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Khmer Politics Alternatives Circle

~ Thinking outside the box about Cambodia

Khmer Politics Alternatives Circle

Monthly Archives: November 2016

Aristotle’s philosophical humor

18 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, History, Social, Stories

≈ Comments Off on Aristotle’s philosophical humor

My dear Kacvey,

Here is something philosophical and humoristic to take your mind off from depressing daily news. What you are going to know is some anecdotes about Aristotle and his happy sayings as related by Diogenes Laertius.

Aristotle was Plato’s most genuine disciple, but he left the Academy while Plato was still alive; on this Plato commented: “Aristotle spurns me, as colts kick out at the mother who bore them.”

Aristotle was called a “Peripatetic” because, after his return to Athens from Philip’s court in Macedonia, instead of going to Plato’s Academy, he made choice of the Lyceum where he would walk up and down discussing philosophy with his pupils until it was time to rub themselves with oil.

It is said that Lyco (a head of Aristotle’s Lyceum) mentioned that Aristotle bathed in warm oil, and then sold the oil.

Other people related that he placed a skin of warm oil on his stomach, and that, when he went to sleep, a bronze ball was placed in his hand with a vessel under it, in order that, when the ball dropped from his hand into the vessel, he might be waked up by the sound.

Someone asked Aristotle: “What do people gain by telling lies?” His answer was: “Just this, that when they speak the truth they are not believed.”

Being once reproached for giving alms to a bad man, he rejoined, “It was the man and not his character that I pitied.” Also when some one accused him of having given a subscription to a dishonest man, he said “It was not the man that I assisted, but humanity.”

He used constantly to say to his friends and pupils, whenever or wherever he happened to lecturing, “As sight takes in light from the surrounding air, so does the soul from mathematics.”

Frequently and at some length he would say that the Athenians were the discoverers of wheat and laws; but though they used wheat, they had no use of laws.

He said: “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”

Being asked, “What is it that soon grows old?” he answered, “Gratitude.”

He was asked to define hope , and he replied, ” It is a waking dream.”

When Diogenes (the Dog) offered him dried figs, he saw that he had prepared something caustic to say if he did not take them; so he took them and said Diogenes had lost his figs and his jest into the bargain. And on another occasion he took them when they were offered, lifted them up aloft, as you do babies, and returned them with the exclamation, “Great is Diogenes.”

Three things he declared to be indispensable for education: natural endowment, study and constant practice.

On hearing that some one abused him, he rejoined, “He may even scourge me so it be in my absence.”

Beauty he declared to be a greater recommendation that any letter of introduction. He also defined good looks as the gift of the god.

Being asked how the educated differ from the uneducated, “As much,” he said, “as the living from the dead.”

He used to declare education to be an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. Teachers who educated children deserved, he said, more honour than parents who merely gave them birth; for bare life is furnished by the one, the other ensures a good life. He also declared that “Education is the best provision for old age.”

To one who boasted that he belonged to a great city his reply was, “That is not the point to consider, but who it is that is worthy of a great country.”

To the query, “What is a friend?” his reply was, “A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” To the question how we should behave to friends, he answered, “As we should wish them to behave to us.”

Mankind, he used to say, were divided into those who were as thrifty as if they would live for ever, and those who were extravagant as if they were going to die the next day.

When some one inquired why we spend much time with the beautiful, “That,” he said, “is a blind man question.”

When asked what advantage he had ever gained from philosophy, he replied, “This, that I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law.”

The question being put, how can students make progress, he replied, “by pressing hard on those in front, and not waiting for those behind.”

To the chatterbox who poured out a flood of talk upon him and then inquired, “Have I bored you to death with my character?” Aristotle replied, “No, indeed; for I was not attending to you.”

On Cambodia 63rd Anniversary of Independence

09 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by KhmerPAC in Event, History, Issue, Social

≈ 2 Comments

My dear Kacvey,

Happy 63rd Anniversary of Independence, Cambodia!

Let start by revisiting the questions that were posed in last-year letter: “On the 62nd Anniversary of Independence of Cambodia”

The questions were: “Do independent Cambodians have:
– the liberty to speak their mind and to criticize what is not right?
– the independence of their thought?
– the power to choose, to replace and to change?
– the freedom to use the power of the ballots?”

