Centuries of distrust divide Burma and Thailand

Andrew Marshall
Reuters Feature
June 09, 2002

When Burma's state-run media denounced Thailand last week after a series of border clashes they called the country "Yodaya"

-- a phrase which left many observers scratching their heads.

It turned out the word was a corruption of the name of the city of Ayutthaya -- the glittering capital of Thailand until it was sacked and plundered in 1767 by an invading army from Burma which left the city in ruins and carried off 90 percent of its inhabitants.

Three centuries have passed, but the hostility has not died.

An eruption of tension this year between Thailand and Burma

-- formerly known as Siam and Burma respectively -- has its roots in hundreds of years of conflict and distrust.

Both countries have been turning to the history books to support their cause -- and annoy each other as much as possible.

The destruction of Ayutthaya, a fabled city of thousands of temples and Buddha images until the Burmese took it apart brick by brick, still rankles the Thais -- as Burma's media was well aware when it criticised the "Yodayas" last week as "spiritually and physically weak and insincere people".

A previous battle between the two countries, in 1549, came back to haunt bilateral relations last year when a blockbuster Thai movie dramatised the exploits of Queen Suriyothai, who was killed as she rode an elephant against an invading Burmese army.

The movie, Suriyothai, was the most successful ever made in Thailand and has been re-edited by Francis Ford Coppola for an international audience. Burma's military government, however, was not amused, and Burmese newspapers criticised the film.

WHITE ELEPHANTS AND RED BULL

The uneasy relations between the two countries have been complicated in recent years by the issue of drugs. Bangkok says ethnic armies allied to the Rangoon junta produce most of the methamphetamine pills flooding into Thailand.

The latest eruption of tension between the two countries was provoked by the movement of thousands of Thai soldiers to the Burmese border last month. They were ostensibly there for a training exercise, but military sources had said they were planning a strike on a notorious druglord operating in the Golden Triangle.

Burma reacted angrily and relations plummeted.

Newspapers in both countries have been fighting a war of words and Burma expelled hundreds of Thai workers and banned advertisements for Thai products.

The row is a setback for the policy of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been trying to improve relations with Burma through "personal diplomacy".

Thailand tried to defuse tensions by sending videotapes of two popular Thai soap operas to Rangoon, but the gesture did little to soothe frayed tempers.

Senior Burmese officials have publicly attacked Thailand, and the government announced last month that a white elephant with pearl-coloured eyes had been found in the west of the country. Analysts say the announcement was timed to annoy the Thais.

In the past, white elephants were considered a sign of power and prosperity in southeast Asia, and rival kings would compete to get hold of as many as possible for their royal courts.

"Burmese kings felt an increased sense of power when they possessed a white elephant," said the Irrawaddy magazine, based in Thailand and staffed by exiled Burmese journalists.

"As Burma becomes embroiled in another border dispute with Thailand some Burmese feel the regime is attempting to use the elephant as a display of its power."

The row has also spilled over to affect popular Thai-made energy drinks. During a bout of tension last year, with the Thai media accusing Burma of flooding Thailand with drugs, the junta responded by saying Thai energy drinks were a dangerous menace.

Striking back at Thai media publicity about the destruction of seized drugs, Burma television last month proudly announced the destruction of 121,632 cans of the Thai Red Bull drink.

GLARING STATUES

The historical baggage that burdens Thai-Burmese relations is symbolised by two statues that glare at each other across the border on Thailand's northern frontier.

On the Burmese side, in the town of Tachilek, a large bronze statue of King Bayinnaung stands just 100 metres (yards) from the border, arms crossed, eyes staring into Thailand.

Bayinnaung was the king whose army razed Ayutthaya. Some historical accounts say his savage invasion was provoked by the king of Siam's refusal to gift him a white elephant.

Across the frontier in Thailand is a statue of King Naresuan the Great, erected in 1998, two years after the Burmese statue.

Naresuan -- depicted in the statue brandishing a sword -- was a grandson of Queen Suriyothai and, according to legend, was taken to Burma as a hostage after Ayutthaya was destroyed. He returned to rebuild the shattered kingdom and defeat the Burmese.

Thai newspapers are urging the government to take a stronger line with the Rangoon junta.

"Our diplomacy and national resolve are being tested," the Nation daily said. "It's time for our leaders to stand up and show some spine."

And with Burma's newspapers publishing articles daily criticising the Thais, there seems little prospect of a change in the centuries of mutual hostility.

"In the past, every time Burma was weak, Yodayas began to attack the remote areas to grab them easily," said an article in the English-language New Light of Myanmar.

"Thus, Burma had to march into Yodaya to attack and crush Ayutthaya. Now, let's see whether the description of Yodayas made by our forefathers is correct or not."