Sinatoons: Eating US rice, but serving the Viet's puppet CPP

Chhang Song, a prostitute politician, still works as a CPP spy in Long Beach

Chhang Song, a former minister of the Khmer Republic, is now catering to the CPP in order to survive in Long Beach. He is now working as a CPP spy in order to earn a pittance to sustain his jobless miserable life in Long Beach. Time to take your nap, Chhang Song. You're too old for political prostitution! You are a shame for the Khmer Republic!

An Anti-government Group Is Calling for an Unrest to Overthrow the Government

Click here to read Chhang Song's report to the CPP in Khmer

AKP Phnom Penh, May 17, 2011 –A certain “pro-democracy” group increasingly has called for a popular unrest in Cambodia to overthrow the Cambodian government and change the political regime of Cambodia, affirmed a senior government official.

“The group has become increasingly virulent these past few weeks, has gone as far as publicly calling for the popular unrest against the royal government, in the path advocated by those few known under title of a local newspapers Khmer Post. But, in fact, the title Khmer Post conceals an anti-government recruitment campaign, called for ខ្មែរផុស (Khmer uprising), with the goal of urging the Cambodian population to: ផុសឡើង, ក្រោកឡើង (uprise, stand up) against the government, the same way did the people in Egypt,” said Mr. Chhang Song, an Adviser to the Royal Government of Cambodia in his email to Information Minister H.E. Khieu Kanharith.

“This group was initially led by MEACH SOVANNARA of Long Beach, who alleges that you and I (Khieu Kanharith and Chhang Song – Note of the Redaction) were his supporters. Sovannara calls himself journalist and, on his radio, gives himself the title of: bNÐitសាស្ត្រាចារ្យ (Professeur Agrégé – Associate professor – Note of the Redaction),” he said.

Chhang Song sidelined with health problems in Long Beach

Chhang Song, ex-Lon Nol regime minister, ex-CPP senator, renominated as CPP advisor in 2007 (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Cambodian diplomat sidelined with health problems in Long Beach

07/09/2010
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram

LONG BEACH - Song Chhang had hoped to be celebrating this weekend in Washington D.C.

He certainly didn't expect to be in a bed in a nursing facility considering his life and wondering what the future holds.

"I still have so many things to do," the 72-year-old says wistfully.

There are stories yet to tell. He wants to see how things turn out in his Cambodian homeland. But now, he just doesn't know.

Chhang is a prominent if rather low-key Cambodian in Long Beach. He is French and American educated, the former Minister of Information for Lon Nol's government during the Cambodian civil war. In the United States he helped craft the legislation that paved the way for 150,000 refugees to flee Cambodia after the fall of Pol Pot's brutal Khmer Rouge regime, under which upwards of 2 million Cambodians died.

He returned to Cambodia around 1994 and was part of the Cambodian People's Party until he was ousted in the late 1990s.

This weekend, Chhang had looked forward to speaking at a special dinner among diplomats and fellow Cambodians to recognize the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Cambodia and the United States.

The actual date of the beginning of Cambodia-U.S diplomatic ties was in July 15, 1950. That year, the U.S had sent its first ambassador to Cambodia to recognize its impending independence before the country's final separation from France in 1953.

Although relations have been rocky at times and even severed, in recent years the relationship has improved.

Later this month, there will be events in Cambodia to mark the anniversary, including a performance by Long Beach resident Sophiline Shapiro's Cambodian classical dance troupe of "Seasons of Migration."

Although he'd love to take it all in, instead, Chhang will have to hear second-hand from his bed at the Regency Oaks Skilled Nursing Care facility.

Initially, Chhang thought he suffered a stroke, but he says doctors are still doing tests.

Chhang traces his health problems to overextending himself in a recent visit to Phnom Penh for a reunion of war correspondents, or the "old hacks," as they called themselves. Before his ascension to Minister of Information, Chhang was a press liaison.

At the reunion, Chhang helped oversee the installation of a small memorial to the 37 journalists who died covering the civil war between 1970 and 1975. He was also part of a group that traveled south of Phnom Penh to plant a tree in memory of an NBC team killed there.

Chhang says he wrote and made eight different speeches over the reunion events.

Now he hopes to get out of his bed and do whatever he can to help his country. He had planned a speech about refreshing sometimes rocky relations between the U.S. and Cambodia before his country falls too much under the sway of China.

And he wishes to see a day when a more "spiritual leadership" comes to his country. That's would make the old man happy.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291

War Journalists to Get Reunion in Cambodia Next Month

Chhang Song, a chameleon-politician (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

2010-03-24
Xinhua

Some 40 foreign war journalists who were covering in Cambodia in early 1970s will get together in Phnom Penh next month, Chhang Song, former information minister said Wednesday.

