by Moeun Chhean Nariddh

Once upon a time during the French colonial rule more than 100 years ago, it is said that two outlawed families were on the run after being hunted down by the French for a crime the husbands had committed in Kampot town.

 They ended up at a remote mountain on the edge of Kampot province, where elephants, tigers and other wild animals were still roaming around in the dense forests. As time went by, more people settled in the area and paved the way for the creation of a village near the foot of the mountain.

 More than a century later, the village became a refuge inhabited by a new group of outlaws –Khmer Rouge fighters – until they were integrated into the society in 1997.

 Though farming life after integration was hard, the villagers said they had enough food to eat and were not worried about their future.

 However, things started to change four years ago when the government granted an Economic Land Concession to a company to develop the area – now known as Preay Peay, or Vanishing Forests, village in Trapaing Klaing commune, Chouk district.

 As forests disappeared, so did tigers, elephants and other wild animals. Now the villagers say the farms are also disappearing to development.

 Under a wooden house, the villagers are discussing the impact of the development and how to fight for their land back .

 “Have they bulldozed your papaya field?” asks Soeun Srey Aun, 27, who has just arrived with a baby on her hip.

 “That’s what I am worried about,” replies Svay Chreb, 44. “Now, Uncle Khorn’s farm has all been bulldozed.”

 Pregnant and apparently malnourished, Svay Chreb is expecting a baby soon and is facing a grim future like her neighbors.

 They will either go hungry or have to migrate to another place to look for work, suggests Srey Aun.

 “But, we don’t know where to go,” Svay Chreb explains fearfully .

 “We only know how to farm and not how to do business like people at the market,” Srey Aun responds.

 “Then, we will surely die,” Svay Chreb concludes, sighing deeply.

 What makes their fight more difficult is that their solidarity has been broken. Like what has happened elsewhere, the villagers believe that the authorities have used a common strategy to “subjugate one person to intimidate others”  in dealing with land disputes.

 When land disputes broke out with World Tristar Entertainment (Cambodia) Co., Ltd. in 2006, villagers protested. Their five representatives summoned by the court were told to give their thumbprints and promise to stop protesting or face arrest.

 The five men surrendered and did what the court ordered. 

 After the former activists became inactive, the rest of the villagers chose new representatives. But, the new representatives don’t have much hope either.

 “Now I only have 20 to 30 percent of hope left, and this hope is running out,” laments 30-year-old Seth Channa, the new, most active representative.

 She says the villagers seem to have lost their confidence “because of threats and outsiders demoralizing their spirits.”

Going up on land, there are tigers”

 Homeless children run away from poverty only to try to survive

the urban Big Brother’s exploitation

by Tum Chita, Kiss Magazine

            When a 13-year old teenage boy called Kea deserted his mother and relatives in Prasith village, north of Phnom Penh, to live in the city as a homeless beggar, he hoped that he would free himself from his rural poverty, but he was absolutely wrong.

            Life as a homeless boy in the city not only does not relieve him of poverty, but also causes him to confront exploitation from big Brothers and use of drugs.

            However, Kea is not the only homeless boy who has to confront the problem of big brothers and drugs doing.

            Mrs. Mob Somaya, program officer of the Mith Samlanh organization, said that there were from 10,000 to 20,000 homeless children living on the streets in Phnom Penh. She said her organization had worked with 15,00 to 2,000 homeless children who had run away from droughts, floods and starvation in the rural areas such as Kea and other homeless children in Phnom Penh.

            Mrs. Somaya went on to say that these children lived freely without anyone controlling them. She further said these homeless children made a living in different ways. Some earned money by guarding cars outside hotels, selling newspapers and flowers, scavenging garbage or even by selling their own blood, sex and committing theft, which she thought they would be vulnerable to contracting AIDS and doing drugs.

            Mrs. Somaya explained that these children would do anything just to survive and they did not care about their health for money. Worse still, most homeless children like Kea have often been bullied by the big Brother gangs.

            Kea said he and many other homeless children had been threatened by big Brothers to earn money for them and to do drugs. He complained: “Because I am afraid of being bullied by those big Brothers, I have to give the money I have begged to them to buy glue to sniff and sometimes they also threaten me to sniff the glue with them.”

