About Me
Statement of Principles on Business and Human Rights in the Kingdom of Cambodia (2010)
Sunday, June 20, 2010Letter from KI-Media Reader
Sunday, June 20, 2010
I observe with dismay the lack of analytical skills as well as shrewd, tasteful hard-punching political parody in our society. KI Media is the only forum providing this about Cambodia, for Cambodians and Cambodia followers.
No one is raising an eyebrow or question the crude, crass conversations and gory, sexually-charged images on the streets or in the local dailies that is part of daily consumption; we are numbed and dense to the blatant, blood-soaked violence exacted on the poor and the vulnerable in this society.
However, we get all bent out of shape when KI Media would post witty humor, thoughtful analysis questioning authority, thought-provoking headlines.
KI-Media has garnered a following and is the most popular Cambodia blog because of its forum for questioning and punchy, witty political parodies in its courage to provide us with sensitive news and information on Cambodia.
Avid reader of KI-Media
No one is raising an eyebrow or question the crude, crass conversations and gory, sexually-charged images on the streets or in the local dailies that is part of daily consumption; we are numbed and dense to the blatant, blood-soaked violence exacted on the poor and the vulnerable in this society.
However, we get all bent out of shape when KI Media would post witty humor, thoughtful analysis questioning authority, thought-provoking headlines.
KI-Media has garnered a following and is the most popular Cambodia blog because of its forum for questioning and punchy, witty political parodies in its courage to provide us with sensitive news and information on Cambodia.
Avid reader of KI-Media
CACJE Opposition Statement
Click on the statement in Khmer to zoom in
Partial translation from Khmer by SocheataThe Cambodian Action Committee for Justice & Equity (CACJE) is:
- Opposed to the visit of former King Norodom Sihanouk – who will be accompanied by his family including his wife and son Norodom Sihamoni, the current king – to Vietnam on 22 June 2010.
- Opposed to the question raised by Son Soubert, the former member of Constitutional Council, who planned to have a joint administration by the Yuon and Khmer governments on the sovereignty of the territory of Koh Tral Island which belongs to Cambodia, as well as the territory of Kampuchea Krom belonging to Cambodia, based on the model of the Pyrenees region in the European Union which is placed under the joint administration of France and Spain since 1607 under an agreement between the French Emperor and leaders of the Spain movement.
- Absolutely opposed to the plan set by Touch Narim, the Kampong Chhnang provincial governor, who wrote a letter to ask the authorization from the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh in which he promised to provide lands to 4,000 illegal Vietnamese immigrant families and to provide $10,000 to each Vietnamese family that agree to move out of the Chhnok Trou region in Kampong Chhnang to housings in the land area.
Attack on Queen Mother's Birthday
Dear KI Staffs,
Currently, the antagonizing against the King-Father and Mother has really been on the rise especially on note of their planned official visit to Vietnam.
Although KI-Media has its part in this divisive new trend - evidence in the fact that no other time is this kind of behavior more prevalent than now - it is not entirely KI-Media's fault. I like the service you provide and i trust that your enthusiasm for our country will keep it going for a very long time. But, I wonder sometimes, in light of immaturity of Khmer society shown her in adopting this new IT communications tool, if KI-Media's dedication to bringing sensitive news and opening up anonymous interaction is rather more detrimental than being a positive and open venue for Cambodians to participate and voice their concern and frustration in their country's development and politics.
Why do I wonder this? Because these various virile increase number of attacks at least to me, points to conclusion that mob mentality is on the rise and that KI through its sometimes provocative titles to images -albeit without intention to divide- are lending a helping hand to creating a negative space on the net and negative mob mentality.
Over and over again, here on KI-Media when I observed that once a person is attacked, a whole group of commentators equipped with anonymity as their shield will reign in and echo the attacks, and only at even more disturbing level of cruelty. Whether these people can expressed their opinions clearly and respectfully does not matter as long as they have the megaphone of anonymity they will spout out anything. Even the dignity of an elderly women is not off the subject!
Case and point clear example, such persons who made comments under the article you post
A study of contrast ... well, Happy Birthday Your Majesty Queen Mother!
were attacking Queen Mother very personally and cruelly referring to her various physicals features. It is unbelievable that such person him/herself was also born of a mother, and grandmother. As a Khmer myself, It is hard for me to believe that this was or is part of Khmer tradition! This is ភ្លើ (Pleu) tradition (How do we say Pleu in English)? We should understand that we Khmer have these words because we have a beautiful culture of respect and defined these characters clearly for which our children are to be rear up against.
Myself, born as Khmer was taught to respect other people and especially our elders. But I wonder why these aspect of Khmer character are not demonstrated with these cruel commentators? Are they Khmer? Do they know what it means to be Khmer? In light of this, do they even qualify to speak about the Khmer problem when they themselves are part of the problem?
