Election Setting High Stake for Khmers

By Vorackcheat

     For most people in the democratic world, the national election is a normal democratic process to choose their leaders based on the policy and ability of those leaders to run daily work for the country. But in Cambodia, this election will be more meaningful than that. The outcome of this election will distinctly push the nation into two opposite directions: if the CPP continues to win, Khmers will live under the same dictatorship, and the fate of the nation will be endangered. But if the CNRP wins, Khmers will get the true democracy and the nation will historically be given reprieve from Vietnamization. Thus, in the upcoming election, Khmers must look at these two key aspects that the two major parties stand for.

     The CPP which was formerly created in 1951, a remnant of the Indochina Communist party formed by Ho Chi Minh, has survived through many different circumstances until its final victory in 1979 supported by Vietnamese troops. Since then, this party has continued to rule the country until today and is well prepared to maintain its power by all means as needed. This party is strong and powerful because Hanoi has played a key role behind the scene to direct all the CPP's policies. Without the Vietnamese behind the stage, the CPP would have disappeared since the UN supervised election in 1993. In contrast, the CPP has grown stronger and bigger when it overwhelmingly took over 90 National Assembly seats in the previous election.  Most people have always asked themselves why the CPP got all the seats which they have not deserved. However, there are many factors that have guaranteed the CPP's continuous victory -- intimidation through its whole network in the country, registering and voting system is manipulated by the CPP's installed NEC; all illegal Vietnamese immigrants allowed to vote freely, buying votes through gifts and false promises are a common practice, as well as all major media networks being under the CPP's control. In general, most aspects of daily life of the country are systematically controlled by the CPP.

   On the other hand, Hanoi would not easily let Khmers be free from their political and economic influence that has been rooted over our country for centuries. Vietnam had systematically created a long term plan to swallow Cambodia at all cost. And this ambiguous ideology has penetrated into Vietnamese leaders in all generations. Even the failure of Emperor Minh Mang and his son, Thiev Tree in the Vietnamization policy over the Khmers in 1848, had not deterred other later Vietnamese leaders from carrying on their long term plan of conquering over Cambodia. Namely, Ho Chi Minh had set another plan to take over Khmers under the well-known banner of Indochina Federation. But this plan was disrupted by the Geneva Peace accord in 1954 which required all Vietminh troops to withdraw from Cambodia, although these Vietminh troops later returned to help the Khmer Rouge in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Nevertheless, Pol Pot did not see Vietnam as helpers but as the real aggressors in terms of political and territorial integrity. By late 1973, all Vietnamese troops were forced out from Cambodian territory under Khmer Rouge control through negotiation and some forceful means. After the Khmer Rouge's victory over the Khmer Republic in 1975, the relationship between Pol Pot's Regime and Hanoi never got into a positive direction because Vietnam always treated the Khmers as subordinate partners and forced them to accept their patronage under the so called cooperation treaties among the three countries in Indochina--Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

    But Pol Pot's unwise policy towards Hanoi just created another dangerous situation for the nation. By early 1979, Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia under the banner to save Khmer lives from the Pol Pot Regime, and restored the current CPP to life again. The Khmers have learned the trick from Vietnam as Vietnam has learned its mistakes in the past. Since 1979, Vietnam has more comfortable positions with which to control Cambodia than ever before through its CPP client by claiming that the situation in Cambodia is “irreversible”, meaning Hanoi cannot let Cambodia be free any more. And this claim is still in force today. After the Paris Peace Agreement in 1991, Hanoi has changed its political tactics to rule Cambodia through its client, the CPP. The main policies for keeping the Khmers under Hanoi's control are: first, to break Khmer unity into small pieces at all cost as we had seen from the destruction of Son San's Party, Funcinpec, and numerous attempts on the Sam Rainsy Party.  Second, to infiltrate the CPP faithful members in all the national institutions -- the military, police, courts, media networks, financial and business networks, and even the religious and royal institutions are deeply run by the CPP such as Kong Sam’ol and Tep Vong... Third, to allow free flow of Vietnamese immigrants into the country without check; one Vietnamese translates into one vote for the CPP, undoubtedly. Fourth, to build up a new CPP generation by placing all the top CPP's children in high positions, namely, Hun Manet, Hun Many, and so on in order to continue Hanoi's ambiguous policy for future greater Vietnam known as Indochina Federation.

     For the Khmers, it is not too late to rescue our nation from this imminent threat of Vietnamization but time is running out; the longer the CPP has ruled, the deeper Hanoi roots its influence in the country and the much harder to dig out those roots in future time than it would be to do so today. Now a newly formed CNRP by Sam Rainsy and Kim Sokha has clearly answered to the problems our Nation has faced for centuries. This time, Khmer people don't need to go to the jungle to carry the guns to liberate our nation as used to be, but we have to wisely use our sacred ballots instead of the bullets to rescue our motherland from the death thread peacefully. To achieve this historic mission is not too hard but demands strict discipline in our minds, by refusing all temptations by the CPP to buy out and to break up our Khmer unity under the CNRP's leadership. When the CNRP wins, it means that all Khmers win, our motherland is rescued from the death threat, and all Khmers will get a true democracy that differs from this current fake democracy.

     Now the chance is coming, the stake is very high for all Khmers to make a historic decision for our nation and for our lives. Our choice is between being dead and being alive for our nation, between true democracy and dictatorship, between Khmer interest and Vietnamese interest, between justice and injustice, between corrupt and clean government, and between sustained economic development and depletion of our natural resources. Do we want to live under the dictatorship of the CPP and Hanoi's yoke for another five years, or do we want to live in our own true democratic nation?  Make our best choice for our lives and our nation.