Monday, July 28, 2008

Sacravatoons no 1078 : " I'm Khmer "

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

ANGGOLIMALA ( ANGGOLYMAY ),said :
You are un vrai Artiste Bun Heang,
More than 1 millions real Khmer don't have right to vote,but I know than more than 2 millions YOUN come to vote in Cambodia,on 23.O7.O8 ?
That is the story of KHMER ANGGOLYMAY of HUN SEN RAJ.
saravan Koun Khmer at Srok Baran.

Anonymous said...

excuse me, but i am not cambodian or vietnamese but i have been following this blog for quite some time. I still cannot understand what is XMER? and how do you pronounce it?

Anonymous said...

Cambodian People -----> Khmer-People
The Illegal Viet-Immigrant--> Xmer
It pronouces Sha-Mer,Shmer ---> Xmer

Anonymous said...

IT IS A FREE AND FAIR ELECTION.

No one force them to vote for CPP, they made their own stupid choice, so they deserve to live:

Under corruption,
Without justice and equal opportunity
they deserve the get hit by a new lexus and receive some little money if they got killed during this accident.
They deserve worse than these

Anonymous said...

The article attached below is an analysis of the election results, which, I'm sure, resonates among people who understand the true meaning of democracy. You may find some of his comments offesive, but one must dig down under the surface and see what this writer is saying.