            Kea said after sniffing glue, he often sat on his buttocks with the knees folded close to the chest and the arms clasped around the knees and looked at the other side of the river, thinking about his life, which could be compared to the current of water flowing aimlessly. He said he did not know what his life would turn out to be in the future.

            Like most homeless children, Kea does not go to school or receive any type of training. Kea said hopelessly: “I am illiterate. I also want to learn like other children, but I am poor.”

            Like Kea, another boy went by the name of Phat, aged 14, ran away from his poor family in Kien Svay district, Kandal province, to live as an homeless boy in Phnom Penh. He could earn from 4,000 to 5,000 riel by trapping birds for sale in front of the royal palace. Not different from Kea and other homeless children, he was sometimes bullied by big Brothers who took his money to buy glue or drugs.

            Phat said: “I’m forced to do drugs for fear that they bully me.” Phat said he also wanted to go to school like other children, but he could not do that and that he did not know what his future would look like.

            As for another 13-year old teenage girl called Srey Mao, she left her family in Stung Treng province to come to live in Phnom Penh. She could earn from 2,000 to 3,000 riel a day by begging or taking care of people’s shoes. She was not different from other children as she was sometimes threatened by drugs doers to give her money to them to buy glue to sniff and she was sometimes forced to sniff glue with them as well. She said she also wanted to go to school like other children, but she could not do it and did not know what she would be in the future.

            Related to the human trafficking, Mrs. Somaly Mam, director general of Afesip in Cambodia, said the Afesip organization in Cambodia helped victims from human trafficking by legal means at the municipal and provincial courts and helped them search for lawyers to defend their cases at the law court, follow up the victims’ complaints and helped the victims answer questions at the court, especially Afesip has a group of investigators to search for victims of the human trafficking all over the country through information directly given by the victims who had run away from brothels or other places or through people living in different circles. The investigation group has been sent to various provinces and towns to get information on the trafficking of women and children and to send report to the legal section to lodge complaints to the Department of Anti-Human Trafficking and Minors Protection of the Ministry of Interior.

            Concerning this human trafficking issue, His Excellency Brigadier General Ten Borany, deputy chief of the anti-human trafficking and minors protection department, said that human trafficking had been conducted in many forms such as in the form of labor exploitation by employing people to work on fishing boats, at various construction sites or at various factories either without wages or with low wages. Mr. Brigadier General further said some of the Khmer workers who worked on fishing boats due to being cheated had been tortured to death.

            Mr. San Sophal, director of the Phnom Penh Social Affairs, Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation Department, said that saving homeless people was the duty of his department, which had so far obtained considerable success.

            Mr. the director stressed that a lot of homeless children had been freed from drugs doing or begging and some of them had been sent to live at centers and to receive training in different skills from the partner organizations, but he complained that some civil organizations had criticized all these saving activities as human rights violation.

            However, due to the limited fund of the Phnom Penh Municipal Department of Social Affairs, Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation, Kea and other homeless children still might continue living on the streets and be subject to exploitation and threat from those big Brothers.

By Chea Kimsan and Chin Sopheak

             Under the heat from the sun in a vast paddy field, Reaksmei and her younger sister, Somaly, wearing red and white scarves around their heads and holding sickles in their hands, are harvesting rice, sweating profusely, behind their house in Leak Anloung village, Rolaing Chak commune, Somraong Torng district, Kompong Speu province. But they do not complain about this tiring work if compared to the hard work they used to do during their childhood.

            Sixteen-year-old Reaksmei, whose complexion is as slightly dark yellow as her younger sister, said she and her younger sister had been sent to work as child servants for many years by her mother during which she and her younger sister had also been tortured. Reaksmei said she had 6 brothers and sisters, but she and her younger sister were not lucky to warmly live with their parents, grandparents and other brothers and sisters as her mother sent her and her younger sister to work as child servants successively.

            Reaksmei further said that one day in the early 2007, her mother in connivance with one of her relatives who was a persuader had sent her to work in a house of wealthy people at Deum Kor market in Phnom Penh, thus prompting her to drop out of school at a time when she was studying grade 3 at Vor Sar primary school which is situated in another village next to the village she is living in.

