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A Suggested Roadmap to Freedom for the Cambodian People "I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies." (Those are the words of satirist and serial complainer Pietro Aretino, who annoyed the great and not so good of the 16th Century with a flurry of public correspondence to the editors of his age.)
This is an appeal tp all decent Cambodian people to think and to make all efforts in order to defend their country of birth, Cambodia, and to give it a better chance to survive the unrelenting Vietnamese pursuit of genocide policy, which had been previously and successfully used against Champa, and now being used against the rest of the once great country of Cambodia especially in Kampuchea Krom. This strategy used by the Vietnamese since they moved dwon from the Red River Delta in the tenth century, known as the "leopard Skin," strategy, which consists of moving into the newly occupied land belonging to the Chams and now the Khmers, first by small groups of Vietnamese consiting of former prisoners and war vetarans, to occupy Khmer land, as in the case of Kampuchea Krom. The most baffling aspect of this 'Leopard Skin' strategy used by Vietnam, is the fact that the Cambodian kings never put up any resistance, let alone any wars, against the Vietnamese 'silent invasion.' Only when the Vietnamese had become too harsh in their treatment of the Cambodian people in that part of lower Cambodia, did they start to revolt against the Vietnamese occupants/invaders. The Khmer kings, not only did not make any move against the Vietnamese aggression, they surrendered to the Vietnamese conquerers, by either marrying a Vietnamese princess and by giving the right to the Vietnamese to use Prey Nokor (now Saigon/Ho chi Minh City) as custom house, as Chey Chhetha II did in the 17th century, or simply surrendering to Vietnamese aggression, as Sihanouk is doing. Of course, that attitude by the Cambodians leaders had led to the conquest of the whole Kampuchea Krom, and now of Cambodia, by Vietnam. Since its birth from a country named Funan, in the early century of the Christian era, then became an empire in the 9th century as a result of the merging of two principalities, Water and land Zenla, Cambodia is now dwindling in a downward sprial without any any limit in sight, due to its god-king dynasties who kept the Cambodian people under their thumb wiothout any identity until today. It is the only country in the world that have not changed since the Angkor time. to have a long history of the rise and fall of the Khmer Empire please, take alook at the sequence of map since the state of Funan in the second century B. until today. It disappeared once in the mid 1800's, and was absorbed by both Siam and Vietnam. Thanks to the people of Cambodia under the leadership of the Okhnas, (one of whom was Mr. Soan Sann's great grandfater Mr.Sun Kuy) the Cambodian people were able to get back their freedom, very briefly, and to be again enslaved under the co-suzereignty of the both Saim and Vietnam, until 1863. Then King Norodom naively invited French Emperor napoleon III to come and 'protect' Cambodia, against Siam and Vietnam's aggression . Of course, the French did not come to protect, but to exploit Cambodia as a colonial possession. Please. take a look at the sequence of those maps showing how Cambodia has been slowly but steadily disintegrating, since the early christian era until today. Narnahkiri Tith Ph.D. Wahington DC. February 11, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- World order according to Confucius | ON WORLD ORDER: | - "To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order;
- To put the nation in order, we must put the family in order;
- To put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life;
- And to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right."
