A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Guam Pacific Daily News
25th May, 2011
First, my apologies for not having answered all emails: It's physically impossible. Second, to my friends on Guam: Thank you for seeing that what I write about Cambodia can be universally applied (my former comparative politics students at UOG can smile). Third, I wish to announce that beginning in July I will decrease my writing in this space from weekly to biweekly to have time to meet other obligations.
Reactions from readers, Cambodians and non-Cambodians, to what I write (and do not write) have been educational for me. I write to share what I know and to provoke thoughtful debate. So, the positive and negative reactions I received affirm that my goal is attained: I am able to shake the resting mind to ask questions. Most would agree that one who does not question is intellectually dead and cannot know how to proceed.
From what readers write, I am confident that "how" one thinks determines the kind of world in which one finds oneself. "What we think, we become," Gautama Buddha said 2,500 years ago. The concepts have been reiterated in different ways by many, including Mahatma Gandhi and Barack Obama's "Yes, we can!"
How one thinks does not mean shooting off one's mouth under the guise of protected free expression. A well-reflected thought is a far cry from a fleeting opinion. Among many things, to think involves using the mind to imagine, inquire, interpret, relate, evaluate, compare and analyze. A school of thought urges that we not be satisfied and settle for an answer, even if it is so clear and so logical, but to keep asking questions until we reach a horizon with a panorama of answers from which the best one can be chosen.
American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., once said, "Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking." He also said: "There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solution," and "Nothing pains some people more than having to think."
King said that in the fight for freedom and equality, "Change ... comes through continuous struggle" and that no man can ride on them "unless your back is bent." He said: "We must straighten our backs and work for freedom."
"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically," King said, which consists of thinking in creative ways and assessing and evaluating if the thinking and the action lead one closer to one's goal.
The "questing mind" has been a focus of Burmese human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who explained in "The Voice of Hope" that an inquisitive mind is necessary in the struggle for rights and freedom. She urged her people to question if the status quo is good enough or are there other things better and possible. She used Buddha's teaching not to accept karma and urged, "Don't just sit there. Do something!"
While an American reader is critical of Cambodians playing the Vietnamese card against Premier Hun Sen, and not working on forging unity among democrats against the dictatorship, some Cambodian readers' worries about the Vietnamization of Cambodia are not without foundation. I share the opinion that the failure of the democratic opposition in Cambodia to unite is a near-fatal flaw and that the uncontrolled immigration of the industrious Vietnamese into Cambodia is slowly changing the Khmer landscape -- politically, economically and culturally.
Another American reader wrote to point out, correctly, the necessity to distinguish between the worry about Khmer ethnicity and race facing the Vietnamese neighbors to the east, and the "nationalism" card, so successfully exploited by Hun Sen against the Thai neighbors to the west over the long disputed 11th century Preah Vihear Temple. Hear, hear.
I hear, from time to time, from some in the Hun Sen regime, and though I disagree with their association and their work for the dictatorial government, I don't doubt some folks in Hun Sen's civilian administration and military sincerely love Cambodia and want the country to be free, independent and democratic, with justice and rights for the people. Those who are close to politics and the action every day may not be as happy as they seem.
My concern is not how a despised totalitarian system can be ended but with whom that regime might be replaced. I believe that changes in attitudes and value are a prelude to regime change in a deep rooted culture that values "korup, bamreour, smoh trang" -- "respect, serve, be faithful/loyal." Cambodians' adherence to traditional class, rank, role and status relationships that perpetuate a superior-inferior and master-servant system is incompatible with a successful democratic political culture.
As I fear the resurgence of Pol Pot's mentality of authoritarianism, an ideology that condones the wanton killing of people with different views, I am concerned with a growing tendency among some Cambodians to disdain and corrupt the value of education.
A Cambodian in the U.S. with a connection to the ruling Cambodian People's Party told me with sadness that because Hun Sen is condemning the Khmer Republic, young Cambodians are missing "a whole section of Khmer history" in their lives. He asked me to help explain the 1970 to 1975 events.
But last week, a blogger in Cambodia counseled at the end of my article on Buddha's teaching that I stop writing about the Lon Nol regime because Lon Nol is despised. Oh, dear. Has Hun Sen succeeded in altering the recounting of historical events?
A friend's email from Phnom Penh included one word -- "education" -- in capital letters three times.
