…the verdict comes at a time when both governments are facing crises of legitimacy. Hun Sen has reason to celebrate the ruling. It may well boost his standing after he won re-election in July by a surprisingly thin margin. As ever, it is Thailand’s domestic politics that remains the main source of tension between Thailand and Cambodia, and it may prove so again.
The current Thai prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, and her Pheu Thai party government, have suffered badly as a result of a brazen and aborted attempt to ram through an amnesty bill. The motion would have paved the way for the return of her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former Thai prime minister who was deposed in a 2006 coup and as polarising a figure as is known in this part of the world. The mood among the ultra-royalists and -nationalists who oppose him, along with the Democrat Party camped in the streets of Bangkok, is already upbeat. They have thwarted the return of the man they most loathe (though they still have to figure out how to beat the Shinawatra clan in elections).
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