its second-largest coalition partner withdrew its support.
The Bhumjaithai Party, holder of 71 seats in the 500-seat lower house of the Thai parliament, announced Wednesday it was withdrawing from Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s government, leaving her ruling coalition with only a slim majority.
The party said it was leaving due to the impact on the nation of a leak of a private phone call between Paetongtarn and former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen that was published first by a pro-Cambodian government news outlet earlier Wednesday.
In the June 15 call, the Thai leader said she was facing domestic pressure over the situation at the border, and urged Hun Sen not to listen to an outspoken Thai general who oversees the army in the border area.
“He just wants to look cool, saying things that are not useful to the nation, but in truth what we want is peace,” Paetongtarn told Hun Sen through an interpreter in the leaked audio clip, referring to the general.
She also urged Hun Sen to text her directly rather than post on social media, saying that makes it harder to manage the situation.
Paetongtarn held a news conference Wednesday where she confirmed the authenticity of the recording and defended her conduct. She said she was attempting to calm the tensions between Thailand and Cambodia that have spiked since Thai forces shot dead a Cambodian soldier on May 28 near where the borders of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos meet.
“It is clear now [Hun Sen] wants popularity in the country, regardless of bilateral relations,” she told reporters in Bangkok. “He told me his popularity was faltering.”
“I would not chat privately any more because of the distrust,” she said.
Nationalist sentiments
Both sides have stepped up their military presence since the May 28 clash. The Thai military ordered shorter opening hours at border crossing points, and Cambodia retaliated by blocking imports of Thai produce.
Cambodia has also requested the International Court of Justice in The Hague to rule on the demarcation of four areas on the disputed 800-kilometer (500-mile) border.
The dispute has stoked nationalist sentiments.
In Phnom Penh, thousands of Cambodians, holding portraits of Hun Sen and his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet, joined a state-organized march Wednesday marking the birthday of Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk.
“Cambodia’s land! We won’t take others’ land, we keep our land!” marchers chanted, Reuters reported.
In Thailand, Paetongtarn was left with serious political fallout from the leaked call. Critics lambasted her family’s longstanding ties with Cambodia’s ruling Hun family from when her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, was prime minister. Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup, returned from exile in 2023, a year before his daughter took office.
In the leaked call, Paetongtarn, 38, addresses Hun Sen as “uncle” – a term that would be customary in Thai language when speaking to an elder person who is a family friend. But analysts said her appeal to Hun Sen to disregard a general in Thailand’s powerful military leaves her politically vulnerable.
Hard to survive
“It is very hard to see PM Paetongtarn surviving this,” Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asia expert and professor at the National War College in Washington, told Radio Free Asia.
“She threw a senior officer of the Royal Thai Army under the bus, at a time when the military and royalist elites have been chipping away at the grand bargain that saw her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, return from exile,” he said.
“I think the military and the royalist establishment are going to smell blood, now that she has been seen trying to cut a deal and sell out Thai national interests,” Abuza said, adding that regardless of what happens with Paetongtarn’s government, “it is very hard to see bilateral relations improving.”
Hun Sen said Wednesday he had shared audio of the call with about 80 individuals from his political party, parliament, the government and military to avoid any misunderstandings and for internal Cambodian purposes, The Phnom Penh Post reported.
The leak of a private conversation without consent of the other party violates Cambodian law, including the criminal code. It would also be widely regarded as a violation of diplomatic protocol.
Edited by Mat Pennington.
