Abstract:
This research aims to investigate the role of Cambodian newspapers in creation and maintenance of nationalistic sentiments during the territorial disputes: (1) between Cambodia and Thailand over the Preah Vihear Temple, and (2) Cambodia and Vietnam over the Cochin-china (in Khmer Kampuchea Krom). This research focuses on the newspaper articles on the territorial disputes only during and after the national election campaigns in 2008 and 2013. 243 articles were collected for content analysis of Cambodian mainstream newspapers: The Raksmey Kampuchea Daily (Cambodia Light), The Koh Santepheap Daily (Island of Peace), The Cambodia Daily, and The Phnom Penh Post during 27 June to 27 August 2008 and 28 June to 28 August 2013 periods. In addition to the content analysis, in-depth interviews were employed with 5 key informants. The results illuminate interesting patterns of new reporting of the territorial disputes: Khmer language newspapers, The Reaksmey Kampuchea, and The Koh Santhepheap Daily published 161 articles related to the Preah Vihear Temple dispute, and supported the government’s policy on the Preah Vihear Temple dispute before the 2008 and 2013 general elections, and the number faltered after the elections. However, they had only 1 article related to the Cochin-china dispute. On the other hand, English newspapers, The Cambodia Daily and The Phnom Penh Post published 71 articles related to the Preah Vihear Temple dispute while they published 11 articles related to the Cochin-china dispute only before the 2013 general election. Both English newspapers supported the opposition party over the Cochin-china dispute. Nationalism is not only about a shared sense of unity but also about an urge to protect national territory. If it is threatened by other nations or states, national unity is called for despite internal conflicts. For this reason, Cambodian political actors may have strategically utilized nationalist ideology around Cambodia’s unsettled border in order to gain support from the voters during the national elections as the research results indicate. Cambodian newspapers offered the political leaders platforms to strategically highlight the historical animosity with Vietnam and Thailand during the election campaigns to discredit the political opponent, and create a temporary sense of unity.
