'People power' is the best hope

People Power - Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

October 20, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

It was almost three decades ago, but the events remain as vivid as if they happened yesterday.

One early afternoon I was stretched out in a hammock under a trellis, feet away from the red, yellow and white bougainvillea, in front of my thatched hut where staff in the office of planning and analysis of the Khmer People's National Liberation Front gathered to finalize a document for submission to the commander-in-chief. We waited for my director, the chief of the Bureau of Information, Research, and Documentation (BIRD -- what an interesting acronym!) to supply a piece of information to complete our report.

My Walkman -- state of the art at the time -- was on my chest, two earphones plugged into my ears. I sang along with Simon and Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa," as the warm breeze from a small muddy pond touched my face: "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail, Yes I would, if I could, I surely would."

The director came, gave what was expected to officers at work, but I remained in my hammock: "Away, I'd rather sail away, like a swan that's here and gone." He handed me a slice of mango, smiled, sat down on a bench, and asked the meaning of the last words of the song I uttered: "A man gets tied up to the ground, he gives the world its saddest sound, its saddest sound."

We spoke. Then, I took off my shirt, pulled out a toy rubber boat, courtesy of governments friendly to the non-communist resistance to use for "transport" in Cambodia's waterways. I floated the boat in the pond, jumped in with my jeans on, paddled to the middle as astonished young officers looked on. That was my R&R! An elder former colonel in the Khmer Republic army, in his krama, swam to join me and the boat -- not that it was his idea of an R&R, but he saw a snake swimming by.

Someone clicked photos of us in the pond. Precious memories!

Five years earlier, in a mountainous area, a young officer and I arrived at a pond of still water, infested with mosquito larvae. My young friend suspected I wanted to cool off in the water and pleaded that I not do so. Never mind. I kicked off my boots, jumped in with my clothes on. My young friend followed, muttering I was asking for trouble. Trouble it was: A rush to the hospital for nine days of treatment for the deadly falciparum malaria. My young friend was fine.

Nearly 30 years later, I still listen to "El Condor Pasa" -- this time, behind my computer screen as I write in hopes of inspiring and incentivizing men and women into action, especially Khmers who want to throw off the yoke of dictatorship.

I hate autocracy at any level that crushes the imagination, creativity and innovation necessary for man to survive. A few years ago, I wrote in this space that great ideas properly transformed into actions could bring down autocracy. I have not changed my mind since: The brain that took man to the moon and back can help Khmers to free themselves from dictatorship.

For several years I promoted foundational ideas for change -- many wanted change, did nothing, but talked the talk. "Trokieark slap s'dauk," or "hip joint lies dead," Khmers say.

I extracted ideas from political science professor emeritus Gene Sharp's writings for my columns -- ideas which activists in different countries found useful, and which some freedom activists turned "actionists" have applied successfully to bring down dictators.

The bottom line is this: Yes, it is possible to "disintegrate" the dictatorship through nonviolent action!

A Khmer saying I quote often goes: "Curved wood makes wheel, straight wood makes spoke, crooked and twisted wood makes firewood." It tells Khmers there's a place for everything and every person. I take off my hat in respect to Khmers who engage in different activities against the dictatorship -- even if I have reservations about the wisdom of some activities.

It seems no aspect is ignored in discussing and writing about Premier Hun Sen's government's policies, which have brought tears and suffering to increasing numbers of citizens -- homeless, landless, farmless and victimized by gross abuses of civil rights -- nor about the world's governments, signatories to the Oct. 23 Paris Peace Accords, who are not ignorant of what goes on in Sen's Cambodia, but do nothing to change the status quo.

But the more we discuss and the more we write, the more things remain the same.

Emotions are high on both sides of the political aisle.

As Khmers discuss, petition and whisper their open secret about resistance and dream of the foreign intervention that I don't think will come -- and tend to blame everyone except themselves for their nation's fate -- I think it's more fruitful to explore the potential strength of "people power." Many seem to be coming to agreement that "people power" is the best hope for Cambodia's survival.

Some dubbed me a daydreamer. But hasn't it been dreams that made activists and actionists?

Recall Winston Churchill: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.