សម្ថកិច្ចនឹងចាប់ខ្លួនលោក សម រង្ស៊ី ប្រសិនបើចូលស្រុក

Editorial by Manekseka Sangkum:


Politicians sometimes "fight" or "compete" in a democracy. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and should even be encouraged if such contests are [and often can be] conducive to public good. In any case, the electorate will be the people to pass their judgement on their serving politicians or leaders.

But, the most important provision or premise for this kind of engagement is that there exists a fair, equitable and 'level-playing field' for the fight to take place on. Neither the Opposition nor Mr Sam Rainsy can be blamed in any meaningful manner for most of the national issues confronting the nation today such as mass exodus of Cambodian migrants seeking work abroad and the influx of Vietnamese settlers into the space left behind by those migrants; a development that threatens to reduce the native population into a minority unless this is stopped or reversed soon. That responsibility falls solely upon the ruling regime who permits [and actively facilitates] these demographic movements.

It is far too simplistic to imply that this and other similair social issues are all some how attributable to Cambodian leaders' and politicians' constant infighting and quarrels, as noted by many a local social observer and 'analyst', particularly, between personalities leading the two main political parties. There were those brave and conscientious critics who appeared far more circumspect and careful with their words such as Kem Ley and others who nevertheless perished under the watch of this regime.

In fact, it is not so much "loose cannons" [or in Khmer, "mouths with no lids"] that are the CPP's most feared adversaries, but rather what some of us would consider as Truth that this regime wants and seeks to suppress and silence. Thus, whether that Truth is spoken by a well-liked, soft-spoken critic like Ley or one as outspoken as Rainsy, this represents the same threat to the regime; a threat it has shown consistently that it is not willing to live with or tolerate.

The habit of putting politicians/leaders all in the same bracket irrespective of their real-life circumstances, political privileges and duties etc. maybe convenient and expedient for those anxious to project a position of independence and neutrality in their proffered comments and criticisms, but this tendency does nothing to open the public's eye to the issues in question, and even less, the underlying forces shaping them. Apart from the threat posed by colonial Vietnamese settlement, there are equally grave and concerning developments such as the mass ELCs, sand-dredging and deforestation, along with the numerous obstacles deliberately placed in the way of democratic progress generally that speak volumes of the regime's [and Hun Sen's] unquestioned and nationally self-destructive complicity, volition and culpability.

It does not need an analyst, an opposition politician or an appointed expert [and certainly not this humble writer] to remind Mr Hun Sen that what he has been doing is detrimental and contrary to the paramount interests of the Khmer people and their nation. And since all of this is obvious to even one as dim-witted as him in such matters, it is then for all of us to draw our conclusions as to why he persists in going about things this way?