“Politics is not fortune telling where fate is seen as a
static situation at one point of time in the future that is pre-determined and
cannot be changed whatever you do or try to do before that happens.”
CNRP president Sam Rainsy, 18
May 2016, The Cambodia Daily
“Cambodians have always
thought their country is more important than it is. They have every right to do
that, but they just have to look and see how many people they’ve got, where
they stand, what natural resources they have and so on. They’re just not a
power to be reckoned with.”
Monash Emeritus Professor David
Chandler, 16 May 2016, Voice of America
“Don't get
involve [sic] with confrontational politics… Unless you’re somebody like Mu
Sochua - she’s got American husband and I think that saves her in a way. She's
very brave, she's courageous, but most people don't have that kind of backing.
You know, putting her in jail with her American husband is just not a good
thing to do, and she's brave. But I don’t think people are going to be brave by
themselves.”
Monash Emeritus Professor David
Chandler, 16 May 2016, Voice of America
“But I
think the Vietnamese – who are not given much credit at all by any Cambodians
for this – stopped the Khmer Rouge. … They [Vietnamese] fought them [the Khmer
Rouge] on the Thai border. They lost several thousand people… this is
extraordinary.”
Monash Emeritus Professor David
Chandler, 16 May 2016, Voice of America
“I mean his
son [expected to succeed Hun Sen] would have to start making deals and
arrangements now, to make sure that he is friends with people who are floating
Hun Sen. That’s the Oknha, the various big business people, tycoons of various
kinds, big interests, make sure that: When my father dies and I come in that
you guys won’t object to this because your financial arrangements will not be
bothered.”
Monash Emeritus Professor David
Chandler, 16 May 2016, Voice of America
Assuming the transcript of your
recent VOA interview is accurate, your statements on Cambodia issues are
fascinating. You may be fortune telling, but you have an unfair advantage: your
critical thinking. You can reach the sum of 2 plus 2, while some others will
have to wait and pray for an outcome that is different from 4.
They are banking on their hope
that international movers and shakers will intervene for their interest or what
they say is Cambodia’s interest. They believe foreign powers owe Cambodia a
proper democracy and human rights.
You are right that Cambodians
think their country is more important than it is. They have yet to realise foreigners
fundamentally act to serve their own interests, not Cambodia’s or anyone else’s.
Currently, these foreigners are focussing on commercial and/or geopolitical
exploitations, and dancing to the tune of whoever in power.
It is perplexing, nevertheless,
that your viewpoints seem inconsistent. After downgrading the effectiveness of
the international community role in Cambodia issues, you go on to claim that Mu
Sochua’s American husband saves her, despite your deep admiration for her
courage. An implication is that Cambodian brave souls can get involved in
confrontational politics, against your advice, as long as they manage to secure
an American spouse. Unless you mean a Caucasian spouse – not just any American
– the suggestion will fall flat, as a number of American-Cambodians arbitrarily
thrown into Hun Sen’s jail is growing.
Anyhow, it is rather interesting
that you claim Vietnam is not given “much credit at all by any Cambodians” for
their sacrifice of several thousands of their people’s lives to topple Pol Pot.
This is a gross understatement of the Cambodian capacity for gratitude and
generosity.
At least, Hun Sen, who
represents half of the voting population, has bent over backward to pay his
debt of gratitude in the past three decades. You may know the Vietnamese armed
forces own the telecommunication cable grid throughout Cambodia, and control at
least 40,000 hectares of economic land concessions conveniently located next to
the common border in addition to many rubber plantations. There have been free
influxes of Vietnamese migrants into Cambodia, and in exchange, outflows of
wood and rice paddy to Vietnam. The list of gratitude and generosity goes on…
Vietnam should be elated with the
list that the other half of voters brand as the list of dangerous way-over-the-top
tributes. They may indeed expect more for their sacrifices to install their
protégé Hun Sen in power and keep him there. You do; and you won’t be
disappointed as Hun Sen promises an eternal gratitude.
Vietnam has done so well that these
benefits will continue even after Hun Sen. Those Oknhas, tycoons, and big
interests that you claim a successor must seek their blessings are just
beneficiaries, not benefactors, of the regime that Hanoi has its finger on the
pulse. They are not the power base – Hanoi is. Hence, Vietnam’s stamp of approval
is mandatory to avoid another Pen-Sovann doom.
Otherwise, your interview is
commendable.
Ung Bun Ang
28v16
Partian Shot
If Hun Sen is right that he is
not responsible for the 1997 coup, then the Vietnamese army must be because it
is the only forces that can so decisively demolish the Funcinpec troops. It is
indeed another episode of sacrifice that goes straight into Hun Sen’s book of
debt of gratitude.
“Somebody asked him [Hun Sen] – this is long ago – in ’97 – they said,
‘Were you responsible for the coup?’… he said, ‘If I’d been responsible, they’d
all be dead.’ That’s what he said. ‘They’d all be dead. There would be no
surviving Funcinpec.’”
Monash Emeritus Professor David
Chandler, 16 May 2016, Voice of America
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