"I Don't Want to Be Famous. I Want Our People to Get Enough Rice": The Messenger Band Interview

Suffer from Privatization - The Messenger Band

The Messenger Band, made up of former garment workers, gives concerts that highlight the difficulties of factory work and other women's issues in Cambodia. (Photo: Moritz Ege)

Click here to visit the Messenger Band website

For additional photos of the Messenger Band, click here

Friday 12 March 2010
By Anne Elizabeth Moore
t r u t h o u t | Interview

Do you want to become a famous pop star?

Vun Em: A lot of people ask me, why don't you go to the TV and sing the song and become a famous star? I don't want to become a famous star. I don't want to be a famous person, but I want my song, I want my information to become recognized by the big people, and be respected. And provide the rights to those people. For me, I don't want to be famous, but I want our people here to get enough rice, enough food to eat, and they have the right to demand their rights.

"My name is Saem, and the name of my group is the Messenger Band," the singer more formally known as Vun Em explains. We are in Phnom Penh's Meta-House, where four members of the six-member Messenger Band are about to give a quick a cappella concert to the reporters ex-pats, and tourists gathered.

It's not their usual venue. The Messenger Band was formed by the Cambodian NGO Women's Agenda for Change in 2005 to bring the concerns of the young women who move to the city to earn money for their families back to the provinces. They write songs in the traditional folk style, and choreograph moves to accompany their laments, and villagers are often riveted: the subjects of these songs are their daughters, their nieces, their friends.

The subjects of the songs are members of the Messenger Band. All former or current garment factory workers themselves, the varying group of women that perform as the band are well versed in the issues that affect women in Cambodia. "We are tired but we say nothing," one song goes. "We are hard working and much of this money I earn is dollars to help my mother."

But the message of the band is clear: "The voice of garment workers must be used to shout to tell all Cambodian women that to be a servant is very difficult," they sing in tones unheard in American pop tunes, and all the more affective because of it. "We have no freedom and no rights."

Vun Em, the 25-year-old front person for the band - at least for the night - took a few moments before their late January concert to answer a few questions.

How long have you been doing the band?

Vun Em: I work in the band for five years, start from 2005.

And you used to work in the garment factory?

Vun Em: Yes, I worked in the factory from - I started in 2000, until 2005. And from 2005 until now, I work with the band.

You are with the band full time?

Vun Em: Yes.

How do you make a living working full time with a political band in Cambodia?

Vun Em: I have some support from the donors. Women's Agenda For Change, they created this big group and they provide some support to Messenger Band. Not much, just small.

Enough?

Vun Em: Yeah.

Why do you think it's important for garment factory workers to start a band?

Vun Em: I think it's really important because I can really speak out about the situation when I was working in the factory. I saw a lot of problems with the workers in the factory. I think that it's good if we write a song that educates the people. And also do advocacy through song.

What did you see in the factories that you think needs to be changed?

Vun Em: Oh, that's a good question. First, I want to see change, like see the garment worker respected by the law and supported by the government and the investors. It's important for investors: they have to follow the law in Cambodia and they have to respect worker's rights.

How is the law not being followed in Cambodia?

Vun Em: A lot of [ways], like the forced overtime and the low wage. They have to ask permission for when they have to take leave or when they get sick. It's really difficult to take leave. And sometimes, they are dismissed by the company because they cannot go to work, like when they get sick, they have to go to the hospital. But the factory owners, they don't allow them to go. Some factories, when the workers fall unconscious in the factory, when they awake from unconsciousness, they tell the worker that, "you have to promise that you will not [lose consciousness] again, otherwise, you lose the job."

So, if people faint, they have to promise that they won't faint again?

Vun Em: Yes, they have to promise. They cannot unconscious again. Otherwise you will lose the job. And the workers are so scared, they just promise the leaders.

Are you nervous being an activist in Cambodia?

Vun Em: Hmmm, a little bit. But if we don't stand up, no one hear the story. And that's why we have to stand up and share some information about the poor people in Cambodia. We have to stand up and speak out, otherwise we die.

Yes, the workers, they welcome us and they tell us, Oh I have heard your song, through the radio and sometimes through the TV - but not often on the TV.

Do you want to become a famous pop star?

