Op-Ed by Khmer Quorum
Originally posted online
Nation and state, which comes first? A nation is a population with a certain sense of itself, a share of common history and culture, and sometime language and religion. Whereas a state is a government structure, truly sovereign and powerful enough to protect itself and to enforce its writs. Nation always has developed before the state. People in the ancient time, lived in many small tribal societies. They perceived their tribal society or clans as a nation, for they shared common culture, language, and religious practice. Because of war and threats from outsiders, people started to create their own states in order to safeguard their lives, properties, and culture.
In modern time, nation has many defined characteristics: territory, sovereignty, population, independence, and government. In general, every nation occupies a specific geographical area; it is hard to have a nation without a territory. Sometime overlap territory claim results in violent conflicts. Few countries have natural boundaries. The German fought the French over Alsace, the Vietnamese fought Cambodian and Chinese in 1979 over border disputes. Every nation has people within its borders but most of those people are multi-nationalities. The multi-national nation tends to be unstable and fragile. The Kurds in Turkey and Iraq have struggled for decades to gain their nationhood. About eight millions of Khmer Krom who have lived in their homeland for centuries, now are struggling to gain their autonomous rule and nationhood from Vietnam. Today, they have their exile government that is a current member of the UNPO.
Nation should also be independent, meaning it can govern itself as a sovereign state without interfering from others. But many smaller and weaker countries have had difficulty with maintaining their independence and national sovereignty. For example, the two weak and small countries, Cambodia and Laos, for centuries have struggled to survive their independence from Vietnam and Thai Land--the bigger and stronger neighbors. Ho Chi Minh had dreamed of bigger Indochina Federation the same as Stalin's dream of bigger Soviet Union after the end of World War II. Stalin's dream had become true before his death, but Ho Chi Minh's dream has hardly become true. But, when it becomes true, it never disappears like Stalin's dream in 1991. Historically, Vietnamese were well-known as skillful warriors. They expelled the Chinese rulers after many hundreds years under their yoke. Then, they had marched toward the West to crush the kingdom of Champa in fourteenth century, and they went farther West to cut a half part of Cambodian territory known as Kampuchea Krom (Cambodian Lower Land) in sixteenth century. After defeating their stronger enemy-- the French colonizers in 1954-- The Vietnamese looked for Laos and Cambodia to fulfill their father Ho's dream. During the French and American occupation in Indochina until 1975, the Vietnamese communists under a leadership of Ho Chi Minh, tirelessly recruited and supplied Cambodians and Laotians factions to fight the French and American occupiers.
Unfortunately, the Geneva Peace Accord in 1954 put Vietnam in Political dilemma. Vietnam was unable to unify itself, and its Cambodian communist allies (Khmer Vietminh) were excluded from the peace process. However, the Vietnamese communists continued to train and equip their communist allies in Laos and Cambodia to fight the newly independent states. When the US sent its troop to protect its allies in Indochina, the Vietnamese communists saw their new opportunity to achieve their goal. They sent their troops into Cambodia and Laos under a banner to help their brothers from American imperialists. After the end of Vietnam War in 1975, about 50,000 Vietnamese communist fighters had occupied Laos . But at the same time, all Vietnamese occupiers were expelled from Cambodia because the Cambodian government under Pol Pot wanted to exercise its own sovereignty and independence based on the concept of nation state. However, Hanoi regime felt betrayed again, this time not by the Geneva Conference but by its own comrade regime led by Pol Pot.
In 1979, rumored of great purge inside the communist regime in Cambodia along with many unsettled border disputes had created an excuse for Vietnam to restore its "Status Quo" over Cambodia again. Hanoi Regime sent 200,000 troop equipped with the Soviet-made T-54 tanks and Mig-21 jets to invade Cambodia, this time under the banner to save Cambodian people from a genocide. With sophisticated weapons and stronger manpower, the Vietnamese troop captured Phnom Penh in two weeks, and they installed the other communist regime that has ruled Cambodia until today.
If Pol Pot had accepted the Vietnam's status quo as Laos had done, Hanoi would allow Pol Pot to rule Cambodia until today regardless of how much atrocity he had committed against Cambodian people. Recently, Hun Sen has kept claiming that January 7, 1979 has given a second birthday for every Cambodian people because Vietnam had saved us from Pol Pot's killing field. This claim is irrational and obsolete. It is too insane or absurd to see the Vietnamese behaving as Bodhisattva (Buddhist Saint). In reality, there is no free lunch in this world. Laos and Cambodia have never gained full independence since the French left Indochina in 1954. Their independence and sovereignty have been constantly interfered by Vietnam in all aspects of domestic and international affairs. No any government in Cambodia would be stable and last longer if it did not accept Vietnamese patronage. This is a real problem with the concept of nation and state. Who is going to insure that which nation has full or partial independence? The UN? Maybe only the people themselves in that nation can guarantee that their nation has full independence or not.
