Daran Kravanh, center, visits with those attending his fundraiser including Sue Felix, right, of Port Orchard, Sunday January 6, 2008. Kravanh's plans to run for prime minister of Cambodia. (Janet Jensen/ The News Tribune)3/5/2008
Ruby de Luna
KUOW Radio Station Transcript (Univ. of Washington, USA)
Nearly three years ago, KUOW introduced you to a Cambodian musician who lived through the horrors under the Khmer Rouge regime. Daran Kravanh survived the killing fields by playing accordion. His story and music were featured in the documentary, "Crossing East." These days, Kravanh is busy organizing from his home in Tacoma, to be the next prime minister of Cambodia. KUOW's Ruby de Luna has this update.
DARAN KRAVANH NEVER PLANNED ON RUNNING FOR OFFICE. HE'S A MUSICIAN. BY DAY HE WORKS AS A STATE SOCIAL WORKER. BUT THE THOUGHT OF JUMPING INTO POLITICS CHANGED WHEN KRAVANH RETURNED TO CAMBODIA IN 1997. HE HAD BEEN AWAY FOR NEARLY A DECADE. IT WAS A BITTERSWEET TRIP. HE SAW A LOT OF OLD FRIENDS, FELLOW SURVIVORS...
KRAVANH: "This picture I went to the place where the Khmer Rouge killed me. This person, he survived too. I said, wow! you survived—me too!"
KRAVANH SAYS WHAT HE SAW IN CAMBODIA MADE HIM SAD. THERE WERE NO JOBS. EVERYWHERE HE WENT HE SAW POVERTY. IN HIS HOMETOWN OF PURSAT, THE RICH WILDLIFE THAT HE REMEMBERED FROM HIS YOUTH WAS GONE.
KRAVANH: "I didn't see even one monkey, one bird, one deer, everything like empty. That surprised me; I feel disappointed and start angry. I said this country not supposed to be like that."
MEMORIES OF THAT TRIP STAYED WITH HIM. LAST FALL KRAVANH LAUNCHED HIS CAMPAIGN. HE FORMED THE KHMER ANTI-POVERTY PARTY. KRAVANH SAYS ELECTION LAWS THERE DON'T ALLOW CAMPAIGNING UNTIL ONE MONTH BEFORE ELECTION DAY. UNTIL THEN, KRAVANH SAYS HE DOES ALL HIS CAMPAIGN–RELATED BUSINESS BY PHONE—JUST ASK HIM ABOUT HIS PHONE BILL.
KRAVANH: (Laughs) "I have two cell phones, include home. They're really high, yeah."
AND IT'S NOT JUST HIS PHONE BILL. HE'S RACKED UP MORE THAN 40 THOUSAND DOLLARS IN CREDIT CARD DEBT. OBSERVERS SAY KRAVANH, OR ANY CANDIDATE OUTSIDE OF THE RULING CAMBODIAN PEOPLE'S PARTY, HAS A LONG SHOT OF WINNING.
STEINEMANN: "I think there are real concerns about the dominance of the ruling party, CPP."
NAMJI STEINEMANN IS WITH THE EAST WEST CENTER IN HAWAII. SHE SAYS AFTER DECADES OF CIVIL UNREST, CAMBODIA HAS REACHED SOME STABILITY. THE CURRENT PRIME MINISTER, HUN SEN, HAS BEEN IN POWER SINCE 1985. BUT THE COUNTRY IS STILL TRYING TO FIND ITS POLITICAL FOOTING.
STENEMANN: "The concerns range from unequal access to the media by all political parties since the CPP the ruling party, really controls the airwaves. I think there's also non–transparency of campaign finance issues…the ruling party controls much of the resources."
ANOTHER CHALLENGE IS VOTER APATHY. STEINEMANN SAYS THERE'S A SENSE OF RESIGNATION THAT THE SYSTEM ISN'T GOING TO CHANGE. AND CAMBODIANS GENERALLY ARE RELUCTANT TO TALK ABOUT THEIR POLITICAL VIEWS OPENLY—A LEGACY OF THE KHMER ROUGE PERIOD. THAT DOESN'T DISCOURAGE DARAN KRAVANH. HE ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HE'S SHOOTING FOR THE MOON, BUT HE SAYS THE SKEPTICISM ONLY FUELS HIS DETERMINATION.
KRAVANH: "You not just sit and want to change. No way. You have to take action and motivate yourself and go for it and do it. If you don't do it, you have nothing."
