Love-hate relationship between Thailand and UN needs sweetening

When Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, arrives in Bangkok today for a one-day stopover, he will see a different Thailand from the country that has recently been the subject of constant international news headlines and repeated discussion at the UN. In the past few months, Thailand has also had an earful of comments from Ban, who was elected to his current position in 2007, beating other Asian candidates including former Thai foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai.

His visit, according to the Foreign Ministry, will be a good opportunity to familiarise himself with the constructive role of Thailand in the region, as well as a chance for both sides to discuss issues of common interest.

UN-Thai relations have had their ups and downs since the country joined the international organisation in 1946. Thailand was heavily bruised after the World War II when the country sided with Japan, part of the Axis powers. Before its admission one year after the UN was founded, the country had to brave tough negotiations and numerous obstacles from the organisation's big five powers. It is this very sense of vulnerability and fragility that has formed the template of UN-Thai relations.

As an independent country that escaped the Western colonisation, Thailand perceived UN membership as a prerequisite for its emergence as a sovereign state. Doubtless, Thailand has always pledged to cooperate with the UN in maintaining peace and stability in the world.

That helps to explain why every time the country encounters a problem - domestic or international - the name of the UN is usually invoked. During the recent political unrest, as in many previous conflict situations, the UN was mentioned by protesters time and again as a potential saviour, even though in reality the UN has no role in domestic politics unless they impact on international peace and security. Even former prime minister (now a fugitive from justice) Thaksin Shinawatra, who infamously said "the UN is not my father", asked for the body's intervention.

It is this idea of a parental power figure hovering above that has influenced Thailand's foreign policy and its relations with the UN. Thai bureaucrats and UN officials have a notorious "love-hate" relationship. They have often clashed in carrying out their mandates and responsibilities, especially on issues related to displaced persons, illegal immigrants and migrant workers, as well as on human rights.

Indeed, no country in the region has had such intense engagements with the UN in the past five decades as Thailand. Although Thailand is not a signatory of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, it has been trying to do almost everything to meet the convention's norms and standards. Thai officials have often felt they not have received due recognition for all the sacrifices the country has had to go through.

For instance, Thailand has extended shelter to millions of Indochinese refugees since the 1970s. More than three million Cambodians took refuge in Thailand during the Cambodian war (1979-1992) before they were settled overseas. Now, more than two million migrant workers from Burma are residing in various parts of Thailand, not to mention seasonal illegal immigrants on land or at sea. Currently, the country also houses many UN operations, including the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

With a huge presence of overseas displaced persons, the eyes of international scrutiny are focused on Thailand and most of them zero in on its shortcomings. The Abhisit government has a clear policy to respect the human rights of all peoples. But when it comes to implementing measures to protect against violation of human rights, there is room for improvement.

As the current president of the UN Human Rights Council, Thailand has placed itself in the eye of storms. Bangkok has made its succinctly clear that it joined the UNHRC not to protect its human rights record but to promote those rights regionally and internationally. Within this context, it must be pointed out that the Democrat Party is the only party that incorporates human rights and democracy as part of its foreign policy.

In the past year, all sorts of human rights issues have cropped up non-stop, portraying Thailand as if it were a closed society with despotic leadership. International and regional human rights organisations have taken the Abhisit government to task on a daily basis. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Commission for Jurists and other regional human right advocacy groups have been busy through their representative offices.

Thailand has made known its intention to be a candidate for the non-permanent UN Security Council seat in 2017. When the country last served as president of UN Security Council, in 1986, Thailand voted to condemn the US attack on Tripoli.

Ban's visit comes at the time when Thailand's role among the international peacekeeping forces will come under focus again. A total of 812 Thai soldiers are scheduled to be deployed to the Darfur region of Sudan next month after months of preparation. They are part of the African Union-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur and the latest to join UN sponsored missions that have spanned South Korea, Cambodia, East Timor and Burundi.

Beyond refugees and the peacekeeping realm, Thailand has been an active partner of the UN in implementing the UN Millennium Development Goals project, noting that the country was likely to meet most of its own objectives within five years.

Thailand also encourages Asean-UN cooperation on peacekeeping. Under its chair last year, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya proposed that Asean should form a common approach to peacekeeping, as each Asean member has taken part in UN peacekeeping operations in various capacities.

Ban, who will travel to Cambodia this evening, will hold the third UN- Asean summit meeting, with leaders in Hanoi at the weekend, to discuss ways to strengthen Asean-UN cooperation in disaster management and peacekeeping.

The visit, despite being brief, will certainly boost Thai-UN cooperation and offer a rare opportunity for Abhisit and Bang to clarify each other's position on sensitive issues that have tarnished their relations.