Clarification from Kit Hargreaves, the owner of ilovekhmer website

The following is the response provided by Kit Hargreaves, the owner of the ilovekhmer.org website, in regards to the controversial policy posted by ilovekhmer website.

I included the sentence about being willing to remove the site upon government request for two reasons:

- The first is that I'm a British national. I set up the site, and have Khmer staff who are trying to get decent content to put on it. Given that this is not my country, while I'm willing to defend it, it's not my place to interfere with any ongoing government efforts to fix the situation.

- The second reason is that I'm very weary of the possibility of creating more friction, possibly resulting in violence. Therefore, if the government were to suggest that this could be a likely result of the site, I would remove it for the sake of both sides.

With regards to an accusation made on a previous comment here; I can't even vote, and am not affiliated with any political party.

To those who are dissapointed with the lack of content, I apologise, and would ask you to be patient while we get it all together. We are a small company with limited resources in the middle of a global recession, and this site is something that we're doing for free. Clearly this means that we also have to dedicate at least some of our time to our clients.

Thanks to all of our supporters, and whether you support www.ilovekhmer.org or not, I urge you to at least stand together as Cambodian citizens and support each other.
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KI-Media Note: According to The Phnom Penh Post, Kit is also the 23-year-old CEO of Arocore, a provider of digital solution for the Cambodian market.

Ilovekhmer.org controversial policy

Click on the policy to zoom in

Monday, July 20, 2009
KI-Media

While accessing the ilovekhmer website recently, we noticed that the website has posted its policy and we couldn’t help but notice the following caveat:

“We also remove this website if requested to do so by Cambodian authorities.”

The first question that comes to mind after reading such policy is whether this website is set up to serve Khmer interest, in general, or Hun Sen’s regime propaganda, in particular? If the website’s goal is to provide factual information, such information should be independent of any government influence, and it cannot allow itself to be dictated by any current regime in power.

While we laud the site’s attempt to “provide internationally accepted facts” on Cambodia and her history, we also urge ilovekhmer.org to operate independently of any government in place. In other words: “The truth shall set you free” of any government influence, only Khmer interest counts in this case.

Let the government take care of the politicking while ilovekhmer.org takes care of factual historical facts!

Sincerely

KI-Media

What is happening in Cambodia this week

By Khmerization

Events in Cambodia in the last few days deserved some attention. The Human Right Party is holding its first congress today, with one of the agenda being a debate about the possibility of a merger with the Sam Rainsy Party.

News that Ms. Mu Sochua was elected as the head of the Sam Rainsy Party's Women Movement also deserved attention simply because she has been in the news spotlight recently for being a daredevil to challenge the Cambodian strongman, Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Another the hot news that deserved close attention would be Mr. Yim Sovan's blasting of the Cambodian court for "turning white into black, black into white". Asked by Deum Ampil journalist whether the SRP is considering changing its name in the near future, Mr. Sovan responded that the SRP will only change its name whenever the corrupt Cambodian courts become fully independent and Cambodia becomes a state of laws.

But the one that is hottest would be the news about the birth of ilovekhmer.org, a Khmer website created with the sole intention of countering the "provably false accusations" made by the Thai PM's website, ilovethailand.org. The site proved an instant popularity with internet users, with its site metre hotly counting the numbers of visitors.

Thai PM Abhisit twists history with Web site

Thursday, 16 July 2009
Sam Sok
The Phnom Penh Post

Dear Editor,

While browsing through the front page of The Phnom Penh Post online news, an article titled "Thai Web site reignites spat over territory" caught my attention. According to the report, the Thai Web site contains a video claiming part of Cambodia as lost Thai territory. Interestingly, it appears that the Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has shamelessly launched that Web site for political reasons.

It is not new to many Cambodian people that Thailand has been spending a huge amount of time and money in the school system twisting the facts of history in Southeast Asia. Many Cambodian people at home and abroad know that Thai schools have been teaching the students hatred towards the Cambodian people.

Veasna Kuch, a Cambodian immigrant who resides in St Petersburg, Florida, said that he had a dispute with a professor over a Thai history book when he was at the border fighting the Vietnamese invasion during the 1980s. "The professor who taught history at the time was required by the Thai authorities to use a Thai history book from Chulalongkorn University, and the information was not correct", he said. "I know Khmer history, so the Thais were not able to cheat me," he added.

Although, as many of us know, some Thai historians do not agree with Thai history books, the latest political endeavour of the Oxford-educated Abhisit has taken that faulty information to the next level by launching his new Web site. For a short period as the Thai premier, Abhisit has brought more tension, not less. When he made a one-day visit to Cambodia in June 2009, I was hoping that he could strengthen the relationship with Cambodia. But after he returned home, the relationship soon deteriorated when he asked the world heritage body UNESCO to reconsider its decision to formally list the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia.

It seemed that Abhisit had good intentions during the UNESCO meeting in Seville, Spain, also in June 2009. But obviously, while Abhisit's right hand was patting Prime Minister Hun Sen on the back, his left hand was carrying a dagger. He apparently tried to gain supporters in order to distract attention away from his failure by bending the real history.

A politician such as Abhisit who openly manipulates history for his own political purposes goes beyond typical dirty politics. Why would you reinvent history? Let history speak for itself.

Sam Sok
Florida

ilovekhmer.org makes its maiden debut ... not much content yet

www.ilovekhmer.org

A "whois" record indicated that the website is registered on 16 July 2009. We sincerely hope that, in due time, this website will provide accurate information on Khmer history and territory.