The country [Cambodia] cannot survive because "the legacy of the past, especially the institution of the (Khmer) monarchy," combined with the "conservative nature" of the Khmer society, form the "main causes" for Cambodia's current "economic, institutional, legal, political, and social problems" - Naranhkiri Tith
May 5, 2010By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)
Saudi Arabia, the Middle East's largest Arab country, is home to some 28 million people and encompasses Islam's holiest cities, Mecca and Medina. The country is an ally of the United States and the homeland of Osama bin Laden, and of 15 of the 19 terrorists of Sept. 11, 2001.
More than 90 percent of Saudi Arabia's exports derive from oil, which provides some 75 percent of the government's revenues.
This undiversified economy is mirrored in a rigid social structure: Saudi Arabia has the world's most stringent institutionalized gender segregation. Today, reform-minded Saudis are pitched against those fundamentally entrenched in Islamic Sharia.
Change is inevitable, but change involving religious beliefs and traditional customs, such as the Saudi tribal customs upholding gender segregation, is no simple matter.
On April 19, the Christian Science Monitor published an article by Carlyle Murphy, from Riyadh, which catalogues the significant conflict between Saudi forces for change, led by the king, and the institution of the strictly enforced Sharia.
Last September, King Abdullah inaugurated a graduate school of advanced scientific research -- the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, decreed as the country's first co-educational institution. Though the co-ed status attracts foreign faculty and students, King Abdullah believes a modern Saudi Arabia, with a diversified economy less dependent on oil, must revise some of its old social strictures.
As reported in the Monitor, in Saudi Arabia men and women use different doors to enter government offices and banks; companies segregate women workers to a separate floor; the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce uses different hours for men and women employees to arrive and leave work to avoid mixing; male professors use closed-circuit television to teach female university students, etc..
The Monitor reports that King Abdullah makes no secret of his determination that "conservatives won't be allowed to hold back reforms," as he chips away "the edges of restrictive traditions." He makes women members of his delegation on foreign trips, has his photo taken with them, expands opportunities for women to attend university.
King Saud University professor Fawziah al-Bakr says, "King Abdullah has a strategy: He's trying to empower women as much as he can."
"Gender apartheid is the best word to describe the situation in Saudi Arabia," the Monitor quotes women as saying. Professor of history Hatoon Ajwad al-Fassi of King Saud University called the Saudi institutionalized segregation "one of the major obstacles in normalizing our lives, and it's affected our work and our education ... (and) quality of life."
Murphy wrote about Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi, head of the Mecca chapter of the religious police, whose primary task is patrolling public places to ensure segregation of men and women. In a two-page interview in Okaz newspaper, he says there's nothing in Islam that bans men and women from mixing in public places. Public mixing, a natural part of life, was customary during the prophet Muhammad's time, he says.
Responding to al-Gamdhi, Murphy writes, was cleric Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Barrak, who says one who allows men and women to work and study together is an apostate to whom the death penalty applies.
Al-Barrak is silent when asked if he means King Abdullah should be sentenced to death. Al-Barrak's website is blocked by the Saudi government.
Those who decry al-Ghamdi's stance say, "Segregation of sexes is the soul of the social fabric of Islam," writes Murphy, who quotes professor al-Fassi as saying there is no surprise to hear that "a part of society" is unhappy that some clerics like al-Ghamdi tell them they "were wrong and there's nothing wrong with (gender) mixing."
Al-Bakr says she is encouraged because while elimination of gender segregation was "unthinkable" in the past, "Now ... it (is) thinkable. Not doable at this stage. Just thinkable."
In a different world but in the spirit of fomenting change, retired Johns Hopkins University professor Naranhkiri Tith has spearheaded an uphill battle to get Cambodians to rethink old thoughts and old ways.
The country cannot survive because "the legacy of the past, especially the institution of the (Khmer) monarchy," combined with the "conservative nature" of the Khmer society, form the "main causes" for Cambodia's current "economic, institutional, legal, political, and social problems," Tith says.
Tith calls for "a progressive and systematic overhaul" of traditionally conservative Khmer society, which relies on belief in prophesies and a rigidity in social organization.
Whether Tith's call is heeded to bring about change for a new Cambodia, Tith is headed where Cambodians in general have dared not go: Changing old habits before the country collapses.
I am reminded of Shankar Vedantam's "Hoping Someone Else Fixes Everyone's problem," about how a "collective action" would benefit everyone, except that not everyone is willing to chip in to work toward the "public good."
Vedantam's example of the "free rider problem" comes to mind: On a street of 10 houses there's a giant pothole in the middle of the block that troubles all the residents. A repaired pothole would benefit everyone. But nobody wants to make phone calls and go through the hassle to get it fixed. Each resident has an "incentive to sit back and hope someone else will do the dirty work."
Public good that benefits everyone requires collective action.
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.
More than 90 percent of Saudi Arabia's exports derive from oil, which provides some 75 percent of the government's revenues.
This undiversified economy is mirrored in a rigid social structure: Saudi Arabia has the world's most stringent institutionalized gender segregation. Today, reform-minded Saudis are pitched against those fundamentally entrenched in Islamic Sharia.
Change is inevitable, but change involving religious beliefs and traditional customs, such as the Saudi tribal customs upholding gender segregation, is no simple matter.
