There are reasons for rebellion

Mohammed Bouazizi, suicide by immolation in Sidi Bouzid Tunisia

February 9, 2011
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

It's the nature of politics, domestic and international, that in an interconnected world, what occurs in one area will sooner or later, directly or indirectly, affect other areas.

Having knowledge of what's happening and an understanding of how and why it is happening helps one forecast a future trend and avoid the unpleasant and the negative that lies ahead.

But many disregard the compelling desire of men and women to seek freedom, forget that there can be no lasting peace without the establishment of broad-based human rights. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights contained the warning -- that without the rule of law to protect human rights, man has no alternative but to rebel against oppression.

Since the declaration, many rebellions have occurred, many autocracies have fallen and some forms of democracy have emerged.

Quest for dignity

Columnist David Brooks wrote in the Jan. 31 New York Times about a "great mental tide" that has swept across the world: People who had accepted "certain fixed places in the social order," began to think they must no longer be ignored, and they march "for responsive government and democracy" -- themes echoed by protesters in Cairo today.

Rights Situation ‘Pathetic’: This must be the so-called "right direction" Cambodia is moving to

Rights Situation ‘Pathetic’: Amnesty International

By Taing Sarada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
30 May 2008

Click here to listen to the program in Khmer

Cambodians continue to suffer under a poor human rights situation and government repression, a Washington-based representative of Amnesty International said.

“It is a pathetic situation for Cambodian people, who can not exercise their rights through peaceful demonstration and their own opinion,” she said.

Meanwhile, more than 150,000 people are in danger of homelessness, the group said, in an annual report.

“The Cambodian situation is very tense, regarding the culture of impunity, land-grabbing, the restriction of the public’s campaign to express their own opinions and political discrimination,” the representative said.

Such issues are “chronic” in Cambodia, said Lao Monghay, a senior researcher for the Asian Human Rights Commission.

“It is an injustice that they send people to live on the side of the street, children have no time to go to school, no clean water, no house, and they are living poorly in an area of poor conditions,” he said.