A Change of Guard

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Wednesday 20 May 2015

Interview Between RFI Vs Va Kim Hong



School of Vice: Mr Va Kim Hong sounds almost like his "Samdach Decho" in his feigned ignorance of border issues facing Khmer farmers: 'I have not been informed of any such matters by the local authorities, apart from what I learned through the press'! He once snapped at an Opposition politician over the same sort of questions raised for his explanations [I believe it was MP Son Chhay] by pointing out that, unlike him [Chhay], he [Va Kim Hong] is not a 'politician', implying that his questioner was only concerned with making political capital out of these otherwise nationally sensitive issues. Here again, Kim Hong insists that there aren't any underlying concerns over the farmers' lands [and Cambodia's sovereignty] being lost and violated.

The method used to resolve common border disagreements is quite straightforward: areas currently occupied or tilled by Khmer people, but claimed by Vietnam will be left alone as they stand to enable those locals to go on using the lands, but that Cambodia will have to compensate Vietnam by giving her land [not so contested by Khmer farmers] in other areas along the border! Excellent job, Mr Kim Hong; except that the lands occupied by Khmer farmers and the lands given over to Vietnam in compensation both fall within Cambodia's sovereignty, and that's the main reason why these locals are working the lands in the first place. They don't need border experts to tell them where their ancestral farm, the local forest or pagoda are: these things are already ingrained in their collective memory and instinct. Even their cows and buffaloes seem to know these places without relying on the press or social media to keep them informed - yes, quite unlike you and your Samdaach? 

And if this "zig-zag" method could spare conflict and loss of local livelihood, then why had so many villagers and families been forcefully evicted off their lands and villages in the last 30 plus years? What was the reason for which those two Svay Rieng villagers were convicted and sentenced to a lengthy prison term, if their crime had nothing to do with trying to protect their land by pulling out the six wooden border stakes planted in the middle of their rice field?

Finally, let me point out [politely] that you, Va Kim Hong, is not only engaged in 'politics', but are [just like all your colleagues serving this CPP setup] very much - by virtue of the political nature of your appointment - fulfilling and facilitating the worst kind of politics. This is so because the administration of which you form a part is completely unaccountable to third parties, and this includes the work you and your demarcation team have been doing in behalf of the Khmer people. On the other hand, if what you are doing [and have been doing] is just and proper, then there seems to be no reason to fear from 'opening up' the full methodology and procedures of your work to public debate or to the scrutiny of an invited neutral-independent panel? And if all this is pronounced satisfactory by such a body, what is there left to fear from those malicious critics and opportunists seeking to "flare up" further confusion and publicity? Or is there something more than meets the eye that you and your Samdaach would rather keep out of the register of public scrutiny and knowledge? 

By failing to meet this simple expectation thus far, the entire border demarcation process itself can be said to lack clarity and, thus credibility, which in turn implies lack of equity, which further, owing to the seriousness of the subject matter at hand, equates an act of national Treason - which in most nations and national laws would be treated very seriously; at some foreseeable opportune stage.            

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