By Nhim Sophal
Cambodge Soir
Unofficial Translation from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read Cambodge Soir’s original article in French
In Kampot, the political parties involved in the campaign for the commune election are targeting most of all the Cham ethnic fishermen who are Muslim and are holding the majority. These fishermen demand that the candidates finally come down hard on poachers from the neighboring country.
Kampot province – Beyond the political rifts, the candidates who participate in the 01 April commune election have at least one thing in common: in a maritime province, such as Kampot, it is imperative for them to court the fishermen for a hope of winning. In the commune of Troeul Ko which consists mainly of Cham fishermen, the four main political parties – the CPP, the SRP, and to a lesser extent, the Funcinpec and the NRP which are facing logistics problems – are holding public forums dedicated to the problems of the violations of Cambodian maritime territories perpetrated by the Vietnamese fishermen. When it comes to looking for votes, the techniques used are all the same from one of the political spectrum to the other.
60-year-old Aim Yeat who is on the top of the SRP list, explains at the end of a broadcast of a recorded message from party President Sam Rainsy, his campaign strategy. Each day, he goes door-to-door with the 14 other candidates on his party list, to explain his party’s program in the commune: fight against the intrusions of Vietnamese fishermen by mobilizing the administrative services involved. He recalled the incident which took place at the end of 2005 pitting Vietnamese and Cham fishermen, and causing several deaths and injuries. According to him, the local authorities, the CPP, did not a lift a finger [to intervene] and they even blame the incident on the Cambodian fishermen.
The speech is more or less the same on the CPP side. Nak Sen, a representative of 300 fishermen families and a CPP official, explains that through his action at the head of the community, he prevented “90% of illegal fishing by the Vietnamese in Cambodian waters.”
Sorng Sovat, the top of the Funcinpec list in the commune, admits that his party is facing difficulties to lead the campaign since its rift with those faithful to Prince Ranariddh. However, he also plans on asking the government to resolve quickly this problem with the Vietnamese fishermen. He hopes to preserve his seat, the only one in his party, which was won during the last commune election. Back then, the CPP took 4 seats and the Funcinpec took the remaining one. The NRP did not take any action in the current commune election.
If numerous people in the commune are not interested at all about politics, and that they are dedicated to their fishing work, some are nevertheless following the campaign, hoping that their daily difficulties will be resolved. Loh Ry, who just returns from fishing, explains that he wants to have a “good” commune council that listens to its constituents, but who do not claim membership to any party. “The new commune chief must intervene as soon as there is a problem at sea with the Vietnamese fishermen who use illegal equipments and destroy our resources. Before, I could bring back five kilos of fish every day, today, it’s only 2 or 3 kilos. Those who ask for our votes must do all they can so that the generation of our children will have something to eat,” he explains. Loeup Mat, another fisherman, recalls that “Khmer Islam” people do not own land to plant crops, they depend mainly on fishing.
Ly Moeut, a third fisherman, denounces the authorities’ inaction following the 2005 incident. “We sent a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to intervene, but the issue is still going nowhere. I call on the new commune council to take care of this issue,” he warned before denouncing the passivity of the current commune council.
Kampot province – Beyond the political rifts, the candidates who participate in the 01 April commune election have at least one thing in common: in a maritime province, such as Kampot, it is imperative for them to court the fishermen for a hope of winning. In the commune of Troeul Ko which consists mainly of Cham fishermen, the four main political parties – the CPP, the SRP, and to a lesser extent, the Funcinpec and the NRP which are facing logistics problems – are holding public forums dedicated to the problems of the violations of Cambodian maritime territories perpetrated by the Vietnamese fishermen. When it comes to looking for votes, the techniques used are all the same from one of the political spectrum to the other.
60-year-old Aim Yeat who is on the top of the SRP list, explains at the end of a broadcast of a recorded message from party President Sam Rainsy, his campaign strategy. Each day, he goes door-to-door with the 14 other candidates on his party list, to explain his party’s program in the commune: fight against the intrusions of Vietnamese fishermen by mobilizing the administrative services involved. He recalled the incident which took place at the end of 2005 pitting Vietnamese and Cham fishermen, and causing several deaths and injuries. According to him, the local authorities, the CPP, did not a lift a finger [to intervene] and they even blame the incident on the Cambodian fishermen.
