Monthly Archives: September 2016

The Ugly Art of Being Verbally Vulgar

29 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by in Culture, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

You must certainly have heard or read about the verbal vulgarity spouted in public by a leader in these terms: អាពៅ.. បើអញចរចា ឆ្កែសុទ្ធ.

How many millions of Khmer whose education on politeness, courtesy and decency is the core of Khmer fundamental character, and yourself, feel ashamed of such unrefined, coarse and rude show of mentality and tone?

Oh, how can any Khmer of decent, apt, decorous and respectable feeling and education tolerate such a shameful, indignant, disgraceful and dishonorable language used by a leader! Unless, that said leader himself is hateful, unworthy, reprehensible, unprincipled and odious. As Arthur Schopenhauer, once, said: “Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.”

Does he know that using foul language in public discourse does not impress nor convince anybody; on the contrary, it would make people look down on him. It plainly shows that he runs out of idea, reason and intelligence to formulate a sentence of wit and levelheadedness. To be cute and vulgar might be sometimes applauded in vaudeville or burlesque theater, but political arena carries a much higher standard and expectation from respectable and honorable citizens.

អាពៅ – Whoever he/she might be alluded to, must have a real given name, a personality and an existence. Why being afraid of calling him/her directly by her/his name? How would this leader feel if that “អាពៅ”, in return and on an even platform, called him by another derogatory and disrespectful nickname? If a man respects another man, he is respected by that man.

អញ – Like in any other languages, the Khmer language is not short of terms that a man can use to call himself. In ordinary parlance in familial hierarchy or among closed friends, អញ is an acceptable and tolerable word, contextually speaking. But if one witnesses a feud/fight/dispute/brawl on the sidewalks, អញ carries a totally different connotation: rude, bully, arrogant, nasty, crude, smutty and uncultured. Some Khmer families keep this 2nd connotation out of the gate of their houses. Kacvey, you draw the conclusion!

ឆ្កែ – Many people love dog as domestic pet/companion/best friend; it is obedient and its love is unconditional. But unfortunately, all dogs are not alike. There are purebred dog, pedigree, crossbred dog, stud dog, mixed breed. There are also pariah dog, feral dog, stray dog, wild dog, crazy dog etc … So, when he characterizes himself as a ឆ្កែសុទ្ធ if he decided to negotiate, why does he need to convert himself into a dog, pedigree or otherwise? Is he still living in the age of “The Arabian Nights” where Genie has the magic and supernatural power to change human being to dog? Does the conversion of a man to a dog makes the man more powerful or does it make him beastly? Making oneself into a dog is making self-bestiality. Kacvey, you’re the judge.

Kacvey, if អា is added to ឆ្កែសុទ្ធ, what weight of vulgarity, discourtesy and indecency the new locution would carry? Would he like to called “that”? Chanakya, an ancient Indian politician said: “The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog which neither covers its rear end, nor protects it from the bites of insects.”

By the way, was there any applause when អាពៅ.. បើអញចរចា ឆ្កែសុទ្ធ was squirted out through the microphone?

Silence is disapproval.

Illegal Wildlife Trade

26 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by in Event, Issue

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My dear Kacvey,

Today’s exclusive reporting by The Guardian of London, UK, on illegal wildlife trafficking between countries in South East Asia and in Southern Africa should be read and discussed by all of your students for lessons and perspectives on how Cambodia should avoid falling in the traps of international corruption, decimation of endangered species and savagery committed by South East Asian traffickers, with tentacles in Cambodia.

The Guardian published 3 articles under the headlines Illegal Wildlife Trade by reporters Oliver Holmes and Nick Davies, as follows:

  1. Revealed: the criminals making millions from illegal wildlife trafficking

2. The crime family at the centre of Asia’s animal trafficking network

3. Animal trafficking: the $23bn criminal industry policed by toothless regulator

On Tuesday 27 September 2016, The Guardian followed up the story with 2 other articles:

  1. Revealed: how senior Laos officials cut deals with animal traffickers

2. China accused of defying its own ban on breeding tigers to profit from body parts

Mencius’s Li Lou

18 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by in Culture, History, Politics, Stories

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My dear Kacvey,

You may recall a previous letter “Mencius and King Hui of Liang” of 1 August 2016. Well, as the political tension has dangerously deepened in the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk with the bodyguards and their foreign-aid heavy arsenals deployed days and nights to frighten and scare the ghosts of victims killed by the Khmer Rouge of yore and present, let continue for another moment to reflect on the wisdom of Mencius on the conduct and behavior of leaders that he, Mencius or Mengzi (孟子), discussed in some paragraphs of a chapter titled “Li Lou, part 2” (离娄下)

【By the way, speaking about foreign-aid heavy war arsenals deployed by the bodyguards, you may wonder why they did not roll out their T-49 Tanks on National Road No. 2 or police/military check points, or fly their Mirage F-1, their F-104 Starfighter, their B-52 or Stealth Bomber over their heads?】

Kacvey, your friends might be wondering why injecting Chinese thinking into Khmer immoral politicking. As you know, since 2012, “South China Sea” has transformed Cambodia leadership into a kind of 2nd-tier vassal that held the banner to block/veto any attempt by ASEAN to mention the South China Sea in any joint statement. Therefore, a certain knowledge about Chinese historical and philosophical thinking is a plus when those friends have to deal with sinitic affairs.

