A Self-Destructive Trait

[Alternatives Watch]

Alternatives Watch – 20viii09


A SELF-DESTRUCTIVE TRAIT


Cambodia clings to a trait that has proved to be arguably self-
destructive. For whatever reason, Khmers fight it out among themselves
to the end; yet, when facing foreign challengers they become
submissive, if not passive.

There seems to be a need for prime minister Hun Sen to display his
undisputed power by bashing his critics. His latest boast is that his
army can take full control of Phnom Penh in just two hours, leaving
his opponents no room to hide. The court he controls has sent them
into hiding, exile, or forced dissembling apologies. His security
forces are mainly for cracking down demonstrations and evicting the
poor from their land targeted for redevelopment.

Conversely, he displays enormous tolerance to foreign adversaries. He
agrees with Thailand that the border dispute is to be resolved
bilaterally and peacefully, allowing it to drag on, if not
inconspicuously escalating. On the eastern front, the border
demarcation has been left to Vietnam who is willing to provide
cartographical and global positioning system technologies, softwares,
and installation of border posts. As a majority shareholder in a new
joint commercial venture, Cambodia Angkor Air, Hun Sen has left the
whole business operation to Vietnam who appoints all Vietnamese to the
entire board of directors. Even the Khmer language is missing from the
airline’s website, which contains only Vietnamese and English.

The mass murder of the Khmer people was so undemanding that it must
have made Pol Pot feel invincible to the extent that he would treat
his arch-enemy Vietnam with contempt. Perhaps the snap Vietnamese
military campaign that ousted the whole Khmer Rouge regime within
weeks serves as reminder to Khmer leaders to keep their brutality for
their own citizens.

The internal hostilities in the Lon Nol republican regime signify the
urge within the elite to defeat each other, even when facing external
threats. Their continuous conflicts marginalised their effort to fight
two fronts in the country: the North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge
troops, which made their downfall predictable.

Sihanouk also exerted his unequivocal power onto his people. He
orchestrated the national congress – legally it represented no one and
had no judicial power – to summarily convict and sentence his
opponents to death. The image of the opponents being shot by firing
squads was filmed and shown in movie houses throughout the country.
While the persecution of his Khmer opponents was definite and
decisive, Sihanouk’s vital foreign policies were essentially based on
hope. He backed and actively assisted Hanoi in the Vietnam War only
with a hope that, upon their victory in South Vietnam, the communists
would respect Cambodia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He had
no ground plan to ensure Hanoi would honour its promise to respect and
leave Cambodia out of its control.

This self-destructive trait is not limited to the above cases; the
urge to beat their own kind at any price has been overwhelming for
centuries. If there were some tolerance for Khmers and less blind
submission to foreign adversaries, Cambodia could be pleasantly
different.


Ung Bun Ang



Quotable Quote:

“Foreigners fooling about in others' civil wars are a menace. They
excite baseless hope of a fair, lasting peace.”

Woodrow Wyatt (1918–1997), British journalist and writer.
News of the World.