At about 4:30 in the afternoon of 29 January 2003, a young man named Vannak
observed a group of 100 to 150 high school and university students pull up to the
Independence Monument in the heart of Phnom Penh. He recognized that they were
students both from their dress and from the way they rode their motos, lights turned on
and cheering as they made their way to the monument – just as they did after football
games. Only this time the event had changed: for about 20 minutes, the students shouted
slogans and waved a Cambodian flag, before driving off. Vannak, who had been reading
the papers closely, knew that this demonstration, like those the previous day, was being
held to protest comments allegedly made by perhaps the most famous Thai actress
in Cambodia: Suvanan Kongying, who was often called by her character’s name in a
popular Thai soap opera, ‘Morning Star’ (Phkay Preuk). In fact, the students at the