Set forth below is the text of a letter which I am sending to His Royal Highness Prince Norodom Ranariddh. I humbly request that it be published in full on Khmerization, for the information of people interested in Khmer political matters. For your information, I am a scholar and experienced lawyer in the United States who has spent three years studying Cambodian affairs, including roughly 13 months spent in the country. I cannot include my real name at this time because I fear that the current government would prevent me from entering the country if they knew my identity, but I can be reached to verify this letter at (phone number omitted here).
Very truly yours, Mr. Ben
Dear Samdech Prom Keah Norodom Ranariddh,
Your Royal Highness, Cambodia needs change. Every day, the best land in the country is being taken from poor villagers and given to foreign-owned companies, disloyal politicians who hold passports from Thailand or Vietnam, or to family members of the corrupt political elite. Police are becoming brutal in defending the rich from the poor. The streets of Phnom Penh, for the first time in Cambodian history, are becoming filled with beggars and hopeless young men and women addicted to drugs. The Cambodian government sells rice to foreign countries while its own people go hungry.
To achieve success in the 2013 national elections, I humbly suggest that the Norodom Ranariddh Party (“NRP”) needs to change its political platform to respond to the needs of the Cambodian people. NRP must adopt brave new ideas to make clear to voters the differences between its goals and those of the Cambodian People’s Party. Accordingly, with deepest respect, I humbly present to you the following proposed new platform for the NRP, which follows the principles of Nation, Religion, King:
1. Nation
The NRP believes in the principle of “Cambodia for Cambodians.” The Cambodian people should enjoy all of the best things available in the blessed Cambodian nation; citizens should hold the best land and eat the best food and obtain the best products. Accordingly, the NRP does not support foreign investment in Cambodia, nor the production of export goods.
2. Religion
The NRP will work to return Buddhism to the highest position in national life, and its policies will be intended first not to harm sentient life and second to assist Cambodian citizens’ pursuit of enlightenment. Buddhist principles will become part of all aspects of public life, including law enforcement and the court system. The NRP will promote friendly relations with similar Buddhist nations, and will work with the Sangha to create a council of monks to advise the government.
3. King
The NRP will work to strengthen the King’s role in the religious and social life of Cambodia, and promote the King as a father figure to all Cambodian people and as the most dedicated protector of the Khmer people. In respect to the glorious Khmer traditions and history under the monarchy, the NRP will also work to promote the arts, both in traditional forms and via the new idea of young Khmer artists. The NRP recognizes and honors the King as a symbol of Khmer strength and pride throughout history.
In addition to the above general principles, I propose that the NRP promise to the Cambodian people that it will make the following changes in Cambodian government if it is voted into a majority of the seats in the Cambodian Senate and National Assembly:
a. Cancel all economic land concessions, and return the land to the King’s ownership, for the free use of all Cambodian citizens. Because of widespread corruption and wrongdoing in land concessions, the companies and individuals affected by such cancellation will not be compensated financially;
b. Cancel the property tax;
c. Promote Buddhism in all levels of education in Cambodia, including by founding a new Khmer Buddhist university for the education of lay students; and
d. For the welfare of the Khmer people, oppose with all the might of the Khmer nation any efforts to dam the Mekong or Tonle Sap rivers.
The ideas and policies of development have failed the Cambodian people. Foreign institutions and foreign companies have corrupted the function of the Cambodian government such that it now serves the interests of foreigners and a small number of politicians, instead of bowing down in service to the sovereign Khmer people. The time has come for Cambodia to create its own, uniquely Cambodian style of government, following the principles of Nation, Religion, King, and carried out for the benefit of all of the country’s citizens.
With profound respect and gratitude to you, I therefore submit this proposal and offer my assistance in implementing the political platform it contains. Although I had the misfortune of not being born Khmer, I love the nation and its people with all my heart, and I wish to serve them to the best of my ability. I humbly await your response.
Yours,
“Mr. Ben”
senecaben@yahoo.com
p.s. I would be most grateful if a qualified scholar could accurately translate this document into Khmer, and share it with news media in and about Cambodia.
12 comments:
Dear Mr. Ben
From your writing it seems that you have been a very loyal follower of Samdech Prom Keah Norodom Ranariddh. Your letter to him only states your blindness of what Samdech Prom Keah Norodom Ranariddh has been and will be in the future. He is a weak LEADER who from the start cannot survive the political landscape like his father. His current and past party is nothing but full of corruptions. I should know first hand. I remember when his first party was started right around 1993 I was still a little kid. My father was a devoted member and and so as many others. They were all promised with all kinds of positions when the party won. I, even had a position saved for me til I turned 18 or whenever I want to except it. That is the true nature of every political party in Cambodia. But for Samdech Prom Keah Norodom Ranariddh he has flooded his party with so many ignorant and uneducated people which lead to its demise.
