Op-Ed by Khmerization
Originally posted at http://khmerization.blogspot.com
"The Khmers Krom are the original inhabitants and the rightful owners of the lands they are living in now. But they have always been maltreated by the occupiers, the Vietnamese. On the contrary, the Viet settlers are illegal aliens who have come to take Khmer resources which would have gone to the Cambodians who are getting poorer and poorer."The report (click here) about the Vietnamese delegation given free access to illegal Vietnamese settlers living in Cambodia has raised my eyebrows, not because I’m against it, but because of the hypocrisy and the unequal treatment from the Vietnamese authorities toward the Cambodian delegation visiting Khmers Krom a few months back. The delegation, which was led by MP Son Chhay, was not given free access to visit any temples, places or groups of Khmers Krom. The movement of the delegation was restricted and it was only given access to a few chosen temples and certain groups of Khmers Krom. All Cambodians should be outraged by this unequal treatment.
But this unequal treatment happened because the present Khmer government allowed it to happen. If the Khmer government takes a firm stance Vietnam would not have treated the Khmer delegation in such an insulting fashion.
The sensitive issue of the Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia has been a forbidden subject for any Cambodians to talk about. The subject has been a taboo and many Cambodians, in particular at the leadership level, are afraid to talk about it for fearing of international condemnation and afraid of being accused as a racist Viet-basher. Every time a Cambodian talk about the issue of the Vietnamese illegal immigrants in Cambodia he/she is accused of being engaged in racial incitement.
On the contrary, the long, deep sufferings of the Khmers Krom have received no public or international attention. The complaints and the cries of the Khmers Krom for international help have met with silence and gone unheard. Their sufferings and maltreatments, often at the hands the Vietnamese authorities, have gone unheeded and met with silence and inaction from the international human right protectors.
The analogy above has been made because of the hypocrisy of the international human rights organisations. While the illegal Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia have always received attention and protection from these rights groups, the sufferings of the Khmers Krom, who were and are maltreated at the hands of the Vietnamese authorities, have not. The difference between these two groups is a stark contrast. The Khmers Krom are the original inhabitants and the rightful owners of the lands they are living in now. But they have always been maltreated by the occupiers, the Vietnamese. On the contrary, the Viet settlers are illegal aliens who have come to take Khmer resources which would have gone to the Cambodians who are getting poorer and poorer. These settlers have always been treated better by the Cambodian authorities and the Cambodian population. And on top of that they receive the protection of the rights groups.
Having said all of the above, do I sound like a racist and a Viet-basher? No. I am only speaking my mind about the status quo and the reality. I advocate a peaceful co-existence between the Cambodians and our neighbours, particularly the Vietnamese. But co-existence must be based on mutual respect that lead to mutual benefits to both. Exploitation and taking advantage by any side from the other will cause irreversible mistrusts, as was the case with the Vietnamese.
What I want is for Vietnam to accord the same treatments, if not better, to our Khmer Krom brothers and sisters as Cambodia has accorded the Vietnamese settlers. They must be allowed to practise Khmer culture and learn Khmer language without fearing persecution. Land confiscations must be stopped and Khmer parliamentary delegations must be allowed to visit them, from time to time, without restrictions. I am of the opinion that if mutual respect can be restored, the mistrusts and the centuries-old hatred will be reversed and mutual trusts can be re-established. Then peaceful co-existence will naturally follow.
Having said all of the above, I am not a racist.
8 comments:
if this report is true, i suggest call upon the current cambodian gov't to ask them this question as why they don't help to support the quest for the indigenous khmer krom people like the illegal vietnamese immigrants in cambodia who get the rights for their own gov't to support them. this is not fair and the cambodia gov't should answer questions about this without fear and humiliation.
Hello 10:11
I agree with the article that the current Khmer gov' is to blame. Stupidity is a harsh word yet it well applies to the character of the current Khmer government. It knows what and where regarding the ill treatment of the Khmer Krom by the evil Yuons. But the Hun Sen administration knowingly ignores it. This administration can also be call a trator to its own bloodline and it should be done away with.
I think trust only work in one direction between the two nations and that is Cambodia trust the Vietnamese while the Vietnamese is taking full advantages of the fact that Cambodian in Cambodia are powerless and are not too concern about the well being of the indigenous people Khmer Krom rights and well being.
