Posted on 19 April 2008.The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 556
“Previously, many people said that Sok Kong, the president of the Sokimex Company, is a Yuon [Vietnamese] and a former Yuon expert, but Sok Kong had always denied this. However, recently readers of a Yuon newspaper found that Sok Kong told Viet Bao [Việt Báo], published on the Internet, that he is very proud to be born as a Yuon. The Yuon newspaper Viet Bao, is published on the Internet since 2004, but not many people here knew it. Just recently, readers of this Yuon newspaper, who can read and write Yuon, translated an article into Khmer and English, and posted it on the Internet worldwide.
“Khmer nationals who can read and write Yuon, if they want to read the newspaper which published that Sok Kong is proud to be born as a Yuon, can go to this web site:
http://vietbao.vn/the-gioi/tio-la-nguoi-viet-nam/40056609/159
However, for those Khmer people who cannot read Yuon, to know what Sok Kong said, we translated this Yuon newspaper article:
“These are Sok Kong’s words which the Yuon newspaper Viet Bao published on the Internet, saying, ‘I was born in Prey Veng. My Parents are Vietnamese and I was born in Cambodia. In 1975, I went to Vietnam and did rice farming in Dong Thab [Đồng Tháp] province until I was 23 years old. In 1979, I came back to Cambodia.’
“Viet Bao went on with Sok Kong’s words, ‘I have many children, six children – three sons and three daughters. My eldest son works in Ho Chi Minh City, my second son is a hotel manager and the manager of the first garment factory, and my third son is the manager of the second garment factory; all my three daughters are studying in Australia.’
“Viet Bao continued, ‘Previously, I didn’t want anyone to know that I am Vietnamese for some reasons, but now it is different – I am proud to be born as a Vietnamese.’
“In Cambodia, though Khmers are not racially discriminating, Khmer people are always touchy about the presence of Yuons in Cambodia. Based on the history, the loss of Kampuchea Krom [a region in the South of present day Vietnam] happened also because of the presence of Yuons resettling there. Because of this reason, Khmer people are always worried about the presence of more and more Yuons from year to year. Moreover, after Yuon troops invaded Cambodia in 1979 [to topple the Khmer Rouge regime] and after Yuon [Vietnam] declared to withdraw its troops from Cambodia [in 1989], it left experts and spies all over Cambodia making Khmer people increasingly worried.
“Now some people say that Yuon nationals known as Yuon experts, and Yuon troops are interfering strongly both in the Khmer economy and in politics. Especially when a Yuon like Sok Kong has become a tycoon and an oknha, some Khmer people get more concerned. What makes some Khmer nationals become more touchy about Yuons is that the Hun Sen government has contracted the Angkor Wat Temples to the Sokimex Company, whose president is the Yuon Sok Kong, to collect money by selling tickets to the visitors; many Khmers said that it is not different from giving the Khmer soul to Yuon.
“It should be stated that besides the management of [tourism at the] Angkor Wat Temple, which is the Khmer soul, the Yuon Sok Kong also has many other important businesses in Cambodia, like the Sokimex Company which imports, supplies, and sells fuel in Cambodia, and runs garment factories and hotels in Sihanoukville and in Siem Reap.
“Now the Yuon Sok Kong got also the right from the Hun Sen government to manage the Bokor Mountain as a tourist site. In addition, the Yuon Sok Kong has contracted thousands of hectares of concession land from the Hun Sen government. We don’t know which other exploitation rights the Yuon Sok Kong will get in the future from the Hun Sen government of the Cambodian People’s Party, which is a Yuon tool.
“Besides Sok Kong, who has received all kinds of rights to exploit and to benefit from Khmer resources, now the government of the Cambodian People’s Party, with Hun Sen as prime minister, provides Khmer economic resources openly to Yuon. For instance at present, it provides tens of thousands of hectares of land in Kompong Thom, Kratie, and in other northeastern provinces to Yuon companies. The provision of tens of thousands of hectares of land leads to the eviction of citizens from their homes and their farmland, like in the Tumring commune, in Sandant, Kompong Thom.
“Independent analysts said they think that the current trend of providing Khmer land to Yuon by the Hun Sen government will continue under the model of economic concessions, if the Cambodian People’s Party wins the fourth term elections. Previously, the Yuon Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung [Nguyễn Tấn Dũng] said that Yuon needs one million hectares of land in Cambodia and Laos to grow industrial crops. Thus, there will be a current of continuing evictions of citizens from farmland, in order to get the land for Yuon companies. Similarly, analysts have expressed concerns over the long-term land concessions of 70 to 90 years. The concessions of Khmer land to Yuon companies for dozens of years like this cannot avoid to lead to the loss of Khmer land.”
Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.15, #3437, 18.4.2008
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