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Khmer Politics Alternatives Circle

~ Thinking outside the box about Cambodia

Khmer Politics Alternatives Circle

Monthly Archives: May 2018

The Old Fox and the Nineteen Cockerels

29 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by KhmerPAC in Event, Governance, Institution, Issue, Politics, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

You and your students will face a difficult choice on 29 July 2018:
– to vote or not to vote?
– to vote by casting a void ballot or to vote for which party?
– how could conscience dictate?

Damn you vote, damn you don’t.
Damn you vote, damn the autocrat wins (by predetermination).
Damn you don’t vote, damn the autocrat still wins (by predetermination).
It’s a lose-lose situation, for the voters and/or non-voters.
When citizen’s sovereign rights and freedom of choice are trampled by autocracy that disguises itself as a democracy, crass as it is!

What a difference since the communal elections on 4 June 2017! Polyphemus, being rejected by the people spit fire and burned democracy to death. And he’s trying to disguise his gullible acts by promoting his autocratic democracy through multiplication of new parties that have never ever proven that they have done anything to Cambodia and its people: 11 parties at the 4 June 2017 communal elections, and now 19 parties for the legislative on 29 July 2018. Numbers are phony in their democratic meaning.

The scenario designed and orchestrated by the autocrat resembles a field controlled for more than 30 years by an old fox with 19 newly hatched chicks. Since all parties-chicks seem to be male, let call them cockerels. This reminds of a Latin phrase ‘Ovem lupo commitere’ that could be interpreted as “foxes sneak in chicken coops and eat the chickens.”

To push the pretense to an absurdity level, through the politicization of Buddhism, they set up a drawing ceremony on 29 May 2018 to attribute number to the 20 parties. Calculated fortune is that autocracy gets number 20 so that the autocrat’s sycophants could bark that democracy is well served. What does that type of number serve anyway, since victory for the ruling party has been already schemed, designed and planned since September 2017!

Boo! Boo!

Kacvey, your students might ask:
– what if the predetermined victory would not turn out to be glorious or glorified, under the heavy pressure of international opinion, the autocrat decided at the last-minute to open the gate of Thbong Khmoum jail and release the falsely-charged prisoner?
– would he postpone the election so as to allow the opposition to organize the campaign or would he not postpone it and argue on the 5-year ban?
– in June 2017, there were 7,107,395 voters, out of which 3,540,056 went to the ruling party, and 3,056,824 to the opposition. You do the math, Kacvey. What if 4 or 5 millions of combined ruling or opposition voters did not show up on 29 July 2018?! A tsunami of non-voters! Khmer electorate understands better and better the power of their voices and secret ballots since UNTAC elections in May 1993, and it continues to learn and appreciate it as times go forward;
– what if millions of voters show up at and flood the polling stations 15 minutes before the poll closing time or sunset?
– what if those millions voted for the party numbered “21”, like playing golf’s “19th hole”?
– would the autocrat be happy or satisfied with a victory with 99.99% ballots in his favor, or would he play false modesty by allowing some parties (such as for example the scum party that sits in the opposition seats in the national assembly and the senate after the opposition was annihilated) to get 10 to 15 seats out of the total of 123?
– what if the autocrat politics through Facebook that he feeds many, many hours per day has a negative return despite his (authentic or otherwise) millions and millions “likes”?
– in the mean time, what if Hypnos could re-play the trick against Zeus on the esplanade of Angkor Wat?

A lot of stuff to think about, Kacvey!

The Phnom Penh “G”host

07 Monday May 2018

Posted by KhmerPAC in Event, International, Issue

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My dear Kacvey,

So, on 6 May 2018, the Phnom Penh Post which was owned by an Australian company was sold to a Malaysian company for an undisclosed price. A foreign press in Cambodia changed hand between foreigners. And all of this in the name of press freedom in Cambodia! Any bigger BS?

With the above sale, the last bastion of independent journalism in Cambodia is buried in the same grave as the victims of the KR genocidal regime, the opposition party and The Cambodia Daily; from such grave rises the specter of The Phnom Penh “G”host. Genocidal KR killed Khmer, ex-KR-turned-tyrant continues to kill what is the essence of Khmerness.

Kacvey, please tell your students to read and learn about the history and activities of the new owner with regards to their relationship with the corrupt and dictatorial ex-KR in the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk. Please also cancel the subscription as there is no place in our library for a sycophantic press serving autocracy to the destruction of Cambodia, present and future. There still are plenty of materials of different and opposing views to read in the world of web.

 

“The Hungry Dragon”

05 Saturday May 2018

Posted by KhmerPAC in Book, International

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My dear Kacvey,

This is a book which is co-authored by a Cambodian-American, Sophal Ear, that your students MUST read and reflect on the issue of China’s influence on the current autocratic leadership in Cambodia:
“The Hungry Dragon – How China’s resource quest is reshaping the world”
by Sigfrido Burgos Cáceras and Sophal Ear.
ISBN:978-1-85743-624-6
Published by Routledge, United Kingdom and USA

A “Country Case Studies” on Cambodia runs from page 97 to page 118.

From the opening page of the book:
“This book explores China’s quest for energy sources, raw materials and natural resources around the world, with a specific emphasis on oil. China’s ubiquitous presence in Africa, Asia and Latin America is reshaping the world with regards to economics, politics and national security. It offers a comprehensive examination of China’s energy security strategy.

“The first two chapters delve into Chinese relations with energy markets and the world, and the global geopolitics of China’s resource quest. This introductory section is complemented by three in-depth country case studies: Angola, Brazil and Cambodia. The two concluding chapters cover opportunities and risks to China, and examine how strategies can be developed into tangible actions.

“This book offers a number of overlapping debates regarding the varieties of capitalisms (autocratic vs.democratic), the urgent need for rebalancing as the world undergoes global financial crises and contestations to traditional powers, and the issues surrounding natural resource extraction in the context of global governance, neoliberalism and poverty traps.

Key Features
· Offers an in-depth analysis on the geopolitics of China’s resource quest.
· Assists students and scholars in understanding the Chinese model of autocratic capitalism and China’s novel ways of securing resources across three continents.
· Explains China’s energy security strategy and its implications on US national security.
· Explores the links between international relations and the geopolitics of scarcity.

“Sigfrido Burgos Cáceres works at the University of South Alabama and is a consultant specializing in international development and foreign affairs. From 2007 to 2012 he was based in Rome, Italy, at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He lives in Mobile with his wife.

“Sophal Ear is an Assistant Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. He is the author of Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy (Columbia University Press).”

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