The XXIst Century’s Chéy Chétha

30 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by KhmerPAC in International, Issue, Politics, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

You and your students certainly have friends of Khmer Krom origin and whose historical memory is still vivid and painful about how Chéy Chétha II, in 1623, gave away about 34,300 square miles of Khmer land to Vietnam that later, in the 18th century, incorporated into its own territory.

The 21st century is witnessing and living through the same experience and reality that Cambodia is transforming itself into a vassal state or a colony territory, the chef d’oeuvre of the weak strongman. How ironic future history of Cambodia is revealing: the ex-Khmer Rouge who proclaimed to be the strongman who oppressed and repressed Cambodia and Cambodians is progressively handing over Cambodia to the power of money from the Northern Capital. When the weak strongman dies – no man lives forever – his soul wold be doubly judged: one by Hades for being part of the genocidal Khmer Rouge, and two by history for being the Chéy Chéetha XI for letting the people from the Middle Kingdom to come and take over the land of the Khmer Leu.

Somewhere, under a banyan tree on the sidewalk of the silk road, two men share their secrets:

Phnuoy Mék: May I greet you my lord, and long live your reign!
On Ze: Not too loud, banyan branches have ears.
Phnuoy Mék: My lord, I thank you for having made me who I am since 2012.
On Ze: You’ve been a good boy for us, and you’ve served us well.
Phnuoy Mék: For your desire, nothing cannot be impossible in srè khmok so long you let me know.
On Ze: Listen carefully. So far, it’s only the beginning. I have a big belly, so my belt is long, and the road I’m travelling is much longer than the historical silk road.
Phnuoy Mék: My lord, I’m all ears.
On Ze: I want to make your country and its sea a 1st outpost of my objective to control the whole region: the economy will serve the military.
Phnuoy Mék: Yes, my lord. Money first and army later.
On Ze: Not only that, but also millions of my subjects. I need my people to execute my plan. Your guys are not up to the level of my plan.
Phnuoy Mék: I close my eye for their arrival by air, sea or land.
On Ze: Yes, that’s why the casinos are an indispensable instrument: my subjects use entertainment to disguise their true identity.
Phnuoy Mék: My lord, the more the casinos, the fuller my coffer.
On Ze: We supply you with more than yo wish, even if you would wish to use it as a pyre.
Phnuoy Mék: Your desire is my obligation, my lord.
On Ze: Don’t do anything behind my back to upset Ngouy.
Phnuoy Mék: Please count on me, my lord. Ngouy is sulking and pouting, but I told him that I am very thankful to him for what he’d done to me since the time I left the khmèr krâhârm to join him in 1977, facilitated my return in early 1979 and until I started to embrace your feet.
On Ze: I deal with him on my own term and time, but just make sure that Ngouy’s people around you do not do foolish thing.
Phnuoy Mék: My lord, I hear your voice.
On Ze: You’ve done a great job in shutting up your people’s mouth against you. The same thing must apply towards me and my gamblers.
Phnuoy Mék: In my previous association with the khmèr krâhârm, I’ve learned how to make them “bak sbaat.” They are still under that spell, and my lord should not worry.
On Ze: I have to leave now; anything else you wish?
Phnuoy Mék: My lord, have you thought about “after me”?
On Ze: Oh yes, I have. You seem to forget that Ngouy had groomed you and you have neglected not to groom anybody for “after you.”
Phnuoy Mék: I do, my lord; any of my 3 sons can be my dauphin.
On Ze: But none of them has had training in my hometown like you had in Ngouy’s hometown. By the way, is there unity among your 3 sons?
Phnuoy Mék: The 2nd and 3rd are not measured up to their brother.
On Ze: Then, send them back to boot camp.
Phnuoy Mék: Please absolve my sin, my lord.
On Ze: You shouldn’t worry about your “after me.” Since the end of the cultural revolution, I am the secretary general number 5. So, change makes changes. You have done enough for me that, “after you”, the spot will not be empty.
Phnuoy Mék: My lord, are my days numbered?
On Ze: I don’t read cards, but my plan includes the ephemerality of the person; nobody lives forever nor is absolutely indispensable in the future. After you go, your land remains … for our use.
Phnuoy Mék: What will happen to my three sons?
On Ze: They can still enjoy the remnant of your wealth … elsewhere.
Phnuoy Mék: Oh no, are you making me the Chéy Chétha of the XXIst century?
On Ze: I don’t make you Chéy Chétha. You make yourself like Chéy Chétha … without knowing it.
Phnuoy Mék: Why didn’t I see it?
On Ze: Your Chéy Chétha was about woman. You are about power and money. All things you have done have consequences that your eye can’t see. Good Bye.

