Matichon newspaper in Thailand this week ran an interview on the Myanmar situation with Pornpimol Kanchanalak who is an adviser and new special envoy to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, appointed to the post in April 2022 The following is the full interview that ran in Matichon on 2 August translated into English and provided with their permission.
MATICHON NOTE – Pornpimol Kanchanalak, who is an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and a new special envoy for Myanmar, gave an interview about the continued efforts concerning the Myanmar situation and answered a variety of questions.
As the new special envoy for Myanmar, what information do Thai people need to know about Myanmar?
Myanmar is our neighbour. It shares a border with Thailand of around 2,401 kms, the longest border in all of our neighborhood. Even though there is an economic downturn and the internal conflict in Myanmar, Thailand-Myanmar border trade during these years still escalated to around two hundred thousand million baht. Thailand had total exports of a hundred thousand million baht and total imports of eight billion baht. Moreover, the Thai fishery sector has invaded the territorial waters of Myanmar on occasions. The energy that produces electricity in most of the western part of Thailand, including Bangkok and many industries is from the gas of Myanmar.
Labourers in Thailand, most of them from Myanmar, are an important factor that drive the economy of Thailand. The relationship between the government and the people in Thailand-Myanmar are rather friendly and interdependent.
Myanmar is a country that has many unique features, it has both the richest civilization and has a long history. This is very complicated. It has ethnic minorities of more than 150 groups. Myanmar was full of wounds and violence before Britain colonised it. It used to get the second highest GDP ranked in Asia and keep increasing. Myanmar was exporting rice, meanwhile most of the countries in this region were facing a famine. Once there was a port city in Myanmar accepting more immigrants per day than immigrants that entered the United States through Ellis Island.
The time that the British Colonial authorities ruled in Myanmar, the Myanmar military was almost non-existent. Furthermore, it was attacked by neighbouring military. During the period of colonization, this time extremely affected Myanmar's military mindset such as they must build a strong army for protection so that the danger that happened to them before will not occur. Myanmar's ethnic conflicts have risen until then. Since the British Empire almost demolished the Myanmar army, it chose Gurkhas soldiers and ethnic minority groups to become its army. Ethnic minority groups including Rohingya people have entered Myanmar since then.
The British Empire made up classes, it said that around 60 per cent of Myanmar people are aristocrats, having a position in the civil service, but at the same time, the Myanmar military was trying to build their army. For that reason, the Myanmar military will definitely not let themselves turn back to the bad old days during the colonial time period. Myanmar is a country that has the longest domestic terrorism in the world, since 1947. The history of Myanmar is full of wars and it is still going on today.
When Daw Aung San Suu Kyi led the government in Myanmar, there was a chance that people would get more freedom. However, the Myanmar military considered that they had a part in the administration of the country.
This is their military’s prestige. Ethnic minorities groups have battled the military with guns and weapons. Everybody is trying to have their own things, like their own power. Therefore, the Myanmar military has seen the important role of making the central force stronger which lets them control things easily without (the country) falling apart. When Suu Kyi became president (or state counsellor), the Myanmar military agreed to cooperate. This is the power sharing between the military government and the civil government.
I want you to look at the democracy in Myanmar as a process. It did not begin with General Aung San growing powerful in Myanmar politics and did not end when the military overthrew the civil government and then closed the country.
Myanmar's military seized power in a coup, and they think it's the right action along with the country’s Constitution. In accordance with the country's military-drafted 2008 Constitution, the constitution requires elections be held no later than six months from the end of the state of emergency.
Our duty is to make sure Myanmar gets back on a democratic path again by respecting their sovereignty. Myanmar is an independent nation. It has prestige that we have to respect them which is a basic principle. The global community should help Myanmar get to that point so that the Myanmar people can have a normal life again. We should not be the one who closed this avenue. It is not easy but we have to give it a try.
After problems occurred in Myanmar, when did Thailand begin to work on this?
We always followed the political development in Myanmar since the general election. When the negotiation about power sharing between the military government and civil government failed, there was a military coup on the morning of 1 February 2021. The first time I heard this news, I was still with Don (Pramudwinai), the Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. He thought that there was a high chance Myanmar would see violence. The first thing that he ordered was to found the “Humanitarian Task Force'' because this situation it will definitely be followed by people being in tough times.
You know that Thailand is the first country in ASEAN that founded this kind of task force, Don is the chief. There are many related offices of the department and it also invited people from outside the ministry. For seeking a way to muster our strength to help the Myanmar people. Thailand is the first country donating money to the Myanmar Red Cross Society through the Thai Red Cross Society. Don also brought many provisions donated by the private sector and then gave it to the Myanmar Red Cross Society by himself. He assigned me a plan for ending the conflict in Myanmar on the first day that the conflict occurred, not the first day that I was appointed to be the special envoy on Myanmar.
