Fwd: The KR Tribunal in a Cambodian Context

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Donald Jameson

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Feb 5, 2012, 7:52:53 PM2/5/12
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Some thoughts off the top of my head as I near the conclusion of a very productive, if at times depressing, visit to Cambodia. I hope it will still be here for future visitors like myself to enjoy but it seems to me that this is becoming at least questionable. Best regards, Don

Begin forwarded message:

From: Donald Jameson <djam...@rcn.com>
Subject: Re: The KR Tribunal in a Cambodian Context
Date: February 5, 2012 7:39:34 PM EST
To: Sos Kem <sos...@yahoo.com>

Dear Sos: This was just a thought off the top of my head but it is depressing to see the ugliness that is creeping into the Cambodian countryside now.  From Phnom Penh to Kampong Speu it has become just one new factory or other large building after another. There are almost no rice paddies left in this area and the rest of Route 4 all the way to Sihanoukville is getting pretty commercialized. Now this is creeping south on Route 3 toward Angtassom and of course on Route 5 almost all the way to Oudong. Cambodia is a small country and some say that nearly 50% of the land has already been leased to foreign investors of some sort, even in places like Banteay Meanchey. Cambodians risk becoming foreigners in their own country and an underclass that performs labor for outside interests of all types. Cambodians survived the Khmer Rouge but now look in danger of being swallowed up by the modern world, some elements of which claim to be trying to help them recover from the KR by imposing a foreign conceived judicial process on them which most apparently neither want nor understand. At the least this is a rather ironic development and it raises questions about whether many of those in the West who clam to sympathize with the Khmer really understand what they are doing. Some of them are sensitive to Khmer culture and are doing good work helping to preserve the music and the dance but many of them seem t be here for their own reasons rather than to assist Cambodians in continuing to be themselves. 

Probably this is an exaggeration but it is a thought that comes to mind when one looks a what is now happening. And of course the Cambodian government is not helping by persisting in the maintenance of a patrimonial, patron-client political system that is more appropriate to the medieval era than a modern developing society. In a way they are destroying their own country without seeming to realize this or even have the slightest concern about the consequences of what they are doing. The next step in this impending disaster is likely to be the fallout from a contested transfer of power, which many thoughtful Cambodians now fear and could among other things lead to a new civil war that might open up the opportunity for Thailand and/or Vietnam to make further incursions into Cambodian territory in the name of restoring security or protecting their own interests, just as the Vietnamese did with Pol Pot. They can both claim to be protecting their own citizens living in Cambodia and it is almost certain that the Thai have their eyes on the goldmine of Angkor should any excuse arise for them to reassert their old claims to that part of the country. I hope Cambodians are not on the way to resembling the Maya, the Aztecs and the descendants of Champa. Best regards, Don

On Feb 5, 2012, at 4:07 PM, Sos Kem wrote:

Don,

What you see, think, and feel about those people is interesting. I hope they will be educated enough to go along with the world and protect themselves without being swallowed. Sos
 




Sos Kem

1310 South Oakland Street
Arlington, Virginia (VA), 22204
USA

From: Donald Jameson <djam...@rcn.com>
To: Martin Stuart-Fox <m.stu...@uq.edu.au>
Cc: David Chandler <dpcha...@mac.com>; Charles Twining <chtw...@yahoo.com>; Sos Kem <sos...@yahoo.com>; Gaffar Peang-Meth <pean...@gmail.com>; Rennie Silva <rennie...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 5, 2012 5:05 AM
Subject: Fwd: The KR Tribunal in a Cambodian Context

FYI. I am beginning to think that most westerners are incapable of understanding that Cambodians may have different priorities than they do. This seems very arrogant and echoes the colonialist view that the natives have to be taught the "truth" about life. As I was traveling back from Kampot this afternoon through the picturesque Cambodian countryside, which is rapidly giving way to huge factories and ugly new buildings with no character of any sort, i was thinking that the end result may be that Cambodians will just go extinct, absorbed by a globalized world culture that many of them do not understand and will not accept. There may be a few pockets of Cambodia left in isolated places like Kratie or Preah Vihear but for all practical purposes what is left on the soil of Cambodia may be something different, which real Cambodians will find it hard to recognize. That is already happening in Phnom Penh I think and it is sad. Best regards, Don

Begin forwarded message:

From: Sam El <nels...@yahoo.fr>
Subject: Re: The KR Tribunal in a Cambodian Context
Date: February 5, 2012 4:23:29 AM EST
To: Donald Jameson <djam...@rcn.com>

Cher Don,
Encore une fois, vous avez raison
If you have time and opportunity, visit Phnom Voar, you can Hatien on the near horizon
Bones vacancies !
Nel
Sent from iPad.

