When a Decision is Made by the Flip of a Coin

Political Cartoon by Sacrava

July 28, 2006
By KA Golden West Press

From the beginning of time, storytelling has been the principal means by which our Khmer leaders used to encourage every Kaun Khmer to teach one another. Historically, we had learned from fables, parables, folk stories, and historical events, etc. and passed these down to the next generation. Khmer had been going through conflicts with the neighboring countries for over two centuries now. Every time we went to war with neighboring countries we lost lives and land. Our history books and invaluable documents were either burned or stolen by those enemies. It appears that the majority of learning of Khmer historical events has been handed down for eons in the form of storytelling. Telling stories and listening to stories from our childhood remains with us as primary means by which we judge and decide issues as adults. They are forever imbued in both parts of our conscious and subconscious mind. Experts have concluded that the most effective structure for any argument will always be a story.

There are popular Khmer historical accounts widely believed to be true in our Khmer society. During one of the many wars some Vietnamese soldiers captured thousands of Khmer Kampuchea Krom people as slaves to build the irrigation canal system for them. Thousands of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom people were relentlessly forced to dig a canal, it was then called, “Chum Nik Prek Teng” (Vinh Te Canal). It runs approximately 53 kilometers long and 25 meters wide, and it started from Bassac River to the Gulf of Siam. The irrigation system started some time in 1813 but by the time it finished in 1820, thousands of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom people were brutally and systemically tortured and killed. In one barbaric incident, the Vietnamese soldiers captured three Khmer Kampuchea Krom slaves and buried them up to their necks and built a fire between their heads placing a cooking stove on top so that the Vietnamese soldiers could boil water to serve tea to their Vietnamese masters. It was a deliberate attempted by the Vietnamese soldiers to show inhumane punishment so that others would not dare to escape. "Be Careful Not to Spill the Masters’ Tea" is the bitter historical and political slogan, which had been significantly used as a story by Khmer parents to remind the younger generation of their history.

In another vicious incident, the Vietnamese soldiers shackled Khmer Kampuchea Krom slaves by the ankles and locked them up into row of pillories. Each pillory held about 20-40 people and there were at least about two to five thousand Khmer workers were locked by their ankles and were ordered to stand in row at the base of the canal. Eventually, the Vietnamese soldiers opened the canal door and water rushed in filling up the canal, and drowns all those Khmer Kampuchea Krom slaves.

In another Khmer historical account, in the early 1800’s, there was a war broke between Kampuchea and Siam. The Siamese soldiers invaded and occupied Angkor Wat (City), they had control over the provinces of Battambang, Preah Vihea, and Siem Reap, and captured approximately 150,000 Cambodian scholars to be slaves, shackled them by their ankles, and brought them back to Siam to help them build their country. In 1867, the Siamese agreed to have those provinces under the French Protectorate. By 1907, the Siamese handed over those provinces back to Kampuchea but was still under the French Protectorate.

With the Khmer historical accounts aforementioned, for years now, our Khmer compatriots from Cambodia, abroad, as well as from Khmer Kampuchea Krom are telling our Khmer historical facts to the United Nations so that they could give us some assistant in finding justice for us. Unfortunately, due to the lack of credible sources, our future hopes and dreams seem bleak.

However today, before we can tell an effective story to others, and convince them of our beliefs, we must first have monumental credible sources, evidence, and/or references (i.e. articles, recorded of oral history, newspapers, medias, books, documentations, records, audiotapes, films, and physical evidence, etc.) to prove the story that we are telling is true. Take for instance, in a criminal case, if the state, although, has presented with a compelling story but didn’t have a clear and convincing evidence to substantiate the claim against the defendant than the state failed to prove it case “beyond a reasonable doubt”. Therefore, the defendant is a free man.

The recent Khmer genocide/ethnic cleansing from 1975 to 1979, gives us the best window of opportunity for providing hard evidence by our Khmer people. In the highest form of tragedy that not only Khmer went through and suffered from, but it also had a great impact on the international community. The Khmer genocide/ethnic cleanings is recorded in the world history books and taught in most languages. To sum up the world is being educated about our Khmer atrocities. The world is our eyes and ears and they would help us make informed decision to make sure that this kind of inhumane event would not happen again to our Khmer people and not anywhere else in the world.