For 1 full year, “No” is the answer to the first 3 questions as autocracy still continues to hold a firm grip on repression and oppression of civil liberty and right through prohibition of public meetings, wiretapping, brutality by security apparatus, police ineptitude in investigating Mr. Kem Ley’s assassination, indefinite pre-trial detention, arrest with trumped-up charges, and corrupted and deplorable court system. The last question will float until the next commune elections scheduled for 4 June 2017.

Against the above background, what joyous expectations does Cambodia have to celebrate during this 9 November 2016, 63 years after the departure of the French colonial administration? Nothing much to enjoy though, if one had to go over the followings:
– the legislative and judiciary branches function as a private property of the executive, or in other words the head of the executive branch dictates his orders to the 2 other branches for execution;
– the national assembly is underemployed, unapplied and unengaged;
– the interpretation and application of articles of constitution and laws are subjective and always politically oriented toward the hardening of autocratic grips;
– the foreign policy is dictated by the interests of the regional powers against massive and un-programmed monetary exchange or compensation, in defiance of the ruling by high international judiciary instance;
– millions of mourners serenely, meditatively and conscientiously followed Mr. Kem Ley’s coffin in defiance of the imposed politics and injustice, and corrupted governance;
– citizens wearing black can’t even congregate on Monday in public places;
– the daily mobilization of security apparatus and masked bodyguards, police force and military arsenal in the streets and the river to scare and to threaten the people or the opposition is part of the landscape of life;
– the increasing influx of military arsenal from foreign governments into the army, police and bodyguards when threat of hostilities or war with foreign neighbors is below zero level;
– the solicitation made to ex-communist and revolutionary foreign powers for their guidance and advice to prevent so-called and imaginary “color revolution” and to redress the judiciary system;
– on the Western borders, nothing has been done to implement the ICJ verdict in favor of Cambodia, and on the Eastern borders the violation of Cambodian territorial integrity continues through the building of military posts on Khmer lands;
– the national budget is on respiratory cord with massive amount of foreign aids, and about US$6 billions (and counting) of foreign debt on the shoulders of future generations;
– the leader of the opposition still self-exiles legally and comfortably with his family, in his own residence in France, his 2nd homeland, and
– the entire country is the prisoner to one-man’s mood, his Facebook account and his proclivity for tyranny.

Kacvey, if you go to watch the military parade, bear in mind that this is only a show of domestic military power built on foreign donations the purpose of which is to extend and to reinforce the autocratic stranglehold on Khmer democracy, freedom and liberty. To cheer such a display is to encourage tyranny.

So, for the next 364 days, let add 1 more question to the pending ones carried over from 2015: Can Khmer build true democracy and rule of law on Khmer independence in order to free themselves from the yoke of corrupted autocracy?

A nation is independent when it has no political indebtedness to foreign nation(s), and only independent citizens with independent mind who work together and hand in hand can make this happen. Any alienated independence, no matter how small is its size, is a disguised form of neo-colonialism.

Susan B. Anthony, once, said: “Independence is happiness.” Are Khmer people happy during this 63rd Anniversary of Independence of their country? The overwhelming majority don’t.

Definition of “Beauty”

07 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, History, Social, Stories

≈ Comments Off on Definition of “Beauty”

My dear Kacvey,

How “Beauty” was defined in ancient Greece and Rome?

Diogenes: “Beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction.”

Aristotle: “Good looks are the gift of god.”

Socrates: “Beauty is a short-lived reign.”

Plato: “Beauty is a natural superiority.”

Theophrastus: “Beauty is a mute deception.”

Theocritus: “Beauty is as an evil in an ivory setting.”

Carneades: “Beauty is a monarchy that needs no bodyguard.”

Ovid: “Beauty is a fragile gift.”

However,

Homer expanded: “In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare.”

Plautus contended: “I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewel. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.”

Juvenal rationalized: “Rare is the union of beauty and purity.”

Plutarch submitted: “Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.”

Meanwhile, in ancient China:

Confucius: “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

Can They Really Prevent “Color Revolution”?

04 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, Governance, History, Institution, Issue, Politics

≈ 1 Comment

My dear Kacvey,

Did you laugh or did you have pity when you read this Phnom Penh Post’s piece dated 1 November 2016: Press unit seeks guidance from Russian state media?