Le Feb 5, 2012 à 2:52, Donald Jameson <djam...@rcn.com> a écrit :

FYI. On second thought maybe it is for the best that the vast majority of the Cambodian population are being left out of this. The foreigners and the western education elite can have their fun with the KR Tribunal and the real Cambodians can go on with their lives largely undisturbed by the whole process, which is of course what Hun Sen wants. But the idea that this is doing something to help the vast majority of the Cambodian population come to terns with anything is preposterous. At the best the KR Tribunal will leave a legacy of information and documentation for some future generation of better educated and more worldly conscious Cambodians to fall back on in understanding their history. But even that is a very long shot. Meanwhile the money and effort going into the KR Tribunal could be much better spent on the education that will hopefully help to bring Cambodians as a whole into the modern world. Bottom line, the world is indeed imperfect and at best is making only halting steps toward changing that. Best regards from Kampot, Don

Begin forwarded message:

From: Donald Jameson <djam...@rcn.com>
Subject: Re: The KR Tribunal in a Cambodian Context
Date: February 4, 2012 7:52:54 PM EST


Dewar Drew: What you say makes a lot of sense but most of the people in the cities now are also from rural areas, attempting to find a way to survive since there is nothing for them in the countryside, which is stagnant and becoming overpopulated. Those people also have the same views about the KR Tribunal. The point is that the people running the Tribunal do not seem to understand this. The whole thing is directed at the small western educated elite and foreigners, The Cambodians have different ways of solving their problems. So the idea that this process is doing something to help the Cambodian people find justice for what the KR did is very questionable. Don't you think more effort should be made to do something that is relevant to the population at large rather than putting on a show for a small minority and outsiders? Anyway that will never happen so we will just have to live with what we have. The world is a very imperfect place and this is just one more example of that. Best regards, Don

On Feb 4, 2012, at 1:13 PM, Drew wrote:

Seems to me you two guys writing back and forth to each other-- and
us-  are just describing different parts of the elephant.  You know
that, right? Except you seem not to... intent on proving your
respective points are the whole story. What occurs to me:  It took me
quite a while in VN to realize how great the divide was between
Vietnamese living in the city states here and there, and most of the
people in the vast rural zones that Americans knew so little about.  A
farmer in Tuy Hoa- where I spent a month working on a documentary--
referred to urban Vietnamese as "foreigners."  My landlady in Saigon
asked me a couple of times to go speak with a Vietnamese Catholic
intellectual down the street... he wanted to show me his document
describing a "third way."  He asked me about conditions in the rural
areas.  He had no clue what was going on in his own country.  Of
course the rural Cambodians give those kinds of answers because gossip
is all they have to inform themselves with, really.  Which is not to
say the tribunal is worthless.  Imagine if there were such a thing in
the USA... one could travel around asking Americans, so what do you
think about all those atrocities in Vietnam?  And the answers would be
as ignorant and uninformed as those from the rural Cambodians.  And
the solution that Donald offers would be just as appropriate:
education, education and more education.

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Chhang Song

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Feb 6, 2012, 8:42:20 PM2/6/12
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Dear Don and Sos,
 
I am very sick of hearing about the Khmer mentality of being absorbed by the Thais and by the Vietnamese and of following the fate of the Chams, and now you've added the Maya, the Aztecs... I have heard it for over half of the century, yet Cambodia is has survived in spite of it all. Some of the people of this line of thoughts may even discover how good it feels when they stop hitting themselves on their own toes.
 
Besides, you'd know very well that if I cannot make it to the Khmer Rouge Court at this time, it is not because of the "lack of interest" from my part in the prosecution of these murderers; and I am sure there are people besides you and James Pringle who are very interested in the proceding. That may depend, I would suggest, to the portion of the population we address ourselves to as I have heard of important groupes of interested people attending some of these sessions.
 
Regretfully, I am not well enough to dwell into good details of this issue. Love and regards, Chhang Song.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Chhang Song is the last Information Minister of the Khmer Republic (Cambodia 1970-1975). He has retired from active duties, yet currently serves as an Adviser to the Royal Government of Cambodia. Since his stroke in June 2010 he moved to a nursing home at 3850 E. Esther Street, Long Beach, CA. 90804, USA. Cell: (562)607-3870. E-mail: chhan...@gmail.com

Carl Robinson

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Feb 6, 2012, 8:52:24 PM2/6/12
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Good on you, Chhang Song !   Great to hear from you.   I demand Don Jameson drop by Long Beach for a personal briefing upon his return to America. 

Cheers,

Carl

Donald Jameson

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Feb 6, 2012, 9:23:34 PM2/6/12
to vietnam-...@googlegroups.com, Sos Kem

Dear Song: Thanks for your comments. Khmer abroad who fled from the KR are no doubt among those most interested in the KR Tribunal, for obvious reasons. But the vast majority of Khmer here in Cambodia have moved on. They have other things to preoccupy them and they do not see any connection between the Tribunal and their personal interests. Maybe they should but they do not. I am just describing reality on the ground as I see it, after a lot of footwork and effort to find people who care about this. After a while one just has to conclude that they are simply not there. Best wishes for your health, Don
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