By Khmer Quorum, MN, US
In modern time, nation has many defined characteristics: territory, sovereignty, population, independence, and government. In general, every nation occupies a specific geographical area; it is hard to have a nation without a territory. Sometime overlap territory claim results in violent conflicts. Few countries have natural boundaries. The German fought the French over Alsace, the Vietnamese fought Cambodian and Chinese in 1979 over border disputes. Every nation has people within its borders but most of those people are multi-nationalities. The multi-national nation tends to be unstable and fragile. The Kurds in Turkey and Iraq have struggled for decades to gain their nationhood. About eight millions of Khmer Krom who have lived in their homeland for centuries, now are struggling to gain their autonomous rule and nationhood from Vietnam. Today, they have their exile government that is a current member of the UNPO.
Nation should also be independent, meaning it can govern itself as a sovereign state without interfering from others. But many smaller and weaker countries have had difficulty with maintaining their independence and national sovereignty. For example, the two weak and small countries, Cambodia and Laos, for centuries have struggled to survive their independence from Vietnam and Thai Land--the bigger and stronger neighbors. Ho Chi Minh had dreamed of bigger Indochina Federation the same as Stalin's dream of bigger Soviet Union after the end of World War II. Stalin's dream had become true before his death, but Ho Chi Minh's dream has hardly become true. But, when it becomes true, it never disappears like Stalin's dream in 1991. Historically, Vietnamese were well-known as skillful warriors. They expelled the Chinese rulers after many hundreds years under their yoke. Then, they had marched toward the West to crush the kingdom of Champa in fourteenth century, and they went farther West to cut a half part of Cambodian territory known as Kampuchea Krom (Cambodian Lower Land) in sixteenth century. After defeating their stronger enemy-- the French colonizers in 1954-- The Vietnamese looked for Laos and Cambodia to fulfill their father Ho's dream. During the French and American occupation in Indochina until 1975, the Vietnamese communists under a leadership of Ho Chi Minh, tirelessly recruited and supplied Cambodians and Laotians factions to fight the French and American occupiers.
Unfortunately, the Geneva Peace Accord in 1954 put Vietnam in Political dilemma. Vietnam was unable to unify itself, and its Cambodian communist allies (Khmer Vietminh) were excluded from the peace process. However, the Vietnamese communists continued to train and equip their communist allies in Laos and Cambodia to fight the newly independent states. When the US sent its troop to protect its allies in Indochina, the Vietnamese communists saw their new opportunity to achieve their goal. They sent their troops into Cambodia and Laos under a banner to help their brothers from American imperialists. After the end of Vietnam War in 1975, about 50,000 Vietnamese communist fighters had occupied Laos . But at the same time, all Vietnamese occupiers were expelled from Cambodia because the Cambodian government under Pol Pot wanted to exercise its own sovereignty and independence based on the concept of nation state. However, Hanoi regime felt betrayed again, this time not by the Geneva Conference but by its own comrade regime led by Pol Pot.
In 1979, rumored of great purge inside the communist regime in Cambodia along with many unsettled border disputes had created an excuse for Vietnam to restore its "Status Quo" over Cambodia again. Hanoi Regime sent 200,000 troop equipped with the Soviet-made T-54 tanks and Mig-21 jets to invade Cambodia, this time under the banner to save Cambodian people from a genocide. With sophisticated weapons and stronger manpower, the Vietnamese troop captured Phnom Penh in two weeks, and they installed the other communist regime that has ruled Cambodia until today.
If Pol Pot had accepted the Vietnam's status quo as Laos had done, Hanoi would allow Pol Pot to rule Cambodia until today regardless of how much atrocity he had committed against Cambodian people. Recently, Hun Sen has kept claiming that January 7, 1979 has given a second birthday for every Cambodian people because Vietnam had saved us from Pol Pot's killing field. This claim is irrational and obsolete. It is too insane or absurd to see the Vietnamese behaving as Bodhisattva (Buddhist Saint). In reality, there is no free lunch in this world. Laos and Cambodia have never gained full independence since the French left Indochina in 1954. Their independence and sovereignty have been constantly interfered by Vietnam in all aspects of domestic and international affairs. No any government in Cambodia would be stable and last longer if it did not accept Vietnamese patronage. This is a real problem with the concept of nation and state. Who is going to insure that which nation has full or partial independence? The UN? Maybe only the people themselves in that nation can guarantee that their nation has full independence or not.
By Khmer Quorum, MN, US
1 comment:
It is a good analyses. The Vietnamese is a crocodile not Buddhist Saint.
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