Cambodia: Defining Peace in Order to Build Peace

Culture clash at Tuol Sleng. Photograph by Adam Kogeman

THE WIP
http://thewip.net
July 6, 2009

by Pushpa Iyer
- USA -

At the entrance to the eerily preserved torture rooms in Tuol Sleng (the genocide museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia), there is a sign bearing the face of a distinctly Cambodian man who is laughing. Marked in red on his face is a cross, informing visitors that laughter is prohibited.

Our local host, from the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, tells us that some Cambodians laugh when they are confronted with something uncomfortable, as a way to deflect their uneasiness in not wanting to display their innermost feelings. ‘Deeply-offended’ foreigners made an official complaint when they encountered laughing Cambodians in this starkly preserved museum. As a result, Cambodians, or at least some of them, are now deprived of dealing with pain and trauma in their own way.

Why is it that outsiders always think they know best? Doesn’t a traumatized society have its own mechanisms to cope with its violent past and strategies to rebuild itself?

These questions are grim in the context of any society that is emerging from violence, but they become even more severe for a post-genocide society. Not only are these societies, such as Cambodia, more traumatized and fragmented because of their past, but they are also dealing with the challenge of a lost generation.

The lost generation of Cambodia is comprised mainly of educated professionals, who were the primary targets of the genocide. Today, 70% of the country’s population is under 30, which makes rebuilding society increasingly difficult because they lack the experience, memory and skill of its older “lost generation.”

This is what drew me to study Cambodia. In my field of study, Conflict and Peace, Cambodia is a fascinating country. The trauma of the genocide is still very fresh and raw for those who survived it and yet, there is an entire generation growing up that doesn’t study genocide as its past. This is a generation that denies and reacts with discomfort when confronted with its violent history. One reason for this discomfort, which also helps understand the laughing at the museum, lies in a fact that makes Cambodia pretty unique in the world of violent conflicts.

In Cambodian society, the divisions between its people – the ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ is unclear. The genocide did not happen because of ethnic, racial, linguistic or religious differences – Khmers heaped atrocity after atrocity on their own. The horrific rule by the Khmer Rouge, (The Red Khmers), a Marxist party led by Pol Pot, which lasted three years, eight months and 20 days from 1975 to 1979 and left over 2 million dead (or roughly 1/5 of the population), has left deep-seated scars on those who survived as victims of the rule and those who were its perpetrators. Today, the distinction between them is often blurred.

How does a society heal from these scars? How can its people acknowledge their history while at the same time establishing truth and providing justice? How does a post-genocide society make and build peace? And, for those involved in rebuilding a country, or engaged in building peace - what are the challenges they face?

In the field of Conflict and Peace, peace is not understood in the narrow terms of ‘absence of war’, which we label as ‘negative’ peace. Peacebuilding is working towards building ‘positive’ peace, which involves removing the root causes of conflicts in order to ensure that conflicts do not re-emerge in the future.

Peacebuilding begins when violence halts or ends. It involves ensuring that all basic needs of the population are met, structural imbalances are corrected and a society that is more just and humane is built. A long-term process, peacebuilding is therefore much more than creating a ‘peaceful’ society – it is strategic and political.

An important aspect of effective peacebuilding is sustainability. Peacebuilding requires that local grassroots efforts be supported, that peace be built from the bottom-up just as much as it must come from top-level actors. It also means that Cambodians must take control of the past and their future. Rebuilding Cambodia is a very complex task as its past, present and future are so enmeshed that is not possible to tackle any one era without assessing the cause or the impact on another.

Cambodia youth face the challenge of moving the country forward. Photograph by Adam Kogeman.

There is a popular phrase in Cambodia that describes its historic tensions with its geographical neighbors, both pre- and post-genocide: ‘Caught between the Tiger (Thailand) and the Crocodile (Vietnam)’. Today, however, the saying has come to signify the many dilemmas and tensions the country faces, not just in dealing with its own violent history, but also the border disputes (with Thailand), growing human trafficking, increasing HIV/AIDS, economic disparity, and the deep-rooted structural imbalances in society that make changes hard and slow to come by. Then of course there is the genocide, which involves understanding history, dealing with trauma, establishing truth and questioning what justice means for the victims and how it should be delivered.

These were some of the many issues considered when I organized a course involving field research in Cambodia. Thirteen students from the Monterey Institute of International Studies traveled with me to spend two weeks in Cambodia with a brief stop in Bangkok, Thailand.

Through our course, Challenges to Peacebuilding in Cambodia, my students worked to identify and understand the many problems that Cambodia faces but more importantly, we tried to understand what Cambodians thought were some of the real impediments to peace and how they thought they could build a more peaceful society.

We heard the deeply moving stories of the genocide’s survivors. We were awed by the resilience and spirit of Cambodia’s youth in trying to overcome barriers. We witnessed Cambodia’s structural violence when a slum next to our hotel was forcibly evacuated. We were fascinated by the role of Buddhism in bringing peace, especially since religion was banned during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. We were struck by the confusion of Cambodians about what justice really means and what they saw was the purpose of the ongoing International Tribunals. We were humbled by the warmth and generosity of ordinary Cambodians, who in spite of the mammoth task before them, displayed incredible patience when we bombarded them with questions. Most of all, we were moved by the strength, ideas and actions of Cambodian peacebuilders and the active role they play in being watchdogs for their government while rebuilding a shattered society.

Ultimately we strove to understand what ‘peace’ really means for Cambodians. The answers varied but the simple words uttered by a survivor of the Khmer Rouge struck us deeply: “Peace”, he said,“ is having the freedom to make choices”.

We came away clear about one choice that Cambodians seem to have made: to not dwell on their past. They are not trying to forget, in fact they are making every effort to acknowledge history. But they are working equally hard to ensure that history does not consume them or damage their future.

Let’s give Cambodians and all populations affected by conflict the freedom to make the choices they want in dealing with their past and developing strategies to build their own future. Let’s not impose our solutions - tribunals, elections, democracy - on other societies. Most importantly, Cambodians should have the freedom to define what they mean by peace and we should assist them in building this peace. And, if they need to laugh while they undertake the task of rebuilding society, then they should have that freedom too.

A two-part series consisting of eight Talk blog entries from Pushpa's students will link to this article in the coming weeks. Part I, "Legacy, Responsibility, Justice and Spirituality" will contemplate how Cambodia is coping with its painful past. Part II, "Identity, Sex Trafficking, HIV/AIDS and Property Rights" will explore some of the challenges modern-day Cambodia faces. – Ed.