The Complete Loss of Order

26 Sunday Aug 2018

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

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My dear Kacvey,

After the sham election, it looks like the weak strongman is changing the cards deck and sticking his finger out to feel which direction the wind is blowing in order for him to save his dictatorship from a possible and probable shipwreck.

This is how he has been shuffling the new deck of cards: releasing prisoners that his administration and its sycophantic henchmen in the police and judiciary system had arrested, condemned and incarcerated through trumped and bogus charges, and for purely political motives as to silence any critics against his corrupt and repressive policy.

The pregnant vixen named August has been so prolific in delivering cubs, all named Pardon, one after another:
– on 17 August 2018: Kim Sok, a political commentator was released after 18 months in jail;
– on 20 August 2018, Tep Vanny, along with 3 other land rights defenders were released after 2 years in jail;
– on 21 August 2018, Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, two journalists were released on bail;
– on 23 August 2018, Sourn Serey Ratha, the former leader of Khmer Power Party was released after spending more than a year in jail; (N.B. Suorn Serey Ratha was first pardoned in July 2015)
– on 25 August 2018, Um Sam An, an opposition parliamentarian, was released after spending more than 2 years in jail.
– on 27 August 2018, past midnight, Meach Sovannara and 13 other prisoners belonging to the opposition party were released after spending more than 3 years in jail.
(The list will be updated as soon as news on new delivery is provided by the animals hospital.)

Kacvey, this set of successive news on releases and pardons must blow the brain of your students as well as yours as to what has been behind all of these? What is the weak strongman’s next move and what will be future consequences on the overall political landscape of Cambodia?

For now, from the bench of the campus auditorium, let formulate some conjectures or postulates and put them forward to your students for discussions:

Intra-Party pressure
The crooked victory has been the least celebrated in the history of the ruling party: no ovation, no fanfare, no firecrackers, no music, no parade, no joy, no nothing that resembled a pride and well-earned victory. It’s rather like a funerals or dismal and lugubrious mourning, without procession, upon the coffin of the dead body of democracy. They won all the 125 seats, and why are they not happy and elated?

It doesn’t need an Einstein to see through: they won through manipulation, deceit and intimidation, and they OVERDID it. They never feared of losing but they expected massive and public and explosive popular expression of discontentment and rejection. They overplayed their hand, and the people responded with a peaceful, internal, silent and zen-like discontentment and rejection.They felt the atmosphere of public resentment.

Within the close-knit circle of the weak strongman, that public resentment touched sensitive nerves of a few sycophants that still have brain and heart. The relatives of the Dirty Seventeen may ask a very simple question: with such a public resentment, how is the weak strongman going to govern? More repression on “what”, the opposition party being already out of the picture? Well, if the weak strongman has no more “official opposition” to kick around, he will kick those around him around.

Sometimes, sycophants can’t be that stupid all the times.

Kacvey, would you think that this new forum called “Supreme Council of Consultations“(SCC) would make the members of his party happy or be welcomed by them? Who are these 16 scums to check on the power of the ruling party that not only occupies all the 125 seats at the national assembly but also the executive and judiciary branches? The weak strongman by wanting so much to be praised for his corrupt and unpraisable deeds has just ridiculed himself inexorably.

