ភាគីវៀតណាម ស្នើជាថ្មីដល់ភាគីកម្ពុជា ឱ្យយកចិត្តទុកដាក់ជួយជនជាតិវៀតណាម ដែល...

Seeds of expansion and colonisation

by School of Vice

Unless Vietnam is a democratic state, give the Vietnamese an inch and they will demand a mile. Vietnamese scholars and historians often liken Vietnam's territorial expansion - 'namtien' or southward movement - to an ink on a blotting paper. How long such a process takes is far less of an issue for Vietnam's strategists; their overriding concern is to plant the seeds of that expansion through subtler schemes and diplomacy such as populating key strategic areas within foreign domains, arranging intermarriages with ruling elite of those domains [the Chinese compare this to effectively 'cutting off your enemy's right arm', and the Vietnamese have done exactly that to the ruling courts of Champa and Cambodia], infiltrating the enemy's camp with spies and agents who would often be recruited from generations born and raised entirely on foreign lands; and more importantly, making sure the first waves of primary settlers on these foreign lands have the necessary practical means or support networks available to them regardless of their current circumstances of locations of abode, be they exist on water in the Tonle Sap on boats, on dry land in the rubber plantations or vendors and hairdressers in urban cities and towns.

They themselves in their current socio-economic state and, while attempting to put down their long-term roots in their host country, may not look much [and many a foreign observer and journalist cannot fail to acknowledge this 'precarious' state and cite it in their defence and sympathy: "...but these ethnic Vietnamese are poor and just trying to eke out a living.."] or play any visible active role for the Vietnamese state for the time being, but there is no doubt that through their mere physical presence there they are already laying down roots and planting seeds for their new generations to emerge forth as formidable branches and colonialists that will make inroads into all spheres and arteries of their parent’s adopted country. In fact, these new generations of colonisers and pioneers are already well established here in Cambodian society, government agencies and businesses while new comers and arrivals can only add to their numbers and reinforce their ranks further, replaying and repeating the same settlement process of the previous waves of settlers.

This is why Vietnam's leaders never fail to instruct and remind their satellite administration in Phnom Penh to look after their own kind in Cambodia [including offering instructions in Vietnamese within prestigious educational institutions and schools and awarding legal citizenships etc.] on their regular visits to the country even as they openly abuse the ethnic Khmers in the Mekong Delta or South Vietnam.

^^^