Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai has brushed aside a veiled threat of mass protests, if the government negotiates with Cambodia over joint development of the overlapping claim area in the Gulf of Thailand with the framework of MoU 44, which is signed by both parties.
Phumtham said that Sonthi Limthongkul, an executive of the Manager Group and a former leader of the now defunct People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), is free to exercise his constitutional right to hold a street protest, but he reminded him of the negative consequences of PAD protests in the past, urging Sonthi to use legal channels instead of street protests.
Sonthi said today that he and Panthep Puapongpan, dean of the College of Oriental Medicine at Rangsit University, will submit a letter, addressed to Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, on December 2nd, seeking clarification of MoU 44.
He insisted that the memorandum is not a treaty and should be cancelled unilaterally, because it risks opening the door for Kut Island, which is a Thai territory, to be claimed by Cambodia. He challenged Phumtham to a public debate on the matter.
Sonthi also asked whether Phumtham has ordered the navy commander-in-chief to stop naval vessels patrolling around Kut Island, because such an order could be deemed as accepting Cambodia’s claim over the island.
“This is a big issue because it concerns Thai territorial sovereignty,” said Sonthi, as he referred to Thailand’s loss of the Preah Vihear ancient Hindu temple ruins to Cambodia, by order of the International Court of Justice, several decades ago.
He alleged that the government and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra are only focussed on the exploitation of oil and gas in the overlapping claim area, with no regard to the issue of territorial sovereignty.
He also accused the government of deliberately ignoring a Royal Command, announced by the late King Bhumibol in 1973, regarding the continental shelf in the Gulf, stating that the demarcation line should comply with tenets of the Geneva Convention of 1958.