The speech is more or less the same on the CPP side. Nak Sen, a representative of 300 fishermen families and a CPP official, explains that through his action at the head of the community, he prevented “90% of illegal fishing by the Vietnamese in Cambodian waters.”
Sorng Sovat, the top of the Funcinpec list in the commune, admits that his party is facing difficulties to lead the campaign since its rift with those faithful to Prince Ranariddh. However, he also plans on asking the government to resolve quickly this problem with the Vietnamese fishermen. He hopes to preserve his seat, the only one in his party, which was won during the last commune election. Back then, the CPP took 4 seats and the Funcinpec took the remaining one. The NRP did not take any action in the current commune election.
If numerous people in the commune are not interested at all about politics, and that they are dedicated to their fishing work, some are nevertheless following the campaign, hoping that their daily difficulties will be resolved. Loh Ry, who just returns from fishing, explains that he wants to have a “good” commune council that listens to its constituents, but who do not claim membership to any party. “The new commune chief must intervene as soon as there is a problem at sea with the Vietnamese fishermen who use illegal equipments and destroy our resources. Before, I could bring back five kilos of fish every day, today, it’s only 2 or 3 kilos. Those who ask for our votes must do all they can so that the generation of our children will have something to eat,” he explains. Loeup Mat, another fisherman, recalls that “Khmer Islam” people do not own land to plant crops, they depend mainly on fishing.
Ly Moeut, a third fisherman, denounces the authorities’ inaction following the 2005 incident. “We sent a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to intervene, but the issue is still going nowhere. I call on the new commune council to take care of this issue,” he warned before denouncing the passivity of the current commune council.
4 comments:
CPP protects the Viet fisherman not Khmer Cham. Now we need regime change. Therefore vote for Sam Rainsy if you want to see the problem solved. When SRP wins the election, the Viet needs to go to South before we crashed you again like Khmer Rouge did to you.
Dear Khmer:
I ask for your votes to help CPP win this election.
We're better to protect Vietnamese fishermen because CPP was helped by our Vietnam brother to make this nation secure. We need Vietnam to protect us for future aggression by other country. So please vote for CPP.
Thanks for your vote.
From H.R. Sok Ann.
I had seen many of these Cambodian fishing problems with the Vietcong poachers first hand! All the Khmer not just Khmer Islam complained about the same fucken fishing issue for years if not decade and AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave can't seem to stop the Vietcong from entering Cambodian land and sea illegally!!!!!!!
These Vietcong fishermen equipped with modern fishing boats and scuba diving equipments and of course back by Vietcong marine and navy!!!
Now let compare to Cambodian fishermen! Cambodian got the most outdated fishing boat and many of these Cambodian fishermen don't even have scuba diving equipment to catch those big lobsters! What make it so sad is that these Cambodian fishermen even got chased by the Vietcong marine or navy for fishing in their own sea!!!
I would like to know does AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave authorities ever chase the fucken Vietcong fishermen for fishing illegally in Cambodia??? Of course not because AH HUN SEN is the Vietcong slave!
Voting for the CPP??? You got to be joking!! This is a fucken decade old Cambodian fishing problem and AH HUN SEN can't seem to do a damn thing with the Vietcong!!!!Do you really thing AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave will give a fuck about eating fish???
This mother fucker eat fucken lobsters shipped directly from Vietname!!!!
God bless Cambodian fishermen!!
Great job 11:05 I agree Ah Sen Khvak give ah youn communist everything you can imagine, including the rigths to chase the Cambodian fisherman from Cambodian water. This sick. Khmer cannot fish in Khmer territory. Youn or Thai can fish in Tonlesap or whereever they want to. It seems like Cambodia belongs to Youn already. Vote See Pee Pee to kill more Khmer?? unless you are retarded like Sok An or Ah Sen's thugs. Never vote for the killer. SRP is the only hope for Khmer survival. Please vote SRP every Khmer patriot. Give Rainsy a chance, you will give your future a chance. Thank you for your support.
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