Photo: Svay Rieng Girls - with Srey Meas, the heroine who was imprisoned because she protested with Sam Rainsy against illegal border posts placed by Vietnam one hectare into her rice fields in Svay Rieng (Photo: Chak Ang Re Loeu, Aug. 2013).

January 7 and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

January 11, 2012

By Theary Seng

Letter to The Phnom Penh Post

Dear Editor,

January 7 is indeed a significant day for survivors of the Khmer Rouge. It arrested the macabre convulsions that would have swallowed all of us into a hellish hole if the Vietnamese military had not intervened.

It is a bittersweet day of commemoration through invasion.

And now, unfortunately, it is a day propagandised to be solely the Day of Liberation, neatly sweeping away the equally important fact of it being simultaneously the inaugurating day of an occupation that would last for the next decade.

That occupation began with the barricading of Phnom Penh to facilitate the plundering of its wealth by convoys of trucks heading to Vietnam and the mass crimes of the K5 plan.

My hairdresser remembers returning from Battambang to his home in Boeung Keng Kang I on February 3, 1979, only to find that all the wealthy neighbourhoods of villas and jewellery stores were still barricaded off.

It was an occupation cut short only by the meltdown of the Cold War – specifically, the break-up of the Soviet Union, which funded the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia.

The rewriting of history in this manner by the current regime is fraught with danger for the longevity of Cambodian stability and peace.

Cycles of past grievances that touch on national identity and humiliation run deep in any society, and no less in Cambodia. Think of the Khmers Kampuchea Krom and their current suffering and struggles. Think of the underpinnings for the bloodletting in the former Yugoslavia.

It’s not only on January 7 that the regime is revising history to fit its narrow political agenda. The political interference in the Khmer Rouge tribunal speaks to the same dangers.

This regime never wanted the KRT, but once it was inevitable and the regime was confident of its control over the mechanisms of the process, it did everything to achieve and protect its twin goals: to go down in history as the government that put the Khmer Rouge on trial and, concurrently, to erase its own Khmer Rouge history and crimes.

With the United Nations’ stamp of approval, the CPP regime is achieving exactly that.

No counterbalancing, competing narratives are permitted or have the resources and official, institutional dissemination systems to match it.

Thus, January 7 is paradoxical for Cambodians who are simultaneously survivors of the Khmer Rouge, survivors of the K5 plan under the Vietnamese occupation, and continuing survivors of a regime that desperately needs to whitewash its history of the Khmer Rouge and has indebted political ties to Vietnam – a dangerous liaison, in light of the two countries’ historical enmity over territorial annexation.

Stated differently, January 7 is a paradoxical and conflicting date for us who are Cambodian victims of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodian victims of the Vietnamese occupation and Cambodian victims of a regime with unhealthy political and historical ties to both the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese military.

January 7 initially made us deliriously grateful, then wearily suspicious. That is the tension.

...

Why Cambodia has cosied up to China

The Economist | 21 January 2017

[Excerpts]

To Cambodia’s west is Thailand, which has more than four times as many people; the two countries have a dormant but unsettled border dispute. To the east is Vietnam, nearly six times as populous, which invaded Cambodia in 1979 and occupied it for ten years. So Cambodia has done what small countries always do: it has found a protector....

But there are also two strategic benefits. First, Cambodia uses China as a counterweight to Vietnam. Among ordinary Cambodians, anti-Vietnamese sentiment runs deep. Many bitterly recall the Vietnamese occupation and some demand the return of “Kampuchea Krom”—the delta of the Mekong river, which today is part of Vietnam, but is home to many ethnic Cambodians and was for centuries part of the Khmer Empire. Since Vietnam harboured Mr Hun Sen, the opposition depicts him as a Vietnamese puppet. Closeness to China helps to defuse such claims.

Cambodia also uses China as a hedge against the West.

...

Ringing in the new year

with family and friends

in California, 2017

...

Humanizing Jesus

Peter Wehner / New York Times | 23 Dec. 2016

[excerpts]

According to the Christian Scriptures, Jesus had a life story — born in a manger in Bethlehem, later moving to Nazareth, and dying in his 30s, just outside Jerusalem. The fact that we’re so familiar with the story has inured us to just how jarring and unexpected it was. God came to earth “not in a raging whirlwind nor in a devouring fire,” in the words of Philip Yancey, author of “The Jesus I Never Knew,” but in humility, without power or wealth, in a world marked by strife and terror.

Jesus spent his infancy in Egypt as a refugee, Mr. Yancey points out, and the circumstances of his birth raised the specter of scandal. His life, then, was a profoundly human one, involving work and rest, friendships and betrayals, delight and sorrow. This has deep implications for how Christians should understand and approach life.

...

