Mekong Nations Mark New Year In High Spirits Despite Surging Fuel Costs

By Vijian Paramasivam

PHNOM PENH, April 13 (Bernama) -- Vibrant celebrations are sweeping across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand — countries bordering the magnificent Mekong River — as millions gather to usher in the New Year beginning today.

For the next few days, the Buddhist New Year — Chaul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia, Laos’ Pi Mai, Thingyan in Myanmar, and Thailand’s Songkran — will add shades of euphoria to the region still grappling with a severe fuel crisis.

Unperturbed by the blistering 40 degrees Celsius heat, costly fuel, inflationary pressure or the global geopolitical noise, revellers are welcoming the most important festival on the calendar.

In Cambodia, there was a mass exodus of city folks since last Friday, all heading to their provinces to celebrate the occasion in a family-style tradition.

“The Khmer New Year gives them the opportunity to return to their hometowns to be with their families.

“It is a time for family reunions, visiting elders, going to the pagoda, paying respect to ancestors and performing meritorious deeds in accordance with Buddhist tradition,” Phnom Penh-based Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University’s Head of Research for Postgraduate Studies Venerable Dr San Pisith told Bernama.

April began on a sombre note, as governments and communities across the region grappled with fuel prices that had nearly doubled, disrupting daily life.

The global energy crisis sparked by the heightened West Asia military crisis since February 28 has driven up petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum prices to spiral, posing a threat to the growth prospects of economies in Southeast Asia.

These predominantly Buddhist societies along the Lower Mekong Region, which follow Theravada Buddhism, were no exception.

Farmers, fishermen and transport operators, in particular, are bearing the brunt of soaring fuel costs driven by reliance on imported energy from West Asia.

“Rising fuel costs are a reminder or a clear message telling us that the ways we are consuming energy now are not sustainable.

“If we continue this way, things are not getting better. They surely are getting worse, both from a global economic perspective and an environmental point of view,” said Pisith.

Yet this week, the skylines glow with celebration. As the New Year—typically observed between April 13 and 15—arrives, people of all ages embrace their Cambodian, Laotian, Burmese and Thai cultural traditions through acts of religious devotion.

Splashing water, a cleansing element in Buddhist culture, has been a symbolic highlight during the festival across the region.

In Myanmar, however, Thingyan—the traditional water festival—is being marked in a subdued atmosphere. The recent appointment of former military leader Min Aung Hlaing as president on April 3 has tempered the mood.

At the same time, ongoing fuel shortages and rising costs continue to weigh heavily on daily life.

According to state media, The Global New Light of Myanmar, water splashing and charity pavilions have been set up at the People’s Square in Yangon for the celebration. 

In neighbouring Thailand, people are celebrating Songkran under the new Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s leadership, while facing fuel price challenges.

Even in Laos, home to about seven million people, astronomical fuel prices impacted every household. But Pi Mai festivities continue in the capital, Vientiane and rural provinces.

Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith in his New Year message urged the nation to unite to overcome economic challenges.

“Laos had maintained political stability, preserved social order and recorded positive economic recovery and growth,” he said, according to Vientiane Times.

-- BERNAMA