Concerned...
______________________
The Helpless People: What Cambodians Owe Their Nation and Heroes
Cambodians once again made shameful decisions on the 2008 general elections that will
potentially lead to the end of Cambodian history and sovereignty
By: A. Christopher Windsor
London, 28th July, 2008
It was a shame when I read a news article about Cambodian general elections in 2008 and found
out that the majority of Cambodians (who were able to vote) voted for a dictator once again. The
difference that Cambodian voters made in the recent elections was that they provided almost
two-third of the parliamentary seats to the corrupt and unpatriotic party, namely CPP.
What do these results show us? Simply, the more you educate them, the more irrational they
become. One should never blame the lack of education for such destructive results of the 2008
elections. Recently, we have seen the improvement in education of human rights and democracy
principles. For example, the public forums and human rights trainings conducted by Cambodian
Center for Human Rights (CCHR) and other organisations have been tremendously effective and
have increased the understanding of human rights and democracy in Cambodia.
In addition to that, the outreach of internet has also helped Cambodians living in the city to better
understand the outside world and see where the world has been up to. Globalization, on its
positive side, has also provided more information to urban Cambodians about the other
countries’ economies and living standards, compared to which the Cambodian living standard is
way below. These are all the advantages that urban Cambodians, namely Phnom Penh residents,
have to exploit to make better decisions. Unexpectedly, these people with higher education and
better understanding of the outside world made the worst decisions compared to other people
across the country. As shown in the unofficial results, CPP has gained more supports in Phnom
Penh, the capital of Cambodia—where we would expect better outcomes.
Now let me ask, do you think that the lack of education really played a role in these destructive
results? To me, it is obvious that the poor, uneducated countryside voters have stood up for and
demanded democracy and change in their homeland more than do the educated Phnom Penh
voters. It is also difficult to blame the uneducated for the fact that some of their votes were
bought. After all, they are poor and they have the reason to sell their votes for money only to
feed their family for one day and ignore the fact that their country will be forever in the dark
future. But Phnom Penh voters cannot use the same excuse for the fact that they gave the
opportunity to CPP to destroy their homeland.
Who to blame?
Yes, the elections were not transparent. Some votes were bought. Some voters were threatened.
And, according to recent news reports, some voters’ names were removed from the lists,
resulting in an unusually low turnout. However, I would like you to pay attention to the number
of votes that CPP received. Do you think CPP could get these many votes only by frauds? I do
not think so. It is true that frauds existed in these elections, but without frauds, do you think the
opposition parties, namely HRP and SRP, could together win these elections? I do not think so.
CPP would have won the majority seats but probably not as many.
Why do I think so? There are a lot of irrational voters out there who would always ruin the
efforts of democracy lovers to pull this nation out of the current darkness. These voters tend to be
those who live in the urban areas. They have better living standards and tend to forget that their
living standards would be much higher if their country were developed. They have the option to
migrate to another country when Cambodia is totally ruined. This group of Cambodian citizens
also has acceptable levels of education. With these levels of education—which are not too low
but not very high either—these people believe that they are so educated and that therefore they
need not to listen to anyone. These people tend to believe that there is nothing beyond their
knowledge. What is so sad is that their knowledge is so low.
The followings are what these people believe and why they are wrong:
• Cambodia just got out of a huge civil war and it takes time for this country to recover.
Why they are wrong: It has been almost 30 years—long enough for any economy to
recover if its government is really working. Let us take Japan as an example. The
country suffered from the destructive World War II, which was way more destructive
than any civil wars Cambodia has ever suffered from. From the 1960s to the 1980s, not
too long from the end of WWII, the overall of the Japanese real economic growth has
been called a miracle. It did not take Japan longer 30 years to recover its economy and
become the world’s second biggest economy. We do not have that high expectation for
Cambodia, but at least this nation should have shown some real improvement.
• Cambodia has a growth rate of 11%; does it not mean Hun Sen government is doing a
good job? Why they are wrong: Yes, CPP is doing a good job in bringing money to its
elites’ pockets. Yes, the growth rate is 11%, but the inflation rate has already hit 18%.
What does this mean? Wake up, Cambodians. This means you are poorer. Even if you
make twice as much as you did before, but if goods and services are three times more
expensive, it means you are poorer. I am also sure that the 11% growth is distributed
only among rich CPP members while the 18% inflation affects all Cambodians,
including those who voted for CPP.
• "I'm voting for a different reason this time – my choice is for a government that can
protect Preah Vihear temple," 76 year-old Hok Hour in Phnom Penh's Chamkarmon
district quoted in a Phnom Penh Post article. The old man, with not much brain, voted
for CPP as he thought this party will protect the temple. Why they are wrong: First, let
me ask, how could such an old person with life experience be so brainless? Can you not
see that the Preah Vihear issue was a trick Hun Sen played to get votes from such
brainless voters? You want a government that can protect Preah Vihear temple but not
the Cambodia-Vietnam boarder? What would you do with Preah Vihear temple if the
land you were living in was taken away from you? A democratic government would be
able to protect not only Preah Vihear temple but all of Cambodian territory.
• CPP has built roads, bridges and schools. Why they are wrong: If Cambodia had a better
government, the number of roads, bridges and schools built would go up by not twice
but 10 times at least. Cambodia accepts a large amount of foreign aid and money from
loans. In the case of foreign aid, Cambodian citizens do not have to worry about paying
back. In the case loans, however, they all have to pay back. So, watch out, Cambodians!
Most of this money does not go to development, but it instead goes to the pockets of
CPP members. While the benefits Cambodians receive from such loans are very
minimal, they will have to pay back these loans in full amount—plus interest rates in
some cases.
By making such shameful decisions, what do these voters owe their nation and hero?
What Cambodians owe their nation
Because of the lack of both social and economic development, Cambodia is potentially
heading to the end of its history. As citizens, Cambodians have the legal and moral
obligations to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, as shown in the recent election
results, most Cambodians chose not to. Instead, Cambodians chose to indirectly destroy the
land that gave life to them. If anything bad happens to Cambodia in the future, we are to
blame no one, but Cambodians.
The Vietnamese’s fault? The Thais’ fault? No. It is all Cambodians’ fault. The Vietnamese
and the Thais are not smart, but Cambodians are brainless. Cambodia is the only original
nation of the Golden Land that is strong enough to survive from its neighbors’ invasions.
This nation protected itself from losing its sovereignty so that the current generation of
Cambodia could live in its homeland peacefully. Unfortunately, the current Cambodians do
not take into account the good this nation has offered them.
Only one day before I wrote this paper, Cambodians chose to take a convenient way to the
destruction of their nation. They chose to ignore the great values their nation has always
offered them. Surprisingly, these Buddhist Cambodians chose not to pay back what they
owed their nation. Such an act is against Buddhist philosophy, which believes that you
should always pay back what you owe. But who cares?—when the nation is destroyed, its
religion will also be destroyed. Cambodians only took a shortcut to such destruction.
What Cambodians owe their heroes
The spirits of patriotic kings, such as Jayavarman II and Jayavarman VII, deserve an
explanation from Cambodians who voted for CPP. These kings sacrificed their lives and
their happiness to build a nation known as the Khmer Empire, the greatest power in South
East Asia from the early 12th century to the early 13th century. If we look at the current
situation of Cambodia, their lives have been sacrificed for nothing. I am sure that when
these kings gave their lives to serve this nation, they did not know that their people would
one day give this nation to the hands of an unpatriotic leader, such as Hun Sen.
When the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, the Khmer Republic troops fought until the
last drops of their blood to prevent communism from spreading into this historic capital city.
The spirits of these troops also deserve an explanation from CPP voters. These troops
fought against not only the Khmer Rouge but also the communist Vietnam. Today, their
children and grandchildren have forgotten all of their efforts. This current generate has
already given the power to a pro-Vietnamese government.
The worst is that this current generation has also ignored the recent hero who was
imprisoned not too long ago. I need not to mention his name as we should all know who he
is. This human rights activist decided not to leave his nation and Cambodians behind. He
sacrificed his own wellbeing to protect freedom of speech for Cambodian citizens. And sure
enough, these people have already forgotten him and his patriotic act. Someone told me that
if you do not forget your people they will never forget you. This is apparently wrong in the
case of Cambodian CCP voters.
How many people have been killed by the current government? Did they already forget
monks and protestors who were attacked and killed by the government force in 1998? Did
they not remember the FUNCINPEC troops who were killed during the 1997 coup? Some
reporters and the former Labour Union leader Chea Vichea were killed, leaving sorrow for
their families and friends. What did these people sacrifice for? It was all of Cambodians,
wasn’t it? Is that how Cambodians pay them back, by voting for the person who killed these
heroes?
What do CPP voters owe these people?
Their lives.
To those who voted for CPP: You owe your nation and heroes. And you owe them big.
Cambodians who voted for CPP are betrayers. They betrayed not only their nation and
heroes, but also themselves. They will have to pay back and we will see this when the
corrupt government takes their land away, cuts down trees and ruins the whole economy.
My last words: Who am I to tell you all of these? Well, I am no one. I am only a British
economist who happens to have been to Cambodia many times (Cambodia is like my
second home). I have once fallen in love with this country and its culture. Please excuse my
language and any mistakes I might have made in this paper as I wrote it out of anger and
disappointment.

Anonymous said...

Saravan Koun Khmer said:
My wife said,in cambodia,the PPC give on Saron and 1OOOO riels to a cambodian,so they will vote for them. And people said : If PPC won the election,they are eating so many year,they will not need to eat(corruption)again,they will make good for the country.