Business as usual with Cambodia
Pacific Daily News | 5 December 2015
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, feeling the pressure of growing
opposition to his long rule, announced in mid-November that if the
leader of the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party Sam Rainsy
returned to Cambodia from a trip abroad, he would be arrested.
Rainsy’s
decision to delay his return to Phnom Penh after having made a
declaration that he “absolutely” would return to Cambodia “to save our
country” and that “Even if I die, it doesn’t matter, I will die as a
Khmer,” has been used by Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian
People’s Party to paint Rainsy as an untrustworthy demagogue who should
be disregarded by voters before the communal and national elections in
2017 and 2018.
In a column on Nov. 20, I gave Rainsy an A-plus for
his courage, but I expressed my fear of his being bloodied senseless,
even at the airport, by Hun Sen’s goons, who previously beat and kicked
two opposition lawmakers in plain sight in front of the National
Assembly while police looked on. A physically injured Rainsy might not
be able to lead the struggle effectively.
Useless dead heroes
I
recalled in the article the controversial political guideline I
attached to the Armed Political Propaganda and Clandestine Operations
units I created in the course of military resistance operations in
Cambodia in 1987 — “Dead heroes are useless. Stay alive to fight another
day.” I was actually sailing against the current then, as conventional
training taught men to fight to the last drop of blood.
The don’t-be-dead-heroes guideline became a topic of discussion among Khmers in the country and abroad.
While my article last month received favorable responses, a variety of opinions are posted on the Internet.
Since
my departure from active service in the noncommunist resistance in
1989, I have not been affiliated with any political party. Still, I have
not hidden my political preferences. I dislike oppression of any kind.
Death not the worst
I
find it strange that many critics of Rainsy are Hun Sen’s antagonists.
Rainsy is a “coward” some say, and lacks the courage to face “only a
two-year jail term”; Rainsy “needs to return to Cambodia (where) 10
million Rainsys are behind him”; Rainsy broke his promise to his “1.8
million Facebook fans” (as if they are robots unable to think
differently?), etc.
Am I actually witnessing Hun Sen’s “willing
executioners”? One remark rattled me: “Dying for freedom or going to
jail isn’t the worst that could happen. Running away from followers is.”
The
56 signers of the Declaration of Independence of the United States knew
they were committing treason against the British Crown: five were
captured and tortured as traitors; nine died from wounds and hardships;
two lost their sons who served in the Continental Army; two had their
sons captured; 12 had their homes pillaged and burned.
I reflect
on how words come so very easily when one lives in an air-conditioned
home and never faces death or jail for his or her political beliefs, and
thank heaven for giving me the honor and the privilege to serve with
many in the resistance for nine years yet to have lived to fight again
today against oppression.
More than one way
One
reason Hun Sen remains in power is because the international community
continues “business as usual” with the regime. Nations will continue to
passively support the Hun Sen regime until an organic Cambodian movement
foments necessary political change.
I’ve previously referenced
the documentary film, “Cyber-democracy: Cambodia, Kafka’s Kingdom” by
award-winning filmmaker Ellen Grant. The film is a potent tool in the
fight to unseat Hun Sen. Please share it widely among like-minded
persons and organizations.
Though the film is being submitted to
international festivals, limiting its circulation, a short English
version of the film titled “Cambodia online: Cyber-democracy at Risk” is
available here. The video has been broadcast by the Weekly Roundup of the Asian Human Rights Commission and can be seen here, using the password: Cambodia. Meanwhile, the documentary in the Khmer language is available on YouTube.
As
the great Irish statesman Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
GaffarPeang-Meth, Ph.D.,
former deputy chief of general staff of the Khmer People’s National
Liberation Armed Forces, taught political science at the University of
Guam for 13 years. Retired in 2004, he now lives in the U.S. mainland.
He can be reached at peangmeth@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment