Brief Biography of Heroic Monk His Holiness Samdech Dr. Maha Ghosananda

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Source: Temple News

Heroic monk His Holiness Samdech Dr. Maha Ghosananda, age 94, the Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism, the Gandhi and Gem of Cambodia, the international figure, the non-violent monk and Khmer intellect, established many Khmer Buddhist temples in the late 1970s - 1990s in the Khmer refugee camps along Cambodia-Thailand borders, North America, Australia, and the Cambodia.

His Holiness is one of the architects in ending the Cambodian conflict, the 1991 Paris Peace Accord, strong advocate for human rights respect, and peace, not just in Cambodia, but throughout the world.

Let all of us make a tribute to H.H. Samdech Dr. Maha Ghosananda for all his staunch support for a peaceful, non-violent, democratic, human rights respect, and free Cambodia and the world.

Let His words be heard throughout the globe.

Finding My Voice

First published in July 2008 in the Phnom Penh Post as part of the Voice of Justice columns. As the judges of the Extraordinary Chambers (ECCC) meet this week to discuss the role of civil parties in the ECCC, may they be reminded of this need for victims for expression and the fact that civil party exists as a matter of law they created. Thus they should move beyond the existential question, not reduce further the civil party to that of being a witness, and not change the rules in the middle of the game after having raised the expectations of countless of KR victims/survivors, to make this process truly meaningful. - thearyseng.com
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FINDING MY VOICE

As human beings, we are made to communicate. The ability (and right) to express oneself is fundamental to what it means to be fully human, hence the inclusion of the "freedom of expression" as one of four basic freedoms in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

When we communicate, we feel the naturalness of it all, that this is right and true.

To the contrary, when we cannot communicate - either by force or natural limitations - we feel the knots and angst, suffocation and powerlessness - and the unnaturalness, the sense that we are going against who we are created to be.

We often call this need and desire to communicate our "voice" - not only in the vocal sense, but to encompass expression generally. The more authentic is this voice, the more we are true to self, which I believe to be the great quest of life.

Personal Testimony

The best way to know and appreciate the value of something is to be without it for a time.

For me, I grew up not having a voice, hence powerless, suffocated and in angst. As a child of 4 to 8 years old living under the Khmer Rouge regime, I was silenced by the lack of a childhood of laughter and learning; silenced by constant gnawing hunger and weakness; silenced by the pervading fear of impending death; silenced by the surrounding deaths, deaths' mourning and stench; silenced by my playground, the consuming graves.

When one is thus silenced, the silence befriends emotional turmoil and makes for a very distraught, broken person - in this case, a child. It took me the next 10 years to break this silence - to find, to regain, to strengthen my voice.

I did this within the safety of a loving family, a loving environment by READING, READING, READING - first to know ('Why do I feel this way?' 'Am I alone in this feeling?’) and then to understand ('Ah, this state of suffocation and tumult is not natural, it is not my true self which desires to he heard').

(This is the principal reason I studied law because I was impressed in my readings by the ability of those with law degrees to articulate well.)

As someone once told C.S. Lewis, "you read to know you're not alone." Somewhere, someone has experienced the loss, the anguish, the tears, the exhilaration we are experiencing, for as Solomon tells us, there is nothing new under the sun. Books, a means of democratization, connect us with that someone. That is why I will always be a voracious reader of bio- and auto- biographies. "The author who benefits you most," writes Oswald Chambers, "is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance."

All the readings gave me tools (ideas, confidence, knowledge) to release all the angst and tumult knotted inside me.

ECCC Victims' Participation

In our current society, I see having no voice as a serious societal problem for most of us Khmers. We do not have or have limited voice mainly due to societal and political restrictions which do not encourage our human potential to gain or strengthen our voice through quality education and high living standards. Rather, these constraints keep us in ignorance and mute with fear, busying us with thoughts of survival and pangs of hunger.

We, at CSD, work to address this problem by creating forums to draw out Khmer voices - be it the Justice & National Reconciliation dialogues, the Voice of Justice radio programs or the civil party seminars for the Orphans Class.

In our outreach work, one of CSD's goals is to engage the common Khmer to tell his or her story. Through these expressions, we can better understand how to restore dignity of victims, to bring about personal healing and reconciliation, to mark a break with the past and to restore trust. These voices will help to make a more durable peace. It is natural not to want to open old wounds of the past for fear of breaking the existing fragile peace, but true peace is active and works to break the cycle of violence and conflict.

The ECCC also provides an unprecedented, incredible avenue for the voices of victims to be heard. In allowing victims to become a direct party to the criminal proceeding, the ECCC formally acknowledges the healing power of having a voice in its goal of national reconciliation. As a matter of law and practice, a party recognized by a court has the fundamental right to be heard.

To have a voice is fundamentally human. Only when we Khmers find our voice, strengthen this voice, and make this voice genuine and true, will we be at peace within ourselves and with others around us.

Theary C. SENG, a member of the New York Bar Association, former director of Center for Social Development (March 2006—July 2009), founder and Board of the Center for Justice & Reconciliation (www.cjr-cambodia.org), founding adviser of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims (www.akrvc.org), is currently writing her second book, under a grant, amidst her speaking engagements. For additional information, please visit Theary's website at thearyseng.com.

THE KHMER ROUGE LEGACY: How Then Shall We Live?

Thank you to Mr. At Keo of North Carolina for his Open Letter to me which I am happy to give an Open Response shortly. In the meantime, may you ponder over "How Then Shall We Live", first published in August 2008 in The Phnom Penh Post as part of the Voice of Justice columns, and enjoy a few sourvenirs from Nataya Resort in Kampot province, an oasis sandwiched between 1 km of seashore and the eerily beautiful Bokor Mountains, of this past New Year weekend. (see photos below) I am very fortunate to be given opportunities to "live well" - in beauty, in truth, in grace, in goodness, in love - and it is my strongest desire to see (and my life's work to affect attidudinal and environmental changes in order) my fellow Cambodians be afforded these same opportunities to live well. The answer to living well, as Dr. Mark Strom reminds us, "is not magical but practical."

THE KHMER ROUGE LEGACY:
How Then Shall We Live?

We are the victims, perpetrators and heirs of 20th century's evil incarnate - maimed, broken both in body and spirit. Everyone of us. All 14 million of us. Many of us with blood on our hands. Thirty years on, we are still living in a land thoroughly soaked in blood - haunted by the cries of our dead, by what we did or were forced to do, by what we witnessed and our hellish experiences; we have done little to wash away this stain from our environment and in our hearts; we have paid scant attention to the destructive mentality – violence, fear, impunity compounded over these many years – it produces in ourselves and visitors individually and in society collectively.

This is how the world knows us. Just eavesdrop on the expat's conversations; consider their ulterior motives, meaningless deference, condescending actions, implicit and explicit pomposity and superiority, sophisticated manipulations; ponder the humility, patience and compassion of those who visit prisoners, care for trafficked girls and AIDS/HIV-infected patients; admire the courage of those who raise awareness through films and other forms of media of human rights abuses, environmental destruction, sexual exploitation, impunity, injustices.

This is how we know ourselves. Look into the eyes of any Khmer; read the expressions on our faces; listen carefully to what we say; feel the fear, mistrust and mistreatment we have toward each other and of/by the authority; think of the self-hatred as reflected in the way we treat the most vulnerable, disregard human life, hide behind and chase after materialism, decadence, superficiality over substance and depth. Consider the greed, the selfishness in the frantic, furious grabbing of land, the heartless selling and degradation of persons.

I hear often negative superlatives attached to our current society – how it is the most vulgar, most degenerate, most cruel toward their own people, most violent, most racist, most materialistic and superficial, most shameless, most petty, most laden with gossips, back-stabbing, etc.

This is our Khmer legacy. We can deny it, or pretend it doesn't exist. We can hide it by dressing it up with pretty roads, pretty buildings, pretty clothes, pretty phones, pretty cars - with all the pretty bling-bling things of modernity. The reality remains; the blood stains are still with us; the dark mentality continues to guide us.

Do we remain indifferent and vaguely hope for change - that our society would miraculously change from one of fear to courage, impunity to justice, vulgarity to decency, violence to peace - with no efforts on our part? Yes, if we are uncaring and delusional.

How then shall we live?

The answer is not magical but practical; the answer is not unknown to us, but requires us to move from lip service to courageous action. How, then, shall we live? We must return to first principles.

Courage is not inevitable. Justice is not inevitable. Wisdom is not inevitable. Decency is not inevitable. Neither are peace, love, excellence, freedom, perseverance, character.

Each requires hard work -deliberate, persistent, persevering, humble, passionate work. And it must start with each one of us - Theary, Sophea, Chanthan, Chantha, Seila, Chariya, Cheat, Chhay, Dara, Sen, Vannath, Kheng.

The answer to fear is not more fear, but courage. We receive justice not by analyzing, witnessing, engaging in injustice, but by giving justice. We are noble not through superfluous, long empty titles, but by living with dignity and bestowing dignity to all, especially on the most vulnerable. Excellence is not had by sloth, envy but by training, perseverance, dedication.

Living Well

How then shall we live? We want to live well. We shall live well. What does "living well" look like? We must focus on and bring about the four ideals of the ancient world – Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity – which address the four dimensions to life – the intellectual, the aesthetic, the moral, and the spiritual (in the sense of being connected to a purpose larger than ourselves). Where there is truth, where there is beauty, where there is goodness, and where there is unity, we Khmers of the globalized, porous world of 21st century, traumatized by the 20th century evil incarnate, may live well. (See www. csdcambodia.org "Voice of Justice Program - Leadership: To lead is to serve". Dr. Mark Strom).

Everyone of 14 million of us has an important role to play in living well. But I'd like to single out and plead with four influential groups of individuals:

Elected Leaders: Please, be our role models – full of character, justice, imbued with humility and genuine nobility. Be our model of compassion for the vulnerable, the weak, the widows and orphans – this being the hallmark of a great society.

