Monthly Archives: March 2015

The Farcical Democratization

31 Tuesday Mar 2015

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My dear Kacvey,

So, you are considering the application form for the nec job. Paper or e-file?

To apply or not to apply, that is the question.

You are free and independent. Knowing you, it seems that you almost fulfill all the required conditions and qualifications: race, mono-nationality, social status, academics, career/profession, religion, matrimony (or extra!), health, villa, Lexus, overseas bank account and dark suits.

But, in the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk, the rules of the game are not the value and the power of the rules. Men make rules, and sit on them. Men rule the rules. As a result of this rule, you have ZERO chance of being “recruited”, because you are short of 2 unpublished benchmarks:

– you are not corrupted, and

– the game has already been “fixed.”

You may ask why then making such a big hullabaloo all over the town about that? Well, the answer is simple: a farce is disguised as democracy. If you still feel like you need first to buy a lottery ticket in order to hope to win the jackpot, suit yourself! But before filling the application form, here are 3 contexts to carefully think about:

1. The ruling party, being very centralized, disciplinary and hierarchical among their members, their 4 candidates might have already been short-listed in the back room of the party headquarters. Only fools think otherwise.

2. The 3 “rescuers” to be recruited (1 was already and long ago named) might have also been already short-listed by the 55+. Only fools can be fooled.

3. The “9th” was approved long ago by the ruling and the opposition as part of their horse trading business before the laws were even drafted and later adopted. Then they made the laws to exclude by disqualification the “9th” that they agreed upon. Later they openly say that they still support the same “9th”. Approve, then disapprove, then approve again! “By lok, by lâr,” it is!

So, where does it leave you? Dream is free until around end of 1st week of April!

Kacvey, you certainly remember the Khmer folk tale about “A Chhéy”, and especially the anecdote when he was watching the parade/procession from the window of his hut. How beautiful his “face was made-up”! It now looks like “A Chhéy” is watching them getting caught in a whirlwind of quicksands of their own making!

The gamut of the exercise is nothing else than a show-off to the public that “cod” is not a fish but a culture of deceit that has started since 22 July 2014. They are adopting the Las Vegas Magic Show style, or Houdini’s tricks to mirror fake as a pretense of reality. At least, in Las vegas you can appreciate the show with such exclamations as “Amazing!” or “Wow! That’s incredible!”

Their train is rolling, whether you like or not. But if one person, at a time, refuses to buy a ticket to board that train and finds a better means of transportation, sooner or later the company that runs the train will file for bankruptcy. Time has the uncontested power to put an end to everything.

If however, you aimed for a possible “9th” position, please reread “To put the cart before the horse” again. And if by miracle, like the French said, you have “une chance de cocu”, please make sure that you bring along to the nec headquarters a cross and a lot of nails, because as soon as the newly reformed nec starts to open for business, they will “hang” you out to dry, then put you on the cross and nail you hard in your neck. Nobody, repeat: Nobody, can save you.

Please beware of Judas kiss.

The 3rd Sellout Act

28 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by in Culture, Event, Institution, Issue, Politics

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My dear Kacvey,

It is generally said that the truth very often, and sometimes brutally, comes out of the mouth of babies and sucklings.  But in the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk, it is the adult who stole that infantile privilege. You may ask what “truth” is it about?

The local media reported that the opposition would not protest at the Municipal Court on Friday 27 March 2015, when the hearing of 11 demonstrators who are accused of insurrection would take place. The “truth” was that on Friday, there was indeed no protest or demonstration to sympathize or to support the accused like it always happened since July 2014.

In fact this “truth” is the third of a series of “truth” that the opposition has untruthfully told its constituency. Let see the course of events:

1. 22 July 2014: the “truth” about entering the NA after a year of boycott, and through a secret pact with the the ruling party;

2. Then the negotiation for power sharing at the NA, leading to the drafting and voting for the elections laws in March 2015;

3. And now, the abandonment of combativeness, both in spirit and in action, and the confirmed transformation of opposition into partnership for power in ruling the country with the ruling party.

The whole scenario looks like a “M & A” in big finances, or “a fusion cuisine” in gastronomy.