In light of such despicable acts and disrespect should they even have the right to speak at all? Freedom of speech is only free and wonderful if we respect the rights of others.
I like to ask KI-Media and its readers to think about what distinguish such persons from Hun Sen? Hun Sen is a man who deserves to be put in isolation not a person deserving of respect as head of state. He has no dignity. Just this past week, we as Khmer has helped to sign over 2000 petitions against this man and his view of women. Yet here on KI-Media, we see no other attitude from some readers then the one we just condemned! Is it not those type of character and personality which KI-Media and we Khmer patriots work so hard to eliminate from our society? Or do we still wish to foster and support that culture of disrespectful,savage characterization and personal attacks of people we disagree with?
Because ultimately, whether we Khmer like it or not, it is purely a disagreement in policy.
I for one, vehemently disagree with former King's father's visit and perfectly agree and appreciate the well thought out but harsh analysis by Neay Krud and Khmer Young and Khmerization and other civil analysis given here, but I am appalled by the level of ignorance and pheap akseliathor from some so called "Khmer" people who speaks here when they disagree. These people give bad name to all Khmer character as a whole.
I believe KI-Media with its increasing influence has a role to play. You are now building a very large follower and therefore you have a "power" and with this power of information should also comes responsibility.
I hope that KI-Media will continue to grow into mature media in order to help us Khmer in Cambodia and oversea understand our country, and shape our future together as Khmer through constructive dialogue and listening, to affect the decision-making and fate of our nation.
As you all know, the people in government also follows your site. You can use this rare opportunity, because I believe no other site is more popular and far reaching as KI-Media. Let this be a tool for call to unity rather than to help foster mentalities, characters, and altitude like that which Mr. Hun Sen portrays!
That said, I am not asking you to stop your exposé of the government's shortcomings and corruptions- in fact it is these very type of news and information that drives me and many other Khmer to your website. I just ask that you consider your power and responsibility within this new framework of IT news and help to continue open the dialogue space for all Cambodian people but steer clear of leading a mob and negative mentality.
I also understand that you cannot control your commentator and the extreme opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect your own.
I like to finish my long tirade with one of your commentators in the forum, "Leave room for some tradition". We are Khmer.
Thank you,
Name withheld by request
Heng Soy's reply to irate Reader
While posting a contrast of lifestyle in Cambodia, Heng Soy managed to irritate and rankle quite a few of KI-Media's Readers. One Reader posted:
KI[-Media],Here is Heng Soy's reply:
You play a very dirty game, a great divider is KI[-Media].
Where are the thousand pictures of King Sihanouk and his wife feed their people? Where are the pictures of King Sihamoni built homes for his poor people?
Offering food and fake money to the spirits and through Monks are Asian cultures and Khmers are ones of the Asians.
Wonder, Heng Soy is one of Yuon Hanoi's spy, a great divider?
Respected Reader,
If I am a "Yuon Hanoi's spy" as you alleged, please just wait and see by the end of this month. If you happen to see a photo of Samdech Ta shaking my hand during his visit to Hanoi, then yes, I would be guilty as charged, but if you don't, what's next?
No offense,
Heng Soy
Fined Opposition Lawmaker Leaves for US [-Khieu Kanharith must have one too many whisky again?]
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 18 June 2010
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Mu Sochua was likely fleeing potential arrest by the courts. “To meet Obama is not easy,” he said.Opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua, who is facing court action in a suit brought by the prime minister, left for the US on Friday, claiming she wants to screen a film on human trafficking and deliver a petition to the US president.
A government spokesman said she was more likely fleeing court-mandated fines after being found guilty of defamation.
Mu Sochua, who lost an appeal at the Supreme Court earlier this month in a defamation suit brought by Prime Minister Hun Sen, has said she will not pay $4,500 in fines and compensation.
Her court battle with Hun Sen comes at a time when Cambodia’s courts are facing mounting pressure to reform. Earlier this week, the UN envoy for human rights, Surya Subedi, said he did not have faith in the courts’ ability to provide justice to Cambodians.
Subedi referred specifically to the case of Mu Sochua, who was sued by Hun Sen last year after she brought a suit against him alleging he had defamed her with sexist and degrading statements in a series of public speeches.
Prior to her departure, Mu Sochua, a lawmaker for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, distributed a petition through the Internet censuring the Supreme Court’s June 2 decision, which upheld defamation charges against her.
“She will submit the petition to US President Barack Obama,” Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Ho Vann said Friday.
Mu Sochua, who is a former minister of women’s affairs, plans to stay through June 25, to submit her petition to the administration and to take part in the screening of a documentary on human trafficking that she helped produce.
The film, “Red Light,” travels to Cambodia’s brothels and victim centers to underscore the need to eliminate trafficking.
