Unity doesn't require uniformity

"To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others" - Nelson Mandela

December 15, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

Structure must sometimes give way to flexibility. My holiday season column for today is replaced by the current one. My column last week, "Oppressors must fall if people unite," brought comments that deserve a response.

Although I generally attach less credence to anonymous comments, some warrant a response, even if the comments draw me back to topics I think I have covered fully in past columns.

One blogger disagreed with my assertion that while complaints serve a purpose, "Actions make things happen." Writing in Khmer, the commentator said, in strong and offensive language, that "we have to talk again and again about the bad things of Kampuchea leaders, Vietnamese dogs and servants."

Although I may have indulged in impassioned comments about the strongarm tactics of the Hun Sen regime, I am reminded of the dangers of intemperate words by the book next to my computer, "Wingnuts: How the lunatic fringe is hijacking America," by the Daily Beast's senior political columnist, John Avlon. It's on the rising of "professional partisans ... unhinged activists ... hard-core haters ... paranoid conspiracy theorists" from the political far-right and far-left, who are submerged in a "hydra-headed hysteria" -- cut off one accusation, another emerges in its place -- on hyper-partisan talk radio and Wingnut websites.

Just as partisan and insulting rhetoric have not moved a political agenda forward in the United States, neither can a shouting match advance the prospects of an open civil society in Cambodia. Do Cambodians really think that shouting sends a message to foreign governments about Cambodia that they do not already have?

Think of this: In the 1980s, when the rear headquarters of the nationalist Khmer resistance was minutely monitored in every respect by the host country, one of the outcomes was the sense of paranoia that grew among resistance officials. They accused one another of betrayal and disloyalty when what we thought was secret was not. We would forget that the world had its own sources, lodged in the monitors all around us.

Better to hold one's counsel and let actions speak. Think, deliberate, decide, then act. It is action that may influence a foreign government's policy.

Another person who responded to last week's column asked me to expand on the issues focused on the Khmer/Vietnam border, in light of Premier Hun Sen's objection to citizens investigating and protecting that border.

More than 30 years ago, my world politics professor reminded us that when we look at a garden, some eyes concentrate only on certain plants and flowers while others look the whole garden -- specialists and generalists. My professor's preferred approach was to look at the whole garden to see how plants or flowers are arranged, where rocks and stones are placed, and why.

My subsequent training in political science at the University of Michigan made me a generalist. So as the issue of the border encroachment is discussed, I have written instead about Vietnam's grand design to integrate neighboring areas into a Greater Vietnam led by Hanoi. As such, the border-marker dispute is an element of a bigger picture that concerns me more. The Vietnamization of Cambodia is facilitated by Hun Sen, who is supported by Vietnam and legitimized by the king and the King Father.

A third commentator is piqued by my persistent call for Khmer democrats and rights activists to unite around a carefully designed grand strategy to destabilize the dictatorship and allow the installation of a more liberal regime, rather than to align with a single political figure.

In my thinking, because Cambodians tend to personalize, and Khmer culture still values class, status, rank, role relationships and a superior-inferior, master-servant, leader-follower, patron-client asymmetry, to rally around a leader is problematic. Such a leader would likely also assume the role of the sun in the universe: There's only one sun!

Burmese icon Aung San Suu Kyi is right to advocate for the goal of "value change." We need to change what we have always thought. None of us is condemned by karma. We are what we make ourselves to be.

Lord Buddha teaches us we don't have to wait until the next life to improve our lives; we can do so now. As the Buddhist proverb says, "When the student is ready, the master appears." Are we ready?

I have referenced from time to time Dr. Gene Sharp's "From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation." The Khmer blog, KI Media, has a link to the English text as well as the Khmer translation. Sharp wrote, "Unfortunately, often most people in democratic opposition groups do not understand the need for strategic planning or are not accustomed or trained to think strategically."

The idea of unity within diversity is not new. In the words of John F. Kennedy: "The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion."

Let there be a market of ideas, and let carefully thought out ideas bloom. Let us dialogue, understand and appreciate one another, in spite of different opinions. Each of us must learn and embrace humility as a value. Unity is a behavior that can be learned. We know the old adage: "We must all hang together or assuredly we shall hang separately."

Nelson Mandela reminded us, "To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

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