To laugh, because the story is so outlandish, borderline with ridicule, clumsy and uncouth. To have pity, because the article tells that the people involved in the story seem to be at the level of a 5th-grader with zero knowledge of world history or politics, or even a cursory acquaintance of what is “revolution”, “color revolution”, “news” or “information.” Francis Bacon, once said: “Knowledge is power”, and consequently, without knowledge how could they pretend to do things that they don’t even know what they are talking about!

So, in short, they are seeking advice from Russia because “Russia has many years of experience of successfully preventing color revolution.” So shallow!

Although this short sentence could give rise to a number of assertions and presuppositions, would those who seek guidance from Russia know that:
– Lenin succeeded in leading the Russian Revolution in October 1917, and the Communist Party was created in March 1918;
– The USSR was established in 1922;
– Gorbachev started his policy reform (glasnost) in 1980 and became the General Secretary of Politburo in 1985;
– The USSR was dissolved in 1991, followed by the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (14 countries of Ex-USSR), and
– Full blown revolutions and the abandonment of Communism took place in Eastern Europe between 1989 and 1991.

Russia was a country that created revolution, lived through revolution, made new revolution within revolution and outlived revolutions to become an authoritarian country. Both Russian revolutions (communist and glasnost) started with “philosophy and idea”, and not with “guns and tanks.” It ensued that neither the Tzarism of Nicolas II nor the Brezhnev-era authoritarianism could prevent the 1917 and 1985 revolutions to happen.

In a nutshell, where is the logic that Russia could give guidance on preventing revolution, itself being a revolution maker? Unless, “they” have a total confusion between “revolution” in historic term of 1917 and 1985 and the current state of repression in nowadays Russia.

The Russian example is not unique in the history of revolution. The Chinese revolution that started during the declining years of the Qing dynasty (清) were also based on “philosophy and idea”. In the anti-Qing rebellion/revolution (反清), history teaches about 5 dominant movements:
– The 1851-1864 Taiping Rebellion (太平天国运动) animated by Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全);
– The Furen Literary Society (辅仁文社) animated by Yeung Ku-wan (杨衢云) and Tse Tsan-tai (谢赞泰);
– The Revive China Society (兴中会) founded by Sun Yat-sen (孙中山) in 1894;
– The Tongmenghui (同盟会) founded in 1905 by Sun Yat-sen (孙中山) and Song Jiaoren (宋教仁),and
– The Xinhai Revolution (辛亥革命) of 1911 that finally led to the end of the 2000 years of imperial rule and the creation of the Republic of China.

So, what can historical revolutionary Russia and China tell the autocracy? It can tell that no matter how much it uses forces to prevent or to quash revolution, color or otherwise, it will never be able to quash the “philosophy, idea and sentiment” that oppressed and repressed people have brewed in their heart and mind. Physical revolution can be bloody – Pol Pot and his KRs had done it to the Khmer people on 17 April 1975, and the ex-KRs still continues likewise since their return from Vietnam on 9 January 1979 – but intellectual revolution is limitless, both in term of horizon and strength; in other words, a “colorless” revolution, similar to the original revolutions both in Russia and China!

If Karl Marx had said: “Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!”, and if the autocrat had learned his communist doctrine, why is he now so afraid of a revolution or uprising? Or the red revolutionary as he was has become a corrupt, dishonest, unscrupulous, dishonorable, unprincipled, unethical and amoral vassal of the two lords of the region? What if Karl Marx’s quote were paraphrased to read: “Let the ruling classes tremble at a colorless revolution. The Khmer have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Khmer of all countries, unite!”

Victor Hugo summarized: “When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.” And “that right” belongs to Khmer people.

=====
Updates:

    • This article: “Riot Police Told by National Chief to Fear Color Revolution” from The Cambodia Daily of 30 November 2016, confirms that they really do not know what they are talking about.
    • This article: “‘Colour’ coups on group’s agenda” from The Phnom Penh Post of 7 February 2017 reflects the paranoia of the ruling clan and the fear of being abandoned by the electorate.
    • This article from the The Phnom Penh Post of 20 December 2017 is self-explanatory: “Former deputy prime minister calls for protests“
    • The Phnom Penh Post of 9 January 2018: National Police ordered to analyse banned opposition members’ finances

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