Vun Em: A lot of people ask me, why don't you go to the TV and sing the song and become a famous star? I don't want to become a famous star. I don't want to be a famous person, but I want my song, I want my information to become recognized by the big people, and be respected. And provide the rights to those people. For me, I don't want to be famous, but I want our people here to get enough rice, enough food to eat, and they have the right to demand their rights.

As garment factories close, more and more women enter the sex industry by working at the karaoke bars. You have a song about this.

Vun Em: When the factories close down, some girls will go to become entertainment workers, and HIV will spread out around. But why don't [the NGOs] care about their living life? Why they don't care about their family? Why they don't care about the security of those people? Why they care only about HIV? [She starts to cry.] I don't know, I don't understand.

We also care about HIV, but you have to think about the lives of the people, not only HIV. If the people don't have enough food to eat, if they don't have enough education, if they don't have good health, how can they prevent themselves from the HIV? They don't have time to think about HIV, they only have time to think, I need food, I need food. All the time.

What can people in the United States do to support the factory workers?

Vun Em: I want them to support health care to garment workers, and the poor people in Cambodia. Because health care and food is really, really needed.

One more thing: I want to let those people in the United States be aware that the worker situation in Cambodia - it's really bad. And I want the investors ... to respond to the workers, and our laws in Cambodia. Not only put pressure to our government, put pressure to our people here. You have to respect our law and our people. And also you can support our country and our government and our people, not only judge. You have to learn, you have to understand what is the real situation in Cambodia.
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"A Karaoke Girl's Life" (song written by the Messenger Band):

I have had bad fate in my life since I was born; my life has been different from others. Always facing unhappiness, I bear the family's burden; I bear the shame and sell my voice.
I became a karaoke girl I sing in the karaoke bar I don't want to be here but I am poor. Please don't blame me for being bad I have tried to live in this darkness.
Though I work day and night and never resting, I am still poor I was in debt to the owner. If I take rest, they reduce my money.
The tears of a karaoke girl I am living as a slave, without freedom. I was mistreated by the owner and forced to serve clients.

"Voice of Garment Workers" (song written by the Messenger Band):

The voice of garment workers must be used to shout to tell all Cambodian women that to be a servant is very difficult. They curse, they blame us and say we are bad girls, but we have no freedom and no rights.
We are all garment workers, we live in bad conditions, we struggle with difficulty, we are tired but we say nothing, we are hard working and much of this money I earn is dollars to help my mother.
The song that we sing is about the real life of garment workers, please pity us and consider the life of garment workers. How we are suffering? We are faced with suffering and problems because the factory owners exploit us.
When the workers are in trouble, who can help to solve the problems? Where is justice? When I need you, why do you ignore me?

‘Messenger Band’ Sings for the Voiceless

The Messenger Band (Photo: Rick Valenzuela)

Messenger Band members, from left: Vun Em, Hin Kunthea and Kun Sotheary

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
14 October 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

Click here to listen or download The Messenger Band songs

The Messenger Band, a group of female singers who speak of living conditions for many of Cambodia’s socially sidelined groups, is gaining in popularity, as Cambodians face high inflation and tough working conditions, even in a growing economy.

“There are a lot of problems that women as workers are facing, but they cannot speak out,” explained Vun Em, the band’s coordinator, as a guest on “Hello VOA.” “These songs come from the workers’ hearts, to tell the public what problems the workers have.”

The band, comprised of factory workers and initiated by the Womyn's Agenda for Change, has released one CD and performed in Hong Kong during a World Trade Organization meeting. The group calls itself “the first all female protest song folk singers in the history of Cambodia.”

Inspiration for their songs, which range from topics such as globalization, factories, drug abuse, domestic violence, and prostitution, come from speaking to people to “know the real situation,” Vun Em said.

Kun Sotheary, a member of the band who was also a guest on “Hello VOA,” said the two volumes of songs the band has produced were composed by workers from many different places, while the next songs will be composed by band members themselves.

“We will go to many places and continue to work with workers,” she said. “We are workers too.”

Love The Messenger Band? Listen to their albums at Womyn's Agenda for Change website

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 14 September 2008. Garment workers from The Messenger Band gathered at the Womyn's Agenda for Change (WAC) office (Photo: John Vink/Magnum)

A long article about The Messenger Band in French appears on Monday's edition of Ka-Set (we hope to provide an English translation of this article soon).