While Cambodian in Cambodia offering thanks to the Vietnamese liberation of Cambodian people from the Khmer Rouge regime in January 07 of 1979? Cambodian are too busy celebrating such National (Gratitude) Holiday, Khmer Krom are living in maltreatment by these so called “Hero of January 07”.
Vietnam and its’ installed government know exactly what it takes to keep the majority of people in Cambodia well under the poverty line; lack of food, lacking the opportunity for education and health care. If the majority of Cambodian remain under the poverty line, they will not have the time to think of other Cambodian (Khmer Krom) living in Vietnam.
Any Khmer Krom right activist leave Vietnam for Cambodia will be arrested and send back by the Vietnamese government.
As long as the Vietnamese installed government remains in power, justice for Khmer Krom will not be heard.
The reason the Cambodian leaders can’t seem to solve the Khmer Krom issue is that the Cambodian leaders are behaving as little children and they continue to look at the Vietnamese leaders as their parent since the 1800 and up to the present!
The reason why these Cambodian leaders continue to behave as children are somewhat a mystery but there are two things that I can point out about the qualities of Cambodian leaders is that all of them came to leadership position as young and uneducated fool with no real life experience whatsoever! For example, when Sihanouk became King and he was only 18 years old! Do you think that 18 years old King has the knowledge of economic, geopolitics, Cambodian geography, and the psychology of Cambodian people in dealing with their bigger neighbors such as Vietname and Thailame? If comparing Cambodian leaders to the Vietnamese leaders and the Vietnamese leaders are much older, more educated, and have more experience and were able to understand the magnitude of the situation way before the Cambodian leaders who can't even think of anything!
Another example would be Hun Sen and he became Prime Minister at the age 33! Hun Sen is one of the most uneducated Cambodian leaders after King Sihanouk because he never received any formal education and all his life he was a simple soldier who was train to kill and to destroy!
King Sihanouk and Hun Sen as Cambodian leaders also have something in common and they both were installed by foreign power to serve the foreigner interest!
I just don't know why through out Cambodian history and Cambodia always has what you called a mismatch or a generation gap of Cambodian leaders when comparing to other world leaders such as the Vietnamese leaders! The line of Cambodian leadership are too choppy and too disconnected and it seems that there is no knowledge base from the previous generation of Cambodian leaders for the next generation of Cambodian leaders to learn from and in most case all of Cambodian leaders are trained by their former enemy! This is a joke but that is the reality that Cambodian people are facing right now and how can Cambodian people deal with the enemy when the enemy trained their leaders? It seems that these Cambodian leaders chose to see the Vietnamese leaders not just a teacher but also being a parent to them that explain why the Khmer Krom people can never be solved by the current Cambodian leaders! But I still believe that one day the Khmer Krom issue will be solved once in for all!
Most Cambodian leaders are Semi-pro like Jackie Moon and they want to be professional so bad!
lol. they sure are devoting a lot of time to becoming a pro. I think at a certain point you have to realize its not working a quit right?
where's the Vietnamese promise of amnesty of some Khmer prisoners for the Tet (new years) ? Our 6 monks is still in jail!
Useless Khmer government!
it ought to be a two-way street, here. it's just not fair that the vietnamese gov't can do this for their economic refugees in cambodia while our gov't (to be fair as well) not bother to do anything about the flights of the indigenous khmer krom people who are the original owners of the land they now occupied going back thousands of years ago when all of the southern vietnam was a khmer territory. it's just not fair to us, to say the least. i advocate for a new group of khmer politics to bring this question to the cambodian gov't as to why they so allow the vietnam gov't to do this while ignore or pretend that cambodian people don't want the same for our fellow khmer krom to get the same treatment from gov't in cambodia. it's just not fair, and everybody can see that this is taking advantage of cambodia, totally. please question persistently, the cambodian authority about this - allowing the vietnamese to do this in cambodia while the vietnamese is denying the same rights for cambodian people to do the same in the mekong delta area of khmer krom. something is wrong with this picture!
Vietnam government considers and treat the Khmer in South Vietnam as Vietnamese citizens. Therefore, it is illegal for any foreign organization to meet, to interact with Vietnamese citizens if Vietnam government explicitly forbids.
Now, the Vietnamese folks in Cambodia are not considered Cambodian citizens, therefore Vietnam government can meet and greet these folks.
If you don't want the Vietnamese government to interact with these people then treat them as your citizens.
Don't ask me why they are in Cambodia. That's is another can of worms. But you must respect the Vietnamese citizenship and sovereignty. Leave the Khmer in South Vietnam alone.
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