On April 19, the Christian Science Monitor published an article by Carlyle Murphy, from Riyadh, which catalogues the significant conflict between Saudi forces for change, led by the king, and the institution of the strictly enforced Sharia.
Last September, King Abdullah inaugurated a graduate school of advanced scientific research -- the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, decreed as the country's first co-educational institution. Though the co-ed status attracts foreign faculty and students, King Abdullah believes a modern Saudi Arabia, with a diversified economy less dependent on oil, must revise some of its old social strictures.
As reported in the Monitor, in Saudi Arabia men and women use different doors to enter government offices and banks; companies segregate women workers to a separate floor; the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce uses different hours for men and women employees to arrive and leave work to avoid mixing; male professors use closed-circuit television to teach female university students, etc..
The Monitor reports that King Abdullah makes no secret of his determination that "conservatives won't be allowed to hold back reforms," as he chips away "the edges of restrictive traditions." He makes women members of his delegation on foreign trips, has his photo taken with them, expands opportunities for women to attend university.
King Saud University professor Fawziah al-Bakr says, "King Abdullah has a strategy: He's trying to empower women as much as he can."
"Gender apartheid is the best word to describe the situation in Saudi Arabia," the Monitor quotes women as saying. Professor of history Hatoon Ajwad al-Fassi of King Saud University called the Saudi institutionalized segregation "one of the major obstacles in normalizing our lives, and it's affected our work and our education ... (and) quality of life."
Murphy wrote about Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi, head of the Mecca chapter of the religious police, whose primary task is patrolling public places to ensure segregation of men and women. In a two-page interview in Okaz newspaper, he says there's nothing in Islam that bans men and women from mixing in public places. Public mixing, a natural part of life, was customary during the prophet Muhammad's time, he says.
Responding to al-Gamdhi, Murphy writes, was cleric Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Barrak, who says one who allows men and women to work and study together is an apostate to whom the death penalty applies.
Al-Barrak is silent when asked if he means King Abdullah should be sentenced to death. Al-Barrak's website is blocked by the Saudi government.
Those who decry al-Ghamdi's stance say, "Segregation of sexes is the soul of the social fabric of Islam," writes Murphy, who quotes professor al-Fassi as saying there is no surprise to hear that "a part of society" is unhappy that some clerics like al-Ghamdi tell them they "were wrong and there's nothing wrong with (gender) mixing."
Al-Bakr says she is encouraged because while elimination of gender segregation was "unthinkable" in the past, "Now ... it (is) thinkable. Not doable at this stage. Just thinkable."
In a different world but in the spirit of fomenting change, retired Johns Hopkins University professor Naranhkiri Tith has spearheaded an uphill battle to get Cambodians to rethink old thoughts and old ways.
The country cannot survive because "the legacy of the past, especially the institution of the (Khmer) monarchy," combined with the "conservative nature" of the Khmer society, form the "main causes" for Cambodia's current "economic, institutional, legal, political, and social problems," Tith says.
Tith calls for "a progressive and systematic overhaul" of traditionally conservative Khmer society, which relies on belief in prophesies and a rigidity in social organization.
Whether Tith's call is heeded to bring about change for a new Cambodia, Tith is headed where Cambodians in general have dared not go: Changing old habits before the country collapses.
I am reminded of Shankar Vedantam's "Hoping Someone Else Fixes Everyone's problem," about how a "collective action" would benefit everyone, except that not everyone is willing to chip in to work toward the "public good."
Vedantam's example of the "free rider problem" comes to mind: On a street of 10 houses there's a giant pothole in the middle of the block that troubles all the residents. A repaired pothole would benefit everyone. But nobody wants to make phone calls and go through the hassle to get it fixed. Each resident has an "incentive to sit back and hope someone else will do the dirty work."
Public good that benefits everyone requires collective action.
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.
6 comments:
Why don't you tell us about what you want to say, how and why you think about that instead of always quoting other Dr. opinion.
I don't care about 18 other men with 12 PHD degree, but your opinion in Khmer English!
Stupid blogger 3:27, I am telling you that you need to spend some time reading this article, and don’t open your foul fucking moth.
Lauk Banddhid A. Gaffar Peang-Meth,
Pls do not quote anyone says.You have enough knowledgements & wisdom to share with us from your experiences as an ex Freedom Fighter.
cambodia should look at reforms in many of its sectors in society and gov't, etc... don't let culture and tradition be detrimental to changes. now, changes aren't necessarily bad. let's face it, cambodia is not a lone country in the world, so, we have to think in synchronize with the rest of the world. i mean, it we are the only country on the planet, then it makes sense to stick to the past, however, the whole has changed since the stone age and dark age. so, cambodia shoulld go with the flow in the world. that said, of course, there are certain aspects of our unique and beautiful culture and tradition and so forth we ought to preserve; however, i think it is bad idea to try to hang on to all aspect of culture, tradition, custom and etiquette and forth. it is good idea to be selective in life, especially if something isn't serve us well, we should modify it, adopt new way, idea, etc... how else are we going to compete with neighboring countries who we know not thrill to have us share their borders. in reality, it is khmer people who will determine our future and will make decision about our country, etc... we should be enlightened. god bless.
Don't you see the catastrophical senario saw by Naranhkiri Tith ?
dear smart readers ?
Good sense.
Just the preamble, where is the body ?
Post a Comment