Do complaints serve a purpose?

By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth • November 24, 2010

via CAAI

Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, is a day of thanks. Tomorrow, 21 years ago, I sat at the dining room table with my family for the first time in a long time, eating a turkey meal, having arrived a few days earlier from the nationalist Khmer resistance zone at the Khmer-Thai border.

No one in the family, nor I, believed I would be at the table; my border friends and colleagues moved on with the United Nations Authority on Cambodia in a "national reconciliation" journey in Phnom Penh. I didn't think UNTAC's sky could protect my unwavering embrace of individuality, criticality and innovation. I saw an inhospitable environment; wisdom teaches when to fold one's tent.

My men at the nationalist Joint Military Command would confirm my motto: "A dead hero is no good for the cause: Stay alive, the morrows await a new fight!" This didn't endear me to Cambodians ready to die for a cause.

My Thanksgiving

Re-entry into normal family life after nine years of conditioning in the Khmer resistance was hard work for my family and for me. I found people around me weird; my loved ones found me a stranger in their home. Days in and days out we struggled. There was much for me to unlearn and relearn.

My life on Guam helped with my transition: The salt water of Ypao that I enjoyed for 13 years helped cleanse my baggage and my discomfort; the sunrises and sunsets calmed me; the coconut trees, the red flame trees, plumeria and bougainvillea danced to the tune of my hopes and dreams.

With my family's help, I slowly re-entered the world different from that which I had known. Yet, the discomforts of close quarters, the noise of explosions and gunfire, the recollection of illness still haunt me today.

Questioning minds

I don't know if my persistent complaints about life in Cambodia's dictatorship under Premier Hun Sen serve a useful purpose. Sure, it serves to remind, but as the Chinese say, "Talk doesn't cook rice."

An e-mail to me from one of Sen's officers said, "Dogs continue to bark, the oxcart continues its journey forward."

A Khmer asked why I "hate" Sen so much. Hate is too strong a word for me personally, as I believe no one is "all evil" and no one is "all saint."

Another asked why I "criticized" opposition leader Sam Rainsy. Ah, what lack of understanding of the word "criticality," which only means assessment, evaluation of what has been done, so we can move forward.

It was Pol Pot who wanted an unquestioning mind!

Some readers may recall a Khmer folktale about a clever boy, A Chey.

By order of the king, soldiers brought a boy named A Chey, by boat, to the king to be punished for some misdeed. To escape, the imaginative A Chey persuaded the soldiers that it would be far easier to allow him to fall into the river, where he would surely drown, than to transport him all the way to the royal palace. The soldiers quickly agreed.

At A Chey's urging, they cheered as he jumped into the river -- and quickly swam away to safety. The moral of the story: A creative mind will take one far. Lacking it, one may cheer at unfolding trouble.

Sure, I hate autocracy at any level that crushes individuality, imagination and innovation that block improvement. Sen is one of those autocrats. Yet, I don't confuse process -- Sen, the king baby, insults, tramples rights and orders jail, which can change -- and substance -- Sen's autocracy destroys the country. This must end.

Meanwhile, images and videos on Google can inform us about the lives of the poor and of the wealthy in Cambodia. Last week, a rare scene was on YouTube, showing an SUV and a standing red motorcycle facing it. A man in a pale blue jacket wearing a helmet was talking to the SUV driver, then the SUV moved forward, ran over the motorcycle and drove off with the red motorcycle dragging under the SUV into traffic.

Draw your conclusion. The video showed the lawlessness under a regime awarded with a billion dollars a year in development aid by the world community.

I take off my hat to Royal University of Phnom Penh philosophy faculty Heng Sreang. His article "Justice in Cambodia: A short reflection ..." introduced Cambodia as "notable for widespread of corruption, poverty, and violation of human rights." He cited as "major obstacles that impede the implementation of justice," the common "first choice" use of "coercion and explicit/implicit threat" by the rich and powerful to deal with problems.

Many spend money to obtain titles ("excellency") or car license plates ("state car," "royal armed forces," "police officer") that bring them prestige and security, and make them untouchable, opening a door to misbehavior and mischief.

Another obstacle, Cambodians' preference for the Khmer "traditional forms of 'peaceful' compromise" in dispute-solving, rather than "solutions within legal framework," may justify corruption and reinforce the use of "power/coercion" in conflict resolution.

Sreang wrote, "Those higher up the hierarchy -- the rich and those with strong connections -- are virtually untouchable. The system is deeply authoritarian."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since my first Thanksgiving at home again in 1989, every day has been my day of thanks.

I wish readers a happy Thanksgiving Day! A Jewish proverb is an appropriate reminder: "I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet."

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com .