In the name of our “Father”!

"The Great Patriarch." (Sorry, this young lady intruded into the frame unexpectedly when the picture was taken!) - sokheounpang.wordpress.com

Not even an elderly is spared from casual violence and beatings in this "Family"!

By School of Vice

That simile regarding a struggling household needing to pull together in the same direction would carry more substance if every member were in more or less similar state thus described. Sadly, our "Father" is anything but a mirror reflection of his 'spouse' and 'children', some of whom have to leave home to pursue work in neighbouring countries as slave or wage labourers where they risk being raped, murdered, abused in every conceivable manner. But that's not all, our bespoken "Father" also keeps mistresses, commits treason and political adulteries in exchange for his right to rule over his "Family", and on top of that, he also happens to have millions - if not billions - of dollars stashed away in bank accounts somewhere. His alleged financial connections in the recent Diamond Bridge tragedy helped to ensure that no corporate interests or officials would be punished for their liability or culpability in that event. In fact, one would be surprised to learn that any big business of note in Cambodia is not cast under our Father’s shadow to some extent.  

Now even in the mundane world of family life we have sometimes learned of spouses or children turning against their over-abusive fathers who take psychotic pleasure out of beating and humiliating them. But even the crimes of these heads of households bear little comparisons to those known to have been committed by our great Patriarch.

The charge of "ultra-nationalists" would also be more credible if Cambodia is extending its political and economic hegemony over neighbouring states like Laos and Vietnam, and as long as this is not the case in reality, any such "extreme nationalists" there are out there are no more than hot-air paper threats to public and “national stability” - if that is what one is actually concerned about.

In fact, the natural law of action and reaction suggests that radicalism or extremism is often the by-product of unbalanced relationships between two unequal forces or entities. Thus, much of the upheavals that Cambodia had had to undergo in recent decades are partly attributable to her troubled history of having been trodden over and humiliated by more powerful states who took every opportunity they had to extend their territorial domains at her expense. The same charge would also make more sense if applied to the party who has been (and still is) actively shifting the border posts westward.

This charge and label of "ultra-nationalism" is, perhaps, meant to discourage rational people from questioning the status quo by retreating into a world of docile subservience and fatalism, no matter what, rather than being a wise and gentle nudge to keep one’s counsel or exercise moderation. "Hold your anger!", until there is no more anger and will left to resist injustice.  It is a strange kind of example that Khmers are being asked to abide by whilst their kind are drowning in great multitude.