Friday, August 21, 2009
Pattaya People (Thailand)
Will work together on many issues
On Thursday morning, Lieutenant General Kanit Sapitak, the Commander-in-chief, of Region 1, along with Lieutenant General Boonseng, the Commander of military Region 5 of Cambodia, chaired the opening ceremony of the agreement to develop the cooperation between Thai-Cambodian borders. The event was held on August 20-21, 2009 at Cozy beach hotel in Pattaya. The agreement is for the two countries to cooperate on many issues, under the supervision of a regional border committee, including: 1. Maintaining a peaceful border 2. Suppressing illegal narcotics, 3. Preventing vehicle theft, 4. Stopping the human trade and street kids problems, and 5. Reducing illegal alien workers.
On Thursday morning, Lieutenant General Kanit Sapitak, the Commander-in-chief, of Region 1, along with Lieutenant General Boonseng, the Commander of military Region 5 of Cambodia, chaired the opening ceremony of the agreement to develop the cooperation between Thai-Cambodian borders. The event was held on August 20-21, 2009 at Cozy beach hotel in Pattaya. The agreement is for the two countries to cooperate on many issues, under the supervision of a regional border committee, including: 1. Maintaining a peaceful border 2. Suppressing illegal narcotics, 3. Preventing vehicle theft, 4. Stopping the human trade and street kids problems, and 5. Reducing illegal alien workers.
5 comments:
Aug 22, 2009
Subject: Seminar By Khmer M’Chas Srok Movement in Long Beach
Dear Khmer M’Chas Srok Movement,
Your initiative is commendable and I hope a large number of Khmer population in the Long Beach region will make extra effort to actively participate or attend the seminar. As for the seminar itself, it is vital to focus on the real and important issues and to ultimately find workable solutions to those issues.
The seminar should not become an anti-CPP gathering or a CPP bashing session as it only serves to intensify the frustration and widen the gap among Khmer people. Obviously, anti-CPP does not necessarily equate to patriotism. Khmers abroad, either in Britain, France, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand …etc are well informed of the current issues in Cambodia, and they don’t want to come to a seminar to hear what they already knew. But what they would like to hear is how to fix those issues and/or how they can realistically help.
It is important that the seminar goes beyond the traditional witch hunting, and takes an objective approach to problem solving. Make a clear distinction between what is desirable and what is doable, while emphasizing on the inspiration and empowerment rather than pessimisms.
Last night, I was reading an academic paper entitled: “Serial Colonialism and Genocide In Nineteen-Century Cambodia” by Ben Kiernan. It is a very interesting paper and I would encourage every Khmer to read or study it. In that paper, Ben described how Khmer people suffered, struggled and survived during the invasions and annexations of Cambodia by the Vietnamese emperor Minh-Mang and Thai emperor Rama III during 1750-1850 period.
A good lesson to retain from that paper is that despite total isolation, repeated invasions and occupations by outnumbered Vietnamese and Thai armies, Khmer people during that times continued to persevere culturally and mentally, never gave up the fights, and were resilient enough to use Vietnamese occupation forces against the Thai army and vice versa on several occasions.
Today, Cambodia continues to face the threats and dominations from her neighbouring states. But she has a better chance to survive, thanks to the globalization, information technology and her current population that exceeds ten millions. Khmer population in Cambodia not only grows in number with times, but are also better educated and are more aware of national and international affaires, a key factor to the survival of our nation.
An increasing number of her population living abroad has returned to the native land with greater wisdom, competitive and advanced skill sets, and disposable incomes. Those Khmers who are living abroad contribute to strengthen Cambodia image on the world stage. Cambodia is now better known to the world because her population abroad has visibly become the fabric of many Western societies.
As our population are geographically dispersed through out different continents and countries, it is natural that we speak, think and behave differently. We must consider these differences as our treasure and collaborate with each other to turn these differences into our strength. That is exactly what the Jewish people are doing, and look how powerful they are in the world today.
It is utmost important for us to strengthen the bonding between our people – Khmer Krom, Khmer Kandal, Khmer Loeu and Khmer Overseas to safeguard our nation and identity. Unlike during the 1750-1850 era, Cambodia today does not have to struggle alone. We have potential allies – China, USA, EU and world opinion/media on our side. We must diligently and correctly align our foreign policy in order to survive and prosper.
, and together, YES, WE CAN!
Khmer Academy
khmeracademy@gmail.com
PS: KI - I would really appreciate if you can post this comment on your front page. Thanks.
11:58 PM
I fully support your comment. We Khmer have to keep our Khmer identity and proud to inform the world, who we are.
although as much as i'm not so fond of siem or thailand, i think having frequent dialogue like this together is good for debate and finding a sound solution to international conflict between the two countries. the more meeting and dialogue like this the better for not only regional stability and peace, but for finding a sound solution as well. please be open minded and learn from all side. listen to each other's point of view and then discuss about it or debate about it is one of the best way to solve problem, if not the only way. anyway, siem must respect cambodia's view as well, and definitely stop bullying cambodia and bias against cambodia. that's a start and would help a lot in working with cambodia.
khmer be firm with siem, youn and liev - all of them are historical enemies of cambodia and khmer people, really. khmer lost a lot of our ancestors' lands to these greedy neighbors, to say the least! remember history!
plus, cambodia is now changing and developing fast in many way, so siem should stop looking down on cambodia just because we went through tough time while siem enjoy the benefit of economical prosperity by itself. keep in mind that a lot of things has changes since then and can't ignore cambodia in all of this. because you'll be sorry later! who to say good time last forever? we can say the same for bad time, too! god bless cambodia.
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