International Pressure
Kacvey, you have already read tons of literature on the reactions of the international community to the sham election, and what they had done and expect to do in the future. We continue to document and update ourselves ceaselessly from Washington, Brussels and Canberra, Northern Capital and Eastern Capital falling off the radar.

What makes the weak strongman so frustrated with the international pressure that dominates the news during the electoral campaign, the sham election and afterward? His entire government runs out of arguments and ideas to counter Washington or Brussels, and there is NOBODY to carry the torch to challenge both capitals; (Oh, there is one, the head of the bodyguard unit who is ready to make war against the US!) he himself, having no personal ability nor skill to sit at the table and articulate and negotiate in person and viva voce.

Moreover, there is one disconnect between the weak strongman and the Dirty Seventeen that surround him in supporting his autocratic power: The international pressure is more strongly felt by the Dirty Seventeen than by the weak strongman himself. The weak strongman keeps on quacking to whom who wants to listen to that he has no fortune stacked in overseas accounts, but things are not the same with the Dirty Seventeen with regards to Australia and the US. If these Dirty Seventeen truly believe in the perennity of the weak strongman, why don’t they leave their fortune in Cambodia along with the weak strongman’s wealth? Why do they stash their fortune in Australia or the US or anywhere else outside Cambodia?

The Dirty Seventeen may ask a simple question: if their name are black listed, what can the weak strongman do to make it “white”? Weak Strongman, you have the floor, like you routinely do in front of the garment workers, before or after the sham election! Dirty Seventeen are waiting!

Oh Kacvey, one more thing. The weak strongman is also planning to sell his crooked victory through sham election to some European governments and the United Nations in New York in September and October (and also Japan, but well, don’t waste our time with Tokyo!) But there seems to be no enthusiasm and heat in preparing these so-called official trips: the feedback from those capitals is that the weak strongman would not to be welcome as a national liberator like Gandhi or Mandela, but would rather be met with snubs and massive demonstrations. [Remember the burning of ទីងមោង in Australia in March 2018!]

World leaders – except those notorious one-party state dictators – know the difference between a democratically elected head of government and a banana state autocrat. What ever speech he will deliver would never be believed, the burden of the sham election being so heavy and already undeniable. Poor speech writer(s), you’ll have such an impossible task, especially when your heart is only 50% with what and whom you work with!

By the same token, would the Dirty Seventeen dare showing their face with the autocratic delegation to visit their relatives attending colleges or to check on their properties in those places?

The devil in a saint cloak
The Sichuan Opera 川剧 is also known as the faces changing art 变脸. In this genre of opera, generally male actors or performers change from one face or mask to another almost instantaneously with the swipe of a fan, a movement of the head, or wave of the hand. With such a frequent visit to China, the weak strongman must certainly have attended that opera.

Kacvey, you may ask what has to do with the weak strongman and his sham election aftermath? Well, it has to do with how he’s managing that aftermath. He’s trying to change the mask of an evil dictator to a saint with a halo! He’s promoting himself as a saint showing mercy, compassion and clemency to the same prisoners that months or years earlier his bodyguards or judiciary goons, on his direct orders, arrested them and threw them in jail for no constitutional or legal rhyme or reason? Now that the sham election is over, and the democratic threat to his regime has already been crushed, he dons a saint cloak and mask to bless his autocratic sins.

A wicked man is capable of everything: one day he’s Satan, the next day a saint, and on and on. A wicked man can fool Tom, Dick or Harry some of the time but he cannot fool them all the time. It’s a fashion now for murderous ex-KR to hide behind religion conversion and to be reborn to cleanse their guilty conscience from the genocidal blood, but the weak strongman needs to attend theology classes if he wants his saint cloak to be believed.

“To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss.”
These two phrases were used by Pol Pot and his ideologues to inflict accusation on the New People that the Khmer Rouge were about to do away with.

As soon as Tep Vanny and three other human rights defenders were released from jail, the kangaroo court of the weak strongman found her and other five members of the community guilty of OTHER crime. It’s not a secret to anybody that the weak strongman has in his sleeves a plethora of accusations against anybody that criticizes him or his repressive and corrupt authority. Cases in point are those of the self-exiled and ex-leader of the opposition and the current opposition leader who has been put in jail since September 2017 without investigations, charges or evidence of any wrongdoing.

