Khmer Mchas Srok Movement of Minnesota holds its first conference

Mr. Sean Masavang and Dr. Chak Sakhon of the Khmer Mchas Srok Movement (Photo: KMSM Minnesota)
Audience participating in the conference (Photo: KMSM Minnesota)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Report by Khmer Quorum
Originally posted at http://khmerquorum.blogspot.com

On March 22, 2008 in Minnesota, although heavy snow and slippery roads, about 150 Cambodian Americans excitingly came to a conference to listen to a long but very important speech from Dr. Chak Sakhon, a General Representative of the world Khmer Mchas Srok Movement. The conference started from 1:00 PM to 6:10 PM, interrupting with applauses from the audiences and brief video shows.

After a brief welcome speech by Mr. Cheat Hungsa, a president of the KMSM of MN, Dr. Chak Sakhon and Mr. Sean Masavang deliver a key speech to the curious audiences outlining all significant issues that our nation is facing today. With enormous evidences from her studies and researches, Dr. Sakhon explains and convinces our Cambodian American audiences that our beloved nation is in a great danger of losing its independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national identity.

The great threat posed to our nation now is millions of illegal Vietnamese immigrants who have been granted full rights as Cambodian citizens to vote. Dr. Sakhon has projected that about 30 percent of registered voters would be Vietnamese in this 2008 election. Along with the rights to vote to decide the Khmer fade, those Vietnamese are free to form their associations in 19 provinces throughout the country. These Vietnamese associations are powerful and cannot be touched or monitored by the Khmer authority. In contrast to the illegal Vietnamese in Cambodia, our Khmer Krom people who have lived on their homeland for generations are not allowed to do the same thing as the Vietnamese in Cambodia.

Furthermore, Dr. Sakhon points out why too many illegal Vietnamese immigrants are in Cambodia. The answer is because Heng Somrin and Hun Sen had signed a number of illegal and unfair treaties with Vietnam--a 25 years Vietnam and Cambodia friendship treaty 1979, 1982 treaty that lost sea water and a number of islands including Kash Tral, 1982 Decree requiring Khmer authority to take care and support Vietnamese immigrants in the country, 1985 treaty that lost border land, and finally a 2005 additional border treaty that has legalized all previous treaties albeit the Paris Peace Accord required the Cambodian government to nullify all previous illegal treaties.

In addition to the unfair treaty with Vietnam, Dr. Sakhon raises another issue about the so-called Triangle Development Zone among the three countries in Indochina--Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Dr. Sakhon calls, “the first legal step toward Indochina Federation.” When they create this free economic zone, the Vietnamese are free to do businesses and settlement in our three provinces. And a combined population of Laos and Cambodia in a combined six provinces in this Free Economic Zone is less than half a million compared to the population of the three provinces in Vietnam in this zone by more than 6 million. For instance, when your family has only one child, and then you put all your property in common with the other family which has ten children. Who is the gainer and who is the loser? In this game, Khmer and Laos are clearly the losers.

Along with a fearful Vietnamese influence and trick on our nation, the natural resource destruction and negligence by the current government is another important key note in her speech-- deforestation, negligence of oil resource and islands in the Gulf of Thailand, and a lack of transparency in revenue collection from Angkor Wat and other tourist places. Dr. Sakhon emphasizes that if we manage our resources carefully and effectively, we can earn enough hard currency to sustain our economic growth and raise a living standard of our people without depending on foreign aids and loans. Currently, the government generates national debt more than $6 billion, and this enormous debt will create a big burden to our children for generations.

Another factor that creates poverty in our country is corruption. Cambodia is well- known as the most corrupt country in the world. Corruption has spread all over the country from the top to the bottom levels of government officials. Corruption costs hundred of million dollar a year for the state budget. Corruption has created more poverty--more than 5.5 million Khmer people live with less than $1 a day and the other 3 million live in extreme poverty with no land, proper shelters, clothing, and food. Also, corruption keeps the government from raising salaries to all civil servants to a livable level.

Finally, Dr. Chak Sakhon focuses on the KMSM’s major policies and goal. She explicitly declares that KMSM is not a political party but a political movement. The KMSM adheres to a principle of non-violence and a use of legal means. As a non-political party, the KMSM does not participate in an up-coming general election. However, the KMSM supports all political parties which have the same mission as KMSM’s. The KMSM encourages all Khmer people to vote for any political party which serves and defend our nation from foreign influence and promote human rights and a rule of law.

During her speech, Dr. Sakhon makes an analogy of the KMSM as a drop of water which dropped on a top of a mountain, but an ultimate place of this drop of water is an ocean. To reach an ocean, this drop of water will face with numerous obstacles such as rocks, stones, trees, and logs. However, those obstacles naturally cannot stop a drop of water from reaching an ocean but merely slowing it down. In the same way, nobody can stop the KMSM from reaching its goal -- independence and sovereign peace for our nation -- but only to slow it down.

After a long passionate speech, the conference moves into a question and answer session. A number of audiences including representatives from few political parties and Khmer Krom Federation raise many concerned questions related to the current situation in our country and the goal and policies of the KMSM. The conference is concluded at 6:10 PM following with food and beverage serving.