Watch What's Pulling Us Down!

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile -- hoping it will eat him last" - Sir Winston Churchill

February, 2010
Op-Ed by Neay K'rudth
COUNTERVAILING FORCE'S FORUM
Originally posted online

Every day, Khmers are waking up to confront relentless waves of internal and external threat to our individual liberty, cultural traditions, political and territorial sovereignty, economical space, last but not least the already weaken environmental resources.

The enemies are masquerading as members of the media, civil servants, law enforcement, political leaders, diplomats, and the vilest of them all are those disguised as businessmen and investors. With so many unguarded routes of entry, these "toxic" agents have been targeting and inflicting serious damage to our social system's vital organs including unity, freedom, peace and security.

The enemies' persistent assaults appear to meet no discernable resistance from the folks at the wheel. Often it looks as if no one is "home" to challenge the aggressors, giving these beasts the audacity and the incentive to strike and plunder at will. The enemies' typical arsenal ranges from simple bribery to brutal silencing of the media and dissidents, deliberate misapplication of economic, legal rights, political, police and military power. The first objective of the enemies, whether foreign or domestic, is the same -- to induce psychological "regression" which ultimately causes Khmers to abandon the will to resist their acts of predation.

Structural Encroachment:

What we are facing is what social scientists call "structural encroachment", a process that is difficult to characterize, but is evident primarily in its consequence, i.e. border disputes, corruptions and impending tyranny, human, labor rights abuse, social inequality and injustice, local land grab, etc. Typically it is associated with the maintenance, development, and institutionalization of systems of "privilege" and the "marginalization" and further "impoverishment" of the under-privilege.

The game of structural encroachment is played by our enemies at two levels:

Amateur level: Local acts of violence and terrorism committed on civil society by paramilitary group, or criminal enterprises sponsored by shady power brokers well-connected to the establishment.

Professional level: Carried out by the business profiteers, the wealthy and the powerful, including the ruling authority, engaging in structural violence through manipulation of social conditions to their own advantage. Still higher, at nation state level, the leverage of concealed or overt economic, political/military power to coerce and subdue a weaker state.

The means and methods employed by our enemies have all the markings of "prisoner of war interrogation" practice using a well-known concept called "conceptual violence". The author had to use some publicized excerpts from the recently controversial "CIA's Interrogation Manual" to illustrate the similarity of context related to our condition as a country under seize.

By now most of us who are current with the events on the international scene are probably very familiar with the Iraq War and the terms used by the American media, such as "enemy combatant", "water-boarding torture", "Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq", and the serious disregards for human rights by the U.S. Military operating in Iraq.

The CIA manual instructs their "interrogators" to deliberately create a context to extract intelligence from the "enemy combatant" through:

• Isolation
• Disorientation
• Environment menace

In our situation we recognize our enemies' attempts, with various level of success, to isolate us by underwriting the corruptions and the abuse of power by the wealthy and powerful elites, to destroy mutual trust and driving a wedge between the privileged few and the under-privileged mass, between government and citizens. The out-of-control migration across the border sends community of migrants to settle in the middle of prime land, water, and food resources, and come in direct competition with existing and struggling native and indigenous communities, stifling their chance of growth beyond mere subsistence. The ultimate consequence is much similar to the living example of the Palestinian West Bank and the Gaza Strip split apart by the State of Israel.

The inequality, injustice, and the lack of equal access to opportunity push the majority of our population into grinding poverty and hopelessness, which cause crimes and lawlessness that will eventually break down the existing social orders. Civil society in desperation will resort to animal instinct and starts preying on one another for survival. When people are assaulted by continuous hunger, pain and suffering, they will lose sight of the social norms and become disoriented, as a result anarchy sets in. This is the exact condition that the "interrogators" or the enemies want to achieve. Living example can be found in many countries in Africa, Central and South America.

Living under watchful eyes of the secret police/military, and under constant threats of unlawful arrest, or worst, assassination and disappearance drives powerless citizens under such duress that they are too afraid to exercise their freedom of expression, and keep to themselves. As a consequence they perceive their surrounding environment, even in the privacy of their own home, as utterly oppressive and hostile -- a menace to anyone's psyche. A living example can be found in our neck-of the-wood -- Burma.

Our people are seen going about their daily life on the surface, but there is a undercurrent threat that a certain sector of our compatriots are yet to be aware of due to their selective ignorance, blinded by greed, and fool themselves with a false sense of security-- relying on so-called "friendly outsiders" to come to their rescue the next time around, and perhaps free of "charge"? The reality is we are no different than an "enemy combatant" being hold down and "water-boarded" by the "interrogators". Our enemies are very sophisticated and very determined not to lose their grip on our throat.

Like the "interrogators" they surround us and pin us down to enhance feelings of being cut off from anything known and reassuring, i.e. our dignity, independence, self-reliance, solidarity, cultural and national pride, etc.

Like the "interrogators" they use the "threat" of coercion (economic, politic/military leverage), which is usually more effective than coercion itself, to weaken or destroy our resistance.

Like the "interrogators" they torture our psyche to make us vulnerable to our own internal pain. Pain that we feel we are inflicting on ourselves, pain that is likely to sap our resistance. After a while, we are likely to exhaust our internal motivational strength -- regression is the ultimate result our enemies wish to extract when our resilience has finally worn down. Like the "enemy combatant" after being water-boarded a hundred-plus times the mind and the body basically break and give up what the enemies ultimately want -- our autonomy.

The author wish to leave the discussion for conscientious Khmers to contemplate and hopefully to be able to envision and feel the imminent danger, which keeps on sweeping our nation's freedom and security down under the treacherous water we are crossing at this moment in our sad history. The intent is to forewarn our compatriots from losing sight of the "important" and to stop squandering precious time by engaging in partisan politics, and begin placing things and events in the proper perspective -- do not ever underestimate the enemies. If and when our will to resist has broken, there will be no politics to speak of, but there will surely be "tyranny".

The author personal belief is humbly unsophisticated -- one centimeter of gain in favor of the Khmer mass and Khmer homeland is definitely RIGHTEOUS, no matter who's done it, or what reason or rhyme is being used to justify the gain. Anything on the contrary, whether it's a decree or edict from God, it shall have no merit.

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile -- hoping it will eat him last", Sir Winston Churchill.

Peace