Samdech Prom Keah Norodom Ranariddh is a PlayBoy like his father and I have no faith in him at all. I have faith with the youthful generations who are unemployed and will be feed up with the corruption. That will lead to another revolution for Cambodia.
I strongly doubt the claimed credentials of the author of this letter simply by reading the contents of his letter.
Dear Ben:
The commentors assessment is corrected on Somdech Krom Preah Ranariddh leadership. When he was in power, all he did was corruptions and sold seats; his own party members jumped ship to join CPP. You should focus your energy on other meaningful candidate such as Mu Sochua or Khem Sokha if you want to see change or balance number in the parliamentary seats. However, the current government is doing fine, althought they are not perfect but government brought in many investors, creating jobs etc. Land issues is normal when you have economic boom because every body sees land value. It like the word "gentrafication" in America. We have white move in and black move out. The property value goes up, this is the name of the game. Like it or not, that is how it is.
Ben
although CPP is not undisputed champ but Ranariddh is no match with CPP political machine. Ranariddh damaged his reputation beyond repairs. The only way you can beat CPP if all oppositions unite and have real campaign strategies how to win the election. The oppostion needs to throw away the ideology of spreading discrimination against Vietnamese and find ways to work together on policy that eliminated such discrimination acts rather continue to press on immigration reform etc. I dont think opposition ready to throw that ideology away because that is their bread and butter to remain legitamate.
"Accordingly, the NRP does not support foreign investment in Cambodia, nor the production of export goods."
With such a statement, it is hard to believe that the author is a scholar let alone a lawyer in the US.
Not understanding the Cambodian political landscape aside, any qualified professional should understand the value of foreign investments and the benefits of exports. Without these two, Cambodia would be greatly exacerbate the current economic challenges such as unemployment, which, in turn leads to the worsening of the poverty and living conditions for the all Cambodian.
There is no question about corruption within the political circles, and the beggars has always been a part of Phnom Penh landscape ever since I could remember. So your suggestion that it is the first time is groundless; as for the problem of drug users, it is an endemic around the world including in the US, Canada and even in Australia where the country is perceived to be less corrupt.
Therefore, it is absurd to ague for a ban on foreign investment and exports based on your arguments, as the foreign investment and exports contributed so much economic activity into Cambodia.
I believed your primary intention for this article is NOT for the Cambodian people, but it is for your own interests in gaining power/position within the NRP.
I find it despicable that you’ve resorted to this low act!
Thank you for your comments.
It seems that many people blindly accept the statements of the World Bank and other pro-globalization organizations about development. These statements and ideas are contradicted by reality.
If you wish to read about an alternative, Asian, and Buddhist approach to progress, please research Gross National Happiness. A large volume of research papers on the subject was published in 2003, and is available at the library of the University of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, just south of the National Monument. Alternatively, I strongly recommend the works of Helena Norberg-Hodge, especially this book, which describes the changes of development in a traditional Asian culture (in Ladakh): http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:yVfacJIunpcJ:gyanpedia.in/tft/Resources/books/ancientfutures.pdf. If you wish to read about the source of "corruption," you can pick up the book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
Mr Ben, so you are also a religious advocate!
Money talk in this world! While money cannot buy happiness, but it can buy your way out of poverty!
Happiness helps alleviate the sufferings, it does not help create jobs; hence I do see how the Gross National Happiness can be used as an argument.
It is OK for you to believe in anti-globalisation, however do not use the Cambodian people’s suffering to justify your advocate for Cambodia to take a backward step to conforms your own belief.
This guy is very dumb or just trying to fool the poor and the uneducated us Khmer. I don't support no leader that use their name as a party. I like ccp if they stop offering land concessions to the yuon to farms or to grow trees but I might let them own in realistate 65% above second floor.
Most of the comments stating that Ranaridhh is a cowardly and corrupt are correct.From the outset he betrayed his Party and his people.Cambodia of today is much of his making through his cowardice and personal avariciousness.
He lives on only because of his Father's history.
AND in the sixties beggars were an extreme rarity in Cambodia.It was a happy and peaceful country making it's way forward.
New leaders,new courage are the needs but Hun Sen has no opposition.He killed them or bribed them.
To call someone stupid and dumb, you need to look yourself again in the mirror.
Maybe you are a dumb ass and illiterate. Mr. Ben, according to him, he earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in the United States, and the prince Ranaridth Norodom is a law professor in France, and "What do you have?"
6:00 PM
What do you have?
Maybe you and Mr. Ben can turn Cambodia into Year one? No globalization? No financial institution like Khmer Rouge?
I don`t discredit his education nor did I was the one that called him dumb. I was the poster. But for you to come out on defense for Mr. Ben, what do you have to question others? If you ever have a degree in anything weather it is a BS, Master, PHD you would know that its nothing more than a paper that can get you jobs. I hold a BS and I know when I finish my master soon I get promoted to a bigger paycheck. So a degree is really nothing more that a job pass.
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