The weak strongman exercises his repressive authority like an octopus: one tentacle release one prisoner at a time, others catch others; and once a prisoner is caught, the octopus spews its black ink on him/her that can’t be erased; it tells the prisoner she/he is “marked” for ever. The message from the weak strongman is clear: once a prisoner of him, there is no escape. Any release, through pardon or otherwise, is just a temporary relief. For now, “to keep you [in jail] is no benefit.”

Kacvey, your students might also ask what do these releases and pardons have to do with the crimes that those recently-released have been wrongly and fictitiously accused of? Why have they been subject to double punishment? Beware, the devil in a saint cloak remains a devil till end of its time.

The weak strongman, having put Cambodia during the last 34 years in a state of complete loss of order, has not had a good night sleep since the end of the sham election.

=====
Update:
– on 4 September 2018, UCA News reported: Political analyst flees Cambodia after threats to daughter – Recently released Kim Sok warned by caller to stop criticizing Hun Sen’s government
– on 8 September 2018, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported: Long Beach resident held political prisoner for years in Cambodia safely returns to U.S.

A Poem about KhmerPAC

21 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by KhmerPAC in Culture, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

Wish to share with you this poem written by a visitor, and hope you would, sotto voce, THANK the author if, by any chance, you both meet each other somehow and somewhere.

“ខ្មែរបក្ស” [KHMERPAC]

“ខ្មែរបក្ស”កវីសំដីពីរោះ តើចិត្តពិតស្មោះដូចចិត្ត”សុទ្ធ”ស្មាន
“សុទ្ធ”សឹងស្រែកយំ”សុទ្ធ”ទ្រំាំមិនបាន “សុទ្ធ”សូមរាប់អាន”កវី”យល់ព្រម?

“ខ្មែរបក្ស”កវីថ្វីមិនទាន់ស្គាល់ “សុទ្ធ”សែនកង្វល់ឆ្ងល់មិនគ្រប់ល្មម
ចង់ដឹងចង់យល់”កវី”ខ្លឹមស្រោម? “ខ្មែរបក្ស”ចំណោមចំណែកណាខ្លះ?

“ខ្មែរបក្ស”កវីនិយាយខ្មែរបាន? ដូចខ្មែរគ្រប់ប្រាណឬ”សុទ្ធ”យល់ខុស?
កវីប្រាប់ “សុទ្ធ”ដោយចិត្តស្ម័គ្រស្មោះ កុំតែបង់បោះលះបាត់បំណង!

“សុទ្ធ”អាចនិយាយពីរ(២)ភាសាទៀត សូម”កវី”ឆ្លៀតសំរួលសំរង់
ប្រាប់មក”សុទ្ធ”វិញប្រាប់ដោយត្រង់ៗ ព្រោះតែ “សុទ្ធ”ចង់យល់អ្វី”ខ្មែរបក្ស”?

Dans “Le discours de la méthode”, René Descartes disait: “La poésie est des dons de l’esprit plutôt que des fruits de l’étude.”

The Dirty Dozen + Others

29 Friday Jun 2018

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My dear Kacvey,

Two dates in June 2018 had shaken the confidence and serenity by which the autocrat has been behaving himself amid the institutional and political storm that he voluntarily created since September 2017 to protect his personal and despotic ambition and the economic and financial interests of his tribe in view of the legislative elections scheduled for 29 July 2018.

Bu in the following month, more revelations have come from various news organizations that hit the head of the nail harder and harder.