Let briefly capture this historical event. There was this “mysterious” regime with soldiers dressed up in black, and green and black Mao caps, a black-and-white krama hung loosely around their necks, and with black rubber shoes made from car tires. They came and slaughtered our Khmer people. Those soldiers were so mysterious and vicious that even our King and our Khmer leaders had to escape to other countries and sought asylum. Thousands and thousands of innocent Khmer people were stripped off their liberty and freedom and most tragically, their lives were viciously taken away by [that] "mysterious" regime. They had no other choice, but were commanded and put to death by execution: by an axe, a hoe, suffocated in plastic bags, physically beaten and tortured (had their finger and toe nails pulled out, force to drink fish sauce, urine, and ate their own feces, tied up by their limbs and left hanging for days, strangled, and maimed and left to die, etc.), some were forced to dig their own graves and some were buried alive, died of starvation, illness and disease, some were dissected alive far more cruelty than the killing of animals, babies were stabbed by bayonets, and some were stricken their heads against the rocks and tree trunks.

The victims’ remains – bones, skulls, and mass gravesites should not and must not be disturbed. They should be well preserved and kept in the museum not only for future Khmer generations but also for the international community to expand their educational research to prevent a similar atrocity from happening again. The following are some proposals as what to do with those victims’ remains – bones, skulls, and mass gravesites:

a) Utilize those mass gravesites to examine, record, and rewrite our Khmer history not only to educate our Kaun Khmer for many more generations to come but also to educate the international community about our atrocities and history,

b) Museums would generate millions of dollars in state revenue

c) Utilize the revenues to build more education institutions:

• School of Psychology; School of Social Work; School of Politics and Public Policy, School of Khmer History, Culture, and Literature;
• Design standardize school curriculum to teach our younger generations from K-12, College, and University;
• Offer study abroad and foreign student exchange programs
• Spend on food programs in K-12;
• Provide scholarships for those Kaun Khmer who would want to pursue higher education

d) Have a National Day of Remembrance

Let take a closer look at the recent tragic events that occurred in the United States and examine how the leaders in Washington took the initiative diplomatically in responding to this event. On September 11, 2000, the United States lost three thousands of its own innocent citizens. There were eleven Al Qaeda highjackers in four airplanes; two airplanes flew into the twin towers world trade centers in New York, one crashed into Pentagon, and the other one crashed in Pennsylvania.

The leaders in Washington attempted every possible means to build diplomatic relations with other countries around the world to combat terrorism. On the other hand, scholars, local authorities, as well as the general public from all areas of expertise held meetings, conferences, and encouraged open forum discussions, and gave motivational speeches and encouragement to plan on designing appropriate curriculum, articles, magazines, books, documentaries, and movies to teach the younger generations of Americans in schools about terrorism. Trucks were loaded with pieces of rubbles of the twin towers world trade centers, taken across the United States to every major American city to give those American citizens who did not have the opportunity to travel to the actual site to see part of the destructions. In addition, the site has been rebuilt as a historical site and museum. Every year, there are ten of thousands of tourists who come to visit the ground zero. Currently, scholars have been debating and planning to build skyscrapers, which they hope would fare better than the last ones.

In the past, the Khmer people never had a chance to examine the facts. Now we have an opportunity to do so. With all the man power we have now, Khmer can do far better. Together these eminent politicians, lawyers, and historians, engineers, teachers, etc., we can address one of the most important historical questions of our time.

We always want to remember in the hearts and minds of all Khmer that this past “mysterious tragic event” would be remembered by our future Khmer generations. We would also like to have them examine the real physical evidence and read our history books, documents, films, and connect to the world, etc. Frankly, it would not hurt us to wait for another three to five more years for the tribunal to be completed. As a matter of fact, the primary objective of the Khmer Rouge tribunal was diplomatically agreed and paid for by the international community so that the Khmer Rouge Tribunal would convene to serve justice for Khmer people.

Despite whatever the adjudication rendered by the court may be, once the trial is over, the Khmer people will make the collective decisions as to what to do with those bones, skulls, and mass gravesites. We would consider all possibilities that would clearly serve the best interest of Khmer and Khmer nation. We must not allow this important decision to be finalized by any one particular individual or group.

Khmer compatriots agree that when it comes to politics, those who claimed themselves as [leaders] have possessed “wild imagination” and “quixotic ideas” about who should run the country and/or how the country should be run. Interestingly enough, when it comes to take action in pursuing for political and security interest of the nation, majority of them appear to shy away. Obviously, we also agree that it is very difficult in dealing with a person who has a “coin flipping amoral attitude”.

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Note: KI-Media would like to sincerely thank the author of this article for sharing with our readers.