Controversially planted border stakes in Cambodia's Svay Rieng province [in Khmer]

Reuters

School of Vice: At a time when the Vietnamese regime is trying to galvanise international support in its diplomatic tussle against what it sees as flagrant Chinese infringement upon its claimed sovereignty some hundreds of kilometers off its coastal line by [among other things] staging anti-China protests, it could not be more ironic or hypocritical of the same regime whose political hegemony over its weaker neighbours to the west is still causing major heartache for impoverished Cambodian farmers facing imminent losses of their ancestral farms and homes along the two nations' porous [in Vietnam's favour] and poorly demarcated common border line. The said injuries are well within Vietnam's own sway and political backyard/geography - literally, they could not be any closer or more devastating to their victims.

The agreed 'zig zag' lines on paper [as Mr Rainsy points out in this video clip] in principle and theory ensure that the demarcation process will spare farmers living on either side of the border from any real losses of their land or farm by keeping the demarcation line clear of places and points of known [historical] use and occupation. Yet, instead of following this 'mutually agreed' principle, the Vietnamese authorities have demanded and [mostly] succeeded in having hundreds of Cambodian villagers/ families forcibly evacuated from similarly contested border villages over the last 35 years or so. Where there are no current human occupants found, the land itself is open to technical manipulations and interpretations; in short, it has no contesting issue to resolve.

This discrepancy between what exists on paper and what is usually enacted on the ground has been Vietnam's preferred method used to squeeze the life and blood out of its subordinated Cambodian neighbour in recent decades under its de facto domination and control, and has been put into effect in every area and aspect of the two countries' contractual relations from so-called 'Economic Land Concessions' to various one-sided financial-corporate schemes and investments whose invisible loopholes are invariably larger and more accommodating or profitable to Hanoi's interests than even their visible legal ones are, which normally get overlooked by their client authorities anyway!

When Mr Rainsy joined some Khmer farmers in pulling out those border stakes in the same province a few years ago even his sanguine compatriots accused him of acting theatrically for his own party political gains or engaging in a PR 'stunt'. Two of those farmers involved had also been made to serve unjust and lengthy prison terms for having tried to salvage their own farms and livelihoods, and Rainsy himself had had to go into exile to escape the prison sentence handed him in absentia for having 'incited' this protest incident which rendered serious injury not only to a couple of poor farmers and their families, but also to the very existence and dignity of Cambodia herself whose integrity and sovereignty is being, and has been, violated in this piece-meal, perennial fashion to no end in sight. Yet, had Rainsy not done what he had done, and instead opted to turn a blind eye on the incident in question, he would have faced charges of colluding with the authorities as well as of cowardice at best, and national treason even, at worst, and along with that something far more substantial and precious to the Khmer people would also have been lost forever, and without witness or intervention on the side of justice and reason. 

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Rainsy's note:

១២ ឧសភា ២០១៤ - ខេត្តស្វាយរៀង / 12 May 2014, 11:45 am - Svay Rieng province.

ព្រឹកមិញនេះ ខ្ញុំបានទៅពិនិត្យព្រំដែនកម្ពុជា-វៀតណាម នៅភូមិធ្នង់ ឃុំថ្នាធ្នង់ ស្រុករំដួល ខេត្តស្វាយរៀង បន្ទាប់ពីមានការបោះបង្គោលថ្មី ក្នុងពេលថ្មីៗនេះ។

Visit to the border with Vietnam, at Thnung village, Thna Thnung commune, Romduol district, Svay Rieng province, after the recent planting of new border posts.