A Change of Guard

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Sunday 3 August 2014

Cambodia sees new space for democracy


PHNOM PENH (The Cambodia Herald) -- Freedom of expression in Cambodia has recently become more prominent both in the media and on social network. This reflects a new trend of expressing ideas, but it is still in its early stage and has not been used properly for the better yet as some take to this new culture to attack others instead.

The fact that people start heeding social and political issues and expressing their own opinions about them is a good sign of democratic growth in Cambodia. Regardless of their stance, opposition supporters, government supporters and neutralists alike seem to be fully aware of this new culture of expressing conflicting ideas, which is still young and fragile.

Generally, difference in points of view often stirs a stage for attacking others and causes them to consider others as enemies rather than merely people with different ideas, triggering a grave concern of disunity in society. Different opinions do not only occur in political context but also in academic field. In developed country, it is important to have diversified ideas from scholars because that is how new ideas are forged and used to gear development more rapidly.

Scholars are also valued in Cambodia; however, the problem lies in that those with high degrees tend to find it difficult to work together due to their different philosophy. Most of them cannot get along mainly because some of them consider themselves as a know-all and always look for opportunity to blame instead of providing constructive criticism.

Other scholars become victims of nepotism or cannot adapt to existing political stance while others are extremists and cannot accept ideas that are different from theirs. 

Extremism is also prevalent in politics and plays an important role in disintegrating our nation.

It is true that a country of highly educated people but unable to work together doesn’t differ from a country with low education. Similarly, a democratic country in which freedom of expressiongets out of control and causes disunity is no better than a non-democratic country.

History clearly shows how most of the disputes stem from freedom of speech and it is still true in our current society. Often, disagreement over stances in politics as well as society in general causes both sides to insult and sully one another, and eventually resort to whatever means in order to win over their counterpart.

Therefore, grasping the advantage of freedom of speech to gear development is still a main issue for our society. To realize this, it is in important for us to develop a culture of debating for solution rather than playing the blame game. Being humble,open and willing to learn from others is also crucial for us to be able to exercise freedom of speech in the right way. For instance, those having different ideas from ours should not be viewed as enemies, for more often than not their ideas simply show a different way of looking at things and serve well for complementing ours.

Giving the right position to the right people and providing themproper salary is what leaders should consider as it is an effective means to encourage people to learn. It should be well noted that more ideas are better, but there is also a Khmer saying “Less people, the cake will be burnt. More people, the cake will be not properly cooked.” This is a valuable philosophy for helping us use freedom of speech in the right direction.

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