“Straight from the Horse’s Mouth”

24 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, Issue, Politics, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

Hope you had dinner with enough rice in your plate.

Why “enough rice”?

Ah, you must then have not read this Phnom Penh Post’s article by journalist Niem Chheng.

No, didn’t read it. Too much nonsense lately out there. What’s about?

Well, the weak strongman admitted that has chosen “to eat the grass with the Cambodian people.”

Yeah, “Khmer si smauv.” The students had been talking non-stop about it, and related jokes were even heard in the corridor.

What jokes?

Can’t tell. Too crude. Will tell when meet in person. But it’s awkwardly strange that the weak strongman changed his diet to include grass.

Like a cow or a horse!

But an omnivorous man is also herbivorous, naturally.

It’s more than that. Since the weak strongman unequivocally said it, it looks like it is coming straight from the horse’s mouth. What would that mean? Let surmise to get some sense out of it:
– By eating grass the weak strongman brags that he “won’t die soon” and “no one (in his family) has had any serious illnesses since the ancestors.” Eating grass renders immortality, doesn’t it?!
– By eating “grass with the Cambodian people”, did he imply that Cambodian people “si smauv” not rice? True, there are quite a number of vegetables, herbs and spices that look like “grass” and are delicious, but to “eat grass” does not necessarily suggest the same culinary or gastronomic connotation as to eat vegetables.
– By eating grass, does he insinuate that he grazes?
– By eating grass, does he imply that he also “smokes” it?
– When eating grass, does he chew it?
– By eating grass, does he have a stomach with 4 pockets?
– By eating “grass with the Cambodian people”, who eats the rice from the Khmer rice fields, or who “si bai”?
– By insinuating that Khmer eat grass, does he continue to insult them by reviving the Pol Pot era’s tragic nightmares when he was a devoted subaltern?
– By eating grass, does he acknowledge that he reserves rice for his 2 lords who feed him with power and wealth?
– If he ate grass, would his relatives share the same menu or table?
– While on golf course and if hungry, would he grab a handful of bentgrass or bluegrass for snack?
– If he eats grass, why did he hint that Cambodian people eat grass? Is he imposing dictatorial measures upon Cambodian people for grass consumption?
– When self-serving grass, would he part the sprigs or the blades first?

Kacvey, if you went out to cut the grass for your dinner as decreed by the weak strongman, please bear in mind these few words from Virgil: “There’s a snake lurking in the grass.”

The weak strongman, being so sure of his endless longevity declared that: “I am not going to die any time soon”. Let his words be witness of his life, against the background painted by Mother Angelica: “God knows Himself and every created thing perfectly. Not a blade of grass or the tiniest insect escapes His eye.”

And if he is “not going to die any time soon”, Frank Richard Stockton would have this wish for him: “May you live to see the green grass growing over your grave.”

He Who Committed Crime of Lèse Majesté…

05 Saturday Jan 2019

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, History, Human Rights, Institution, Issue, Justice, Politics, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

Please tell us how glorious were the fireworks at the VI..N..-VI..N.. Monument on the eve of the New Year, if there were any? A usual monologue speech filled with indignant and incongruous verbiage was however delivered by the weak strongman to a scattered applause from his sycophants.

Do you have a chance to pass by that useless and grotesque piece of white cement days after its inauguration to see how it stands in shame and distaste in the middle of a dictatorial socio-political landscape designed for the weak strongman’s vanity and arrogance?

Please update when you have a chance. Thanks.

The subject of today’s letter for you and your students to discuss and analyze is about what the weak strongman had lately and publicly expressed with slight, disdain and disrespect against of royal family and that could be characterized as a possible crime of lèse majesté.

As far as Khmer history is concerned, and for whatever reason one wished to formulate, the kingdom of the Khmer never had any law against lèse majesté. The worst that happened was the abolition of the monarchy by the Lon Nol regime and that abolition was maintained not only under the genocidal Khmer Rouge Pol Pot regime but also under the Vietnamese-supported regime of the current weak strongman when he returned to Cambodia from Vietnam on 7 January 19179 until the UNTAC election in May 1993. The monarchy was restored after the completion of the election with the coronation of Sihanouk.

Since then until 2018, for 25 years, neither Sihanouk nor his son who succeeded him never bother by lèse majesté concept or feel threatened by the population-at-large. But all of sudden the weak strongman and his sycophants have become “more royalist than the king” and orchestrated all kind of legislative and executive schemes to draft and adopt a law against lèse majesté in February 2018.