He said for the first time since that horrible war, foreign war correspondents are returning to Phnom Penh for a reunion from April 20 to 23.

The event is organized by Chhang Song, the last Information Minister in the Lon Nol government who now divides his time between Cambodia and the United States and acts as a senior adviser to both the government and public-at-large.

For those who covered the Cambodian War between 1970 and 1975, the memories have always been particularly painful.

Chhang Song said a total of 36 foreign and Cambodian journalists were killed or disappeared, more than in the war in neighboring Vietnam.

Assisting Chhang Song in his quest is former Associated Press ( AP) correspondent U.S.-born Carl Robinson who covered the Cambodian War from neighboring Saigon, today's Ho Chi Minh City, and now lives in Brisbane, Australia.

While several reunions have been held over the past 15 years in Saigon, this is the first one in Phnom Penh. And, considering their age, this reunion will most likely also be the last one.

"Covering the war was so painful that many, even now, are unable to look back on that period," explains Robinson, who has only re-visited Cambodia in the past couple of years.

Cambodian government has granted permission for the construction of a memorial to the journalists who died in Cambodia while covering the civil war in the 1970s, according to local media report on Monday.

The memorial will be located in the Daun Penh district gardens opposite Raffles Hotel le Royal, it said.

Chhang Song, ex-Lon Nol regime minister, ex-CPP senator, returns to serve as advisor of the CPP government which kicked him out 6 years ago

Thursday, June 7, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

After disappearing for the past 6 years, following his removal by the CPP from his Senate position, Chhang Song, the former Minister of Information under the Lon Nol Khmer Republic regime, has been nominated as a government advisor with the rank of minister. According to the Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper, besides Chhang Song, three other political figures have also been nominated as economic, social and cultural observers, with the rank of secretary of state. Chhang Song along with Phay Siphan, Pou Savath, and Keo San were former CPP senators, and they were kicked out by the party over 6 years ago. Among the 4 ex-senators, only Pov Savath has not been nominated in any new position recently.

Cambodian tragedy

03/03/2007
Sunday's Letter to the Editor
Long Beach Press Telegram (Long Beach, USA)

As one of the newest members of the Cambodian community in Long Beach, I salute the Press-Telegram for highlighting the need of "Preserving Cambodia's dark past". Thanks to the published article, we can remind ourselves that a tragedy of an enormous proportion took place in Cambodia and claimed the life of some 2 million people when French-trained leftist Cambodian intellectuals, known as the Khmer Rouge, took power and ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

Moreover, it is incumbent upon the civilized world to safeguard these evidences of a colossal genocide, in a dignified fashion. Not only Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek, which bear testimonies to some 20,000 methodical massacres, but over 20,000 other mass graves which have been so far located scattered throughout Cambodia must be carefully preserved, not only against the natural destruction, but also against human attempts to erase evidential materials which can be embarrassing to their own misguided actions and policy.

As reported by Khmer Rouge scholar Craig Etcheson in his most recent book, "After the Killing Fields," the smallest of these mass graves contain the remnants of two to five victims when an entire family was butchered and dumped together into a common pit; the medium ones contain 100 to 200 victims when the entire population, say, of a prison were massacred and dumped in a mass grave; and the large mass graves would contain anywhere from over 1,000 to 40,000 of victims when the entire district, for instance, were being purged by the Khmer Rouge.

For several years now the United Nations has been negotiating with the Cambodian government to create an international court, with a highfalutin name of Extraordinary Chambers of Cambodia to Prosecute the Khmer Rouge. At such a court, these materials and mass graves would serve as irrefutable evidences of genocide and crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, the court remains pending to this day and many culpable Khmer Rouge such as Pol Pot, have died. Besides, there have been attempts to have these materials cremated by claiming that, according the Buddhism, the religion which the majority of the Cambodians practice, without proper ceremonial cremation, these skulls and other bones would prevent the souls of the Khmer Rouge victims to migrate to heaven. In reality, such a claim would be seriously misquoting Buddhism. In fact, Buddhism preaches that all material remnants of a dead person are only worthless logs which could be disposed of to produce energy.

Moreover, the claim that Cambodians must forget the Khmer Rouge's past crimes in order to reach a national reconciliation and rebuild the land is committing the Cambodians to relive such a tragic fate; and force the victims to live among their own killers. Every day, even Cambodians who have been resettled safely abroad such as a few of us in Long Beach - are walking aimlessly like zombies, while trying to make a decent living under great stress from their losses and separation.

We cannot forget and we are thankful to Press-Telegram for publishing an article on the Khmer Rouge. In fact, we agree with someone who has said that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat the past mistakes.

