In Time of Strife

Friday, July 02, 2010
Op-Ed by MP

THE future of Cambodia - for good or ill - will be determined by all Cambodians. It would be wise not to place too much store by what the Opposition parties alone can achieve for the Khmer people.

The facade of parliamentary democracy that we have seen since 1993 is just that - a facade fostered by the ruling party with cosmetic constitutional compromises and ultimately unenforceable legal niceties. One wonders whether the key players in the Paris Peace Accords had foreseen this development as a likely reality and outcome of their resolve to commit themselves to this 'platonic' relationship that has no chance of being consummated into an equitable political marriage for the good of the nation in every aspect beside providing a temporary lull to armed conflict and the reassurances obtained in respect of the reinstitution of the Monarchy as a mere nominal institution.

The power and influence of this ancient institution remains an important factor in the Khmer people's daily life and more crucially as a unifying symbol for Khmer unity and focus of Khmer identity and revival after all the recent upheavals and on-going external threats and hegemony. Whether one likes it or not, a sizable Khmer population, particularly, in rural areas, are still in awe of this Institution that has been part of their existence since the dawn of Khmer civilisation which in all likelihood predates even the arrival of religious influences from India in the forms of Brahmanism and Theravada Buddhism that in turn instilled the sanctity and sacredness of Royalty in the minds of the populace further by introducing the concept of Deva Raja or God-King - a conditioned reverence that many Cambodians today still project towards not only their King or Queen as such, but also their non-royal patrons and social superiors with binding power and patronage.

How strong this force and conditioning is cannot be quantified or evaluated in precise terms, but what is worth noting is that the Institution is essentially a facet of the nation's collective psyche rather than of any enduring charismatic figures born into it. Funcinpec's electoral success of 1993 owed more to this ingrained loyalty to the Monarchy as a mental state than to any of the wayward royals and princes that had the good fortune of being at the right place at the right time, despite the systematic anti-royalist desecration and propaganda over the preceding decades of Hanoi- backed Communist rule and briefly during the Republican era. Even today, one suspects a royalist political movement sensibly managed and granted sufficient mass media representation and coverage is capable of regaining enough electoral momentum to oust the ruling party at the next general election. Hence, the reversion to the 1980s style single party monopoly, albeit with allusions in token to Western model of political pluralism and democracy.

Politics could be a grand delusional exercise in perpetual failure and disappointment unless rooted in, and gravitated to, evolving historical events and circumstances. Individuals who have put their lives on the line by pursuing a risky career in the country's political Opposition can ill afford to comfort themselves with the knowledge that they have done enough and gone as far as they have through mere personal endeavours, but must constantly appraise their party’s policies and actions to see how best national interests could be accommodated in view of both growing domestic and external threats.

Mohandas K Ghandi was once asked whether he considered his ahimsa (non-violence) movement 'passive' - a common charge and perception which he firmly rejected, pointing out that ‘non-violence’ in political resistance does not equate passivity as such, but if anything, in his understanding, denotes the opposite in meaning to being passive. Rather, it requires an active, resolute co-ordinated action in response and in proportion to injustices, and indeed, to acts of violence as witnessed by ordinary men and women who, otherwise, owing to their restricted world views and cultural confinements, lack the intellectual tool and sophistication to see things clearly and objectively beyond their local hills and market stands. Ghandi, in short, was an activist and a militant of his time. And it is this ‘militant’ dimension of his movement and philosophy that I wish to highlight here in context of Cambodia’s current struggle for self-determination and democracy rather than his non-violent method per se.

People will rise up against repression and injustice, and these realities are being dished out in their abundance to the Khmer people, but they need due direction and guidance to begin with. Although, certain issues such as violated territorial integrity or land encroachments and political tension with neighbouring states attract more public interest and discussion, these are no less 'real' and relevant to ordinary Khmers than say their employments or livelihoods in the immediate and longer terms.

It is incumbent upon all Cambodians with informed, alert minds and good social conscience to go to villages and communities, specifically, places that have been under attack from land concessions and forced displacements as well as border encroachments and explain in simple terms what is at stake for them and their country if they go on being governed by this self-serving clique of unreconstructed former Communist cadres who have sold off just about everything at their disposal including their own souls in return for personal gains and the power to retain themselves in public offices they are ill qualified to assume. People need to be informed about the merits or flaws inherent in political representation, about democracy in action, and be educated to detect differences between calculated bribes/ handouts and genuine gestures in unequivocal solidarity and nationalism.

Truth may be as old as the hills, as Ghandi himself once claimed, and it is bound to prevail in the end, even if it may take a thousand years to do so. But within even less than half the time allowed for the hundreds of thousands of hectares of land leased to Vietnam at merciless expense of already destitute or near destitute Cambodians in the guise of commercial projects and investments, the Khmer nation will likely be completely routed in every sense – i.e. it may not be there anymore; not as the Khmers and their ancestors have known and loved well over two thousand years.