Confidential Memo from KD to PM

MEMORANDUM

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL:

FOR YOUR EYE ONLY, AND THOSE OF KI MEDIA*

To: Mr. Hun Sen, Prime Minister, Kingdom of Wonder

From: Khmer Democrat, Kingdom of (even greater) Wonder, oftentimes to the point of much puzzlement and baldness from the head-scratching (yikes!)

Re: The Arab Spring, International Legal Order, and their Implications for the Kingdom of Wonder

Prime Minister,

May I humbly submit a few observations, which upon careful reflection are to your advantage, which you may have overlooked—amid your busyness of controlling the national courts against Sam Rainsy and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal for the protection of your legacy and those of other Khmer Rouge leaders within your Cabinet; waging the territorial Hot War with the thieving Thais and negotiating the territorial Cold War politics with your patron the Viets, stifling the internal discord of certain errant CPP members like that Interior Minister and his cohorts via the Anti-Corruption Unit led by your able and willing foot soldier Om Yentieng? Or, these world developments are kept away from you by your platoon of advisers too obsequious or fearful of you to say the obvious. Yes, you have been busy; and it’s widely acknowledged that your useless advisers need to be fired but you need them as a front as they need you as their protector when they drive drunk on the busy roads and hit begging children or rape under-aged girls; the adviser card is a useful pass.

We democrats are elated by the Arab Spring which is blossoming across not only the Arab world but the entire world. This rite of spring must keep you and your CPP comrades up even later than the usual nights of karaoke and carousing at the likes of Hotel Champs Elysee and the Naga Casino. And your friends in the region, they too must be quivering in the quake of the people uprising, except maybe for the delusional junta military leaders. Have you talked to them lately?

Here are my observations, pro bono (I am told it’s Latin—without charge):

1. The Arab Spring will (not if) hit Cambodia; so don’t be caught with the wind knocked out of you (all puns intended). It’s only a matter of time. You are already on the wrong side of history; at least act to preserve a better legacy for your children, especially Manet, who by all intents and purposes is a really decent fellow, unlike his unruly, wild, murderous cousins.

2. The more repressive the environment, the more you are pushing us democrats to react. You know we are not the silent type; actually we gain energy from your repression. It’s a weird paradox, I know. Moreover, we are more creative than you, especially and even in light of the greatly disproportionate resources to your favor. We have something more strong and durable and persisting and that’s JUSTICE. You mock it by disusing its name; we claim and feel it because Justice sides with the oppressed.

3. Some hard-headed, irredeemable Arab dictators tried to stem the tide of freedom and justice through violent crackdowns. Even if we do not know the details of the ending of the Libyan uprising, we know the ending; in particular, you and I already know the fate of Qaddafi. It’s impressive how intuitive the Western leaders are this time around in responding with resolute determinism against Qaddafi’s brutality against his own people. Did you read the words of the UN Resolution passed on March 17? “Deploring”, “condemning”, “expressing its determination”, “demands” (countless “demands”), “authorizes”, “decides” etc. These are not wishy-washy words; the international community means business!

4. The role of the social media can be stemmed for a brief period of time, but cannot be stopped and any efforts to crackdown will only provide further fuels and keep the agitation alive. Dictators like you are in a pickle, to use an American phrase (it’s a stupid phrase, I know, but the point is that you’re caught between a rock and a hard place) and the only choice is reform or go down in flame in greater infamy – forever enshrined in the websites and twitters and books written by the likes of us. Everything now will live in cyberspace eternity and can be culled and re-culled with the click of a finger. Case in point: Easter Sunday Massacre of 1997 (see video).

5. Role of international law. When you sent your personal guards to protect the murderers in March 1997, the International Criminal Court had not come into existence; you’re lucky by a few years, as the ICC cannot try mass crimes retroactively. But now, whatever you do, first the international human rights policy makers and activists are more likely to crack down in order to protect the momentum of the Arab Spring; and second, international law is growing by leaps and bounds in comparison to your Cold War days; there are enough laws in the books now to try many dictators; it’s only an issue of who are the policymakers, the populous wind for change and the legal jurists charged with the power.

* Heng Soy’s version: FOR YOUR EYES (sic!) ONLY.
Mark up version: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.