បណ្ឌិត សេង សារី គាំទ្រការផ្តួចផ្តើមដោះស្រាយវិបត្តិភូមាដើម្បីបញ្ចប់ការសម្...

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Can a rotten tree bear wholesome fruits? 

Editorial by Khmer Circle:

Mr Seng Sary is losing both his bearings [head] and credibility as an analyst here trying to project Hun Sen as the dialogue-maker-negotiator extraordinaire and architect of peace and reconciliation.

Why does he think that Hun Sen has nothing to gain from trying to save Myanmar's [a fellow pariah state] Asean membership and continued participation in the bloc? What makes he think Beijing isn't behind Hun Sen's impending visit in some way [remember what he did over the South China Sea dispute the last time Hun Sen's Cambodia was chair of Asean?]; a man it holds in its pocket? What about the timing of the visit itself which means Hun Sen missing the most important date in his own ruling CPP's calendar - January 7th?

More shocking is lauding the role he [Hun Sen] and Sihanouk played in the negotiations and concessions that ended the armed conflict in Cambodia along with the eventual demise of the KR without achieving or guaranteeing the most important sought outcome of all: the country's national sovereignty which is being trampled upon left, right and centre.

On the other hand, there were a number of contingent factors that also led to the various Cambodian warring factions being forced onto the negotiating table such as the collapse of the Soviet economy in the 1980’s that gave way to the ending of Vietnamese military occupation of Cambodia in September 1989 owing to Moscow’s termination of funding for that costly military presence in the country; China’s decision also to end her material support for the KR faction as well as diplomatic pressure from Asean and Western governments on Hanoi to withdraw its troops and on the Cambodian factions themselves to reach a settlement. In brief, it was for the Cambodian protagonists a forced marriage of convenience born of expedience and imposed necessity in unforeseen circumstances rather than anything to do with timely wisdom of any of the factions gathering at the table at the time; something that's being invoked misleadingly to make sense of Hun Sen's trip to Myanmar.

What's happening in Myanmar is nothing short of tragic for that country's people, but it takes a leap in imagination to argue that Hun Sen whose leadership is marred by gross human rights abuse of his own is the person or the key to bring an end to that tragedy. He has in fact been prepared and resorted to killing innocents in his own backyard in order to keep himself in power, and the only reason why civilians have not been shot, maimed and murdered in similairly large numbers as have been witnessed in Myanmar is because - up to now - anti-junta regime protest movement in Cambodia has yet to gain traction and momentum in the streets on a like scale to Myanmar's.

Asean was also initially looking to solve the Myanmar crisis by way of asking the junta to hold a general re-election which would have validated the February military coup and rendered void the overwhelming democratic mandate already delivered to the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The subsequent protests against this move by the people of Myanmar appear to have put paid to that initial intention.

Moreover, this method of steamrolling on people’s will and democratic mandate is strikingly – nay, depressingly - familiar to Cambodia’s Hun Sen [or Hun Sen's Cambodia] who is no stranger to using violent, judicial coups to dismantle stronger oppositions standing in his way.

This is the man and statesman some are now expecting to solve the tragic situation in Myanmar and bring her desperate people peace and normality? You bet.

The reason why the people of Myanmar are putting their lives and limbs at risk is simply because they know only too well the alternative to not standing up to the junta: the prospect of generations more to come living in fear and an infinite future with no end to repression by the state in sight; a situation that Hun Sen himself has achieved for the Khmer people?   

We believe even the average peasant in Myanmar could see through Hun Sen's charade.