            Reaksmei further said that, at that time, her mother did not tell her how much she had received and how many years she had had to serve the house owner and that her mother had only told her to live with the owner and her mother would sometimes come to visit her.

            Like other children who worked as child servants, Reaksmei said she had been forced to do all kinds of housework such as cleaning the house, washing clothes, cooking rice and taking care of children from the morning till night and seven days a week without rest.

            Because of being unable to endure such hardships, Reaksmei was often tortured and insulted almost everyday since the first day she was hired.

            Reaksmei shed tears and sadly said: “The house owner pulled out my hair, slapped me on the face and hit my head with a broom … I shouted for help, but no one dared to help me!”

            In late 2007, an unfortunate thing happened to Reaksmei‘s family. Her father in the native village died of a mysterious disease. More sorrowfully still, Reaksmei said her house owner had not allowed her to go to attend her father’s funeral.

            Following her father’s death, the situation in the family became worse and worse while the debts gradually increased and Reasmei’s mother could not find any better solutions.

            In early 2008, Reasmei said her house owner moved to live at the Phsa Dei Hoy market and there was more housework to do because the other two helpers stopped working in that family. Knowing that, her mother intended to send her younger sister called Somaly, who was then living with other three younger brothers.

            Less than a week after her father’s death, Reasmei said that her mother brought her younger sister and said: “I need money to pay the debts. Now, you don’t have your father to work to support the family.”

            It was that time that Reasmei realized that her mother and the persuader had sold her and her younger sister for 1,700 US dollars and they had made a contract with thumbprints to get the money.

            After becoming a domestic servant like her elder sister, Somaly, who was just 12 years old at that time, had to live a new life that was even harder than getting hired to transplant rice seedlings.

            Somaly said with a sad look that she was at first determined to work hard and tried to be patient with the house owner’s blame and insults as she pitied her mother and her poor family. She said she hoped that when her mother saved enough money, she would come to take her and her elder sister back home. Unfortunately, what she thought was absolutely wrong.

            Somaly said that since her mother had sent her to work there for then 8 months, she had never seen her mother to go to visit her at a time when she was sustaining both mental and physical suffering due to frequent blame and insults and more severe punishment inflicted upon her and her elder sister by the house owner.

            Somaly further said during her work as a domestic servant, she had been beaten by the house owner by bumping her head against the wall, causing a bump on her head and her nose to bleed because they had accused her of stealing their money.

            She said she did not hope that her mother would come to take her back home. From then on, she persuaded her elder sister to secretly go back home, but her elder sister told her that they could not do that easily because she had tried to run away many times, but failed and she was tortured even more severely.

            However, Somaly still harbored the idea of running away due to being unable to live such a life as slave any longer.

            One day, a good opportunity arrived. The owner of the house took the entire family to hospital and it was when the two sisters had just got their joint “salary” of 10 US dollars from the house owner last evening.

            Somaly said that at about 6 o’clock in the morning, as soon as the house owner and the entire family had left the house for hospital, she and her elder sister snuck out through the back door and took a motor taxi toward Chaom Chao intersection. After paying 16,000 riel (about $4), they got on a taxi to go home by paying another 10,000 riel.

            After their one hour and a half travel which was fraught with fear and pleasure, Reasmei and Somaly arrived in their native village in Kompong Speu province.

            But, Somaly said that she and her elder sister did not dare to go to their house for fear that the house owner could find them and their mother would send them back. She said she and her elder sister had decided to go to the house of their grandparents to stay with them temporarily and they had told their grandparents about what had happened.

            Once their grandparents knew everything, they said that they felf very sad due to pitying their grandchildren. Without delay, the grandfather of Reasmei and Somaly said that he had gone to inform the communal authorities and asked them to help seek a solution and one day later, the communal authorities in co-operation with the local human rights officials came to conduct investigation and research.

            Mr. Aom SamAng, chief of Leak Anloung village, said among 107 families living in the village, many of them made their living as domestic helpers.

            However, the village chief said only Reasmei and Somaly had been sent to work as child servants by their mother in return for money.

