A Colony Within A Colony

Vietnamese merchant in Chong Khneas, on the Tonle Sap near Siem Reap (Photo: The Star)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Op-Ed by MP

What is to be done with regard to the issue of Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia?

The plan to relocate some of the Vietnamese families now living in floating ‘villages’ should be greeted with qualified caution. Not only the proposed granting of substantial swathes of dry land required to relocate these people onto represents another slap in the face for the Khmer authority and people; such a measure will likely not provide any long term solution to the problem raised by the presence of these settlers if it merely involves a change in their physical location. For now, the relevant Khmer authority has at least recognised the environmental degradation/pollution caused by a cluster of these maritime settlements at the heart of the nation’s vital arteries and fishing reservoirs.

There are also observable practices within Vietnamese fishing communities that are not commensurate with or considered wholesome within the bounds of day to day health concern or acceptable taste such as the construction of private restrooms over fishing ponds and other public waterways. It would be harsh to condemn these folk for what they do or have to do as they, after all, live in an impoverished condition. Yet, it is fair to say that local authorities have not done enough on their behalf with regard to basic provisions such as health education and social awareness campaigns in respect of mainstream norms and values. What could be worse than a country’s lack of compassion is not having to repatriate these people back to where they came, having satisfied the law of the land that they have been here in breach of that law’s stipulations on cross border movement, but rather a wholesale neglect and inertia that make a complete mockery of self-professed ‘compassion’ towards the same people.

With this, and Vietnam’s frequent voicing of concern over ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia in mind, it is doubtful if the Cambodian authority could take a balanced, nuanced and just approach on this issue. Hanoi had conveyed its concern over ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia in the past to the then visiting co-PMs of Cambodia in the nineties. When some Vietnamese boat people sought a return back to Vietnam following an attack on some Vietnamese residents living in the vicinity of the Tonle Sap, they were barred from entering their native country by Vietnamese authority, declaring that ‘these people are practically Cambodians’.

While all this has been going on, it goes without saying that the fate of the much maligned Khmer Kroms has all been forgotten by governments on both sides of the border, albeit with one consistent exception: the 2 governments’ close collaboration on these indigenous people’s harassment and persecution in both states.

It will probably be impractical to sort out those Vietnamese who had a) lived in Cambodian prior to 1979, b) those who had been part of the general wave of migration to the country post 1979, and c) those who have been planted there as 'advisors' and infiltrators living and working in various guises throughout the Kingdom. Moreover, due to the general purging of public administrative documents and records by the Khmer Rouge, it is not even possible for Khmers to prove that they owned that plot of land, or indeed, that they are ethnic Khmers!

Some 30 years have passed since Vietnamese troops entered the country, followed closely behind by influx of Vietnamese civilians. It is enough time for any migrant new to a country to familiarise him/ herself with its language and customs and, most importantly, legalise their residency status and acquire the relevant paperwork.

The presence of the ethnic Vietnamese living in maritime communities all over Cambodia convey only their more visible profile - the majority of Vietnamese settlers have probably overtaken Sino-Khmers in trade and commerce and are now forming a dominant, formidable component of Cambodia's economy and polity which has been the backbone of this current regime in more ways than one. Most surviving Sino-Khmers had had to eke out a living with empty hands in 1979 and afterward, but this handicap hardly described the advantages enjoyed by thousands of Vietnamese who came to take command of the local economy with hard currency and investment capital, backed by their brethren in the ranks of the occupying Vietnamese military, particularly, in timber and mining industries as well as fisheries and construction, the last of which has been midwife to the general defacement of Cambodia's architectural scene, which, furthermore, has gone peacefully unnoticed by the country's uncultured elite.

A number of Western countries had opened their doors to a sizable influx of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees in the 1980s on humanitarian grounds. Cambodia does not have all the services and means enjoyed by these countries by which to ensure the integration process goes smoothly, but some of their experiences and measures used in assimilating new comers to their shores should set as guidelines for Cambodia to follow. One of the things these countries had had to do was to prevent newly arrived settlers from recreating the kind of conditions and habits that were not seen to be in social accord with those of their adopted community such as the emergence of slum colonies/ ghettoes and the social isolation that such confined settlements impose on younger generations preventing them from being fully assimilated into the mainstream community and be part to its social intercourse.

This is not an argument for outright suppression of ethnic diversity, nor of minority rights, but a call for a comprehensive study on how best various minority groups could be facilitated – assuming their presence in the country is not in any legal doubt, although, as I hinted, official corruption and political interference alone make it next to impossible to reach an equitable settlement – in their integration into Khmer society and culture without either doing violence to that culture or to those of their own.

It is probably not impossible to gather Cambodian public opinion on this sensitive subject, but whether their views count for something at all is immaterial here as the country’s public businesses do not proceed by public will or opinion. Nevertheless, we should try to steer the country towards a situation where all of its ethnic constituents could peacefully co-exist and be proud of their respective contribution to national evolution and growth, unburdened by undue political manipulation and interference by internal and external states.

Vietnamese associations and political leaders would do well to cease treating Cambodia as their private colony and stool for extending their geo-political consolidation across the region. Neither Cambodians nor any known nationalities past or present would remain content with a life on their own native soil where they are being increasingly marginalised and ostracised to the point of being second rate citizens.

The Khmer people have suffered more than enough not to be allowed to determine their own destiny and a place among the civilised world.

MP