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
First, my apologies for not having answered all emails: It's physically impossible. Second, to my friends on Guam: Thank you for seeing that what I write about Cambodia can be universally applied (my former comparative politics students at UOG can smile). Third, I wish to announce that beginning in July I will decrease my writing in this space from weekly to biweekly to have time to meet other obligations.
Reactions from readers, Cambodians and non-Cambodians, to what I write (and do not write) have been educational for me. I write to share what I know and to provoke thoughtful debate. So, the positive and negative reactions I received affirm that my goal is attained: I am able to shake the resting mind to ask questions. Most would agree that one who does not question is intellectually dead and cannot know how to proceed.
From what readers write, I am confident that "how" one thinks determines the kind of world in which one finds oneself. "What we think, we become," Gautama Buddha said 2,500 years ago. The concepts have been reiterated in different ways by many, including Mahatma Gandhi and Barack Obama's "Yes, we can!"
How one thinks does not mean shooting off one's mouth under the guise of protected free expression. A well-reflected thought is a far cry from a fleeting opinion. Among many things, to think involves using the mind to imagine, inquire, interpret, relate, evaluate, compare and analyze. A school of thought urges that we not be satisfied and settle for an answer, even if it is so clear and so logical, but to keep asking questions until we reach a horizon with a panorama of answers from which the best one can be chosen.
American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., once said, "Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking." He also said: "There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solution," and "Nothing pains some people more than having to think."
King said that in the fight for freedom and equality, "Change ... comes through continuous struggle" and that no man can ride on them "unless your back is bent." He said: "We must straighten our backs and work for freedom."
"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically," King said, which consists of thinking in creative ways and assessing and evaluating if the thinking and the action lead one closer to one's goal.
The "questing mind" has been a focus of Burmese human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who explained in "The Voice of Hope" that an inquisitive mind is necessary in the struggle for rights and freedom. She urged her people to question if the status quo is good enough or are there other things better and possible. She used Buddha's teaching not to accept karma and urged, "Don't just sit there. Do something!"
While an American reader is critical of Cambodians playing the Vietnamese card against Premier Hun Sen, and not working on forging unity among democrats against the dictatorship, some Cambodian readers' worries about the Vietnamization of Cambodia are not without foundation. I share the opinion that the failure of the democratic opposition in Cambodia to unite is a near-fatal flaw and that the uncontrolled immigration of the industrious Vietnamese into Cambodia is slowly changing the Khmer landscape -- politically, economically and culturally.
Another American reader wrote to point out, correctly, the necessity to distinguish between the worry about Khmer ethnicity and race facing the Vietnamese neighbors to the east, and the "nationalism" card, so successfully exploited by Hun Sen against the Thai neighbors to the west over the long disputed 11th century Preah Vihear Temple. Hear, hear.
I hear, from time to time, from some in the Hun Sen regime, and though I disagree with their association and their work for the dictatorial government, I don't doubt some folks in Hun Sen's civilian administration and military sincerely love Cambodia and want the country to be free, independent and democratic, with justice and rights for the people. Those who are close to politics and the action every day may not be as happy as they seem.
My concern is not how a despised totalitarian system can be ended but with whom that regime might be replaced. I believe that changes in attitudes and value are a prelude to regime change in a deep rooted culture that values "korup, bamreour, smoh trang" -- "respect, serve, be faithful/loyal." Cambodians' adherence to traditional class, rank, role and status relationships that perpetuate a superior-inferior and master-servant system is incompatible with a successful democratic political culture.
As I fear the resurgence of Pol Pot's mentality of authoritarianism, an ideology that condones the wanton killing of people with different views, I am concerned with a growing tendency among some Cambodians to disdain and corrupt the value of education.
A Cambodian in the U.S. with a connection to the ruling Cambodian People's Party told me with sadness that because Hun Sen is condemning the Khmer Republic, young Cambodians are missing "a whole section of Khmer history" in their lives. He asked me to help explain the 1970 to 1975 events.
But last week, a blogger in Cambodia counseled at the end of my article on Buddha's teaching that I stop writing about the Lon Nol regime because Lon Nol is despised. Oh, dear. Has Hun Sen succeeded in altering the recounting of historical events?
A friend's email from Phnom Penh included one word -- "education" -- in capital letters three times.
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
1 comment:
I am always inspired by reading your writings. Love Khmer, Khmer, Khmer (ler, krom, & kondal).
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