For our records:

On 12 June 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, in its Press Releases, publicly identified the commander of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Bodyguard Unit (PMBU) for being the leader of an entity involved in serious human rights abuse.
On 27 June 2018, Human Rights Watch, in a scathing and unsparing 213-page report, publicly and nominally identified 12 generals in the security forces who form the backbone of an abusive and authoritarian political regime who are responsible for serious and systematic human rights violations in Cambodia.
On 13 July 2018, Al Jazeera aired a YouTube by @AJ101East⁩ and ⁦@jolleyma⁩ identifying a corrupt official in the tax department.
On 20 July 2018, Global Witness identified four senators “who profits from the death of Cambodia’s democracy.”
On 23 July 2018, in an article titled “Paradise Papers Tie Cambodian Army Chief’s Wife to Tropical Tax Heaven,” The Irrawaddy identified the wife of one of the Dirty Dozen as reported in the Panama papers.

Keeping track of numbers with new total: The Dirty Seventeen [Dirty 17].

When truth speaks, its voice is louder than the thunder and carries beyond the horizon.

So far, the autocrat has not made any official comments yet, his barking dogs doing the dirty work for him in lieu of his silence. Let him brew his reactions in his own heart and mind, but whatever he feels his autocratic machinery will certainly have no ability to rebut the issues point by point, line by line, or item by item. The revelation is like a sharp arrow piercing the heart of the wolf to bleed in its loneliness.

Kacvey, there must be some children or relatives of the “Dirty Dozen + Others” among your law school students. How would they hold up their face in front of their friends and peers whose parents are law-abiding, honest and accountable? The burden that corrupt fathers impugn on their children’s shoulders is so heavy and the shame that those children have to endure in years to come is so devastating that even history could not save them.

Ask Lon Nol’s or Pol Pot’s children!

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!

Greeting the Chaul Chnam Khmer, Year of the Dog

13 Friday Apr 2018

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My dear Kacvey,

The Year of the Rooster ended dramatically for Cambodia, and what a long list of outstanding and disastrous items that the Rooster has to hand over to the Dog:
– democracy was murdered;
– constitution was trampled and rule of law massacred;
– freedom was shackled;
– opposition was not only outlawed but annihilated;
– opponents were ruthlessly and arbitrarily threatened, accused, arrested, jailed or forced to exile;
– press, radio stations and NGOs were forced to close;
– corruption was aggressively multiplied;
– nepotism reached a level higher than the Everest;
– leadership irresponsibility and unaccountability was exponentially accrued;
– Kg Som, one among many other places, has become a Chinese town for mainland Chinese gamblers;
– debts towards Vietnam, China and Japan became epidemically rampant;
– 1991 Paris Peace Accords were thrashed, and
– the ex-KR has crowned himself the sole and uncontested autocrat by putting all state institutions in his hands or under his feet.

Nevertheless, there was one particular moment when the Rooster shared the joy of the people who, at the June 2017 commune elections, voted heavily in favor of change and to reject the old order of the ex-KR autocracy. Unfortunately, it was a short-lived joy and hope as the autocrat, sensing the wave of popular rejection and dislike of his corrupt regime, reverted to old political playbook of neo-Stalinism that is associated with terror and totalitarian rule.

Farewell Rooster, and Thanks for being there!

Welcome Chnam Thméy, the Year of the Dog, and if, as traditional saying goes, dog is indeed a man’s best friend, the questions for the next 365 days would then be:
– whose best friend the Dog will be? the Khmer people or the ex-KR autocrat?
– would the Dog be a leashed one to protect the corrupt villa or would it be a K9 helping to sniff out drug, firearm or explosive at the airport?
– would the Dog be a stray or vagabond dog that is infested with vermin, roaming the garbage fields and could be savagely caught for ugly gastronomy purposes?
– would the Dog be the one that could be a serious contender to win the National Dog Show? or
– would the Dog be a puppy fed with Purina or a bitch living off human excrement?

Whatever breed the Dog will turn to be, Cambodia warmly welcomes you as we are bound to live together during your 1-year stint. Contemporaneously and in unison, we will work to change Cambodia to be a truly democratic state where rule of law and respect of human rights and freedom are paramount.

My dear Kacvey, may the good spirit of the Chnam Châr be the bright lodestar guiding your endeavor throughout.

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