A Vietnamese colony within the Khmer kingdom?

Op-Ed by Khmerization
26th April 2010

“For social cohesion, orders and security and for the good of the Vietnamese settlers themselves, the Vietnamese maritime colony of floating villages along the Tonle Sap River banks must be cleared and orderly dismantled to avoid pollution of the river, to protect the environment and marine life. But especially, the resettlement program is necessary and dispensable as an opportunity to integrate and assimilate them into the mainstream Khmer society.”

The issue of Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia has been a contentious and sensitive issue for as long as one can remember. This recurring and perennial issue has become a taboo and very politically explosive that many Cambodian politicians and social commentators are very apprehensive and disinclined to talk about. One can be accused of being a racist or a xenophobic toward the Vietnamese for the slightest mention of a negative comment about the Vietnamese settlers. However, when it comes to issue of national importance, one should not be shunned way or feel intimidated from discussing about it.

The government’s planned resettlement of the more than 1,982 Vietnamese immigrant families - comprising more than 20,000 settlers- from the floating villages in Teuk Phorss and Kampong Kleang districts in Kampong Chhnang province to overland areas should be allowed to be debated and discussed openly and unobstructedly, without any fears of being accused of being a racist or a Vietnamophobic.

I for one applaud the government’s planned action as it is an opportunity to integrate and assimilate them into the Cambodian society. It will also be a chance to Khmerise the Vietnamese children, not through imposition of our will but, through giving them access to Khmer schools to learn how to read and write the Khmer language and mix and blend with Khmer children. This does not mean that we are trying to expurgate, expunge or to de-Vietnamise and cut them off from their ancestral land. This policy of integration and assimilation must not be made to be seen by the Vietnamese settlers themselves as a mean of the extermination and extirpation of their cultural heritage. These Vietnamese migrants and their children must not be deprived of their national identity and must be allowed to learn their language, but they can do so after school hours or at the weekend. They must be allowed to practise their culture and speak the Vietnamese language without fears of intimidation and persecution.

However, many Cambodians would feel uneasy and apprehensive with the luxury that has been accorded to these Vietnamese settlers for more than 31 years by the Vietnam-friendly government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Many dread that these Vietnamese settlers could be the future Trojan horses who could facilitate Vietnam’s control and, eventually, subjugation of Cambodia from within. Many Cambodians would oppose and resent any compensation in giving 900 hectares of land to these Vietnamese settlers in return for their agreement to be resettled overland, while many poor Khmer farmers and slum-dwellers have been evicted from their land without any proper reparation and compensation. These Vietnamese immigrant people, legal or illegal, had squatted and constructed floating boathouses on the banks of the Tonle Sap River illegally in the first place. They didn’t pay for any rights and privileges to build their boathouses there and therefore they deserved no expiation and therefore no better compensation than the evicted Khmer farmers and slum-dwellers. However, they should be provided with small parcels of land in different parts of the country as a policy of integrating and assimilating them into Khmer society.

I would imagine and anticipate that many Khmers would feel resented that these Vietnamese settlers might be given 900 hectares of land to build their own “colony” as have been requested by them as a pre-condition for their resettlement away from their maritime colony on the Tonle Sap River banks. By acquiescing to their request, many Khmers would feel that it is like recompensing them land to build a Vietnamese colony within the Khmer kingdom. 900 hectares is a big parcel of lands to be given to foreigners, who came to Cambodia illegally in the first place, to build their own “Little Saigon or Little Vietnam” in the middle of Cambodia. The land would be enough to create a small independent Vietnamese colony, equipped with Vietnamese schools, hospitals and markets with its own local government like the khum (commune) and srok (district) administration.

The government’s resettlement program should also be used as an opportunity to screen, scrutinise and verify the genuineness and legality of the immigration status of those Vietnamese immigrants. Those who can validate their legal immigration status and their well-founded fears of persecution and those who can trace their ancestry and residency dating to pre-1979, must be allowed to reside in Cambodia. Those who are found out to be living illegally in Cambodia should be sent back to Vietnam, unless they can prove their legal immigration status or fears of persecution back in Vietnam. Those who have well-founded fears of persecution in Vietnam must be given political asylum in Cambodia under humanitarian and compassionate grounds with the supports from the UNHCR.

The above rationale must not be judged and scorned as a racist policy. After all, Vietnam had, on many occasions, repatriated many illegal Khmer immigrants and beggars back to Cambodia. Thailand have also incarcerated and sent thousands of Khmer illegal immigrants, workers and beggars back to Cambodia. America had repatriated many illegal Mexican immigrants back to Mexico and Australia had detained and repatriated many illegal immigrants back to their countries of origin many times in the past. In America and Australia, all migrants and their children are compulsorily required to attend English-language schools. Learning one own’s language is allowed, but classes must be either conducted on the weekend or outside of school hours. The U.S and Australian governments, as well as the U.S and Australian public, are in unison in their opposition to the congregation of migrants in one town or city. On the other hand, they want them to de-congregate and spread out in different cities and towns in order to integrate and assimilate them into the mainstream American and Australian societies.

Khmers are not racists, but very receptive and tolerant of the presence of foreigners in their country. This notion has been proven correct in the past. Tens of thousands of Thai settlers have inundated Cambodia’s western provinces when they were brought in by the Thai invading forces when the combined Thai-Japanese forces occupied Sirisophorn, Battambang and Siem Reap provinces during World War II in 1941. However, when the Thai-Japanese forces withdrew from these provinces in 1946, most of these Thai settlers opted to stay back and have lived happily and assimilated smoothly into the Khmer society. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese immigrants and settlers had been brought in by the French colonial powers and they had also co-existed harmoniously and happily with the Khmer people before 1970. However, regrettably, with the war in Vietnam spilling over to Cambodia and with the Viet Cong forces using Cambodia as sanctuaries and as their staging points to attack the American and South Vietnamese forces, the Khmer Republican regime of Marshal Lon Nol escalated anti-Vietnamese rhetoric and propaganda in the early 1970s that culminated into killings and massacres in the pogroms of many Vietnamese settlers.

For social cohesion, orders and security and for the good of the Vietnamese settlers themselves, the Vietnamese maritime colony of floating villages along the Tonle Sap River banks must be cleared and orderly dismantled to avoid pollution of the river, to protect the environment and marine life. But especially, the resettlement program is necessary and dispensable as an opportunity to integrate and assimilate them into the mainstream Khmer society.