            Mr. the village chief further said that this family was the poorest family in the village and also in continuous debts because the money they earned from being hired to transplant rice was just enough to fill their daily stomach no matter how hard they worked.

            Worse still, Mr. the village chief said that this family was surrounded by some kinds of illnesses which forced them to borrow other people’s money to pay for medical treatment, which caused their debts to be accrued, including the interest.

            Mr. Sam Ang stated the reason why the mother of Reasmei and Somaly had done that was probably because she had been in stalemate.

            There has not yet been any specific study about the real number of children working as child servants. Some studies were conducted only at big businesses and the houses where those children worked are private places.

            A report released by the US Ministry of Social Work in September 2009 noticed that there were four kinds of businesses using child labor such as brick kilns, shrimp farms, salt farms and rubber plantations.

            A study in 2007 jointly conducted by the human rights organization (Licado) and World Vision Fund estimated that there were about 21,000 children working in Phnom Penh, Kg. Cham, Battambang and Siem Reap. But, the real figures about the number of children could many times be higher than the above-said number.

            According to another joint study conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and the International Labor Organization in 2003, nearly 28,000 children are working in Phnom Penh alone.

            According to a study conducted by IOM, about 51 per cent of the sex workers are former children who worked as child servants.

            Mr. Som Sokung, lawyer of the human rights defenders group in Cambodia, said it was illegal to trade children’s labor and to separate them from their families to work as child servants, which made them lose all their four rights such as the right to life, the right to participate, the right to develop and the right to receive protection.   

            Mr. Sokung further said such a human trafficking was one of the serious social problems which the government and the entire society had to jointly prevent and solve so that this problem would not fall into a more serious situation.

            But, before an effective solution could be found, maybe Reasmei and Somaly could not receive justice for the suffering they had sustained while many other children have still been tortured as child servants.

            Until now, Reasmei, Somaly and her brothers still live a lonely life because their mother has escaped. Some villagers said that their mother had escaped for fear that she would be arrested by the authorities and some said that their mother had eloped with her new husband when the persuader is living indifferently in the village as though she did not know about anything.

-Original report appeared in Reasmei Kampuchea, Tuesday, 12 January, 2010, Page A7

Around 2,800 Cambodian Women Married to Taiwanese

Denied Taiwanese Citizenship

By Yim Kimse and Chea Kimsan

——

 More than 10 years ago, Samnang decided to free herself from being hired to transplant rice seedlings and harvest rice under the burning sun in Sdao commune, Kang Meas district, Kompong Cham province, in the hope that she would enjoy a better life when a matchmaker persuaded her to marry a Taiwanese man who they had told her was a wealthy man.

Samnang hoped that after the marriage, she would get some money to support her aged parents after she had gone to live in Taiwan. However, all her hopes were dashed when she eventually became the one who earned money to support her husband’s family in Taiwan.

However, Samnang is not the only Khmer girl who has turned out to be victims due to her cross-border marriage with the Taiwanese or Korean men.

According to many researches conducted so far, the Khmer girls who had married the Taiwanese or Korean men have been exploited and trafficked.

Prime Minister Hun Sen reacted in March 2008 that: “Previously, they cheated children to come to work in the city and they became victims. Now, there is another kind of cheating through getting marriage and then go to live abroad.”

Samnang, the name given by journalists to protect her honor and safety, gave an phone interview from Taiwan on December 23, 2009, describing her life after she had married a Taiwanese man and gone to live in Taiwan.

Samnang said that more than 10 years ago she had married a 42-year-old Taiwanese widower who had two children at a restaurant in Prek Leab Commune with the preparations organized by the matchmaker. A week after the marriage, she flew for the first time in her life and was full of hope from Cambodia to live with her husband in Taiwan.

“At first, I thought that I was the luckiest of all the girls in my village,” she said, adding that during the first year she were living in Taiwan she had often sent money to her parents in Cambodia, thus enabling them to build a new house.

Samnang said she had always wanted a child, but her husband always refused by raising many reasons. Then, she discovered that the reason why her husband did not want her to have a child was because he wanted her to work at a factory to get money to support his family with five members.

Although Samnang had lived in Taiwan for more than 10 years, she said she had not yet been naturalized because her husband forbad her to register to get citizenship for fear that she would run away from home and there would be no one to work to support his family in Taiwan.