Click here for WAC webpage containing the collection of The Messenger Band songs
(click on the "headphone symbol" to listen to each song, or click on "Kh" or "Eng" to read the lyric in Khmer or English)

Suffer from Privatization - The Messenger Band

Cambodians suffer deeply from the privatization policy instituted by Hun Sen's government. The Messenger Band provides their interpretation of the suffering by Cambodian people from this ill-advised policy.

Video produced by Womyn's Agenda for Change

A cappella group sends message through song

Land and Life featuring Chapei Master Kong Nay
(Click here to download the song in MP3 format)

Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Written by Ellie Ainge Roy and Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post

Garment workers form musical group to entertain while raising awareness of the struggles of women, from domestic abuse to sexual exploitation

THE crowd falls quiet as the slight Khmer women file to the front of the room at Meta House on Saturday night. Their dark heads are bent shyly, and their faces soft and demure in the fading evening light. Tonight is one of many concerts they have presented, but like any good performers, they are always a little nervous.

As the women begin to sing, their voices - crisp and aching - ring across the night like lost birds calling to a home that is rapidly changing. They sing of land grabs, greedy development and sex workers as the poorest of all. Their eyes are distant and unfocused, and their graceful hands rest across their bellies, their fingers swaying sometimes, to the music.

Bad women?

The audiences are captivated by the Messenger band, and when they sing their final song, everyone is asking for more.

The Messenger band is an all-female vocal group formed in September 2005 and made up entirely of garment workers. The group members are the successful participants of a competition held by the Womyn's Agenda for Change. The idea was to create a group that would inspire with their music and that could sing from real experience to carry messages of hope across Cambodia from one disadvantaged group to another.

People will come up to us and tell us, ‘Yes! It is my story, you have told my story!

"I think it helps people," says Vun Em, leader of The Messenger band. "I think it's good for farmers to understand about sex workers and for parents to know that their children leaving for the city are having a hard time there, working so much and getting little money for their labour," she said.

"It helps people to know that others across the country struggle, and that they need sympathy too."
When the group first formed, their families and neighbours were critical. Already disapproving of their low-paid work at the textile factory, their opinions of the young women dropped further.

"Our neighbours thought we were ‘bad women' because we stayed out late every night practising our music, and sometimes we didn't come home and slept at the centre instead," Vun Em said. "Our families also didn't like it; we would hardly see them because we would work all day in the factory and then practise in the centre during the evenings and weekends."
But the band says attitudes are beginning to change and that the public is starting to see their strength.

Reaching conclusions

"Before I joined the Messenger band, I knew nothing about the outside world," said group member Kao Chevika. "I was afraid to introduce myself, or to talk with people. But now I am so much happier, so much more social, and I know how to communicate effectively. I am braver now."

Band members say that their music is successful because they are not forcing people to change but suggesting it instead, through lyrics, role play and entertainment.

"When we sing about sex workers or domestic violence, it's hard because people are conservative and don't like to feel blamed. This is why talking directly often doesn't work," said Vun Em.

"But with our songs the idea of change forms in their own minds, and they come to good conclusions alone. One of the girls in our band used to suffer from domestic violence, but her father has stopped now. After listening to songs about our struggles, he realised how much harm he was doing."

A few members of the band have now stopped working at the textile factory and are conscious that they must stay "in touch" with local struggles and people. The Messenger band often use their audience to test that their music still reflects social realities.

"When we visit the provinces we gather lots of information about life there, and the problems people face. People talk to us quite openly, because we are woman, we are seen as ‘gentle'. We then compose songs out of the things they have told us, sing it back to them while we are still in their town, and ask them, ‘Is this true? Are we singing your story?'

"When we see tears on their faces we know we are close to the reality of their lives. People will come up to us afterwards and tell us, ‘Yes! It is my story, you have told my story!" Vun Em said.

Opening minds

Messenger band manager Hin Kunthea said she was often in awe of the girls, their tirelessness, and their strength and confidence, which has continued to grow day by day.

"I feel this group has so much potential, that they are becoming a powerful force. They are fantastic! They are always learning and they work so hard. I almost can't understand how they can be like this. These women work just as effectively as the people who go to university, because they are willing to open their minds."