THESE DAYS KRAVANH SPENDS HIS TIME TRYING TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT HIS PARTY, AND RAISING MONEY. BEING NEW TO POLITICS, HE'S CALLED ON CONGRESSMAN NORM DICKS' OFFICE FOR ADVICE. KRAVANH'S WIFE BREE, SAYS THEIR LIFE TOGETHER HASN'T BEEN THE SAME SINCE HE DECIDED TO RUN FOR OFFICE. HIS TIME HAS BEEN SO CONSUMED.
BREE KRAVANH: "It feels a little bit like sacrifice in that my own needs have become secondary. And to see my husband not even be able to eat dinner without talking on the phone at the same time, I don't even remember the last time we sat down for dinner without him spending time on the phone, but to see the joy that he has when he's with people, encouraging people, it's really worth that sacrifice."
THE KRAVANHS PLAN TO RETURN TO CAMBODIA IN APRIL FOR THE NATIONAL CONVENTION LEADING UP TO THE ELECTION IN JULY. I'M RUBY DE LUNA, KUOW NEWS.
DARAN KRAVANH NEVER PLANNED ON RUNNING FOR OFFICE. HE'S A MUSICIAN. BY DAY HE WORKS AS A STATE SOCIAL WORKER. BUT THE THOUGHT OF JUMPING INTO POLITICS CHANGED WHEN KRAVANH RETURNED TO CAMBODIA IN 1997. HE HAD BEEN AWAY FOR NEARLY A DECADE. IT WAS A BITTERSWEET TRIP. HE SAW A LOT OF OLD FRIENDS, FELLOW SURVIVORS...
KRAVANH: "This picture I went to the place where the Khmer Rouge killed me. This person, he survived too. I said, wow! you survived—me too!"
KRAVANH SAYS WHAT HE SAW IN CAMBODIA MADE HIM SAD. THERE WERE NO JOBS. EVERYWHERE HE WENT HE SAW POVERTY. IN HIS HOMETOWN OF PURSAT, THE RICH WILDLIFE THAT HE REMEMBERED FROM HIS YOUTH WAS GONE.
KRAVANH: "I didn't see even one monkey, one bird, one deer, everything like empty. That surprised me; I feel disappointed and start angry. I said this country not supposed to be like that."
MEMORIES OF THAT TRIP STAYED WITH HIM. LAST FALL KRAVANH LAUNCHED HIS CAMPAIGN. HE FORMED THE KHMER ANTI-POVERTY PARTY. KRAVANH SAYS ELECTION LAWS THERE DON'T ALLOW CAMPAIGNING UNTIL ONE MONTH BEFORE ELECTION DAY. UNTIL THEN, KRAVANH SAYS HE DOES ALL HIS CAMPAIGN–RELATED BUSINESS BY PHONE—JUST ASK HIM ABOUT HIS PHONE BILL.
KRAVANH: (Laughs) "I have two cell phones, include home. They're really high, yeah."
AND IT'S NOT JUST HIS PHONE BILL. HE'S RACKED UP MORE THAN 40 THOUSAND DOLLARS IN CREDIT CARD DEBT. OBSERVERS SAY KRAVANH, OR ANY CANDIDATE OUTSIDE OF THE RULING CAMBODIAN PEOPLE'S PARTY, HAS A LONG SHOT OF WINNING.
STEINEMANN: "I think there are real concerns about the dominance of the ruling party, CPP."
NAMJI STEINEMANN IS WITH THE EAST WEST CENTER IN HAWAII. SHE SAYS AFTER DECADES OF CIVIL UNREST, CAMBODIA HAS REACHED SOME STABILITY. THE CURRENT PRIME MINISTER, HUN SEN, HAS BEEN IN POWER SINCE 1985. BUT THE COUNTRY IS STILL TRYING TO FIND ITS POLITICAL FOOTING.
STENEMANN: "The concerns range from unequal access to the media by all political parties since the CPP the ruling party, really controls the airwaves. I think there's also non–transparency of campaign finance issues…the ruling party controls much of the resources."
ANOTHER CHALLENGE IS VOTER APATHY. STEINEMANN SAYS THERE'S A SENSE OF RESIGNATION THAT THE SYSTEM ISN'T GOING TO CHANGE. AND CAMBODIANS GENERALLY ARE RELUCTANT TO TALK ABOUT THEIR POLITICAL VIEWS OPENLY—A LEGACY OF THE KHMER ROUGE PERIOD. THAT DOESN'T DISCOURAGE DARAN KRAVANH. HE ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HE'S SHOOTING FOR THE MOON, BUT HE SAYS THE SKEPTICISM ONLY FUELS HIS DETERMINATION.
