Police violence on Khmer Krom monks (Photo: Licadho)Fri Dec 28, 2007
Op-Ed Khmer Quorum
Posted Online
In his speech yesterday, during a hospital inauguration ceremony, PM Hun Sen deeply expressed his sympathetic sorrow to Ms. Bhutto, a champion of democracy in Pakistan, who was slain by Muslim extremists. The whole people in the world were shaken to see Ms. Bhutto's martyrdom regardless of whom they are. In Cambodia where political assassination has become a common practice in every election, what has happened to Ms. Bhutto would remind Mr. Hun Sen that this act of violence is totally inhumane and strongly condemned by all civilized people around the world.
Now it is time for Mr. Hun Sen to refresh his mind and to take a drastic measure to curb violence in the upcoming general election. We want to see our next election free, fair, and peaceful. We live in the country where 90 percent of our people adhere and follow Theravada Buddhism which teaches non-violence and respect to all sentient beings. However, in our society, violence has become a mean to solve all kinds of problems, even a simple one. Recently, police under Hun Sen's order used excessive force to beat up Buddhist monks who just peacefully came to submit their petition to the Vietnamese embassy.
This problem could be handled peacefully without using of force. But our society is clinging to embrace violence on each other even on Buddhist monks who deserve our respect and protection. We may break some rules of Buddha's teaching, but we cannot break the law that clearly written in the constitution. And what the Buddhist monks had done, was just to exercise their freedom of expression which is guaranteed by our constitution.
All kinds of violence are bad, sad, painful, suffering, and create emotional sorrow for all sentient beings. If Mr. Hun Sen can be disturbed by the tragic event in Pakistan, why didn't he get disturb to see our helpless monks got beaten up and tortured by his police forces? We expect from now on that Mr. Hun Sen has learned to digest all sorrow and suffering that have happened to all our people in the country, and he will use his power and wisdom to stop all kinds of violence that have prevailed over our society.
Now it is time for Mr. Hun Sen to refresh his mind and to take a drastic measure to curb violence in the upcoming general election. We want to see our next election free, fair, and peaceful. We live in the country where 90 percent of our people adhere and follow Theravada Buddhism which teaches non-violence and respect to all sentient beings. However, in our society, violence has become a mean to solve all kinds of problems, even a simple one. Recently, police under Hun Sen's order used excessive force to beat up Buddhist monks who just peacefully came to submit their petition to the Vietnamese embassy.
This problem could be handled peacefully without using of force. But our society is clinging to embrace violence on each other even on Buddhist monks who deserve our respect and protection. We may break some rules of Buddha's teaching, but we cannot break the law that clearly written in the constitution. And what the Buddhist monks had done, was just to exercise their freedom of expression which is guaranteed by our constitution.
All kinds of violence are bad, sad, painful, suffering, and create emotional sorrow for all sentient beings. If Mr. Hun Sen can be disturbed by the tragic event in Pakistan, why didn't he get disturb to see our helpless monks got beaten up and tortured by his police forces? We expect from now on that Mr. Hun Sen has learned to digest all sorrow and suffering that have happened to all our people in the country, and he will use his power and wisdom to stop all kinds of violence that have prevailed over our society.