Below are some extracts from Mencius’s Li Lou, part 2:

2. If a governor will try to please everybody, he will find the days not sufficient to work.
2. 故为政者，每人而悦之，日亦不足矣.

3. Mencius said to the King Xuan of Qi, “When the prince regards his ministers as his hands and feet, his ministers regard their prince as their belly and heart; when he regards them as his dogs and horses, they regard him as another man; when he regards them as the ground or as grass, they regard him as a robber and an enemy.
3. 孟子告齐宣王曰： “君之视臣如手足，则臣视君如腹心；君之视如犬马，则臣视如国人；君之视臣如土芥，则臣视君如寇仇.”

6. Mencius said, “When scholars are put to death without any crime, the great officers may leave the country. When the people are slaughtered without any crime, the scholars may remove.”
6. 孟子曰： “无罪而杀士，则大夫可以去；无罪而戮民，则士可以徙.”

7. Mencius said, “If the sovereign be benevolent, all will be benevolent. If the sovereign be righteous, all will be righteous.
7. 孟子曰： “君仁莫不仁， 君义莫不义.”

8. Mencius said, “Acts of propriety which are not really proper, and acts of righteousness which are not really righteous, the great man does not do.”
8. 孟子曰： “非礼之礼， 非义之义，大人弗为.”

10. Mencius said, “Men must be decided on what they will NOT do, and then they are able to act with vigour in what they ought to do.”
10. 孟子曰： “人有不为也，而后可以有为.”

11. Mencius said, “What future misery have they and ought they to endure, who talk of what is not good in others!”
11. 孟子曰： “言人之不善，当如后患何?”

13. Mencius said, “The great man does not think beforehand of his words that they may be sincere, nor of his actions that they may be resolute – he simply speaks and does what is right.”
13. 孟子曰： “大人者， 言不必信，行不必果，惟义所在.”

18. Mencius said, “Never has he who would by his excellence subdue men been able to subdue them. Let a prince seek by his excellence to nourish men, and he will be able to subdue the whole kingdom. It is impossible that any one should become a ruler of the people to whom they have not yielded the subjection of the heart.
18. 孟子曰： “以善服人者，夫有能服人者也；义善养，然后能服天下。天下不心服而王者，夫之有也.”

32. Mencius said, “That whereby the superior man is distinguished from other men is what he preserves in his heart – namely, benevolence and propriety. The benevolent man loves others. The man of propriety shows respects to others. He who loves others is constantly loved by them. He who respects others is constantly respected by them.”
32. 孟子曰： “君子所以异于人者，以其存心也。君子以仁存心，以礼存心。仁者爱人，有礼者敬人。爱人者人恒爱之，敬人者人恒敬之.”

The following 41, 42 and 43 are parts of the same story:
41. A man of Qi had a wife and a concubine, and lived together with them in his house. When their husband went out, he would get himself well filled with wine and flesh, and then return, and, on his wife’s asking him with whom he ate and drank, they were sure to be all wealthy and honourable people. The wife informed the concubine, saying, “When our good man goes out, he is sure to come back having partaken plentifully of wine and flesh. I asked with whom he ate and drank, and they are all, it seems, wealthy and honourable people. And yet no people of distinction ever come here. I will spy out where our good man goes.”
41. 齐人有一妻一妾而处室者，其良人出，则必餍酒肉而后反。其妻问所与饮食者，则尽富贵也。其妻告其妾曰： “良人出，则必餍酒肉后反；问其与饮食者，尽富贵也，而夫尝有显者来，吾将窥探良人之所之也.

42. Accordingly, she got up early in the morning, and privately followed wherever her husband went. Throughout the whole city, there was no one who stood and talked to him. At last, he came to those who were sacrificing among the tombs beyond the outer wall on the east, and begged what they had over. Not being satisfied, he looked about, and went to another party – and this was the way in which he got himself satiated. His wife returned, and informed the concubine, saying, “It was to our husband that we looked up in hopeful contemplation, with whom our lot is cast of life – and now these are his ways!” On this, along with concubine she reviled their husband, and they wept together in the middle hall. In the meantime the husband, knowing nothing of all this, came in with a jaunty air, carrying himself proudly to his wife and concubine.
42. 蚤起，施后良人之所之，遍国中无与立谈者。卒之东郭墦间，之祭者，乞其馀；不足，又顾而之他，此其为餍足之道也。其妻归，告其妾曰：”良人者，所仰望而终身也。今若此。” 与其妾讪其良人，而相泣于中庭。而良人未之知也。施施后外来，骄其妻妾.