“It is to show the pain of Khmer children,” Mu Sochua told reporters at Phnom Penh International Airport prior to her departure Friday.
Human trafficking is a product of “inaction of the government and of poverty,” she said. “So this is to inform the government about the pain and about its responsibility in finding the criminals.”
Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak said Mu Sochua’s film would not have an effect on the government’s anti-trafficking efforts, which he said are already underway. The US took Cambodia off a “watch list” of countries not doing enough to fight trafficking earlier this month.
Mu Sochua’s departure also came as court officials moved to collect the fines from her.
Chiv Keng, head judge at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said Mu Sochua would be “forced to pay.”
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Mu Sochua was likely fleeing potential arrest by the courts. “To meet Obama is not easy,” he said.
Hun Sen Statue Removed After Dust-Up
Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 18 June 2010
“I would like make a public apology and would like Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen to pardon me favorably.”A senior government adviser removed a statue of Prime Minister Hun Sen from the Anti-Corruption Institute Friday following strong criticism by the premier’s cabinet chief.
The cabinet chief, Ho Sithy, told VOA Khmer Friday the statue ran counter to Cambodian culture, where general practice is to honor the dead, not the living, with statuary.
The adviser, Om Yentieng, who is also head of the nascent Anti-Corruption Unit, said in a statement Friday he had the statue erected “without prior permission and by my own decision.”
“I completely removed a statue of the prime minister, Hun Sen, from display at the Anti-Corruption Institute,” Om Yentieng said. “I would like make a public apology and would like Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen to pardon me favorably.”
Meach Pon, an adviser for Khmer traditions at the Buddhism Institute said that typically statues are erected for Cambodian heroes, like Lady Penh, the woman of legend from whom the capital draws its name, and others.
Ho Sithy said Friday he wanted “all state institutions and the public to stop displaying or selling statues of top Cambodian leaders from now on.”
‘Sight Lines’ Displays Two Different Artistic Visions
Drawing by Saphan(Photos: http://www.noel-bazafineart.com/Noel-Baza_Fine_Art___India_Street_Gallery/SIGHT_LINES.html)
Drawing by TevyWashington, DC Friday, 18 June 2010
“I draw portraits of today’s Cambodian girls torn between tradition and modernity, of what their hearts desire against what society demands of them.”The Nobel-Baza Fine Art Gallery in San Diego is hosting this month two Cambodian artists. The gallery represents international artists who are making an impact on the contemporary art scene.
The show is called “Sight Lines,” and it runs from June 3 to July 3.
Pierrette Van Cleve, the founder and president of the Art Cellar Exchange, told VOA Khmer that ‘Sight Lines’ focuses on Linda Saphan, who was airlifted out of Cambodia as a small child, and Oeur Sokuntevy who grew up in Battambang and has lived in Cambodia her whole life.
The show explores the difference in vision between the two artists.
“Linda Saphan looks back into Cambodia at the women who were there, and sees herself in every woman she sees on the street, because she grew up in the West with all these advantages,” Van Cleve said. “Whereas Tevy sees herself looking forward into this new world and into new ideas of the new role of the women and the new role of the artist.”
Saphan was born in Phnom Penh in 1975 and lived in Canada and France. She traveled to Cambodia in 2006 and saw women aged similar to her still in traditional clothing, cleaning the streets, working in markets, working in shops.
She photographed them and then copied the photos in ballpoint pen. The women in the images have kramas on their faces. The works are called “Incognito.”
“I felt like these women wore incognito in their lives, just going to their lives working traditionally in small jobs and small shops without the education and opportunity that I had,” Saphan said.
Oeur Sokuntevy, meanwhile, studied painting at the Phare Ponleu Selapak in Battambang province and moved to Phnom Penh in 2007 to pursue art. She has had much interest in her work as one of the very few female contemporary artists currently showing in Cambodia.
“Sokuntevy’s work is also on homemade paper made from fiber and a very rough homemade paper,” Van Cleve said “And she painted in bright color in a folk art tradition about things and stories happening in Cambodia and her life right now, a woman’s role in the family, a woman’s role in relationships, a woman’s role in the world and how they’re changing dramatically from the traditional role of women that took place not more than a few years ago.”
Oeur Sokuntevy said Cambodian women today face high pressure “to be at the same time modern among their friends and traditional for their relatives.”
“My artwork presents myself as an artist who is not distanced from contemporary society,” she said. “I draw portraits of today’s Cambodian girls torn between tradition and modernity, of what their hearts desire against what society demands of them.”
Van Cleve said collectors and curators have come to the show and are fascinated by the comparisons of the two women—who are nearly the same age but have very different experiences.
“I have spent hours explaining how Cambodia is now moving forward very quickly into the 21st Century, and it is growing and is embracing contemporary changing modern thing at a tremendous way,” Van Cleve said.
“Most of the people are extremely interested in both,” she added. “We have sold pieces from both Tevy’s work and Linda’s work to two different kinds of people. People either react to Tevy’s color and her subject matter or they react to the quiet refinement of Linda’s work.”
In February 2011, “Sight Lines” will be part of a large collaboration with the US Embassy, the Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington—which is currently hosting a display of ancient bronze work from Cambodia’s National Museum.
“At that time, we are going to have a huge season of Cambodia and will present a dance festival, an art festival, a photography festival, a film festival, in conjunction all of Cambodian arts and films,” Van Cleve said. “I have decided to spend a good part portion every year in Cambodia promoting Cambodian artists and art works along with Dana Langois of Java Art Gallery.”
Artwork for “Sight Lines” can be found at www.noel-bazafineart.com or www.vcfineart.com.
Sokuntevy’s most recent solo exhibitions include ‘I Curl In Memory’s Belly’ at Java Gallery in 2010, ‘Family Ties’ at Java Gallery in 2009, and ‘Star Signs’ at Hotel De La Paix (Cambodia) in 2008.
This year Sokuntevy has been selected as the artist-in-residence for March at the New Zero Art Space (Mayanmar). In October, she will have a solo exhibition at the French Cultural Centre in Phnom Penh.
King's visit to Vietnam will prevail negative to Cambodia
Pay a visit to a state stages on two different perspectives: a tribute and a bilateral talk. But how King and other Cambodian leaders can pursue a bilateral talk if Cambodian counterpart has no collateral such as business investors or other essential contingents in Vietnam. If Cambodia cannot pursue that perspective like Vietnam has retained in Cambodia, all Cambodian's leader visits to Vietnam is just a tribute to supplement the prowess of Vietnam's hegemony over Cambodia as well as to totalizing an absolute installed government.Op-Ed: Khmer Young
King's visit to Viet shows two magnificent things: the prowess that King can use to confront the Viet, and the prostration and gratitude the King will tribute to the Viet.
Each of them has its cause and effect.
But in accordance to the letter from the so-called Office of the Monarchy as well as the leaning down towards Viet of Hun Sen government on behalf of the propaganda of maintaining friendship, comprehensive development, mutual understanding and lasting cooperation; the King will ultimately pay homage and gratitude to Viet leaders like recent visit of Leng Peng Long of Khmer NA as well as many other government leaders and dignitaries.
So, you wish to hear the good result after the King's visit? I am disappointed since the preparation of this visit. It is just a visit to a dominate state which all incumbent Khmer leaders have to maintain this tradition. You can count all those leaders numbering from Prime Minister Hun Sen, to Mam Som Orn of ministers cabinet, ministers of each ministries, assembly representatives, and many other incumbent dignitaries etc are aimed to bow down Viet's leaders in the prospect of tightening cooperation propaganda. After the current King Sihamuni's visit, former King Norodom Sihanouk will fully help this cooperation propaganda achievable.
The author of this article elegantly and wisely elaborated all aspects of the Monarchy's failure under the King Sihanouk enthronement. Reflecting from the bas-relief of Bayon and Angkor Wat to the present appearance of the King, we can perceive the gradual fading away of the Khmer Monarchy, its fame and institute.
Who has eliminated the Khmer monarchy? No one, but the King themselves; and King Sihanouk has to take accountable to this frailty.
How about the possible prowess that King Sihanouk should utilize to bargain with the Viet's leaders during his visit?
- First, Min Triet is the Viet's leader from the south, it is possible that the South and the King as well as the South and the US, still have common sympathy to each other. Recent reports have frequently affirmed the differences of the South and the North in handling with the influence of China. It confirmed about the possible strife of these two brothers. So how King Sihanouk can see the differences and utilize it wisely?
- King Sihanouk is a good friend of China's leaders. Will the King be able to utilize this prowess to bargain with the Viet's leaders? The King has to grasp his potential power to sit face to face with the Viet's leaders, not to act as an installed government messenger.
All these two are important for the King visit.
But if the King visit to Vietnam this coming week just an informal and personal visit like claimed, it is a frail of the King and the Monarchy Institute that have never realized the bad intention of the Viet's leaders hidden behind the word "friend", "cooperation" or "comprehensive development" etc.
Pay a visit to a state stages on two different perspectives: a tribute and a bilateral talk. But how King and other Cambodian leaders can pursue a bilateral talk if Cambodian counterpart has no collateral such as business investors or other essential contingents in Vietnam. If Cambodia cannot pursue that perspective like Vietnam has retained in Cambodia, all Cambodian's leader visits to Vietnam is just a tribute to supplement the prowess of Vietnam's hegemony over Cambodia as well as to totalizing an absolute installed government.
I am appreciate with Neary Krud for her open-minded and scholarly essay.
Regards,
KY
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