Kacvey, there is plenty of literature for your students to research on the discussions about that law at the time of its drafting and adoption, but it is worth to remind them that that law was not promulgated by the king himself but by the president of the senate acting on the king’s behalf.

After the law went into effect, the autocratic regime of the weak strongman has arrested 2 persons accused of committing crime of lèse majesté:
1. a 50-year-old school principal for a post in his Facebook account; he was facing 1-5 years in prison, and a large fine, and
2. a 70-year-old barber also for a post in his Facebook account; he was convicted and sentenced to seven months in prison and a 5-month suspended sentence.

Against that background, and let now see the foreground.

In its Khmer language article dated 21 December 2018, Radio Free Asia reported about staff management issue in the CNC television and the pressure that the weak strongman exercised upon the CNC leadership to revert a decision involving the firing of a staff member believed to be one of his relatives; the weak strongman made it clear that “ជាមួយខ្ញុំកុំនិយាយឲ្យសោះឪស្តេចម៉ែស្តេច ក៏ខ្ញុំដាក់ដែរ”. In its English version, Radio Free Asia reported that: “well I’m not even afraid of the queen and the king’s father!”

Kacvey, you and your students would certainly be of the opinion that the English translated of the weak strongman’s words from Khmer are much more mild, polite and uncompromising, but the Khmer words are plain insolence, disrespect and contempt towards the king’s father and mother. On 30 December 2018, Radio Free Asia followed it up with a Khmer language article with opinions from different commentators that you and your students can fully appraise and appreciate.

For our part, let just ask the questions:

Why the weak strongman needed to refer to “the queen and the king’s father” in his argument in such a withering and disparaging manner?
What’s behind his motive?
Is there a dark scheme brewing or germinating inside his mind and future plan? Fujian versus or to replace Corsica?
Has he forgotten that there is a law of “his” on lèse majesté?
As the whole world knows that he rules Srok Khmer and all Khmer laws are nothing else but his toilet papers, would he infer that the law on lèse majesté is not different from other laws as far as he is concerned?
Is he testing the strength of the monarchic institution?
Is he measuring the tape between “sdach” and “samdach”?
What would the king himself think about the whole enchilada?
Does he truly feel offended or insulted by his subjects in question?
Has he ever been invited to testify at the court proceedings?
Qui tacet consentire videtur?

The weak strongman must surely have read and learned a lot about Chinese history, especially during the period of The Warring States, how Chinese dynasties were created, and how Chinese and foreigners became emperors.

Well, all first emperors of all Chinese dynasties were all common people, and warriors.

=====
Update:
– On 9 January 2019, Reuters reported: Cambodian jailed for three years for insulting king on Facebook
– On 15 January 2019, Asia Times published an article: “Cambodia’s ‘quiet king’ must find his political voice“

VI..N.. – VI..N.. Monument

30 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, Event, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

Have you received an invite to the 29 December inauguration of that useless and horrendous monument?

What monument?

The VI..N..-VI..N.. Monument?

It’s the Win-Win Monument, as they call it!

They can call whatever they want, but it’s the VI..N..-VI..N.. Monument?

Please explain.

Easy: “Win-Win Monument” and “VI..N..-VI..N.. Monument”, same phonetics, right?!

Right. But why “VI..N..-VI..N.. Monument”?

Oh, fill up the dots with these letters: E, T and A, M, and you see how the weak strongman pays his debt to Vietnam for his return to Cambodia on 7 January 1979.

Get it! Even the top of the spike has the shape of the letter V.

Kacvey, please tell your students to focus their camera on the tip of the spire when photographing it.

Why then the weak strongman doesn’t dedicate the monument to himself?

Here could be a few possibilities:

He must have learned that many Lenin statues in the world were torn down when communism was over, or Saddam Hussein’s when his regime collapsed at beginning of Iraq war;
He wouldn’t dare glorify himself so much in the face of his Vietnamese backer, because without Vietnamese troops he would never be where he is now;
He would not dare affront the spirit and soul of Sihanouk and his statue near the Monument of Independence;
He has some complex vis-à-vis 2 guys with whom he was painted on billboards throughout the country; there were 3 guys then, but now only two after, the death of one them on 8 June 2015;
He wants the Khmer people to forget his genocidal Pol Pot-Khmer Rouge background and see him through a different prism;
Last but not least, he knows that not only his popularity has been dwindled downwards like the level of the Tonlé Buon Mouk in the dry season, but he also has started to feel uneasy of himself in the leadership role of his party and his clan of regroupees who left for Vietnam in 1977.

