Fw: Reactions of readers affirm goal

[Kirk Tan]

"Cambodia is slowly changing the Khmer landscape --  politically, economically
and culturally" secondary to "the uncontrolled immigration of industrious Vietnamese," wrote professor peang-meth . This assertion has been a chief political issue that is discussed everywhere across Khmer community regionally, nationally, and internationally. I have also noticed that the discussion often leads  most likely to emotional distortions, which in turn contributes to disappointments and sometimes insomnia while other times violent thoughts. I think that is bad especially when one cannot debate the issue in a way that is civilized and intellectualized and productive.

 

So my reaction to your writing today is as followed: To be continued!

 

 

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Gaffar Peang-Meth <pean...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tue, May 24, 2011 10:26:03 AM
Subject: Reactions of readers affirm goal


PACIFIC DAILY NEWS
May 25, 2011

Reactions of readers affirm goal

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth

First, my apologies for not having answered all emails: It's  physically
impossible. Second, to my friends on Guam: Thank you for  seeing that what I
write about Cambodia can be universally applied (my  former comparative politics
students at UOG can smile). Third, I wish to  announce that beginning in July I
will decrease my writing in this  space from weekly to biweekly to have time to
meet other obligations.

Reactions  from readers, Cambodians and non-Cambodians, to what I write (and do 
not write) have been educational for me. I write to share what I know  and to
provoke thoughtful debate. So, the positive and negative  reactions I received
affirm that my goal is attained: I am able to shake  the resting mind to ask
questions. Most would agree that one who does  not question is intellectually
dead and cannot know how to proceed.

From  what readers write, I am confident that "how" one thinks determines the 
kind of world in which one finds oneself. "What we think, we become,"  Gautama
Buddha said 2,500 years ago. The concepts have been reiterated  in different
ways by many, including Mahatma Gandhi and Barack Obama's  "Yes, we can!"

How one thinks does not mean shooting off one's  mouth under the guise of
protected free expression. A well-reflected  thought is a far cry from a
fleeting opinion. Among many things, to think involves using the mind to
imagine, inquire, interpret, relate,  evaluate, compare and analyze. A school of
thought urges that we not be  satisfied and settle for an answer, even if it is
so clear and so logical, but to keep asking questions until we reach a horizon
with a  panorama of answers from which the best one can be chosen.

American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., once said, "Rarely do we 
find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking." He also said:  "There is
an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked  solution," and
"Nothing pains some people more than having to think."

King said that in the fight for freedom and equality, "Change ... comes 
through continuous struggle" and that no man can ride on them "unless your back
is bent." He said: "We must straighten our backs and work for  freedom."

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think
critically," King said, which consists of thinking in creative ways and
assessing and evaluating if the thinking and the action lead one closer to
one's goal.

The "questing mind" has been a focus of Burmese human rights icon Aung San Suu
Kyi, who  explained in "The Voice of Hope" that an inquisitive mind is necessary 
in the struggle for rights and freedom. She urged her people to question if the
status quo is good enough or are there other things better and  possible. She
used Buddha's teaching not to accept karma and urged,  "Don't just sit there. Do
something!"

While an American reader is critical of Cambodians playing the Vietnamese card
against Premier Hun  Sen, and not working on forging unity among democrats
against the dictatorship, some Cambodian readers' worries about the
Vietnamization  of Cambodia are not without foundation. I share the opinion that
the failure of the democratic opposition in Cambodia to unite is a near-fatal
flaw and that the uncontrolled immigration of the industrious Vietnamese into
Cambodia is slowly changing the Khmer landscape --  politically, economically
and culturally.

Another American reader wrote to point out, correctly, the necessity to
distinguish between the worry about Khmer ethnicity and race facing the
Vietnamese neighbors to  the east, and the "nationalism" card, so successfully
exploited by Hun  Sen against the Thai neighbors to the west over the long
disputed 11th  century Preah Vihear Temple. Hear, hear.

I hear, from time to time, from some in the Hun Sen regime, and though I
disagree with their  association and their work for the dictatorial government,
I don't doubt some folks in Hun Sen's civilian administration and military
sincerely love Cambodia and want the country to be free, independent and 
democratic, with justice and rights for the people. Those who are close to
politics and the action every day may not be as happy as they seem.

My concern is not how a despised totalitarian system can be ended but with 
whom that regime might be replaced. I believe that changes in attitudes and
value are a prelude to regime change in a deep rooted culture that values
"korup, bamreour, smoh trang" -- "respect, serve, be  faithful/loyal."
Cambodians' adherence to traditional class, rank, role  and status relationships
that perpetuate a superior-inferior and  master-servant system is incompatible
with a successful democratic political culture.

As I fear the resurgence of Pol Pot's mentality of authoritarianism, an
ideology that condones the wanton killing of people with different views, I am
concerned with a growing tendency among some Cambodians to disdain and corrupt
the value of education.

A  Cambodian in the U.S. with a connection to the ruling Cambodian  People's
Party told me with sadness that because Hun Sen is condemning  the Khmer
Republic, young Cambodians are missing "a whole section of  Khmer history" in
their lives. He asked me to help explain the 1970 to  1975 events.

But last week, a blogger in Cambodia counseled at the  end of my article on
Buddha's teaching that I stop writing about the  Lon Nol regime because Lon Nol
is despised. Oh, dear. Has Hun Sen succeeded in altering the recounting of
historical events?

A friend's email from Phnom Penh included one word -- "education" -- in capital
letters three times.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him
at pean...@yahoo.com.

http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201105250300/OPINION02/105250316