Not only Samnang regretted having done that, but her whole family in Cambodia also regretted it.

Her 60-year old mother living in Sdao commune said that she had known about her daughter’s hard life in Taiwan and that she had pitied her daughter very much.

She recalled that her family was previously very poor due to having no farmland. Coincidentally, a matchmaker came to persuade her daughter to marry a Taiwanese man and she agreed with the hope that her daughter would help make the family’s life better> But she made a mistake like her daughter.

Besides Samnang, many other Khmer girls also lived miserable lives, working at various factories to earn money to support their Taiwanese husbands’ families. Moreover, many more Khmer women still have been sexually exploited and through labor.

Mrs. Long Sitha, 55, also living in Sdao commune and marrying her daughter to a Taiwanese man, said she was very happy to see her daughter getting married with a Taiwanese man though the wedding ceremony was not big and she could get only 300 US dollars as the cost for mother’s breast milk. She said she thought her daughter was lucky to get married with a foreigner to go to live abroad and she often boasted about her daughter to her neighbors. But, she said she had nothing to say now except having pity on her daughter.

“My son-in-law has a mistress and he considers my daughter as only a helper,” she said.

APPROX. 2,800 CAMBODIAN WOMEN MARRIED TO TAIWANESE MEN HAVE NO CITIZENSHIP

According to Taipei Times, published online in March 2007, a group of Cambodian women who were married to Taiwanese men protested in front of the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and accused it of discriminating against them on the issue of obtaining Taiwanese citizenship.

The Taipei Times reported that approximately 2,800 Cambodian women who were married to Taiwanese men were not able to become Taiwanese citizens.

According to the Taiwanese citizenship law, foreign nationals are required to submit a certificate of renunciation of nationality issued by their country of origin before they can obtain Taiwanese citizenship.

A spokesman for the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quoted by Taipei Times as saying that most Cambodian women who had applied for Taiwanese citizenship had fake marriage certificates.

Mrs. Chou Bun Eng, Under Secretary of State for the Ministry o Interior, said according to the policy of the government, Cambodian authorities could not issue marriage certificates to women who were married to Taiwanese men. Moreover, she said the Cambodian authorities could not directly intervene and help Cambodian women who were married with Taiwanese men.

She said in the past the Cambodian authorities could only helped those women indirectly by supporting various non-governmental organizations working to help Khmer women in Taiwan.

Mrs. Chou Bun Eng continued that so far the Cambodian authorities had requested China through the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia to help Khmer women who were living in Taiwan and that the Chinese Embassy had promised to help those Khmer women.

The AP News Agency has quoted a report by the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center after a fact finding mission in 2006 that there were 5,219 Cambodian women currently living in Taiwan.

Reasmei Kampuchea reporters could not get comments from Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center in Phnom Penh, where a receptionist at the Center told the reporter to submit a request for the interview in advance.

Mrs. Lim Mony, Head of Women’s Program at ADHOC said a Cambodian delegation from the non-governmental organizations had paid a visit to Taiwan and met with the Taiwanese President.

She said during the meeting the Taiwanese President recognized that 2,800 of more than 5,000 Cambodian women who were married with Taiwanese men had not been naturalized.

Mrs. Mony said the Taiwanese President had promised to find solutions for those Khmer women.

For Samnang, despite the promise from the Taiwanese President to help the 2,800 Cambodian women to get Taiwanese citizenship, she would not be able to get the citizenship easily since her husband even refused to let her apply for the Taiwanese citizenship.

However, what Samnang can do is to continue living according to her fate in Taiwan alone to work to support her husband’s family.

“I must struggle to live by leaving my life to fate and try to work hard to save some money and send it to my old parents in Cambodia,” she said, sobbing.

Moreover, what Samnang is sorry for is the fact that she had rejected a man who lived in the same commune and who loved and wanted to marry her.

“If there is a next life, I want to get married with a Khmer man,” she said, sighing deeply.

- Original Report appeared in Reasmei Kampuchea, Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Cambodians are not just for McCain

The Phnom Penh Post, Wednesday, November 5, 2008

t’s interesting to read about the different schools of thought regarding the future president of the United State of America in Kay Kimsong’s story, “McCain comes out on top in Cambodia,” Monday, 3 November 2008.