Therefore, before it’s too late, he seems to decide to concretize the end of his journey in block of concrete, as a symbol of his senseless vanity and egoism.

What and how that so-called monument will be or look like after the inauguration is over?

Dogs will roam around and lift their hind against the walls, homeless will use as shelter against rains, graffiti artists may love to express their natural talent, loiterers hanging out in illegal or illicit nocturnal trades, garbage uncollected etc…

The “VI..N.. – VI..N.. Monument”, a monument to his vanity, will also be for Vietnam like the Chinese casinos in Kg Som and the Chinese resort in Koh Kong will be for China, the masterpieces that the weak strongman has so far designed for and dedicated to his 2 lords.

Would the strongman come back on daily basis to meditate? Doubt it. How would that mute and inert concrete interact with the Khmer people whose life is like a “Lose-Loose Monolith” that they carry on their shoulder and back?

With this “VI..N.. – VI..N.. Monument”, the weak strongman seems definitely outgunning Chéy Chetha II, with not only a historical legacy of Cambodia eternally indebted to Vietnam but also a monument to the glory of his master.

Crude Man, Crude Language

02 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, Governance, Human Rights, Politics, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

Hope that your students, in their dealing with their family, friends and colleagues possess higher standard of character, courtesy, respect, consideration and vocabulary towards their interlocutor than the lowly educated ex-KR and weak strongman.

This passage extracted from an article published by Radio Free Asia shows how crude and rude the weak strongman is in his public speech: «ហ្អែងចង់ដឹងពេលហ្នឹងហា បើមិនហ្អែងមិនគេចទាន់ទេ ពេលនេះ គឺធ្វើបុណ្យខ្មោចហ្អែងបាត់ទៅហើយ តែឯងពូកែរត់ ពូកែស្រែក ហើយរត់ក៏លឿន តែគ្រាន់តែគេមិនដេញតាមតែប៉ុណ្ណឹងទេឲ្យឯងរត់សិន អញក៏មិនទាន់ចង់សម្លាប់ហ្អែងដែរ ព្រោះរដ្ឋាភិបាលមួយមិនឲ្យមានការចង់ផ្ដួលរំលំតាមចិញ្ចើមផ្លូវនោះទេ»

How could a man who considers himself a statesman use such a foul and repugnant words such as ហ្អែង, បុណ្យខ្មោចហ្អែង, អញ, អញក៏មិនទាន់ចង់សម្លាប់ហ្អែង?! The only and possible explanation would be that he is by nature rude, rough, crude, raw and lacking in social refinement; it could also suggests ignorance of or indifference to good form and plain and intentional discourtesy.

On the contrary, Radio Free Asia, in its English program, provided a better and polite version to cover him in front of the international public: “I want to let you know that if you hadn’t fled Cambodia, you would already have had your funeral,” and “We didn’t pursue you because we didn’t want to kill you at the time”.

With such character and outside his realm of corrupt sycophants, who can give him respect? Mark Twain had the answer when he said: “A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.”

Kacvey, you have good students who “learn”!

History in Lexicon

02 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, Event, History, International, Politics, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

Your students must certainly have read this online information from both VODhotnews and The Cambodia Daily. Since the relationship between the Khmer communists and the Vietnamese communists went as far back as 1946 – quite possibly your students’ great-grandparents or grandparents generations – and still continue to influence the current conduct of the Khmer Rouge and ex-Khmer Rouge that rule the land of the Khmer since 1975, the visit should not be without controversy and your students’ attention and focus should be armed with some background awareness:

Ho Chi Minh (original name: Nguyen Sinh Cung) was the founder and a revolutionary leader of the League for the Independence of Vietnam or the Viet Minh, who led the Viet Minh Independence movement in 1941, and was president of Vietnam democratic republic in 1945.
Since the end of the Vietnam War and the reunification of Vietnam, between 1976 and today, Vietnam has had 7 presidents and 2 Chairmen of the Council of State.
Meanwhile, in 1975 Cambodia was led by Khmer Rouge and genocidal Pol Pot.
In 1977, the weak strongman (original name: Bunal or Nal) left his Khmer Rouge group and fled to Vietnam for protection and reorganization similar to the mold of the Khmer Viet Minh in 1954.
In 1979, he returned to Cambodia with the support of Vietnamese troops and became Cambodia solo prime minister since 1985 until today.
Would the trip to Vietnam under its 9th president who took office in October 2018 look like to pay homage and to recognize the eternal debt the weak strongman has contracted for his power as a subordinate ruler in Cambodia?
Would future history confirm its past?

