Cambodian leader leaks chat, young Thai PM punished for naivety

Lau Koon Shi July 03, 2025 20:59

Suspension of duty was the punishment that young Thai Prime Minister suffers as a result of her naivety in playing family card on de facto Cambodian leader over border dispute negotiation, but Hun Sen’s disregard to diplomatic morality could result in backlash amongst ASEAN counterparts.

On 15 June 2025, then Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen, in attempt to ease tension following a border clash that had reignited long-standing disputes between the countries, most recent one arising from the closure of border by the Thai side in the name of cracking down internet scam.

Paetongtarn intimately addressed Hun Sen as “uncle” during the conversation, because of the long term friendship between the latter and Paetongtarn’s father, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The call was supposed to be personal, informal and most importantly, confidential in nature. Nonetheless, Hun Sen turned a blind eye to the political norm, and publicized the recording on Facebook.

Since the founding in 1967, the member states of ASEAN, a closely bonded regional body, have been upholding the so called ASEAN non-interference principle, with each country ensuring the policy of not dabbling into other counterparts’ internal affairs, when presenting a united front on the international diplomatic stage.

By unexpectedly humiliated his “niece”, the Cambodian former Prime Minister successfully stoke up dissatisfaction amongst Thai people, with them demanding Paetongtarn to step down as Prime Minister for her words of kowtow. He even correctly “predicted” that Paetongtarn would not last more than three months as prime minister and that he claimed to have known who the next leader would be, without identifying. As a result, Paetongtarn, who will only turn 40 after more than a year, failed to turn the tide and her duty as the Prime Minister was suspended by the Thai Constitution Court after a 10 months in office. As the latest development, Suriya Jungrungreangkit, the Minister of Transport, was appointed to serve as acting Prime Minister. Paetongtarn, on the other hand, managed to grasp at straws, announcing she would concurrently serve as the Minister of Culture in less than 24 hours before her suspension and has sworn in on 3 July 2025, retaining herself a seat in the cabinet.

Another conventional practice amongst ASEAN member states is the persistence of family dynasties, which includes Hun Sen, Paetongtarn’s Shinawatra family, and Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, as well as Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Philippines and Joko Widodo in Indonesia.

Despite blatantly manipulating neighboring country’s political trend, Hun Sen, amid waves of criticism, justified himself by emphasizing that he broke no law by disseminating the said recording.

Bitter, but true.

Undoubtedly, Paetongtarn herself is to be blamed for engaging directly with Hun Sen, naively trusting the familial ties may smoothen the dialogue. Her cabinet clearly had no crisis management plans in dealing with emergency of the same kind, exposing herself to political controversy.

However, it seems inevitable that ASEAN leaders will be highly cautious in the future dealings with Cambodia. They should be well aware of the fact that their long standing interests could well be at stake, as the Cambodian strongman dares and will trespass to his neighbours’ turfs with his orchestrated arrangements, showing no regret to break political protocols one after one.

Lau Koon Shi