LES 6
COMMANDEMENTS		 COURRI@L    2004 THE 6
COMMANDMENTS


Re: KEM SOKHA - THE BUILD-UP OF DEMOCRACY
JUNE 1st, 2004

Baphuon : Kem Sokha invited some close friends to his residence to discuss politics, and I was there by hazard. Inevitably, the questions were focusing on Vietnamese policy to swallow Cambodia, on FUNCIPEC and on SRP. The leading guest painted a black overwhelming situation of Cambodia. Sokha listened calmly. Then, with a smile, he said that the solution is the people power. We should create the people power.
As everyone of us knew well enough already about the problems that Cambodia encountered, I don't want to waste any time to scrutinize these problems anymore, said I. What is important for me is : What would we do to solve these problems? What is our action plan? We cannot be just wining and waiting for our Big Daddy or the US or the EU to solve these problems for us?

Sokha told us about his meeting with State Department under-secretary of State and the US Senate leadership, especially Bill Frist, the Senate Majority leader, Tom Dashle the Senate Minority leader, Ted Steven, Chairman Pro Tempore and Chairman of the powerful Appropriation committee. Bill Frist wrote a letter to support Sokha. Sokha explained to US officials that his main goal was 1) to build democracy in Cambodia and 2) to reach that goal we ought to create the people power.
To convince myself, I asked Sokha : Did you have a plan as how to build democracy in Cambodia? How to make democracy happen in Cambodia? I assure him that it is not a naïve question. I would like to make sure that Sokha understands all the nuances. If not, Sokha would appear too naïve before the Senate and Congress scrutiny. I told him "You know, the US tried to build democracy in Iraq, and the US knew from the first hand how difficult it is. The US had spent hundreds of billion dollars and assured the security and law enforcement by eight divisions of the first Army in the World to build democracy in Iraq, and they did not succeed yet. It takes time. Democracy cannot be built overnight. (...)
Sokha told the senators and congressmen that to build democracy, the following five building blocks of democracy were absolutely necessary : 1) the creation of independent security force, 2) creation of an independent justice, 3) land reform, that is, distribute land to landless families, 4) free market economy and 5) rebuild Cambodia infrastructure and irrigation dams and irrigation network. To build successfully these five building blocks of democracy, we ought to build the people power. Sokha knew very well his lesson.
For my part in that discussion, I liked to play the troublemaker. I asked Sokha : Suppose that a hurricane of force 7 hit Cambodia, the Hun Sen government and the CPP as in Central Europe were flushed away, and suppose that the only politician survivors were, according to certain US prevision, Sokha and Rainsy. What would be your plan to run Cambodia? For example, how would you do to avoid the lawlessness of the kind of Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein? Certainly you need a non-partisan security force to assure security, law and order? You will need maybe an army of 200,000 soldiers to maintain law and order. Did you know how to build a security force? Did you know how to build an army?
Neither Hun Sen nor Sihanouk did know how to build a strong security force. They were unable to build a strong army. Are you sure that you are better than King Sihanouk or Hun Sen at building a strong armed force? (...) My point was to make Sokha feel the difficulty of the problem we faced. Sokha was humble to admit to me that the problem is very difficult. He promised me to study the problem more deeply. With patience and with an open mind and a democratic approach we can for sure solve the above problem. (...)

N.P. : Your questions to Kem Sokha sont très pertinentes. I wish only to point out that Sihanouk never wanted a strong Cambodian army : he feared eventual coup d'Etat like in Thailand. He was jealous of his power : see the failure of all Democratic party governments while he was king, and his one-man-show in the Sangkum era. He never trusted professional officers formed at E.M.K. and appointed to chief of staff a civilian accostumed to kneeling down : Lon Nol. Sihanouk was ace of comedy : Chivapol and Neary Klahan with wooden rifles. After the independence and up to 1968, our army was parading with MAS 36 and Garant M1. I think that for a poor country like ours, building a strong and effective army leans on the occasion. Sihanouk, after 1954, have had one but did not take it : joining SEATO like Thailand. Later our politicians had two occasions but turned them into catastrophies : the Lon Nol Republic and its corrupt generals, the murderous Khmer Rouge.

Now, for our survival as a nation, we must fight by all means : by words, by scripts, by demonstrations, by dreams, even by paranoia, .... Either by hatred or by love, we must fight !  << Se battre c'est vivre, ne pas se battre c'est mourir >> , Vandy Kaonn, dans Cambodge : La nuit sera longue, Éditions Apsara, Montréal, Canada.
 

Who cause the Lost of Khmer Territories ?
JUNE 2nd, 2004

Anthony Ly : Please see attachment in KHMER (ABN-126 in .pdf)

N.P. : Here are two other 100% Khmer leaders meant by Ar Chaur Pheaq Roy in Long Beach : ....
Unfortunately there are still many 100% Khmer followers reconnaissables par leurs coutumes 100% khmers : kneeling down!



LES SIX
COMMANDEMENTS		 REFORMING
OUR BUDDHISM		 ROMAN
POLITIQUE		 DIEU vs
BOUDDHA		 GRAMMAR
Introduction		 COURRI@L 2004
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PEN Nearovi, Montréal, Québec, Canada
(nearovi@sympatico.ca)