Here are some historical lexicons that your students might wish to have in their notebooks:

COOC: Central Office of Cambodia
Lao Dong: Vietnamese Workers’s Party (founded by Ho Chi Minh)
Nam Bo: Southern Department
COSVN: Central Office of South Vietnam
CCP: Cambodia Communist Party
Ban Can Su: Cadre Affairs Committee
KC: Khmer Communist
KCP: Khmer Communist Party
Son Ngoc Minh: Khmer Communist leader during pre-and-post-Independence
KCPC: Khmer Communist Party Committee
Region 203: Southeast region of Cambodia
Muoi Cuc (Ten chrysanthemums?): (Possibly a.k.a Nguyen Van Cuc or Nguyen Van Linh) Head of COSVN in 1954 and Chief advisor of Khmer Communists
CLA: Cambodia Liberation Army, formally known as Cambodia National People’s Liberation Armed Forces
CCKL: Central Committee for the Khmer Liberation
Nguyen Thanh Son: Chief of Nam Bo’s Foreign Affairs Section
Training Camps and Ethnic Minority Training Camps: in Hanoi area for training regroupees of Khmer Communists
Regroupees: Khmer Communists who were relocated to Vietnam after Independence
Son Thay Military Academy: where best KC were trained
Nguyen Ai Quoc School: Where KC senior cadres were trained
Khmer Viet Minh: Khmer Communists indoctrinated and trained in Vietnam
GVN: Government of (South) Vietnam
NLF: Vietcong’s National Liberation Front
CCFAF: Central Committee to Fight Against Fraud (the group chaired by Lon Nol to oversee shipments of rice to Vietcong
CCC: Cambodian Communist Central Committee
Red Khmer or Red K: Khmer Krâhârm, Khmer Rouge (coined circa 1962)
Khmerization: (1) use of Khmer language (instead of French); (2) conversion of Khmer Leu (Northeastern Khmer) into Khmer
B3 Front: Vietcong military command based in Rattanakiri
CPK: Communist Party of Kampuchea
Don’t spill the tea: Warning that the tea being boiled for the master is more important than the life of the oppressed.

Last but not least, let keep this definition in the back of the mind if the weak strongman doesn’t realize his bounded vassalage because of blindness or ignorance:
“The definition of a vassal was someone in feudal times who received protection and land from a lord in return for allegiance and performing military and other duties, or someone who is subordinate.
“An example of a vassal is a person who was given part of a lord’s land and who pledged himself to that lord.
“An example of a vassal is a subordinate or servant.”

=====

Update:
On 5 December 2018, The Cambodia Daily online published this piece: មេដឹកនាំខ្មែរនឹងទៅទស្សនកិច្ចក្នុងប្រទេសវៀតណាមអមដោយមន្រ្តី កំពូលៗជាច្រើនមិនធ្លាប់មានពីមុនមក

‘I do not do policy or diplomacy by tweets’

17 Saturday Nov 2018

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, International, Issue, Politics, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has given a lesson of responsibility in high politics and diplomacy that you may wish to instill in your students ethical behavior in the modern and fast age of technology and social media.

Politico has this title: Macron to Trump: ‘I do not do policy or diplomacy by tweets’ and The New York Times: Macron’s Response to Trump: ‘I Do Not Do Policy or Diplomacy by Tweets’

You may ask what does that have to do with my class?
Well, good behavior and respect of high responsibility have a lot to do with your students prospective careers.

Let leave to Emmanuel Macron and Donald trump what belongs to Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump to deal with between themselves. Instead, let just recall how the weak strongman uses Facebook to rule Cambodia, to brag about his millions “like”, to disparage people he doesn’t like, and also to raise wager with his nemesis!