Kacvey, could you see who are left out in the cold by the these sellout acts? Could you also open your eyes and ears to find some answers to the following questions:

– Cambodians who voted for the 55, did you vote for your candidates to become the opposition of your own political credo? Did you ever expect that your deputies would one day share the same bed with the same dreams with the ruling party? Did you ever anticipate that your representatives at the NA and those of the ruling parties are no different from birds of a feather that flocked together? Did you expect that your deputies would one day debase and pervert the integrity of your trust?

– Facebookers or youTubers of the after-28-July-2013-era-at-Freedom-Park, are the batteries of your iPhone now dead? If a pyre was set up at Freedom Park for the incineration of the opposition dogma and movement, would you record it and broadcast it the same way as you did between August 2013 and 6 January 2014?

May be those of the opposition who had a French education might know this question from Jean Renoir: “Is it possible to succeed without any act of betrayal?” Well, the straight answer is “No”. Period. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, said John Dalberg Acton.

Kacvey, as far as you are concerned, here are Abraham Lincoln’s words to assist you in deciding whom to vote for at the next elections: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Easy Life, Isn’t It?!

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

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My dear Kacvey,

Now that the laws on future elections have, like a lightning, passed the NA and the senate rapidly, unanimously and without a single second of debates, you might be wondering what the lawmakers would then be doing?

Is the door of the NA now closed for lack of business? Is the NA’s main chamber becoming a deadly and ghostly silent cavern of emptiness, except the furniture and the lights fixtures?

Has Cambodia become a Shangri-la land that it doesn’t require its lawmakers to work full times anymore? Is this now the way that the lawmakers set the examples of hard work and diligence for their constituency to follow, when the same constituency works day and night to earn a living, and sometimes with 2 or 3 jobs?

Are the lawmakers elected to only focus for their next elections?

Tell us what you don’t do, we’ll tell you who you are!

Since a number of lawmakers are now either in the US or in France – Ah! spring in the Western hemisphere with may be a little detour to a casino! – you may wish to invite them to read these 2 articles from an East Coast newspaper, The New York Times. Although the US Congress has not received high marks from the American public, it is what they do as responsible lawmakers for their country that matters, whether one likes it or not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/upshot/why-congress-is-having-trouble-governing.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&abt=0002&abg=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/opinion/gail-collins-oh-no-its-a-new-senate-low.html?mabReward=A6&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&_r=0

Except for those who are also holding cabinet positions, it is hard for sane mind to fathom that lawmakers have so little to do as elected officials. Do Cambodians elect their deputy to work less than and not as hard as themselves? Do and will they still possess such a high tolerance for this type of worthlessness and hollowness?

Kacvey, would you see the difference? Yes, you certainly would and you also see that’s why they like to have a seat in the NA: How to enjoy power and glory without doing anything!

War of Words – Part I

20 Friday Mar 2015

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My dear Kacvey,

You should now pull out the 1977 “Star Wars” DVD – as the French says: “La Guerre des Etoiles” – from the shelf, dust it off and play it to refresh your memory on Darth Wader, Hans Solo, Jedi, R2D2 etc … as between the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk and California, the “Words Wars” have intensely taken place on air between the 2 “Stars” of the 2 parties.

The opposition star confessed and admitted his failure to “change” while the “filming” took place on and around Freedom Square after July 2013 until early January 2014; the ruling star argued that the opposition star wanted to “topple” him and his government. Ah, the subtleties of Shakespeare’s language: “to change” or “to topple”; that is the question!

Well, Kacvey, the stars being the Stars, let them fight themselves off because the fundamental core of the issue is and will always be their fight for their own and personal ambition and power, and nothing for Cambodia, nothing for Cambodians. Premiership, is what the fight is all about. The beef is all for them!

A Swahili proverb goes like this: “When two bulls fight (over a female or a leadership), the grass gets hurt.”

So, you now know that at the next elections, because of the powerlessness of citizenry in the midst of real larger forces (police, military, colored shackles/handcuffs…), please vote your conscience and not because of the multitude, and do not let yourself be fooled or exploited by whoever whose name or party is printed on the ballot.

Speaking about next elections, the news was that the draft laws were already and unanimously adopted by the the NA – they rushed to organize the flash vote without a single word of debate in order not to miss the flight for France! – with 103 Ayes, and 0 Nay. Is democracy-à-la-cambodgienne a surprise? Do you see stars in the daylight?

But why only 103? Where were the other 20? Okay, the 1st Vice is in California, but the other 19?