For Cambodians, we would support any US president who can help us build our democracy and free economy.

However, like many other Cambodians, I would prefer Senator Barack Obama to Senator John McCain for his own history and the history of Cambodia.

As a nation ravaged by decades of civil war and is on the brink of another cross-border war, we would support Senator Barack Obama for his less war-oriented policies. With his anti-war stance in Iraq and elsewhere, we hope Senator Obama will help Cambodia avoid the possible war with Thailand.

In addition, Senator Obama will be the first black US president if he is elected. As a black man whose fellow black Americans had experienced suffering and injustice under discriminatory US policies in the past, Senator Obama would know well the suffering of other peoples in the world who are deprived of justice and dignity.

Senator Obama would cherish in mind the words of the late black US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Therefore, we believe that Senator Obama would not want injustice to happen to other peoples in other nations.

Last but not least, we would support younger Senator Obama as the next president of the United States as he will set the precedent for other nations to give opportunities to young people to become leaders and lead the nations with fresh talent and innovation.

- Moeun Chhean Nariddh

  Phnom Penh

 Neither Side Has Advantage In Border Conflict

by Moeun Chhean Nariddh

The Cambodia Daily, Tuesday, October 21, 2008

t’s interesting to read about observers’ comments on the border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia in article “Defense Analysts: Thais in Advantage at Temple,” October 17, page 29.

Regardless of advantage or disadvantage for Cambodia or Thailand, we can say that both sides will be the great losers unless this conflict ends soon.

During the past several decades, Cambodia has experienced an immense tragedy: from a harsh civil war to genocide and to another civil war. Almost two million people have lost their lives as a result.

After it finally reached peace, Cambodia is now trying to rebuild its economy and infrastructure, while the people are trying to restore their shattered lives.

If the armed conflict with Thailand becomes a full-scale war, Cambodia will lose more lives and its economy will be in great recession as investors will move out of the country.

Meanwhile, Thailand will be in the same boat. Though Thailand was lucky enough not to have experienced Cambodia’s nightmare, in recent years Thailand has also been struck by horrible turmoil, especially the battle with the Muslim separatists in the South. Many lives have already been lost to this conflict.

If border clashes with Cambodia turn into a big war, it will also cause bad consequences for Thailand. Thailand’s economy relies heavily on tourism. Together with the trouble in the South, a war with Cambodia will scare away tourists and their dollars.

So, there will be no winners in this armed conflict between Cambodia and Thailand.

The real winners are those who benefit economically from the fighting between both sides, especially those who produce weapons for soldiers from the two nations to shoot and kill each other.

The only win-win solution for Cambodia and Thailand is to seek a peaceful means to end the conflict through negotiations and mutual understanding.

Opinion

Buddhism is the basis of the rule of law

by Moeun Chhean Nariddh

The Phnom Penh Post, Tuesday, 07 October, 2008

s Cambodian people are returning from P’Chum Ben, they might have fulfilled their traditional obligation to appease the ghosts of their ancestors who have been roaming different pagodas in search of food offered by their living relatives during the two-week-long festival.

However, probably very few people apart from the Buddhist monks and lay people have been able to please the gods by fully following the panca-sila, or the Five Precepts, they have repeatedly chanted during the ceremonies.

Cambodia’s Magic War With Thailand

by Moeun Chhean Nariddh

Phnom Penh Post, Tuesday, 12 August, 2008

arly this month, The Nation newspaper in Bangkok reported that many Thai residents in Si Sa Ket province which borders Cambodia wore yellow to help protect Thailand from black-magic spells cast by Khmer “wizards” who met at Preah Vihear Temple during the solar eclipse early this month.

On August 1, Bun Rany, the wife of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, led Buddhist monks and soldiers to the ancient Hindu temple to call upon their ancestors to protect the temple.

The Nation wrote that Thai media reports said that the mysterious black-magic spells by Khmer wizards would not only protect the temple but also weaken Thailand. Meanwhile, some Thai astrologers were reported to have urged local people to wear yellow to deflect the spells.

