Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Dr Lao Mong Hay's opinion on the relationships with Vietnam

May 6, 2007

Below is the answer provided by Dr Lao Mong Hay to one of KI-Media Readers who asked:

Dr.Lao,

It's all well and good. But what will you do to help get rid of Viet Hanoi and Hun Sen Viet puppet regime in Phnom Penh? What will you do? Answer me, answer me, answer me, please?

It's the role of our historians and other knowledgeable Cambodian fellows to research and publish the histories of both Vietnam and Cambodia, free of all emotions, based on facts. They have scarcely done that. All of us are perhaps too inward-looking.

They need to trace the reasons why the use of the phrase Yuon was banned at one time when Yuon in the old days had no discrimatory connotation at all.

They need to trace the reasons why Khmers are seen as anti-Vietnamse when they talk about the settlement Vietnamese nationals in their country:
  1. Vietnamese are mostly catholic and are defended by their fellow catholic and other Christians?
  2. failure by Khmer historians to expose Vietnamese discrimination against Khmers and Vietnamese hatred of Chinese in Cambodia and in Vietnamese (persecutions of Khmers and Chinese in both countries)?
  3. failure to show that Khmers were and still are victims of Vietnamese expansionism (Namtien-southward expansionism)?
  4. failure to show that those foreigners who say that Khmers discriminate against Vietnamese are themselves or their ancestors were expansionists like Vietnamese (Americans, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, even Indians, etc...)
  5. failure to prove that some 300,000 Vietnamese nationals in Cambodia were sent back to Vietnam and were accepted by the then South-Vietnamese government for resettlement in their homeland, and then only some 10,000 Vietnamese stayed on and were allowed to live on in Cambodia, then under the Khmer Rouge no Vietnamese were living in Cambodia?
  6. failure to show that during the Vietnamese occupation, Khmer authorities were instructed to facilitate the settlement of Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia?
  7. failure to show places of their settlement and sizes of Vietnamese communities on the map of Cambodia,
  8. failure to study contemporary developments in Vietnam (demographic pressure -85 million inhabitants now, land conflicts with hilltribes - Montagnards, economic development, etc..), (etc...)
Because of such failures Khmers who are victims of aggressors have turned out to be seen as aggressors, and have not been able to devise ways amd measures to counters their expansionism.

There is also an unwise policy of granting Khmer or nowadays Cambodian nationality to Khmers who aree indigenous people of South Vietnam. All those Khmers could be pressurised one way or another to leave their homeland to join their motherland in Cambodia, and noboday could help them because, in international law, they are not stateless or refugees. In contrast the Vietnamse government has refused to take back Vietnamse people who have fled their country or who have lived in Cambodia. Look at the boad people who standed at different places in Southeast Asia. Look at Vietmanese who wanted to return to Vietnam after Khmer Rouge attacks in UNTAC times.

I contributed in a small ways to highlighting the issue of Vietnamse settlers in Cambodia at the International Conference on Cambodia in Paris in 1989 that led to the conclusion of the Peace Agreements in 1991. I circulated an official instruction to Cambodian authorities to help Vietnamse nationals to settle down and live in Cambodia. I was bitterly attacked with name calling by the delegate of the State of Cambodia who denied the presence of such Vietnamse settlers. He calimed that those were indegenous Khmers from Vietnam (Khmer Kroms). The Vietnamese delegate wanted to continue the discussions of this issue, but he was replaced and the new Vietnamese delegate did not utter a word about the issue.

At the same conference, I heartedly agreed with the Vietnamse delegate (Vietnamse ambassador to Cambodia) who asserted that the Cambodian problem had existed before the Vietnamese went into Cambodia. But I added that the Cambodian problem had started when Vietnam had swallowed up the Kingdom of Champa in 16th century. The delegates of the State of Cambodia and Vietnam angrily reacted to my reference to the Khmer-Viet relations. They implicated Thailand in the aggression against Cambodia, which made the Thai delegate very angry with them. I was laughfing inside myself.

I happened to encounter the charges of Khmer discrimination against the Vietnamse by Justice Michael Kirby from Australia, the first UN Special Envoy for human rights in Cambodia. He asserted that Vietnamese in Cambodia had lived there for generations and they had their family books to prove their residence.

I told that Australian judge that there had not been any family books before in Cambodia. Such books were the invention of the communists to control people. He was caught off guard there. Then I asked him to enlighten me if there was any international law which determined any number of generations of aliens that qualified descendants of those aliens to the nationality of the country of their residence. He could not give me any answer for there was no such international law. I then taught him a lesson from Cambodian history: if he refered to generations, many generations ago there had been no Vietnamese in South Vietnam for that part of Vietnam had been Cambodian territory. He made a fool of himself by charging that Khmer discrimated against Vietnamse in front of a Khmer who knew a little bit of the history of his country, and also the history of Australia. Many original Australians were convicts, unwanted elements in the society, the English had sent to Australia to serve their sentences there. After serving their sentences they continued to live there. They and other English people expanded their conquest of Australia at the expenses of the Aborigenese. One tribe at least became extinct due to this expansion.

Having said all that, I continue to dissociate myself from any racial discrimination or any form form of hatred.

LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Khmer are Anti-Vietnamese because they intrude and invade Cambodia. Anti is meant not using force and when you are not Anti that's when you start to kill other race like the Hanoi did it to the Chinese when they took over Prey Nokor.

Anonymous said...

Lao Mong Hay, Michael Kirby is of no fool. Maybe, he thought that you are gay, are you?...

Anonymous said...

As a Nation, we cannot limited our friendship with any country. We must have good relationship with all based on bilateral relationship with equal standing and respect to each other through international law, bilateral laws and each internal affairs. We cannot afford to treat each other as ennemy all the time to avoid unecessaries military tensions, hidden agenda against each other etc.. and etc... Areak Prey

Anonymous said...

5:24 PM If you want to fins hidden agenda just look at Cambodia today and tell me who is rich and who is poor. If one want one to respect one, he or she must do the same. Cambodian has and always honest at what she does but opportunist likes to take advantages and knife Khmer into half.

Anonymous said...

Actually, it is the propaganda by
Kings and Queens over the
centuries is what caused the
hatred toward the neighbors, and
because of fear of futher invasion
by foreigners, our Kings and
Queens brainwashed people to keep
them ready for any potential
invasion. I fully understand the
necessity of all that in the stone
age where foreigners would invaded
us, and we would invaded them
whenever possible, but in the
21st century people don't invaded
each other anymore; therefore,
there is no need for the persistent
hatred. We must start to learn
to work with all of our neighbors
to catch up with the rest of the
world.

And for long term peace and
properity, we all must not
commended any King and Queen who
annexed someone else land and
abused the natives for our own
benefit. We, along with our
neighbors, should learn to condemn
such action. That is the only way
we will succeed, no bullshit.

Anonymous said...

I agree and respect your comment 7:23 but until that day comes we must protect our Khmers interest at all costs, for the sake of our future generations, if we are to have a future at all.

ProcheaThepitai

Anonymous said...

I think Louk Pou Lao Monghai has enough resons to explein the issues concerned.

What we need now to heal this contlict or hatred is to Have A Good and Competent Leader with the Good will for the Country. It is time.

Anonymous said...

7:23 PM oh that is nice but also bullshit. I tell you why, people who enjoy the booming and corruption does not want to see people who struggle for their better life too. But also remember that Cambodia is not a nation who like to invade other for benefit or resource we just like what we have but what I see is greedy pigs around us want something that we Khmer tried to preserve. Believe I don't even hate the Yuon but annoy their behavior and how they want to intrude in Cambodia. You think it ok but in a term it is better of for Chinese and Yuon not Khmer. If you have your own country stay there and don't call us, we'll call you instead. Deception is what a myth maker is trying to do just live peace and economic boom. It is not booming for the poor but for the rich and corrupted men. In peace time we are prepare for war. War and civil unrest disrupt and interfere business who want to strive and scoop up everything in Cambodia. You want to know that just look at how much resource and natural environment destruction has Cambodia gone too now. Also remember that businessmen does not care how much damage it has done as long they get the money before they moved on to another. PM Hun Sen is a tool for business people around him believe me I'm right at what I say.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Lao,
We appreciate your input. And as always, we want more of whatever you can think of to point all of us in the right direction. Noticeably, differing opinions do exit and continue to be encountered as we all are exercising our Freedom of Speech. We just wish that our compatriots inside Cambodia had the same opportunity enjoying this universal Freedom of Speech as we all do. With your voice and support Dr. Lao, we hope they will. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Is that what your stupid blue-eyed
professor taught you?

Anonymous said...

Noop! That's is what your motherfucker viets transplanted your brain. Have a good fucking day, Ah lop!

Anonymous said...

Alright then, just thank all the
viets for me because I love their
works.

Anonymous said...

To Vietcong bitch!

The Vietcong like to compare orange and apple!!!The Chinese government oppressed their own people for everything like the one in Tienamen Square which the Chinese people demanded democracy!!On the other hand, the fucken Vietcong are oppressing on a group of people who are none Viet!!!The Vietcong institution is a racist institution which aimed to oppress all non-Viet including the Khmer Krom people!!!This is a Vietcong racial isolation system that the Khmer Krom people are dealing with here! Now you know why the fucken Vietcong are playing double standard here! The Vietcong better not touch the Khmer Krom! The Vietcong better not touch the Khmer Krom!!!The Khmer Krom have to right to live just like any Viet on this planet!!

The Vietcong will go the way of the communist in Poland!!!As far as I am concerned Vietname is just a fucken shrimp among whale and they better behave!!!

This is not the issue of religion contaminated with politics or spies because Khmer Krom people had been demanding their right to freedom of religion since the fucken Vietcong took over before 1949!!!Now the fucken Vietcong act this whole shit of demanding for religeous freedom just happend right now!!!!This is bullshit talk!

The Vietcong will never have a peace and stability!!!!The Vietcong know that they can no longer opppressed and intimidated the 14 million Khmer Krom because it is against God's will!!!The Vietcong racist isolation system will be dismantled soon or later!!!

Anonymous said...

Whoa! Reading all of these comments and the original post, now I know why my people and country remain the poorest and lowest class in the world.
I, your beloved King, demand you all to study more, at least learn how to spell. You all make Cambodians look like savages with your blind hatred and stupidity.

Your Great King,
Sihanouk