Op-Ed By Jeffery Kim
Posted on KKF Youth Committee websiteBurma is a country claimed to be one of the most ethnically diversified countries in the world, where the Burman is the largest ethnic group in the country who also rules the country since its independence from the British in 1948. The junta, formerly named “The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) has continued its brutal and dangerous rule since 1962. In 1997 the junta was renamed to “the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Even the multiparty national elections held in the 1990 which resulted in a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese junta has never relinquished its power to the election winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Not only depriving her victory, the junta has also imprisoned Madame Aung San Suu Kyi and other political opposition members until these days. The whole country has been turned up-side-down due to the Junta’s repressive regime, in particular committing atrocities against other minority groups as the Shans, the Karenis, and the Mons. Many members of these ethnic groups have now fled to neighboring countries such as Thailand, India, etc.
Vietnam is historically known as Annam, a break-away southern province of China, which constitutes modern-day northern Vietnam. Since the day Vietnam separated from China, it has expanded south-ward toward the former Champa Kingdom (modern-day central Vietnam), and eventually occupied the Mekong delta, known to the indigenous Khmer as Kampuchea-Krom territory. Since the Vietnam-American War ended on April 30, 1975, the Vietnamese communists (Vietcongs) have taken over the country and turned the nation into a totalitarian State. The Vietcong regime has fundamentally failed its people—especially to those that had supported the Vietcongs’ cause during the wars. In particular the Khmer-Kroms who were tricked by the Vietcongs for a better future when the wars end. But instead, many Khmer-Kroms in the Mekong delta were lured into the Vietcong’s political traps: the infamous trial (code-named “KC-50”) of Venerable Kim Toc Chon, Mekon of Mahanikye in the province of Preah Treapang (Tra Vinh) where he was accused of State treason on the basis of forming an illegal armed group to overthrow the regime. Venerable Kim Toc Chon was forced to confess to link many other Khmer-Krom monks in the province and from other provinces. In the end, Venerable Kim Toc Chon was tortured to death by the Vietcong authorities on February 2, 1987, while thousands of others were imprisoned, tortured, and some even fled to Cambodia and to Thailand’s refugee camps in search of political asylum.
The lives under the Burma junta is no different from the lives under the communist Vietnam. Both regimes have ruled the countries by military, by death-squat, and by secret police. Both regimes do not tolerate dissents and both run on a single-party system. They both assume “absolute power over the people they rule”. They both are tyrants and corrupt. The citizens of these two States are poor and voiceless. Both regimes are being run by the people in military uniforms. Media such as newspaper, radio, and television are under the total control of the State and freedom of expression and beliefs are scrutinized.
Both regimes oppress and commit atrocities against their respective indigenous peoples: The Burma’s junta go after the Shan people, Kareni people, Mon people, etc ., while the Vietcongs go after the Khmer-Krom people, the Montagnards, the Hmongs, the Tais, and the Chams. The clear distinction between the two is that the Burma’s junta is dealing with armed ethnic groups, while the Vietcongs are taking on an unarmed and defenseless Khmer-Kroms and other groups—all these groups have done so far is conducting rare public peaceful protests against the cut-throat policy of the Vietcongs regime.
The survival method of these two repressive regimes is “economic”. Burma’s junta is relying heavily on their drug-trafficking of opium and heroin and the illegal exports of gems and oil-and-gas exploration to finance the junta’s military bosses and their clan, while Vietcongs are relying heavily on foreign aid, exports of crude oils and rice on the back of Khmer-Krom’s homeland, and the coffee export from the back of the Highlanders such as the Montagnards’ homeland.
The leadership styles of the two regimes are slightly different. The Burmese junta is head by one-man General Than Shwe, who is a ruthless ruler, while the Vietcongs regime is very repressive and brutal and run by several members within the Communist Party since 1975 and almost all of the Communist Party’s members are also the high-ranking officers in the army and police force.
The resistance to these two repressive regimes, the recent “burgundy” match of the Burmese monks in September 2007 has created the international outcries against the killings of innocent and defenseless monks. The United Nations, as well as the world community has called on the Junta to stop its atrocities and to adopt the roadmap to real democracy. In Kampuchea-Krom (south Vietnam), a smaller size of peaceful “burgundy” marched by hundreds of Khmer-Krom monks took place in February 2007 in Khleang (Soc Trang) province against the Vietcong regime on its violations of Khmer-Krom’s rights to practice religion freely. Consequently, five Khmer-Krom monks have been imprisoned by the Vietcong and while many involved have fled to Cambodia in search of refuge. Khmer-Krom overseas community have now joined hands to show their solidarity toward their compatriots inland, by conducting protests in front of many Vietnamese embassies around the world and by writing petition letters to world head-of-States.