Whether the Thai astrologers considered the solemnly organized prayer at the temple Cambodia’s cast of magic spells on Thailand, the use of magic by Cambodians has prevailed for centuries.

According to the Khmer-language book “The Tale of Ancient History,” in 1502 under the reign of King Chan Raja there was a Khmer warrior named Moeung who fearlessly fought against Siam, as Thailand was known in the past.

Unable to bear Siamese colonial dominance, the Khmer king ordered his men to kill the Siamese king’s son who was controlling Cambodia. The Siamese king found out and sent troops to arrest King Chan Raja and his court. But Chan Raja’s lady-in-waiting, Pen, escaped with army chief Moeung, his wife and four children.

The Siamese prepared a massive attack. But Chan Raja’s son, Prince Chey Ahcha, had neither enough troops nor weapons to fight them.

When asked if he could think of any tactics to win, Meoung told Prince Chey Ahcha an odd plan: to recruit a ghost army.

He ordered his men to dig a deep rectangular hole and to plant spears and swords at the bottom.

“Please use every effort in this battle to liberate Cambodia from the enemy,” he told his troops. “If within seven days after I die you hear a thunder-like cheering, we will win.”

Upon that Moeung jumped into the grave and impaled himself. His wife and two sons followed, killing themselves too.

Exactly seven days later, the cheering of the ghost army came from every direction as Chey Ahcha’s army advanced to stop the invading Siamese troops near Battambang.

“The ghost army went to the front to display their might and made the Siamese troops dizzy, gave them stomach aches and made them vomit,” the book says. “Chey Ahcha’s army killed all the Siamese soldiers.”

After victory Chey Ahcha was crowned King Preah Chey Chehsda of Cambodia. He ordered a ceremony to commemorate the spirit of his army chief, who earned the title “Neak Ta Khlaing Moeung”.

In 1866, Po Kambo, one of the first Khmer protesters against French colonial rule, led a struggle in Rong Damrey province in Kampuchea Krom, which was later annexed by Vietnam.

“Po Kambo knew the magic words with admirable effectiveness to turn away bullets,” wrote Sou Chamreon in 1971 in a book “History of the Struggle of the Khmer Heroes in the 19th Century.”

“The bullets from the French army… hit Po Kambo the most, but they could not make him fall down. Even other fighters survived thanks to the power of his magic,” the book reads.

Also in the late 19th century, two other anti-French protesters, Achar Svar and Kralahom Kong, used magic during the battle.

Kralahom Kong was said to be both fire and bullet-proof. Kralahom Kong could not be killed when the French tied him to a ship’s smokestack in front of the Royal Palace.

During Cambodia’s civil war between the 1970s and early 1990s, many Khmer soldiers would also seek supernatural protection in the forms of tattoos, magic kerchiefs “yons” and magic words written in Pali or Sanskrit, the currently dead languages used during the Angkorean period.

Nevertheless, the use of magic could probably give only spiritual strength for believers and might not provide any real solutions.

While the prayer at the temple was a good religious, non-violent approach, Cambodia may need to negotiate more with Thailand to solve the border disputes. It probably needs intervention by the United Nations Security Council if the bilateral talks stall.

Cambodian altruism in the face of poverty

By Kurt A. MacLeod

The Cambodia Daily, July 10, 2008

n the streets of the capital of Phnom Penh, I recently passed a shiny new black Rolls Royce Phantom with a sparkling silver grill. The US$400,000 vehicle was absolutely beautiful as it coasted down the streets cluttered with small entrepreneurs eking out a living on a per capita GDP of just over US$550 per year.

The previous week I had seen a 2007 Bentley with leather interior, and which sells for a quarter of a million, plying the chaotic streets of the city. As the Rolls Royce rumbled by, I thought not only about the value of the car but also about the wealth of the family that bought the car as a show of opulence in face of poverty.

I was on my way to a meeting called by a Cambodian youth organization (YRDP) that had been collecting donations for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. Soon after the cyclone hit the southern Delta of Myanmar and left more than 135,000 dead or missing, 15 members of the youth group wanted to show their solidarity with the people of Myanmar. When the devastating earthquake hit China, they added the plight of those families affected.

