A Change of Guard

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Sunday 6 July 2014

Sihanouk on Vietnamese infiltration


CFA: ព្រះបន្ទូលរបស់ព្រះមហាវីរៈក្សត្រខ្មែរ ព្រះបាទសម្តេចព្រះ នរោត្តម សីហនុ ព្រះអង្គរំឭកឲ្យខ្មែរភ័យខ្លាចចំពោះយួន ដែលចូលមករស់នៅលើទឹកដីខ្មែរ ។ សូមឲ្យកួនខ្មែរទាំងអស់ក្រោកឡើងដើម្បីការ ពារទឹកដីខ្មែរយើង ។

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Khmerization, can you please post this article for the readers to enjoy. This finding by Shawn McHal says a lot about the Khmer status as a protectorate of France and France's obligation to Cambodai, and it also connected to the Khmer sovereignty of Koh Tral and Kampchea Krom. Please highlight the treaty signed with France by the Nguyen dynasty renouncing claims to the Mekong Delta Region.

Shawn McHale
The Journal of Asian Studies / Volume 72 / Issue 02 / May 2013, pp 367 - 390
DOI: 10.1017/S0021911813000016, Published online: 19 March 2013
Ethnicity, Violence, and Khmer-Vietnamese Relations:
The Signicance of the Lower Mekong Delta, 1757–1954
"This complicated history drives home the simple point that
Khmer, whether in Cambodia or in the lower Mekong Delta, were still challenging Vietnamese
claims to the delta in the 1860s.
The arrival of the French, however, radically transformed the contest. The French
declared Cochinchina a directly ruled colony, and the Nguyễn dynasty signed a treaty
ceding this region to France. All Vietnamese sovereignty claims over the area were rendered
null and void. In contrast, France declared Cambodia a protectorate in 1863. In
theory if not in fact, France accepted the Cambodian monarchy’s claim to sovereignty
over Cambodia proper. Left unsettled until 1949 was the resolution of Cambodian sovereignty claims over parts of the lower Mekong Delta.
http://www2.gwu.edu/~sigur/assets/docs/publications/journals/McHale_2013_Ethnic%20Violence.pdf

Anonymous said...

និយាយបានល្អ ប៉ុន្តែទីបំផុតចាញ់បោកឆ្កែហ៊ុនសែន

Anonymous said...

Sihanouk was a bad and evil leader that only concern of his very own power but not the fate of the people that worship him.

Anonymous said...

Part I contintued to Part 2
Khmerization or other administrator(s) can you please add this article of mine to the your front page. There are 10 paragraphs. Thank you so much.
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A Khmer reader’s View of the Vietnamese view regarding the territory of Khmer Kampuchea Krom
July 6, 2014
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As one of the curious readers who wants to be updated on the new developments in Cambodia, I encountered unexpectedly about a piece of news picked up and reported by the Phnom Penh Post (13 June 2014) and also by the Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Khmer Service (25 June, 2014).
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Speaking in pretty good Khmer during an interview on RFA’s Khmer Serivce, Trung Van Thong, a spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh said that the Khmer Krom people’s assertion that the 1949 was the year France ceded the territory of Kampuchea Krom to Vietnam was false and with no evidence because the Kampuchea Krom territory was already part of Vietnam before the year1858.
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Fortunately, in The Journal of Asian Studies, Volume 72, Issue 2, May 2013, pp. 367-390, there is an essay entitled “Ethnicity, Violence, and Khmer-Vietnamese Relations: The Significance of the Lower Mekong Delta, 1757-1954” by Professor Shawn McHale. Since the years 1858 and 1949 fall within the range of 1757 and 1954, I want to show the general readers about the findings of Professor Shawn McHale’s scholarly research.
****************
Professor Shawn McHale wrote, “[My] essay goes outside of what is now Cambodia to examine the contest for the lower Mekong Delta (in today’s Vietnam) from the mid-1700s to the 1860s. This contest has shaped ethnic relations as well as Cambodian and Vietnamese views on sovereignty. Second, it argues that the creation of a new “superspace” of French Indochina (1887–1945) preempted conflicts over sovereignty and territory from breaking out. This large entity, which joined all five pays (countries) of Tonkin (North), Annam (Central), Cochinchina (South), Laos, and Cambodia, was a non-national space with ambiguous borders. It offered some protection for Khmer, in that French rule prevented Vietnamese from encroaching on Cambodian sovereignty. When France ceded Cochinchina to the new state of Vietnam in 1949, it attempted to resolve a territorial dispute in favor of the Vietnamese. This botched “resolution” has inflamed Khmer-Vietnamese relations up to the present.”

Anonymous said...