Civic Leaders: Please, be our role models – of Integrity, unity and humility.

Parents: Please, be our role models. Invest in our education; make sacrifices for the children, for the future.

Foreign Guests: Please, do no harm. You are greatly welcomed here. But, please, do no harm, intentionally or inadvertently.

We are a generation uniquely occasioned with an awesome responsibility and opportunity – to determine and shape the Khmer Rouge legacy, positively or negatively.

How then shall we live? Let us not live darkly. Let us live well. Let us live in truth, with beauty, with goodness, in unity. Let us live with a just peace – not only a peace defined as the absence of war, but peace that includes the presence of justice. Let us live in awe of life, with a respect for life. Let us live with grace and freedom.

Theary C. SENG, former director of Center for Social Development (March 2006—July 2009), founded the Center for Justice & Reconciliation (www.cjr-cambodia.org) and is currently writing her second book, under a grant, amidst her speaking engagements.

Politics is glory, curse of humanity

September 2, 2009
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

Man is brought into the world as a free being, gifted with the mental and physical qualities that allow him to confront the challenges of daily living. Unlike animals, reliant on instinct and cunning, men are endowed with an intelligence that generally allows them to overcome complex problems and acts as a governor on man's free will.

In the political philosophy of the Western tradition, English philosopher and political theorist Thomas Hobbes wrote in "Leviathan" that men are selfish creatures, naturally wicked, interested only in promoting their own self-interest. "All mankind (is in) a perpetual and restless desire for power ... that (stops) only in death," says Hobbes, who saw the state of nature as a "war of every man against every man" and life as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

To rule such a world requires a powerful absolute monarch, said Hobbes.

French writer and political theorist, Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose writings were a catalyst to the French Revolution that ended absolute rule and introduced in France principles of citizenship and inalienable rights, wrote: "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they."

Rousseau saw the primitive condition of the state of nature, devoid of law or morality, as a threat to man's survival and his freedom. Cognizant of that threat, men join together in a social contract in a civil society; abandoning their claim to "natural rights," men adopt institutions supported by laws to preserve themselves with more limited freedoms.

Armed with values, beliefs and thoughts -- acquired from socializing agents such as family, peers, schooling, religious faith, occupation, the mass media and as a result of extraordinary events -- man develops his attitudes and perceptions. Man and his environment continually interact, changing each other over time. Men institute civil structures and laws to regulate their interactions and maintain order in society.

Contemporary governments, made up of laws, policies and institutions, are organized to serve the people to attain their primary goals of adequate health, a level of contentment in life and a condition of economic self-sufficiency; and to serve the country's goals of independence, security and economic and social well-being of citizens.

A school of thought asserts that nothing is possible without men. Another warns that men are not angels so, in forming a government of men administering other men, it's the people who must watch over the government, and "auxiliary precautions" -- limits of power, checks and balances -- are essential to ensure that men do not violate others' rights.

Many a citizen sees the politics of government as corrupt and cruel as individual practitioners of politics overstretch their power, disregard laws, trample the rights of the less privileged, engage in corruption and extrajudicial killings. Some hate politics because of what Lord Buddha called, "evils of the tongue" through propagating lies and slander.

And yet, Lord Buddha never taught man to think or act with mendacity. He preached moderation, compassion, understanding, tolerance, forgiveness.

Classical Greeks used the term "politikos" to refer to the relationships between the citizens and their city state. Athens was the world's first democracy in the 5th century -- "demos" means people, "kratia" means government -- "demokratia" is a government of the people. Athens was built on the principle of free and well-informed participation in Athens' affairs as an honor and the duty of every citizen.

Man cannot be well-informed and keep his freedom if he has no interest in learning about his own and his government's rights and duties.

When French Gen. Charles de Gaulle entered politics, he declared, "I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians."

As if to highlight how "serious a matter" politics is, China's Mao Tse-tung proclaimed, "Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed." England's Winston Churchill said, "In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times."

Professor Kay Lawson's words are brought to mind: "Between the cradle and the grave, we live our lives in the midst of politics" -- or politics is all around us from birth to death: family politics, peer groups' politics, classroom politics, office politics, community politics, pagoda politics and so forth.

Politics refers to human activities since men and women first met on this earth, established interpersonal relations, lived together and worked on how and where to secure food to eat, make shelter, protect against animals, nature and other groups of humans. Politics, says Lawson, "is part and parcel of nearly all human interactions."

About 350,000 years ago in China, early settlers lived, worked together and made decisions affecting the whole settlement. As a means of organizing collective human activity, politics requires planning, direction, coordination; making a common decision that applies to everyone in the same way; the use of power, psychological or physical, in the collective; and development of procedures on effective ways to reach goals.

Politics is with us as we breathe. It serves the individual and the community to be learned, informed, and engaged. Greek philosopher Plato, warned more than 300 years before the birth of Christ, that we would end up "being governed by those who are dumber" or more "inferior" than ourselves if we refuse to participate in politics.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.