Their campaign reached out to many of the students attending the mushrooming of universities in the city, went shop to shop in the city’s major markets and door to door in their neighborhoods. The students were stopped by police who said they needed permission from the municipal government to collect donations and halted by market security men who prohibited them from soliciting funds from local sellers. The students reached deep into their pockets for limited cash to cover the ever increasing cost of petrol for their motorcycles.

The students spoke of working from a deep place in their hearts to collect the donations.  They spoke of a desire to reach out to their community, in this case the global community, to do something positive for the world. They spoke of ethics and a dedication to give back to the world.

These were students from poor families, some plagued by HIV/AIDS, living in slums and trying to find ways and means to feed themselves.  I spoke to them about how they are Cambodian heroes, the importance of their leadership in the country’s future and their demonstrated role as global citizens.

In the end, when they had counted up all the small notes, they had collected over US$400. I thought how the value of US$400 of altruism in the world far outweighs the value of US$400,000 of pure selfishness.

On my way to the meeting, I had passed the Rolls Royce and my hopes for Cambodia had sunk. I remembered how history books had stated that one of the precursors to the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge era was a gulf that had grown between the rich and the poor, rampant corruption in the government of that time and students who were disillusioned about abut their future in a war torn region.

Some of these precursors still thrive in Cambodia. Yet, I had a glimmer of hope for Cambodia’s future when sitting on the floor with these youth. They had gone beyond the barriers of satisfying their own needs and reached high for altruism. They not only saw themselves as Cambodian citizens but citizens of the world.

I wished them to be rich and instead of spending their wealth on demonstrations of opulent wealth like buying a Rolls Royce or Bentley, they would continue their quest as global citizens and give back to the world what the world has given to them. We all need heroes in our lives, people who we look up to and show us a more positive vision of the future. On that day, these students were my heroes in one of the poorest countries in the world.

- Kurt A.  MacLeod is Vice President for Pact, Asia Eurasia. This article is courtesy of the writer

]]> http://mcnnews.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/cambodian-altruism-in-the-face-of-poverty/feed/ 1 chhimborom http://mcnnews.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/gods-go-hungry/ http://mcnnews.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/gods-go-hungry/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:46:00 +0000 chhimborom http://mcnnews.wordpress.com/?p=110 ]]> Comment

Gods go hungry

The Phnom Penh Post, Friday, 27 June 2008

couple of nights ago, I had a nightmare that my house was on fire and everything was burned to ashes. I woke up in the middle of the night and told my wife my strange dream.

Deemed a bad omen for the family, my wife spontaneously warned me not to forget to light three incense sticks and throw away a handful of rice in the morning. As believed by many Cambodians, people think that this practice will get rid of bad luck after a nightmare.

With a lackadaisical belief in superstitions, I told my wife that I was not going to throw away more rice just because of a nightmare anymore.

“What if we all have nightmares everyday, how much expensive rice will be wasted?” I asked.

In fact, other Cambodians have also experienced a similar dilemma as to how much food they should offer to appease the ghosts or do merit making to please the gods.

In Cambodia, people observe several festivals and ceremonies such as the Khmer New Year, Bon Phchum Ben for spirits of the dead, merit-making Kathin processions, fundraising Bon Phkar, and numerous other traditional and religious activities throughout the year.

During these occasions, the people would offer money and meals to the monks and offer food to the spirits so that the dead can be born in a happy world and the living can be blessed with happiness and prosperity in return.

However, the rising food price has greatly affected these traditional and religious practices. Monks at various monasteries throughout the country have also received less food offered by followers who can not afford to buy as much good food they used to do before.

During the recent grave raising ceremony, many Cambodians of Chinese ancestry also reduced the size of roast pigs and the number of boiled chickens they offered to the spirits due to the rising food price.

Because of the high food costs, many people have cut short their old practices or abandoned some of them altogether.

In the case of my nightmare, I decided to revise old people’s advice to young children in dealing with an unpleasant dream.

They told us to make a plea when we were dropping the calling card by saying: “Oh s**t, please take away my nightmare and bad luck with you!”

Of course, there was no answer. But I would take it as a yes with a nod in response.

Moeun Chhean Nariddh
Phnom Penh