Part 2 continues to part 3
I don’t know about you, but to me, according to Professor Shawn McHale, France did in fact yielded Cochinchina or [the territory of Kampuchea Krom] to the new state of Vietnam in 1949. Therefore, the Khmer Krom people spoke the truth, while Trung Van Thong, a spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh knew not what he was talking about. Victory score goes to the Khmer Krom people.
************
Moving on to the year 1858 that Trung Van Thong of the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia claimed that “Vietnam” already “controlled” the Kampuchea Krom territory and thus Kampuchea Krom territory was part of “Vietnam”. If you choose to read Professor Shawn McHale’s findings below, you will learn that the Mekong Delta Region or Kampuchea Krom was never part of this country called “Vietnam” in 1858. Professor Shawn McHale clearly described “Vietnam” as “the new state of Vietnam in 1949”. So Trung Van Thong’s assertion that Kampuchea Krom was part of “Vietnam” before 1858 is false. In his essay, Professor McHale also pointed out the false assumptions that Modern Vietnamese historians made: One is the year 1757 that Cambodia hypothetically yield sovereignty over the Mekong Delta Region because the Cambodian monarchs “ceded” the provinces of Preah Trapeang and Khleang, and another is the assumption that the lower Mekong Delta naturally formed part of the emerging Vietnamese nation. The year 1757 was not when the fate of Kampuchea Krom changed direction at all. The Khmer challenged Vietnamese rule over parts of the delta well into the nineteenth century and have continued until today. There are expansive confirmations in the Vietnamese records after 1757 that talk about the Khmer resistance to the Vietnamese and also the Khmer autonomy in the Mekong Delta Region. The Khmer inhabiting the various provinces of the Mekong Delta still kept their national leaders and recognized the authority of their own kings. They did not submit to the power of the Annamite mandarins.
*************
According to Professor McHale, a Cambodian challenger to the throne in 1757, traded away rights (not territories) to govern outermost peoples and regions that barely had Vietnamese. In addition, in 1904, Étienne Aymonier wrote that the Vietnamese first constantly entered upon the Khmer territories, “which did not ratify any formal act”, then forced the Khmer contender to “cede” the two provinces to them. So this means that the Khmer contender to the throne did not give away any territories in the Mekong Delta Region to the Vietnamese. Again, Professor McHale stresses that “the simple point [is] that Khmer, whether in Cambodia or in the lower Mekong Delta, were still challenging Vietnamese claims to the delta in the 1860s.” In addition, he wrote that “the Nguyễn dynasty signed a treaty ceding this region to France. Thus, all Vietnamese sovereignty claims over the area were rendered null and void. In contrast, France declared Cambodia a protectorate in 1863. In theory if not in fact, France accepted the Cambodian monarchy’s claim to sovereignty over Cambodia proper. Left unsettled until 1949 was the resolution of Cambodian sovereignty claims over parts of the lower Mekong Delta.”
***********
Again for emphasis, it is false on the part of Trung Van Thong to say that Kampuchea Krom was part of “Vietnam” before 1858. Evidence shows that since 1757 all the way up to 1860’s, the Khmer in the Mekong Delta Region still waged war against the Vietnamese invaders. In addition, the Vietnamese Nguyen rulers signed a treaty with the French, giving up the sovereignty claims over the Mekong Delta. In case someone wants to zero in on the term “sovereignty” just for an argument, Thailand also signed a treaty with France renouncing their sovereignty claims over parts of Cambodia. This means that while the neighboring encroachers could lay claims over parts of Cambodia, it does not mean that they had the control over the Khmer territories.
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Anonymous said...

Part 3 of 3 end.
Regarding the present Vietnamese historians’ second false assumption, professor McHale wrote that the lower Mekong Delta did not naturally form part of the developing Vietnamese nation. He described the delta as once was without the Vietnameseness in characteristic. He continued to say that the hundreds of thousands Khmer Krom of the region lived scattered in villages, and they were having an interest with Cambodia, not “Saigon”. He added that the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the French immigrants poured into the delta created a major demographic shift and fundamental social and ecological changes that destroyed the Khmer Krom’s independence and isolation. According to Professor McHale, it was the French Indochina’s “non-national space with ambiguous borders” or “superspace” that prevented the final Vietnamese effort to claim the lower Mekong Delta for an emerging Vietnamese nation. As a result of this, “superspace”, the Khmer Krom were able to “keep alive their claim to the same territory while establishing stronger ties with Cambodia.” The French were successful in putting on hold the “contest for the Mekong Delta” between the Khmer and Vietnamese from 1862 to 1945. So Trung Van Thong, a spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh, better learn this fact that the Vietnamese did not completely rule over the vast territories of the Kampuchea Krom region and the smaller parts that the Vietnamese tried to rule over the Khmer continued to challenge them. The French sources repeatedly warned that under French rule, a potential enmity that never had a chance to show itself existed between Khmer and Vietnamese.
*************

In 1945, the Japanese replaced the French, and started granting independence to the peoples of French Indochina. In that same year, King Sihanouk of Cambodia claimed that Cochinchina belonged to Cambodia. Unfortunately for the proud, unyielding Khmer Krom people and Cambodia’s protest, the French ceded Cochinchina in favor of the Vietnamese to the newly created state of Vietnam in 1949. In the words of Professor McHale, “This botched “resolution” has inflamed Khmer-Vietnamese relations up to the present.” Also, since there was no colonial decision on the Khmer island of Koh Tral, Cambodia’s people still lay claim of sovereignty over the island until now.
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Reference sources:
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May, Titthara (2014) “Khmer Krom want apology”. http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/khmer-krom-want-apology Retrieved on July 6, 2014.
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McHale, Shawn (2013), “Ethnicity, Violence, and Khmer-Vietnamese Relations: The Signicance of the Lower Mekong Delta, 1757–1954”. The Journal of Asian Studies / Volume 72 / Issue 02 / May 2013, pp 367 - 390
http://www2.gwu.edu/~sigur/assets/docs/publications/journals/McHale_2013_Ethnic%20Violence.pdf Retrieved on July 6, 2014.
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Yieng, Sojeametta (2014), “Vietnamese Embassy Official asserts that no apology will be offered to the demand of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Association”.
http://www.rfa.org/khmer/news/social-economy/Vietnamese-official-wont-apologize-Khmer-Krom-06252014083351.html