My duty is to coordinate agencies within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, security agency, private sector and NGOs for seeking a way to muster our strength to help the Myanmar people. He also ordered me to do track 1.5 diplomacy (The work of diplomats under a situation where official and non-official actors cooperate in conflict resolution by exploring new ideas, exchanging information and ideas in every view which developed within the groups) for bringing peace to the country and people of Myanmar.
What are the duties of a special envoy? And why do people still doubt why Thailand wants to help Myanmar to that extent?
Recently, many countries appointed special envoys to do track 1.5 diplomacy for sorting the problem out in the Myanmar conflict. Working in every ministry and agency needs to have a coordinator, that’s why we appointed special envoys for looking at the big picture in every dimension. We need a person who spends time on that particularly but most of the work that I did is to receive Don’s policy, then act on it and to help the ministry and agency’s work with coordination.
Myanmar has a conflict just like our neighbour is on fire. If we say that our neighbor is not good and we don’t call a fire engine to help them, in the end we will be affected too. We don’t add insult to injury because they have their own problems. How can we help Myanmar's situation to get better? Because we don’t want to have a neighbour that still has ongoing internal conflict, no stability and fighting. If we don't hurry to solve these problems, it could become a civil war. Thailand as a neighbour sharing a border with Myanmar will face a lot of problems in the future.
For example, last year drugs surging into Thailand at its borders increased five times compared to the previous year. It's a very severe problem because drug trafficking mainly makes money for buying weapons, and, as a result, the fighting in Myanmar will be more chaotic.
How did the recent Myanmar executions affect your work?
We are very worried. The way he (the junta leader) chose to execute activists can tell us many things. By the way, Thailand doesn’t want it to happen such as cutting Myanmar out of national interaction and letting every decision depend on one. No matter if ASEAN or whoever can influence his (the junta leader's) thoughts. The engagement we have had with the Myanmar government doesn’t mean that we are verifying his legitimacy but we had to interact with him. There was no call for a truce without interactions with every sector and stakeholders.
What Thailand did, was to interact with every sector (of Myanmar society). Let them talk to each other, find a way out of the political situations through a peaceful way, and no more fighting. These are the main objectives of Don and the (Thai) prime minister. We cannot choose who we support but we can choose to solve our problems by peaceful means.
How do you view people linking Myanmar politics to Thai politics?
We shouldn’t use the Myanmar situation as a weapon for political purposes because the situations that have occurred don't only have players in Myanmar, they have players all around the world. It's very complicated and sensitive. Thai foreign affairs aim to best protect the country’s interests in every dimension. Thai people may quarrel with each other, however foreign affairs shouldn’t be a weapon for political purposes. Due to the fact that foreign affairs have to choose one thing that protects the country’s interests.
In foreign affairs, many people can make up their theories and can say anything. If it is personal theories or their point of view, people can find fault in what you say. It sounds convenient, right? But I don’t want you to do that. It can affect many parts of our country. Let our politics stay in our country. Speaking every word without concern for the truth will cause more problems to our country.
After all this time, there are personal attacks and rumours about being imprisoned abroad.
Being imprisoned abroad and being a lobbyist are the two stories that I am always being attacked. I am here to inform you that I have never been a lobbyist. I have never taken someone’s money to lobby others and I have never been imprisoned. Not even handcuffed by USA officials or not allowed to enter the USA. When the case happened, it was directly related to a person in a position related to political party donations. He suggested that the information was legitimate, so we did exactly what he said. We were not donors but we were fundraisers. I never want to do illegal things. The business I did at that time was to match companies in Thailand and the USA, which have the same needs. We were middlemen who brought people with the same needs together. When I was prosecuted, I hired a lawyer and followed every procedure. The public prosecutor didn’t want this case to go on, he forced me to settle this case or my family members would be in trouble. I didn’t want to make trouble for anyone, particularly my family, just me was enough. I had been through a lot but I thought if only our conscience were clear and I could stay by myself, I would be alright. Finally, I was penalized by the law but I have never been imprisoned. I have already been responsible for my actions and never place the blame on other people.
How did you end up working with Don?
I was starting to work while Don was a Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. He had a policy about opening relationships in the Middle East because we didn’t keep contact with them that much, however I am very familiar with that region. I helped them coordinate a visit to Oman. Later, Don invited me to help with his work. You cannot say that I am filling in for Don, I work by following his orders with limited authority. People said I swaggered into the ministry and made many people and civil servants uncomfortable. This is not true at all. I have been working here for seven years. I have never ordered anyone about, because I am not here to order people. My only duty is to follow policies and complete an assignment as best as I possibly can.
You asked about when we first met, I first met Don in Matthayom (a secondary school grade). We met accidentally at a scholarship exam. We still did not know each other. When I was a first-year student in Chulalongkorn University, Don was a second-year student. We still did not know or were familiar with each other. During my time at university, we met less than 10 times. I met him at meetings sometimes because I have worked with the Royal Thai Embassy in the US and have served Mom Ratchawong Kasem Samoson Kasemsri.