Confucius (551 - 479 B.C.) |
A suggestion on the Roadmap to Freedom for Cambodia Initial Conditions and a Suggested Roadmap for the Survival of Cambodia and Conclusion Diagnostics: Despite recent high growth rate of GDP, the finding & conclusion on why Cambodia is a failed state remains unchanged, and can be summarized as follows: The contributing internal and external factors to this failure are: I. Internal problems (For more details on the internal problem under the dictatorship of hun Sen and his CPP, please, see a recent report (February 2008) by Mr. Yash Ghai, the special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Human Rights in Cambodia, posted just below). Judging from its current state of affairs in Cambodia, namely: a. Systemic and prevasive corruption b. Uncontrollable illegal Vietnamese immigration. No result from a recent population census was allowed by the CPP to be published on the number of Vietnamese living legally or illegally in Cambodia c. Abject poverty, extreme imbalance in income distribution. Cambodian economy is controlled by Hun Sen and his extended family as reported by 'Global Witness;' according to a legal analysis (Due Dilligence) done by an American legal firm on SOKIMEX, it was revealed that it has the monopoly of all he most important industrial and trade activities in Cambodia, it also was revealed that SOKIMEX is controlling more than 80 percent of all manufacturing and services business in Cambodia, is 60 percent owned and managed by Sok Kong, a Vietnamese citizen and a close friend of Hun Sen d. Systemic destruction of the environment e. Epidemic spread of AIDS f. Human traffic especially women and child prostitution and trade g. Concentration of wealth and land ownership due to insatiable appetite for wealth accumulation by members of the CPP and Funcinpec, and the eviction and the taking over of the land from poors h. Gross abuse of human rights and other civil rights i. Extremely weak legal framework and the politicization of the Judicial system, especially the use of the courts of justice to oppress ansd suppress members of the opposition parties j. The sale of diplomas and degrees at the high school and university levels has jeopardized the future of Cambodia by diluting the quality of manpower, thus economically disadvantages Cambodia vis-à-vis other countries in this very competitive world. Conclusion: Cambodia is a failed state. II. External problems a. Uniil very recently, Cambodia was facing aggression from both Siam and Dai-Viet. However since early 1990, because of the changes in the political system in Thailand, this country has become much less of a problem for Cambodia. By contrast, Vietnam, because of the autocratic and totalitarian nature of its political system remains extremely dangerous for the survival of Cambodia. b. In dealing with Vietnam naked aggression, Cambodia must start reforming from within. The main obstacles are the strong grip of power in Cambodia by the Hun Sen and his CPP with Sihanouk’s support. Therefore, isolating Sihanouk by fully protecting and implementing the content of the constitution is the first step. The next step is to use non-violent means to remove Hun Sen and his CPP from power. It will not be easy, but it can be done. c. There is no question in my mind that, Cambodia can learn a great deal from the experiences of Thailand and Vietnam in fighting and overcoming their own respective foreign aggressions. Their experiences clearly show, that only by fundamentally reforming their society, and by embracing new honest and capable leaders, could they recover from national disaster caused by foreign aggressions. III. Roadmap and Conclusion The main causes for these economic, institutional, legal, political, and social problems in Cambodia rest mainly on the legacy from the past, especially the institution of the monarchy. The Cambodian people’s blindness and irrational trust and belief in the institution of the monarchy incarnated and perpetuated until today, by the concept of the god-king, since the Angkorian era, and exploited by former King Sihanouk for his personal ego and his family’s benefit, also contributes to the practically downfall of the Cambodian society and nation. The pervasive and crushing role of the monarchy combined with the conservative nature of the Cambodian society, such as the belief in prophesies and the rigidity in social organization and behavior contribute to the inertia and the inability to allow new ideas and and capable leadership, and entrepreneurial spirit to emerge. This, in turn, leads to the inability to organize the people to defend and to resist foreign aggressions, especially today naked and unrelenting aggression from Vietnam, and to keep Cambodia perpetually underdeveloped. Only by a progressive and systemic overhaul of the Cambodian society can these problems be gradually being improved, thus allowing the Cambodian people to survive and to prosper. Cambodian Diaspora can and must play a positive role in this challenging and difficult endeavor, by taking full advantage of their freedom and accessibility to education and management and skill formation for the pursuit of material and spiritual well-being, and last but not least, by exercising their constitutional rights to participate fully in the democratic process in those Western democratic countries to influence and to bring about international support to Cambodia. However, the main effort remains in the hands of the Cambodian people themselves to rise up and defend their land and culture . The protection of the rights of the Cambodian people should be extended to include those Cambodians who are now living in the Southern part of Vietnam. Their right, Security, and dignity as a minority must be accepted and respected by Vietnam as Cambodia has already accepted this principle regarding the Vietnamese living in Cambodia.
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