Well, Kacvey, since you most of the time think outside the box, it might well be that the 20 would cunningly be looking for a personal alibi, to be used in posterity for whatever motive, reason and circumstance, that “I did not vote for those laws!”

To be continued in “War of Words – Part II”

Hypocrite modesty

18 Wednesday Mar 2015

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My dear Kacvey,

You certainly have seen the altar that was set up in California to greet Goddess Veritas to witness and to hear the half-truth by the 1st Vice.

Lucky are the Cambodian-Americans in California who did not cast the ballot in July 2013 for him but who are privileged for the revelation. Unlucky are the authentic Khmer in Kampong Cham who did cast their vote for his party but are relegated to non-existing shadow and inconsiderate importance. Ah, the power of the ballots in Kampong Cham is annihilated by the power of the green bucks in California. Kacvey, this is lesson 101 in comparative studies of democracy by rights and democracy by money.

So, the 1st Vice, chubbier than before and gray hair darkened, had decided to come to California to open his heart and to melt his 7-month-hibernated bitter pill. Many of the sentences that he delivered began by “khgnom” or “I”, such as:

– I was opposed to the results of the negotiations with the ruling party;

– I was not happy with them;

– I was not happy with the results of the negotiation;

– I knew in advance that when we joined the National Assembly;

– I agreed to be patient to continue this merger, etc …

Although Cambodian-Americans quietly listened to him, with scattered and unenthusiastic sounds of clapping hands, they did not have the privilege to hear what “I” has done for the country since becoming the 1st Vice of the NA; what “I” has done for the people of Kampong Cham that “I” represents? what “I”, as an elected lawmaker, has done on legislative parts on national issues such as, just to name a few, corruption, land grabbing, education, deforestation, garments labor, social concerns, shenanigans justice, immigration, or Preah Vihear? how many draft laws has “I” sponsored? what “I” has done to ensure that the executive branch is doing the job? what has “I” done even to help cleaning the deep and rotten corruption at and inside the NA itself? what does “I” have to show to Cambodians what “I” has done and delivered to them as a responsible deputy? Kacvey, do you have anything more to add to the “I”-do-not-do list?! Imagine with such a negative balance sheet, what would “I” be in the private sector?

Why didn’t “I” elaborate on what “I” got in exchange of unhappiness and reservation nurtured before 22 July? A cushy position as 1st Vice of NA, 2 dozens of advisers, official perks, police protection, power and personal glory … All of that for having done nothing!

On the contrary, it looks like “I” is cashing in on the draft electoral laws where “my” thumbprint and footprint are nowhere to be seen, nor would “I” be at the NA during the final vote to adopt it as laws.

Kacvey, stay tuned to hear what else would “I” be saying – or would “I” not – in the next few days in different US cities in front of “my” own supporters … in exchange of almses!

As Buddha said: “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” Would Buddhist Cambodians adhere to this precept?

To Put the Cart Before the Horse

15 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by in Event, Issue, Politics

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My dear Kacvey,

On Monday 9 March, you must have been at the national seminar watching the cart pulling the disoriented horse towards the Tonlé Buon Mouk, mustn’t you?! Is this the new order of doing things in Cambodia?

What a spectacle full of pompous self-justifications, self-righteousness and contemptuous verbal rudeness, cheap shots and disdainfulness towards those who were present and those millions Cambodians who have better things to do than to listen to this superciliousness, impertinence and discourtesy!

When the opposition joined the ruling to create a scheme to perpetuate their grip on power, the autocracy has obviously become bicephalous. This is how the autocracy pyramid now looks like: the big nabob dictates his unlimited rule, the Majority and minority leaders pass the orders to their subordinates who draw the draft laws to ensure the unlimited rule of the big nabob in the years to come, possibly until he reaches 90 years of age. Then the subordinates create a semblance of democratic show by calling a national seminar to teach the public about their future plan to hang on to power. Later they submit the draft laws to a so-called commission for approval before it is voted by the full session of the national assembly. It is a thriller that  is so badly written that even a person with the lowest IQ could predict the final outcome.

Democracy in nowadays’ Cambodia is in the hands  of 123 people planning to collectively and shamelessly rule the country according to their own will and opportunism, regardless of the public concern, outcry and criticism. These 123 are so full of themselves that they bypass any public consultation or hearing or town house discussions before they draft any laws. In other words, conditioned by ambition and power narcosis, they drafted the laws for their own good, and not for the good of the people they govern or the country they rule. Amen!