The culture of impunity, much spread in Cambodia, should no longer be allowed to perpetuate at the expense of the victims. The court should no longer be left pending indefinitely because somebody cannot make a decision; and the team of internationally appointed judges should start their work immediately and make a fair and valid pronouncement on the tremendous sufferings of the Cambodian people after the review of these materials. The Cambodians who have suffered so much to this day deserve at least this pronouncement by the world community.

Chhang Song

Long Beach

The author adds: I was the last minister of Information in Lon Nol's Khmer Republic government of Cambodia. I am now an American citizen and have resided in Long Beach for the past five years. I have retired and am writing my memoirs.

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KI-Media Note: To understand Mr. Chhang Song's background, we are including below an article published by Matt Reed in the Cambodia Daily (March 16-17, 2002) providing missing additional details about Mr. Chhang Song.

Coming Home a Foreigner

Life Full of Contradictions for Overseas Cambodians Returning Home

By Matt Reed
The Cambodia Daily

When Chhang Song came back from the US in 1989, he was surprised that to his eyes not much had changed in his home village in Takeo province.

The home where he had grown up had been destroyed during a battle sometime in the 1970s or 1980s, but had been rebuilt to look the same as before. His long-ago friends and neighbors were there, although many family members had died.

The Buddhist pagoda still stood. His village was poorer, but it felt good to again speak the colloquial, countryside Khmer he had missed during his years in Washington.

"Cambodia had not changed into Vietnam as some people had claimed," he said. "I was very much at home."

Cambodian-American returnees celebrate their graduation from a training session in 1992. Ninety-eight overseas Cambodian volunteers taught English, computers, accounting and business management in the 1990s through the NGO Cando

When the Paris Peace Accords were signed in October 1991, Chhang Song like other overseas Cambodians made plans for a permanent return. Many returnees, full of hope and idealism, came to work for the Untac administration, to start a business or to work for a political party ahead of the 1993 elections.

Most had stumbled across the Thai border into refugee camps in the 1970s and 1980s, full of hunger and nightmares, but with the hope of gaining a visa to go abroad. With the new peace, they expected to return to find the idyllic Phnom Penh they remembered from the 1950s and 1960s.

Once they arrived, they found the city's empty streets, malnourished people and broken buildings. They were welcomed by locals, but initially were considered to be more foreign than Cambodian.

"People were cold," said Lao Mong Hay, former executive director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy who lived in Great Britain in the 1970s and 1980s. "They called us 'minority Cambodian.'"

But Chhang Song was warmly welcomed as one of the few returnees to join the ruling CPP, where he continued to act as a bridge between the former communists and the democratic West.

In the 1980s, he had testified before the US Congress against providing aid to the factions fighting the Vietnamese-backed government at the Thai border. He also helped arrange a long interview in the US between Prime Minister Hun Sen and the influential National Public Radio.

These were political acts that set Chhang Song far apart from the rest of the Cambodian-American community, which saw many in Hun Sen's regime merely as Vietnamese puppets. Many saw his advocacy as a betrayal to his home country.

But to Chhang Song, the CPP seemed to offer the best hope for Cambodia. "They had a good group of people. I saw that Cambodia had a chance to have a government of its own," he said. "Hun Sen has problems, but he's the best in comparison with others."

What Chhang Song and Savath Poeu, a Cambodian-Australian who joined the CPP in 1991, could offer was their first-hand experience in a democratic society. Along with other returnees from the West, they gave the party "a measure of credibility," Lao Mong Hay said.

In Sydney during the 1980s, Savath Poeu had been active in the Cambodian community. He had organized visits by factional leaders such as then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Son Sann.

"My friends were so amazed when I joined the CPP. But I had problems with Vietnam, not the CPP," he said. "And it looked to me that Funcinpec was not well-organized."

Top CPP officials gave him the task of convincing overseas intellectuals to join, or at least sympathize, with the CPP. As president of the party's overseas branches for the next 10 years, Savath Poeu traveled to the US, France, Belgium and elsewhere.

The 1990s had brought a victory of democracy and liberalism to the world and to Cambodia. This drew a mixed reaction from communist-trained officials here who embraced the new free market economy becoming rich from the sales of state-owned property while worrying about holding on to power.

That was taken care of after the 1993 national elections. Although Funcinpec won the election, the CPP forced its way into a power-sharing agreement that lasted until July 1997, when it wrestled power away from the royalists completely.

Those four years were exciting for returnees who came to help rebuild Cambodia, according to Thida Khus, an NGO worker who brought almost 100 of her fellow Cambodian-Americans to work here during that time period. Her volunteers taught English, computers, accounting and business management.