Family Album, Nov. / Dec. 2016

California

Los Angeles - by Jasper De Jesus, 27 Dec. 2016

Hiking in the Santa Monica mountains

I had a boss who made the interesting observation that only Indians (South Asians) can pull off with aplomb mixing red and green and not turn into a Christmas ornament. A truism I should have heeded. - Nov. 2016

High Roller, Las Vegas, Nov. 2016

Emma, Josh, Micah after Josh's choir performance after church

Mila Dara Seng, Dec. 2016

Alice in Wonderland room (no photo shop)

The Chill at the Queen Mary

Mila Dara Seng with her mom, grandparents

Family, Christmas 2016

Rose Hills on Christmas Day, the family tradition to pay our respect to Grandma, Grandpa

Abraham's birthday at Donny's (Irvine, Dec. 2016)

Cousins, Dec. 2016

Sabrina, Theary, Visal (the best dumplings ever! at Din Tai Fung, South Coast Plaza, CA, Dec. 2016)

Cerritos Civic Center and library, a walking distance from house I grew up i during junior, high school

Heidi, Theary, Visal (Huntington Beach, Dec. 2016)

Sept. 2015

Missing my Lady Delilah, Jezebel

Dec. 2016

Delilah probably thinking I've abandoned her (Kirirom, Nov. 2016)

...

Democracy Square, Aug. 2013

...

Sam Rainsy:

Cambodia's Statesman and Nietzsche's Will to Power

ប្រវត្តិរូប លោក សម រង្សីុ

Sam Rainsy's CV

Sam Rainsy is Cambodia's rare, honorable, dignified STATESMAN through and through in a swamp of crocodiles and snakes with unbridled ambition and greed!

See Sam Rainsy's Unique Role (my commentary).

- Theary, 8 Dec. 2016

Labels and titles

សម រង្ស៊ី / Sam Rainsy

តំណែង មិនសំខាន់ទេ។ អ្វី ដែលសំខាន់ គឺ ភាពទៀងត្រង់ និងភាព ថ្លៃថ្នូរ របស់យើង ម្នាក់ៗ។

ខ្ញុំ សុខចិត្តធ្វើ អ្វីៗ ទាំងអស់ ឲ្យតែ ប្រទេសជាតិយើងបាននៅគង់វង្ស, ហើយ ឈានទៅរក ភាពរុងរឿង។

គេ បណ្តេញខ្ញុំ ពីរដ្ឋសភា, គេ ដកអភ័យឯកសិទ្ធិ, គេកាត់ទោស ឲ្យជាប់ពន្ធនាគារ, គេ ចេញដីកា ចាប់ខ្លួន, គេ ហាមឃាត់ និងរារាំង មិន ឲ្យវិលត្រឡប់ មកប្រទេសកំណើត វិញ, គេ បកស្រាយរដ្ឋធម្មនុញ្ញ និងបទបញ្ជា ផ្ទៃក្នុង រដ្ឋសភា តាមតែ អំពើចិត្ត របស់គេ។ តែ ខ្ញុំ សម រង្ស៊ី នៅតែ សម រង្ស៊ី ដដែល, ហើយ ភាពស្មោះត្រង់ របស់ខ្ញុំ ចំពោះ ប្រជារាស្ត្រខ្មែរ នៅតែ ស្មោះត្រង់ ជានិច្ច រហូតដល់ដង្ហើម ចុងក្រោយ របស់ខ្ញុំ។

Labels and titles are not important. What is important is one's integrity and dignity. I gladly accept everything if I can help rescue our country and make it prosperous.

They chased me from the National Assembly; they lifted my parliamentary immunity; they sentenced me to prison terms; they issued an arrest warrant against me; they exiled me and blocked all possibilities for me to come back to my native country; they misinterpreted the Constitution and the National Assembly's rules any way they want. But I remain true to myself and will remain faithful to my motherland until the end of my life.

...

សម រង្ស៊ី / Sam Rainsy: ចុះឈ្មោះ បោះឆ្នោត | Registered as voters

In recent weeks, I've come to know a family -- single mother with two young children and her brothers and sisters who are migrant workers from Battambang where their aged parents tend to someone's else land to this day. The single mother and her siblings have all had stints working legally and illegally in Thailand. During one of her work forays across the border into Thailand, the single mother left her daughter, barely a toddler, behind with her parents. One time her father found his granddaughter sucking on the nipples of their dog for milk, desperate was the baby girl for nutrients and maternal comfort.

- Theary, 17 Nov. 2016

...

Betsy DeVos

...

Repository of Ideas Reaches 1M

...

What a difference a day makes! From a one-hour meticulous Kirirom manicure/pedicure costing a total $1.25 (one US dollar and twenty-five cents) to a suite in a Balinese resort. "Examining the Rights Impact of the ASEAN Economic Community"

...

False Grand Narrative of Racism

The Vietnamization of Kampuchea:

A New Model of Colonialism

Indochina Report (October 1984)

Orwell’s “1984” and Trump’s America

New Yorker | 27 January 2017

[excerpt]

And so, rereading Orwell, one is reminded of what Orwell got right about this kind of brute authoritarianism—and that was essentially that it rests on lies told so often, and so repeatedly, that fighting the lie becomes not simply more dangerous but more exhausting than repeating it. Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.

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