43. In the view of a superior man, as to the ways by which men seek for riches, honours, gain, and advancement, there are few of their wives and concubines who would not be ashamed and weep together on account of them.
43. 由君子观之，则人之所以求富贵利达者，其妻妾不羞也，而不相泣者，几希矣.

Reading Cambodia 46 years apart

15 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by in Culture, History, Politics, Social, Stories

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My dear Kacvey,

Here are 2 books that were published 46 years apart:

“La Monocratie” (which deals with “La Monarchie cambodgienne” by Yvonne Bongert published in 1970 by Editions de la Librairie Encyclopédique, Bruxelles, Belgique. livre-1970; and

“Cambodia’s Second Kingdom – Nation, Imagination, and Democracy” by Astrid Norén-Nilsson published in 2016 by Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications, Ithaca, New York, USA. livre-2016

How things have changed in and within 46 years! And how tumultuous and tragic Cambodia has gone through! Kacvey, how many of your friends have lived or have not lived through?

Please do remind your students not to neglect their importance.

Contemporary Era Killing Power

05 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by in Governance, Issue, Politics

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My dear Kacvey,

Hope you had a great summer vacation and your return to teaching class is full of energy, vitality and exertion to pass on to the students who are impatient to learn to develop their understanding and perspective for a better and different Cambodia.

While you were away, the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk did not sleep and was still abuzz, inter alia,  with the repression on every Black Monday, the heavy traffic of summons, appearances and interrogations at the kangaroo courts but without any result, the continued incarceration of human rights defenders in the dark tunnel of injustice, the foot-dragging investigations on the assassination of Mr. Kem Ley by the apathetic state of the investigators, and the display of force to impress ghosts and vampires.

What “display of force” you may ask? Well, first and foremost, it’s not about the military parade on Independence day on 9 November. It’s rather about the movement/parades of masked troops and the display of foreign military firing power and equipment, combined with military rhetorical arrogance, at different times and places, such as:
– during Mr. Kem Ley’s funerals;
– the joint display of the marine/air force/masked men in the Mekong river, the air space and the area around the opposition headquarters;
- the display of very heavy arsenal and armament manned by masked men of the supreme bodyguards unit at the celebration of its anniversary, and
– the repeated declarations of allegiance to the tribe by military honchos as well as the increasing frequency and doubling down of threats publicly launched by the same honchos towards the civilian population. Parenthetically, why have the Army and the National Police been so quiet/silent about the rising and predominance of “bodyguards here to quell?” Perhaps, as Martin Luther King, Jr., once, said: “In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Kacvey, your students might ask if Cambodia is preparing for some kind of a war against a probable foreign occupation or invasion in the near future? In the absence of signs of political or borders-related belligerency from Cambodia’s Eastern and Western neighbors, but in the knowledge of methodical repression of political opposition as well as political assassination in the domestic environment, it could then be conjectured that such recent movements/parades of heavily armed masked men and such displays of heavy arsenal and armament in public and peaceful sites must have been:
– firstly, to impress the donors that their generous gifts have been carefully and cleanly looked after;
– secondly, to re-assure the same donors that their gifts would not be used against them, nor against foreign immediate neighbors, and
– thirdly, and most importantly, to directly send a message to all Khmer that these foreign gifts will be solely intended for the killing of any Khmer who dare to challenge the autocratic and deeply corrupted regime. Unarmed Khmer, beware! Autocracy, when armed by foreign interests, militarily or otherwise, has no religious/moral virtues nor mercy, and is not afraid of ordering Khmer to kill Khmer, in the name of its tribal interests.

If that being the case, one can easily picture the return of past Khmer Rouge murderous practice in the contemporary era of the ex-KR administration. However, in the name of adaptation, modern time calls for a modern way to do the killing. What Vladimir Lenin, once said, still remains currency as far as Cambodia is concerned: “Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.” European Bolshevism has gone, but “Cambodian Bolshevism” is still alive and kicking fatally hard. Kacvey, do you remember “Chiso and Sochi” a few months ago?

Have Cambodia learned anything from past and tragic lessons of the Killing Fields? Or the killers of the Killing Fields have never faded away? Are Cambodians perpetual “Cain and Abel?” These are hard questions and realities that go against the current of human decency, peace and democracy.

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Update on 14 September 2016: