Flyover fallout

phnompenhpost

THURSDAY, 27 MAY 2010 15:04

By: SOVAN PHILONG

A boy

A boy peers out from behind a gate on Wednesday near a road that is scheduled to be cleared to make way for a flyover connecting the controversial Boeung Kak lake development with Street 169. The flyover could displace more than 50 families who said they believed they would be unaffected by the massive real estate project.

City nixes Khmer Krom ceremony

phnompenhpost

THURSDAY, 27 MAY 2010 15:03

By: MEAS SOKCHEA

CITY officials have rejected a proposal for a June 4 public ceremony marking the 61st anniversary of a French colonial ruling that

Photo by: Tracey Shelton Monks attend a ceremony last year marking the 60th anniversary of a ruling that ceded territory to Vietnam. City Hall has rejected a proposal for a similar ceremony organisers are planning for next month.

formally ceded former Cambodian territories in the Mekong Delta to southern Vietnam, according to a letter dated May 21.

Khmer Krom advocacy groups had planned to hold the ceremony in the park outside Wat Botum, with organisers expecting to attract up to 5,000 people, including 2,000 monks.

The letter, signed by Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema, states that the organisers should send a new proposal to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, and suggests that they hold the ceremony at Chaktomuk Conference Hall in order to maintain “security and good public order”.

Thach Setha, executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community, which is organising the event, said he has already contacted Minister of Culture Him Chhem, who told him that the Chaktomuk facility is closed for renovations.

He said that he sent another letter to Kep Chuktema on Wednesday, again seeking permission to hold the ceremony. He added that the event had already been organised and would go ahead whether or not City Hall gives its official blessing.

“We cannot miss this because the King has sent his representative to participate in the ceremony. So we must hold the ceremony as planned,” he said.

Kep Chuktema could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, while Koet Chhe, deputy chief of the Municipal Cabinet, declined to comment, saying he had not seen Thach Setha’s follow-up letter to the governor.

A guide to the perfect Thai idiot

Entitled  ”A guide to the perfect Thai idiot” the author is trying to reflect Thailand´s moral crisis and mentality  similar to that of ” A guide to the perfect Latin Amrican idiot, 1996.” Please read the key excerpt below in order to understand the Thais. You can also read the whole article HERE.

Ask Thais about the causes of last week’s shameful event – or of any problems in Thailand for that matter – and they will readily point the finger somewhere else, never at themselves.

I am a Thai so I am part of this well-practiced response. But I now believe that if we continue with this long-running charade of self-deception, Thailand is on its way to becoming a failed State shortly.

We present Thailand as the land of smiles full of gentle Buddhists. We regularly give alms to monks and often make donations to temples, believing that those are selfless acts for the welfare of others.

Deep down, however, we do that only because we wish to get something in return – to go to heaven or have a. richer next life. It is a trade, pure and simple,  nothing kind, orselfless about it .

Few of us give for the sake of giving. We are basically very selfish.

Every time we go to the temple or attend a Buddhist ceremony, we duly accept and recite the Five Precepts as a guide to our daily lives, but we leave them there, as we always make promises without ever intending to keep them.

Actually, we understand little about Buddhism.

Even among the ranks of the monks, most do not know the teachings in-depth and lead their lives accordingly – all they know is how to conduct ceremonies from which they earn easy income.

This reflects something deeper – we are generally lazy and like to take short-cuts to the sabai (do-nothing) state. Lottery tickets, therefore, always sell out at premium prices; prostitution is rampant and young women readily marry foreign pensioners.

We love to talk, but rarely listen. Even when we do, we often fail to hear, as we never learn to think critically.

We can not put up with different points of view nor can we work cooperatively.

Many of the over 30,000 Buddhist temples were built next to one another because when we disagreed with one, we just built another.

That the cooperative movement has never been successful here is another Indication of our inability to tolerate different points of view.

We readily forgive, so we believe, as our most common utterance is Mai Pen Rai (it. doesn’t matter) when someone makes a mistake. But that is only a reflection of the culture of indifference and ready rationalization .

We can always cite a well-known proverb, a famous poem or a sage’s sharp utterance to justify everything we do.

We complain so much about corruption. But we do little about it.

Worse, we keep electing the same corrupt politicians because they have money and influence from which we hope to benefit.

Survey after survey shows that the majority of us do not mind corruption as long as we get something out of it.

One of the surveys last year showed that almost 85% of us believed that cheating was a normal business practice, making us practically a nation of thieves.

When I raised the matter in this column, I received the angriest responses from fellow Thais, using colourful expressions so that they should not be printed within earshot of nor uttered. Other humans.

This long-running created self-deception has so much moral deficit, to employ Joseph Stiglitz’s terminology, that Thailand has put into a state of crisis moral for some time now. Some of the symptoms of this State are the economic crisis of 1997th and the protests culminating in last week’s events.

Of course, we will never admit this, for we are perfect and will continue to be very angry when a foreigner utters something non-complementary about us.

NOTE:  We Cambodians are always correct about them, ex. Thailand always point its finger at Cambodia or uses Cambodia as its scapegoat for its bad deed and disgrace. However, it seems to reflect the Cambodian mentality as well if we are to refer to corruption, political toleration, and Buddhism practice.

Getting closer: Hun Xen and Abhishit

Copied From: The Son Of the Khmer Empire

To justify this please read Charles Keyes´s opinion, op-ed in Bangkok Post to criticize the impossibility of Abhishit govt’s reconciliation plan. Read the key excerpt below:

A second factor that must be taken into account if there is really to be progress along the path to reconciliation, is the deep split in society along a combination of class and ethno-regional lines…

Negative images, especially of northeasterners, have been used often in films and TV dramas. In the past few years, people of these regions have been branded over and over again by commentators on ASTV, the television network of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), in many Bangkok newspapers, and in hundreds of blogs and Facebook pages as being stupid “buffaloes” and even more vulgar characterisations. Somehow those who generate such media depictions seem to believe that “villagers” are uninformed, and unaware of these characterisations.

On the contrary, they are very much aware of them, and this constant denigration has become one of the primary drivers of the conflict.

The Abhisit government has worked assiduously, although not always successfully, to shut down community radio stations and the websites which promote a red shirt perspective, arguing that such outlets have stirred up violence and hatred. At the same time, it has done nothing about controlling the hate-mongering that takes place on ASTV and in other media. Such is not only directed against the red shirts, but also against Malay Muslims in southern Thailand and Khmer in northeastern Thailand as well as in Cambodia.

Although the government cannot and should not attempt to control the content of the media, it can demonstrate even-handedness by prosecuting clear instances of incitement on both sides. It can also increase social sanctions against hate-mongering by supporting independent, quality media, boycotting media outlets on both sides that continuously spread divisions between Thais, and being more careful to avoid inflammatory language (such as casual use of the word “terrorist”) in official pronouncements.

NOTE: It is impossible for Thailand under Abhisit to carry out its reconciliation plan while its propaganda to paint the red shirt and Thaksin as terrorists and the use of the double standard to treat them are being practiced. Obviously, it took only a few days after the crackdown on the red  for arrest warrant charges against Thaksin, but it is almost  two years now still under investigation process to bring a terrorist charge against PAD who invaded airports and the govt houses 2008.

Actually, Hun Xen and Abhishit do hate each other to the bone arrogantly fueled by their different generation leaderships and background, but they have a common characteristics in leading the countries, ie., brutal, arrogant, stubborn, and biased (double standard). These two leaders have no respect for their citizens as a whole except for their group and cronies. With all these, they are now getting to close to each other in term of their leadership.

For instance in Cambodia; the assassinations of  country´s top and much loved actress Piseth Pilika (6 July 1999), venerable Sam Bunthoeurn ( 6 Feb 2003), senior advisor to Funcinpec leader Norodom Ranariddh Om Radsady (18 Feb 2003), FTUWKC’s president Mr. Chea Vichea (22 Jan 2004),  FTUWKC’ s official of Trinongal Komara garment factory Mr. Ros Sovannaret (7 May 2004), famous popular singer Touch Sreinich (21 October 2003) ), another famous singer Pao Panhapech(23 Feb 2007), FTUWKC’ s affiliates at SunTex garment factory union president, Hy Vuthy(24 Feb 2007), the acid attack on Tat Marina (9 Dec 1999), and the opposition journalists, which so far no criminal or suspect is arrested and brought to trial even some of the case the criminals are known like the cases of Chear Vichea, Tat Marina and Piseth Pilika.

In contrast, the cases will be carried out at a quick sweep if they are seen against the opposition or the poor Cambodians, except the CPP´s members,  like the cases of bomb attack at Cambodian-Viet monument, bomb planting in front of Ministry of National Defense, the charge against Hang Chakra, Mrs Sam Meas, MP Sam Rainsy, and MP Mu Sochau. They just took a few days or  weeks only. Pls observe as well that most of the charges mentioned above the the victims become the accused and vice-versa.

So to achieve the reconciliation plan in Thailand and justice, democracy and human rights respect in Cambodia , Abhishit and Hun Xen must stop their  double standard politics towards their oppositions and the poor citizens of both countries.