Welcome to the world of Khmer Politics, mon cher Raymond!

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Sunday, April 25, 2010
By Anonymous

Dear All,

As a reader of news on KI-Media, I couldn’t help but noticing the exchange, rebuttal, cynical comments, supporting comments, supporting letter etc… for Mr. Raymond Kin and SRP-NA. Before continuing further, allow me first to make myself clear: currently, I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with the SRP or the CPP or any other political party in Cambodia. Furthermore, under normal circumstances, I would have just kept my mouth shut until I read that Raymond graduated not too long ago from the “Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal”, Québec, Canada, which happens also to be my alma mater.

First, I would like to say to Raymond: Welcome to world of Khmer Politic, mon cher Raymond! If you don’t mind I would like to share some of my observations with you and the public.

As I read Raymond’s rebuttal to SRP-NA, I felt that I had to re-read the SRP-NA’s statement one more time to make sure that I understand it well enough. With an objective mind, it is clear that the SRP-NA’s declaration did mention about Raymond’s website, Khmer Live TV, on two one occasions. The SRP-NA also mentioned about event broadcasted by Khmer Live TV related to alleged claims made the CPP. Unless I miss something in my reading, after all I am no longer young anymore, I fail to see anywhere in the SRP-NA’s statement any suggested and/or alleged link between Khmer Live TV and the CPP. Hence, my bafflement as to why would Raymond rebut and deny something that does not affect him at all, except for the mention of his website? Therefore, I am wondering if, by any chance, Raymond was not overreacting when he saw the name of his website. In my opinion, what aggravated Raymond’s situation further was the fact that Raymond came out to reject SRP-NA’s claim about the CPP during the fundraising event for the Haitian relief. As a distributor of news, all that Raymond had to do is to point out to the public where the video content of that event is located at and let the public make its own decision, as for the rebuttal to SRP-NA, it is the CPP’s job to make the counterclaim since it is the party that is affected, not Raymond. In my humble opinion, this led me to think that Raymond was most likely overreacting to something that does not even affect him at all.

Raymond, I am certain that you still remember our school’s motto: “Ut tension sic vis”. I fully realize that, as a computer science major, you may not have a chance to take classes in Strength of Material (Résistance des matériaux), for if you did, the professor in that class would have taught you about Hooke’s Law whereby the extension of a spring is proportional to the load applied (as long as you remain in the elastic range of the spring material). When I look at your current predicament, I cannot help but think about the analogy to Hooke’s law: as you overreacted to the perceived misjudgment made against you, you believed that you had to reply (this is analogous to applying load to the spring) and in turn, this situation snowballed into a feeding frenzy as you release more and more controversial information about yourself (i.e. as you apply more load to the spring, the latter is stretched longer and longer).

As one of KI-Media readers astutely observed: “TVK is a mouth piece of the CPP. Therefore, whether or not Khmerlive.tv supports the CPP, the latter definitely enjoys its political gains.” Furthermore, when you candidly claim: “only TVK and event organizers authorized me to publish on my site”, you only make the situation worst. When I read such statement, it makes me legitimately wonder what is your link to the government of Cambodia, which is controlled by the ruling CPP party, for it to allow you to broadcast its program online? As you know very well, in Cambodia, unless you have connection with somebody higher up, obtaining such authorization makes it sounds as if you are connected to the government. Keep in mind also that, by raising all these questions, I am only playing the devil’s advocate role, however, if these questions crossed my mind, others may also raised the same questions about you.

This finally leads me to my welcoming statement to Raymond to the world of Khmer politics: this is how dirty and treacherous Khmer politics can be. One thing leads to another and pretty soon, rumors and innuendos start to spread. In fact, when I first saw Raymond’s last name and his mention of Montreal, one person came up to my mind, and indeed, soon, a reader revealed that Raymond’s father is indeed the same person I was thinking of. Honestly, I can’t tell if Raymond’s Dad belongs to the CPP or not, it does not matter to me, but the lesson that I draw from Raymond’s mishap is that the world of politics is dirty indeed! One simple misstep and you find yourself quickly sinking into quicksand.

Nevertheless, Raymond, do not despair! I, for one, am grateful about your website. Although I am fully aware that TVK is nothing more than the ruling CPP propaganda machine, it still amuses me to see how, in these days and age, a Cambodian leader shoots himself in the foot while daydreaming that he is an object of worship for the rest of the country, the amazing thing is that it seems to work for him. In hindsight, looking back to Cambodia’s situation in the 60s, it appears to me that, the more things change, the more they remain the same, especially when it comes to Cambodian leaders.

Well, Raymond, I hope you are not offended by my comment and that you would rather take the current situation philosophically.

Bien le bonjour!

Un ancien de “La Poly”