"People at home [in the US] can't understand why we came back, because of their memory of the Khmer Rouge," she said. "But working here is rewarding. I can contribute more here. It is more special."

Cultural conflict between overseas Cambodians and those who lived here in the 1970s and 1980s was inevitable. There were the different ways of speaking and behaving overseas Cambodians tended to be more outspoken, said Thida Khus.

And there was the off-putting tendency by returnees to let others know they were from overseas and to flash their money.

"They drove around in chauffeured cars and carried bottled water into restaurants," said Bell Herod, a US citizen who has lived in Phnom Penh since the early 1990s. "The restaurant staff would just roll their eyes. I think Cambodians still feel a strong sense of annoyance [toward returnees]."

For example, when Apsara Authority President Vann Molyvann was fired from his position last year, some officials cited his status as a foreigner.

He was not easy to work with, said Angkor Conservation officer Keo Saravuth. His way of dealing with others was more foreign than Cambodian, he said.

"[New President] Bun Narith is CPP. He has lived in Cambodia a long time. So I think he will be better," Keo Saravuth said at the time.

For returnees, proper behavior and respect can go a long way, said Chanvarith Puth, a Cambodian-American who is Funcinpec's governor of Kampot province. "It is not really easy to come back," he said. "But if you don't act like you know everything, then you can get along."

In the government in the mid-1990s, the CPP began to criticize the role of Cambodian officials with dual nationalities. While one faction of the party was encouraging the recruitment of members from abroad, others in the CPP were looking ahead to the 1998 national elections.

In 1996, CPP officials floated the idea of preventing people with more than one passport from standing for electionÑa measure that while aimed at hurting Funcinpec's election chances also reflected a sentiment among many CPP officials who had worked in the government since 1979.

"This has always been a delicate situation. Many people here were worried that returnees would come and take their place," said Licadho founder Kek Galabru, who herself spent some years in France.

"People had survived for years and fought for positions during the difficult periods, while overseas Cambodians were living free of fear," she said. "Most Cambodians still think the high-level positions should go to them because of the suffering they went through."

When factional fighting between Funcinpec and the CPP began in 1997, many frightened and disappointed returnees left Cambodia for good, while top officials from Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party went into exile for a short while before returning ahead of the 1998 elections.

This reinforced resentment of dual nationals, who Cambodians say will simply leave the country whenever there is trouble.

Currently, some Funcinpec members are pushing to oust co-Minister of Interior You Hockry, who is a US citizen. They have criticized him, among other things, for living abroad in the 1980s while many Funcinpec members were fighting the Vietnamese-installed government.

In the CPP, distrust of returnees remains and has increased ahead of next year's national elections, several observers said.

In December, the CPP abruptly booted Chhang Song, Savath Poeu and Cambodian-American Phay Siphan from the party and the Senate. In January, Funcinpec Senator Keo San, a French citizen, was also expelled. Phay Siphan left the country immediately after the dismissal.

No reason was given for the firings. "As far as I'm concerned, I never did anything wrong," Savath Poeu said.

But in the CPP, it is only the overseas members that bring up issues like corruption, illegal logging and separation of powers, he said.

CPP hard-liners don't see the value of having a public discourse, so anyone who strays from the party line between now and the 2003 national elections can expect the same fate, Savath Poeu claimed.

"They are worried about a split in the party," he said.

It also may be true that having dual nationals within the CPP is no longer important for the party's image, Savath Poeu said.

Lao Mong Hay agrees. After the 1998 election, he said, "those senators became a spent force."
Chhang Song said he plans to stay in Cambodia and continue to push for democratic reform. With his university degree in agriculture, he may seek ways to help Cambodia's farmers, he said. "There is life after power," he said.

Outside of politics, integrating overseas Cambodians into society will continue to be a serious challenge facing national reconciliation, Kek Galabru said.

More overseas Cambodians want to return, she said. But their first priority is to support their family and send their children to school.

Today, there are 300 Cambodian doctors in France, Kek Galabru said. Their expertise would go a long way in helping Cambodia's public health system. But as long as civil service salaries are so low, it is impossible for them to come here. For now, the most that many overseas Cambodians can do is send an occasional donation to family members or NGOs.

In the future, Cambodia will see overseas Cambodians coming home to retire, Thida Khus said. But only if the security situation remains stable.

For most Cambodians living abroad, Cambodia is their "home at heart," said Kassie Neou, a Cambodian-American from the Washington DC-area who has done human rights work here and serves on the National Election Committee.

"I think we are seen as Cambodians now. There has been a process of assimilation... We cannot deny one or the other," he said. "But from time to time, I feel like a stranger."