Your students should bear in mind that:
– the country has scales of laws and regulations (whether or not voted and implemented by the kangaroos!)
– the prime minister is the head of the government composed of ministers (sycophantic or otherwise!) to run the ministries;
– the government has ambassadors accredited to various world capitals, and
– the government has administrative procedures and mechanism to ensure that governmental decisions are passed on hierarchically for smooth implementation.

In a very simple term, if the weak strongman uses his Facebook account to dictate his wimp, why should there be ministers and all those useless officials or ministries? why should there be national assembly? why should there be courts and tribunals? why should there be ambassadors?
Why not then abolishing the whole concept of the three branches of power and just having a big screen with the weak strongman sitting in front of the screen and belting out any stupidity that crosses his mind?

In international diplomacy and official dealings, who on earth outside Cambodia cares about what the weak strongman says or writes in Khmer in his Facebook account? Do world leaders at the UN, the EU, the IPU, or the ASEAN, etc … pay any attention to what the weak strongman says or writes in Khmer about his justification of the sham election for one-party state, of the death of democracy and the abuse and violation of human rights and freedom of association? No, no, and no.

Your students are clever enough to understand that you, Kacvey, don’t care about what they think or write in their Facebook account, and that you only accept home works or term papers either in hard copy or through email from them directly submitted to you. None of your student should never argue that: “But, professor Kacvey, I wrote my dissertation on my Facebook!”

To which you laughingly respond: “I do not correct your Facebook paper!”

A 3,200,000 US Dollars Watch

04 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, Governance, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

Do you recall a 1974 to 1978 television series titled “The Six Million Dollar Man” starring Lee Majors?

Well, in the City of Tonlé Buon Mouk, there now is a man whose monthly salary is about US$1,100, but dons a US$3,200,000 watch. Oh, by the way, would there also be a handbag for the lady at, for example, 1/10 of that price?

For now, just have a quick recap to situate where Khmer citizens stand in the context of Cambodia economics:
– In 2017, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in Cambodia was US$1,135.20, equivalent to 9 percent of the world’s average. GDP per capita in Cambodia averaged US$648.27 from 1993 until 2017, reaching an all time high of US$1,135.20 in 2017 and a record low of US$321.40 in 1994.
– Minimum wage in Cambodia averaged US$130.25 per month from 2014 to 2017, and the minimum monthly wage of workers in textiles and footwear industry is US$170.00.

Please ask your students to do the math to find out how many years it would take for the US$1,100 monthly salaried man to pay for that watch, and how many years for the average garment workers to do the same, and all this without eating and feeding their family!?

Should we dwell on the question how such a situation could happen in such a banana state? No, to repeat it again and again is a waste of time as it has already been extensively written about: Just go to “search” box and type: Corruption, Nepotism, autocracy, Hostile Takeover or Global Witness, and then you get the answer.

Then you might ask why raising the issue of US$3,200,000 watch? Who on earth would wear such treasure on his wrist: would Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, or even the founders of the brand Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe do it? There gotta to be, among reasonable and sane mind, an awareness and conscientiousness about value that differentiates those who earn their fortune through pure hard work and entrepreneurship and those who come from the jungle at the border between Cambodia and Vietnam and becoming corrupt autocrat through communism, deceit and falsity.

The answer is simple: It’s about the political hypocrisy, repulsive and nauseating dishonesty, and the ex-genocidal-KR turned rogue selling the entire Cambodia out to Vietnam and China:
– the weak strongman pretends to care about the fate of garments workers against the serious threat from the EU about EBA withdrawal, whereas in fact he remains stubborn in his oppressive politics against the Khmer;
– he isolates himself more and more from the future interest of the country, focusing instead on his short-term scheme of protecting his power, family and wealth;
– he continues to shackle and vassalize the country to China through concessions after concessions on use of land, destruction of natural resources and multiplication of gambling and vices industry and businesses;
– his government shames Cambodia on its ineffectiveness and incompetence in the international arena;
– he is the pariah among the world leaders including ASEAN;
– his sycophants’ ill-earned fortune that is stashed in foreign lands is under scrutiny or investigation;
– his trips outside Cambodia have been met with huge demonstrations by overseas Khmer, and
– he uses the result of the sham election as a licence to further alienate the rights and freedom of Khmer citizen in their march towards democracy.

If only the US$3,200,000 watch could tell him the time when his rule is up for CHANGE!

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