Kacvey, since nobody listens to you, you have no other choice but to let them enjoy themselves until the elections in 2017 and 2018, which will put their laws into a real test that will see the whole scheme collapsing by itself as neither of the 2-winners-of-today will accept the defeat of tomorrow. There can’t and won’t be 2 winners, and the big nabob will ensure he would not be the loser: simple math, and only fools can’t solve it. The wheel of karma will surely start to turn again in a similar manner (or worst) as the post-July 2013 period.

Then, as Victor Hugo once said, “the ox suffers, the cart complains!”

But Kacvey, would you pity or feel some sympathy for the poor “9th person” in the “nec?” Alone and being the cord of the game of tug of war? It is so unfair to the “9th person” because no matter what happens she/he will always be in a lose-lose situation; the loser will put the blame on her/him, the winner will not come to her/his rescue. Her/his arms and legs will be pulled left and right until they will be completely severed from the body. Because the elections schemes are constructed on faulty design,  – the pain is persistent in the “nec” –  the “9th person” will inevitably be the person at fault, the 8 others being the stooges of the their party will fly free.

“9th person” of Cambodia, please do not think that your “snê ha chéat” is less or more than the next person’s. If you do so, you would commit the most fundamental intellectual sin that no confession booth would ever be able to cleanse it.

“9th person” of Cambodia, beware of your fate, and do not confuse the political interests of the 2 parties with the national interests of Cambodia! Please do not be alone in the tug of war game. Ask for a “10th” AND an”11th” independent persons to join you. Nobody will ever consider you a hero! And you ain’t Hercules!

Pluralistic ignorance

09 Monday Mar 2015

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My dear Kacvey,

Well, with about five weeks to go before Chaul Chnam, the tailors in the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk seem to be very busy as the government is dressing up and “rebranding” Cambodia before the nuptials with Asean on 1 January 2016. For such an important occasion, new clothes are “de rigueur”! So, you also must, mustn’t you?

What a strange thing that is happening to Cambodia! It seems that contemporary Khmer leaders would have changed Cambodia from a country to a product, an item, a bar code, a commercial entity that they fully exploit for their own benefits.

Cambodia, where is your pride? Do you still know what you stand for? Do you still have an identity?

Except for the wonder of Angkor Wat, Cambodia, as a country, does not echo well to the ear of the world, and its reputation is almost at the bottom of every report. The World Bank ranked it 184 out of 189 countries for “ease of starting a business”, and 178 out of 189 for “enforcing contracts”; Transparency International ranked it 156 out of 175 country on Corruption Perceptions Index; Human Rights Watch gave a very scathing evaluation for respect of human rights; Global Witness reported the continuous deforestation of all four corners of the land; the national budget depends on foreign aids and subsidies; immigration of neighbors by busloads or boatloads; the justice system keeps the powerful out of its hand; land grabbing is at unprecedented scale; social unhappiness can be seen everywhere …

Against this gloomy and cheerless landscape, instead of responsibly addressing at tackling these difficult and critical issues, the so-called bright new blood thinks that there is a magic wand available in the Western market, the power of which can be so almighty that even the sun might shine in the night. The magic wand would be in the hand of 2 “rebranders” coming from the soft drink and film production industries.

Kacvey, before going further, this is what Simon Mainwaring, a famous branding consultant had to say: “Transforming a brand into a socially responsible leader doesn’t happen overnight by simply writing new marketing and advertising strategies.” He further added: “It takes effort to identify a vision that your customers will find credible and aligned with their values.” And please stand ready to be branded on your forehead!

Let stretch a little bit our imagination. Don’t “Rebranding Cambodia” and the 2 “rebranders” remind you of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”?

Pluralistic ignorance is what is all about in present Cambodia.

Deformed electoral law

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

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My dear Kacvey,

Were you on the golf course in Siem Reap on the last day of February, when the Majority and minority leaders were gaily beating the drum to announce in front of the television camera their so-called agreement on the reform of the electoral law? And by the way, where were the 2 real “negotiators”? If it was so, your Saturday was better spent and healthier, because the sound of the drum was inharmonious and full of self-congratulation, self-flattering and self-promotion.

