Sam Rainsy´s Message to the Cambodian People

Prime Minister Hun Sen is currently playing a dangerous game for our country. He seems to have lost his senses while handling Cambodia’s relations with neighbouring countries.

Our present government foreign policy is totally biased when it comes to defending Cambodia’s territorial integrity. According to the prime minister the danger of Cambodia’s losing portions of her territory is looming on our western border with Thailand. But he forgets to say that this danger is already and actually materializing on a large scale on our eastern border with Vietnam.

Let’s compare:

- Thailand has only recently started to unfairly challenge the status of a portion of Khmer territory surrounding Preah Vihear temple in Preah Vihear province that covers an area of less than five square kilometres.

- Vietnam has been, over the last 30 years, grabbing thousands of square kilometres of Khmer territories in Kep, Kampot, Takeo, Kandal, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Kampong Cham, Kratie, Mondolkiri and Ratanakiri provinces. This is an ongoing painful process that Mr. Hun Sen does not want us to look at. But we can’t help seeing the tears and hearing the cries of countless Khmer farmers who are losing their rice fields and other farmland to Vietnam as I have recently witnessed in Svay Rieng province.

Whereas there are no Thai immigrants in Cambodia, the continuous inflow of Vietnamese settlers into our country also reflects Vietnam’s expansionist policies which are facilitated by the Hun Sen government’s subservience to Hanoi.

His Majesty King Father Norodom Sihanouk has shown His concern for the situation in Cambodia’s provinces bordering Vietnam. Reacting to a report I submitted to Him earlier this month about Cambodian farmers losing their land because of border encroachments by the Vietnamese authorities in Svay Rieng province, the Retired King wrote to Prime Minister Hun Sen asking for an examination of the information and evidence I had exposed on the issue. As an insolent response to the King Father, the Hun Sen government reacted by undemocratically removing my parliamentary immunity in order to prosecute me because I dared raise a national issue that is embarrassing for the prime minister.

Mr. Hun Sen is using a classical tactic to divert the Khmer people’s attention from the real or the most serious danger, which in fact comes from our eastern side (Vietnam), by exacerbating tensions and creating unprecedented attention on our western side (Thailand).

By doing so, Mr. Hun Sen strives to:

For himself and his clan in Cambodia
- Secure a continuous support from powerful Vietnam in order to remain in power against all democratic trends.
- Create a nationalistic fervour against Thailand which would help the Cambodian people accept harsh and deteriorating living conditions due to the persistent economic crisis and the government’s corruption and incompetence.

For his protector Vietnam
- Boost trade with, and economic influence on, Cambodia.
- Establish a dominating control over Cambodia’s economy through growing investments from Vietnam, whose companies enjoy unique privileges in our country, while Thailand is being marginalized because of the current Khmer-Thai tension. The current situation is reminiscent of the anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh organized by Mr. Hun Sen’s thugs in January 2003.

From a historical and geopolitical perspective Thailand is Vietnam’s main rival in mainland Indochina. Therefore, weakening Thailand is in the long term interest of her rival. Vietnam’s expansionism could one day go beyond Cambodia and Laos, which are already more or less under the control of Hanoi. To weaken Thailand nothing is more effective than fanning the flames of internal divisions among the Thai people and supporting one fighting group against the other. Mr. Hun Sen is a well-placed tool or pawn that is being used by a third country in this Machiavellian game for the implementation of a dark scheme. Whoever associates himself with Mr. Hun Sen to knowingly or not knowingly support the implementation of such a dark scheme runs the risk of being a pawn’s pawn acting against his own country.

While the situation is still under control along our western border, Cambodia should first try to address a number of humanitarian issues such as the fate of over 200,000 Khmer workers currently living in Thailand because unemployment in our country is a more and more acute economic and social problem that the Hun Sen government is unable to solve.

The political game Mr. Hun Sen is playing is definitely not in Cambodia’s interest. We should not allow him to go on jeopardizing our country’s security. Cambodia should remain neutral in any internal dispute in any other country. Any spillover from the current tension or unrest in Thailand could be very detrimental to Cambodia. Mr. Hun Sen’s miscalculation when throwing oil on fire in a neighbouring country will likely at best burn his fingers and at worse set Cambodia ablaze as past experiences have shown when we unnecessarily and unwisely took side in our neighbours’ internal disputes.

Sam Rainsy
Member of Parliament
Opposition leader