Strength Through Unity

By Son Socheat
Prey Nokor News Vision
Vol. 2, No. 93
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

“When Khmer unite, Khmer survive, when Khmer are divided, Khmer die!”

For a country to be able to display its culture, civilization, developing economy, political stability, independence, freedom, and that its people is living in peace, depends on the unity between the people and the national leaders for such unity is the strength to protect the country’s national interest and to provide true nationalist ideal and conscience.

This factor leads to progress in the society and no foreign powers could lead any aggression against such country. Among the many populations in the world, the Khmer people are as well known as any other nationalities, we used to be a powerful nation and a superpower in Southeast Asia during the Angkor era. Our Khmer empire used to have a brilliant civilization, our lands were vast, we built magnificent temples throughout our lands, and Angkor Wat is one of such marvels. Furthermore, the Khmer people practice our own customs and traditions and we maintain them until now. Because of our plentiful cultural heritage, other countries acclaim the Khmer people and our renown spread far and wide throughout the world.

The reason such condition took place during that era was the fact that Khmer people were united with their leaders who have high nationalistic ideals. Furthermore, contributions from the Khmer people in the development of their country and their strong commitment to national defense made it such no country was able to undermine our society.

Therefore, the unity strength plays a major role in our accomplishments. Unity strength can take many forms in a human society, however, philosophers tend to distinguish two types of human unity strength: (1) the unity strength to build a country and (2) the unity strength to destroy a country.

It is quite regrettable that our Khmer kingdom has significantly changed from its original state through the invasions and aggressions from neighboring countries, as well as the occupations of Khmer lands and provinces by the Siamese and Yuons. With the lack of unity among the Khmer society and a leadership that is no longer in tune with our population, corruptions, briberies, personal interests led to disputes, struggles for power and genocide among our own people. Currently, our Khmer people are furthermore disunited, we do not trust our own people and we tend to trust foreigners instead. A group of Khmer leaders even went on to ask for help from the Yuons, while another group went to fetch help from the Siamese force to fight one another. In the end, only the Siamese and Yuons were the ones who benefited from our discord, meanwhile, our Khmer people only knew deaths and foreign occupations and rulings, and our lands were also divided among the Siamese and the Yuons.

A portion of our lands along the west is under the Siamese occupation, whereas our lands along the east, the current Kampuchea Krom, are under the colonial occupation of the Yuons. Gradually, our lands shrunk and our people soon lost our rights to administer a large portion of our lands. Just as the saying goes: No foreigner will love Khmer more the Khmer people.

Therefore, we, as the Khmer people, must reflect and wonder why a number of countries in the world are moving forward? Why these countries can maintain political stability, security, economic progress, independence, territorial integrity, freedom and true democracy? I believe that happiness in the society happens when the country’s leadership and the people are united in order to maintain a perpetual protection of the national interests. As indicated above, in the past, our Khmer society used to have a renown civilization and morality, and we used to be a superpower in Southeast Asia, but later on, due to our unsettling political status, a number of Khmer leaders, government officials and people, as well as Khmer Buddhist monks, sold their ideals to foreigners, i.e., while they are still Khmer in name, their national conscience was bought out to serve the foreign interests. Even as we speak, a number of Khmer people, including some Khmer Buddhist monks, have lost their conscience, they are drunk with power, titles, money, the ranks conferred to them by the foreigners, and they unashamedly bring suffering on their own Khmer people. Such is the case for example of the so-called 7 Makara monks led by Tep Vong, Non Nget, Sao Chanthol, Long Kim Leang, Am Lim Heng, Noy Chreuk and Chies Om. The 7 Makara monks have no qualms in defrocking Venerable Tim Sakhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den North Pagoda, located in Kirivong district, Takeo province, and they even handed the venerable to the Yuon authority to have him jailed in Vietnam on 30 June 2007.

It should be noted also that, among the 7 Makara monks who defrocked Venerable Tim Sakhorn, Long Kim Leang is currently staying at a Khmer pagoda located in San Jose, California, USA.

Our Khmer people have learned our lessons through the misdeeds we suffered in the hands of our neighbors. Which nation is always bringing suffering on our people? Which nation always wants to eliminate our people? Isn’t it Communist Vietnam???

The Yuons use psychology to attract our people, to buy our conscience, to make us spy on our society, they divide us, i.e. the Yuons have their own plan: they will do all they can not to let us live in peace, because if we, the Khmer people, live with full independence and true social security, then we must revisit our national history.

In spite of the fact that communist Vietnam is using its conniving strategy on our society, a large number of Khmer people still love their nation, they are not willing to betray their conscience, and they will never forget the tragic history imposed on us, both Khmer and Khmer Krom people, by the communist Yuons.

Furthermore, in these days and age of the 21st century, our Khmer and Khmer Krom people throughout the world must remain alert, we must unite with each other through our idealism, we must not be defeated, nor will we fall into the Yuon’s tricks, and more importantly, we will never believe the Yuon propaganda.

In these days and age, our Khmer people all over the world must love each other, we must understand each other, we must not discriminate against each other, we must seek to understand our goals in the construction of our society and religious centers. Moreover, as sons and daughters of the Khmer people, we must be good citizens serving our nation, we must learn to cooperate with one another to serve our national interest with the aim of protecting and perpetually preserving our culture, tradition, customs, our Buddhist religion and our national identity, as well as raising up our civilization.

I believe that colonialist Vietnam which is currently occupying Kampuchea Krom will face defeat in the near future for now is the era of international human rights, and our indigenous Khmer Krom people, both inside and outside our lands, are rising up to demand for our freedoms and our religious belief through non-violent protests in order to be able to decide our own destiny as the Khmer Kampuchea Krom community.

Khmer people understand Khmer feelings, Khmer people love each others, Khmer people cooperate with one another, Khmer people do not instigate disunity among ourselves, we truly serve the interest of the Khmer nation, just as the following saying goes: “When Khmer unite, Khmer survive, when Khmer are divided, Khmer die!”