KRAVANH: "You not just sit and want to change. No way. You have to take action and motivate yourself and go for it and do it. If you don't do it, you have nothing."
THESE DAYS KRAVANH SPENDS HIS TIME TRYING TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT HIS PARTY, AND RAISING MONEY. BEING NEW TO POLITICS, HE'S CALLED ON CONGRESSMAN NORM DICKS' OFFICE FOR ADVICE. KRAVANH'S WIFE BREE, SAYS THEIR LIFE TOGETHER HASN'T BEEN THE SAME SINCE HE DECIDED TO RUN FOR OFFICE. HIS TIME HAS BEEN SO CONSUMED.
BREE KRAVANH: "It feels a little bit like sacrifice in that my own needs have become secondary. And to see my husband not even be able to eat dinner without talking on the phone at the same time, I don't even remember the last time we sat down for dinner without him spending time on the phone, but to see the joy that he has when he's with people, encouraging people, it's really worth that sacrifice."
THE KRAVANHS PLAN TO RETURN TO CAMBODIA IN APRIL FOR THE NATIONAL CONVENTION LEADING UP TO THE ELECTION IN JULY. I'M RUBY DE LUNA, KUOW NEWS.
11 comments:
Kravanh gets a lot money from fund raising. Then he will go to Cambodia where he has not had any contacted with pple inside.
errr...
I know his party will not make it far. This man is only looking for a chance to get on board with the CPP. He will be blinded by girls and money. In the past, he had used money from a fundraising event toward his personal spending instead of the purpose it was intended for.
Agree with you 107pm
Morphing from a social background into political office in my country, that is a significant inroads, don't you think?
We certainly can use this guy to mob our toilets.
Please all our compatriots. Please do not trust this guy. I know him very well like the palm of my hands. He lied a lot and he inflated himself a lot. He has nothing upstair. I can tell exactly what he hads in his mind.
1/ Power hungry. He tried to get on the board in hoping to get a good position with CPP. All his friends are CPP Generals such as Keo Kim Yan originally from Pursat, Say Bo Than, the brain of CPP is his Guru etc..Becareful he will bring us to Hun Sen all our nationalists. This is the strategy of the communist, to clone Daran as another party but is still Hun Sen clone.
2/ He will get a lot of monies from the fundraising, possible million of dollars. Then after the election, he will spend for his personal needs. Ho is the auditor to check his fundraising account ??
3/ His second wife, Bree is a piroquet. She just believed Daran with blind eyes. Remember, Daran had a Cambodian wife with 2 children And now he walked out from his first wife and to to live with Bree (Married?).
No Cambodians in Washington believe and trust him at all. So watch out.
Is it not democracy about?
Let him try though he won't make that far, but at least he gets fame, money to get young girls in his bed, and villa with cute maids.
Hey, dude, again, we could use this guy to mob our toilets.
wow, a new con artist, got his hand full of greendolaar, hah? man he is so koooot. no crimes but clean. LOL
God damn it, gorilla! What's on your plate for your economic blueprint?
How many times do I need to repeat myself that you don't need to foray into political arena when you can clean the public toilets with a minimum wage (this would be a significant milestone for you and your supporters).
Daran Kravanh is up to no good. He "racked up more than 40 thousand dollars in credit card debt"? How will this man lead Cambodia if he can’t even manage to control his personal credit card debt? I suppose this guy is looking into a new scheme on how to fool the American, to raise enough money to pay off his debts, and an opportunity with the ruling party, CPP. This man can only fool the Americans who are not aware of exactly what happened during the Khmer Rouge regime. Again and again he lied with a straight face about his survival by playing an accordion during the Khmer Rouge regime.
To those who are sabotaging Mr. Daran Kravanh credential, and trying to put the cold water over his quest to help Cambodia, your negativity, biased statements, and sabotages toward him are untrue. You should not be jealous of him because you cannot do like him. Americans and Cambodian Americans are very smart people and they won't buy your nonsense- or may I say your jealousy. What do his debt, and leaving his former wife have to do anything with his quest for the good of Cambodian people? At least you are Cambodians and you should be proud to see our Cambodian rise. He is not Hun Hen puppet or clone. In fact, only Mr. Daran Kravanh has the pure heart, soul and dedication for his people and his beloved country- Cambodia. Those nay sayers are pure bunch of jealous worms.
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