But if you don’t want to be jolted by this breaking-without-breaking news, please go back to our 2 previous postings: “Pain in the “nec”” of 19/11/2014, and “Who takes Cambodia for a ride” of 11/02/2015. Since then, nothing has changed, and it is the same old ass with a new lion skin…. which doesn’t scare even a mosquito.

Back then, they promised a hen with golden eggs, but on 28 February 2015, they produced weightless wind and cacophonous sound.

Before the day was over, the minority leader flooded the social media with his own version of event – without having the courage of his conviction to broadcast the draft proposal – and was readying himself to show off his paramount aura upon the divided factions of his supporters both in Cambodia such as in Siem Reap, and in the Western hemisphere who do not vote in any local Cambodian elections.

The reactions to this so-called draft law were immediate, swift, sharp, critical and severe; they came from the 4 cardinal and 4 ordinal points of the Cambodian political spectrum, including media and social media. Kacvey, please amuse yourself with those articles in the written press, the internet or even the radio. It could also be that if all the criticism and negative comments and opinions were altogether put in a gift-wrapped folder, one could offer it to the national assembly as a present for the Chaul Chnam Mômé.

The Majority leader took a quieter approach by letting the “ad interim” doing the talking on the following Monday.

Let us for now focus on 1 word in the context a portion of a speech pronounced by the big nabob and reported by The Cambodia Daily on 3 March 2015 as follows:

“Those [elected lawmakers] who do not enter to take an oath to obtain their validity and those who do not take part in meetings [of the Assembly] and so on…[we] will see how their seats are lost,” Mr. Hun Sen said.

“They agreed on this but they did not write it up yet. They started writing this today,” he added. “When they are finished writing, they will organize seminars.”

Mr. Hun Sen said last week he would veto the new election law if the rule were not included in the law.”

The word is “veto”.

– Since when a prime minister has a veto right on a law passed by the national assembly?

– Since when a deputy can veto a law?

– Since when the constitution of Cambodia has been changed to allow a deputy or a prime minister to veto a law passed by the national assembly?

– Since when the constitution of Cambodia has been changed to institute an autocratic regime?

Kacvey, could you please consider those 4 questions and include them in the quiz for your law students? Thank you, and please do not forget to share their responses.

Moral defection – Part II

01 Sunday Mar 2015

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(Continued from Moral defection – Part I)

In Cambodian political landscape, there have repeatedly been individual and/or group defections, and not long ago, a mass defection. It reflects that Cambodia political climate is propelled by a complete absence of sociopolitical doctrine, the lightness in political conviction, the insincerity of political ideology and the extremely high level of deficiency in understanding national/public interests; on the contrary, defection is motivated by pure personal and private interests famished of corrupted desire for unearned wealth and ambition for power.

Kacvey, your memory must still be explicit with known examples of defectors going from one party to another since the 70s:

– defections from the 1970 republican regime to join the Funk, and later the KR;

– after the KR came to power in 1975, a group of KRs defected in 1978 and sought refuge and aids in the Eastern neighbor country; they returned to Cambodia at the end of 1978 and ruled Cambodia since then;

– after UNTAC elections in May 1993, defections were daily menus until today: KR to Funcinpec, KR to CPP, Funcinpec to CPP, Funcinpec to SRP, HRP to Funcinpec, and now CNRP to CPP.

Ordinary and contemporary Cambodians are resilient and irrepressible, despite the tragedy they went and still are going through since 1970; the sea of blood of their lost/murdered relatives and friends is still waving, and the mount of their skeletons still crying out for justice. They slowly and surely learn the value of liberty and their rights in the exercise of freedom, the essence of democracy and the structure and functioning of the institutions. They are grasping the notion of equality in rights and obligations among citizens. They are burning the torch of social justice, which light illuminates their spirit and yearning for respect of man and property, and for justice for the powerless. They now trust their own instinct and follow their heart as they are well aware that they have been cheated for so long, and they openly say “Enough Is Enough!”

Through their silent voice, the sound of the folded ballot paper and the ink stain at the tip of their index finger, they made a monumental mass defection on 28 July 2013 from the ruling party (down from 90 seats to “questionable” 68!) to the opposition. What an exodus! What an abandonment! They sent a clear and unequivocal message to those who always took them for granted that “We are alive and kicking!.” And kicking harder, they will be.

As long as Cambodian politics swirls around personal and private interests, this is not the last chapter of human defection in the City of Tounlé Buon Mouk, which is presently in a dismal state of moral defection.