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Cambodia
was bestowed under French protectorate when its leaders were unable to
safeguard it from continuous onslaughts of its two powerful
neighbors--Vietnam and Thailand. "The colonial era began without a shot
and in a very tentative way" said, David Chandler, an Academic
Historian. King Norodom, a Thai's protege, concluded a treaty with
French officers in 1863 without Thai's knowledge, and the treaty was
ratified by the French Government in Paris early 1864--it was too late
to react when Thailand found out later. Under the French protectorate,
Cambodia received both positive and negative effects. Positively, the
French provided Cambodia full protection, introduced land reforms, ideas
of democracy, judicial system, technology, and abolished slavery.
However, there were much more negative effects than positive ones: the
French ceded parts of Khmer territory to Vietnam, imposed heavy taxes on
people, plundered Khmer natural resources to enrich themselves,
destroyed Khmer Language, new democracy, and refused to grant full
independence to Khmer Nationalists. Cambodia independence was not
easily and freely granted by the French but by relentless struggles of
our Khmer Heroes and most of them left out without recognition.
After
the end of World War II, independence movements sprang up all over the
world. In Indochina, the struggles for independence spread throughout
the three countries from many different groups of nationalist,
Communist, monarchist, and democrat. In Cambodia, the combined forces of
nationalist and democrat group was a spearhead of a struggle for
independence followed by the communist and monarchist groups. When the
World War was over, the French started to loosen its power grip to all
people in their colonies. exclusively, in 1946, the French allowed a
first democratic election on our country to choose the constituent
assembly. Three political parties were emerged led by three princes:
Prince Sisowat Yuthevong, a father of Khmer Democracy, was a honored
president of a Democratic Party, the most popular party in that time; a
Liberal Party led by Prince Norodom Narindeth and a Progressive Party
led by Prince Norodom Monthana. Although the three princes had
different political ideologies, but they shared the same loyalty to a
throne and the same concern to the growing power of Khmer Vietminh (the
Communist party created by Ho Chi Minh in1930 to liberate the whole
Indochina from the French).
The Democratic Party which
led by many famous Khmer Democrats and Nationalists including Mr. Chearn
Vom, Eve Koeus, Mr. Son Sann, and strongly supported from people across
the country--Buddhist monks, scholars, students, peasants, and some
urban elites--won landslide victory in the first ever election in the
country history. The Democrat won 50 seats out of 67 seats; the Liberal
won 14, and the other won 3 seats. The Democrats who strongly demanded
full independence and promoted democracy for the country, rejected the
French proposed constitution and created their own one. And a general
election based on the new constitution was held in 1947, The Democrat
won majority again: The party won 54 out of 75 total seats , and the
other won 21 seats. That the first time in history, Cambodia was run by
a democratic elected Prime Minister, Prince Sisowat Yuthevong, and Mr.
Eve Koeus was elected as the president of the National Assembly.
Unfortunately, the french did not relinquish much of power to the newly
elected government. At the same year, Prime Minister Prince Yuthevong
was dead, and a misery of his dead never fully explained by the French
Authorities. Then, Mr. Chearn Vom, a party founder, was appointed as a
new prime minister, but in 1948, because of corruption scandal involved
with three members of his ruling party, Mr. Chearn Vom resigned, and
King Shihanouk appointed Mr. Yem Sambo as a new prime minister. This is
a good practice of democracy when scandals happen among the ruling
party members, their leader must resign to accept their fault and
responsibility. But this kind of practice has never happened in Hun
Sen's Regime over the past 34 years despite countless corruption
scandals surrounded his government.
In 1949, the french
agreed to create a committee to negotiate for full independence led by
former prime Minister Chearn Vom. As negotiation was continuing, Khmer
delegation abruptly cancelled all negotiations with the French in Phnom
Penh in protest after they learned "a shock news" that the French
government had decided to hand over Kampuchea Krom to Vietnamese Emperor
Bao Dai. The French feared the Communist Vietminh would take over the
whole Vietnam after the Chinese Communists won a resolute victory over
the Nationalist Government. The French strategy is to use the South
Vietnamese against the Communist Vietminh in the North by rewarding the
Emperor with a wast land of Khmer territory, Kampuchea Krom and numerous
islands. Then, the Khmer delegation had no choice but continued to
negotiate with the French Government about a fate of Kampuchea Krom in
Paris. The delegation led by Mr. Chearn Vom and Mr. Son Sann presented
three key demands to the French Government: (1) Khmer Krom must have
full right to keep their national identity, language, religion, and
culture as distinct people. (2) Postpone a transfer of Kampuchea Krom
to Bao Dai and correct border demarcations according to natural and
physical boundaries along with Vinh Te Canal built by Khmer as a
boundary line. (3) Keep Mekong River as an international water route.
A
good news is that the French Senate fully supported these demands, and
the French Government needed a final approval from senate on a matter of
Kampuchea Krom status. But while debate was continuing in the Senate, a
french Diplomat in Phnom Penh sent a telegram to the senate to cancel
the debate about Kampuchea Krom status, for an agreement had been
reached by the French officials and Khmer Government in Phnom Penh.
Meanwhile, when Khmer Delegates returned to a hotel room, they also
received a telegram from Prime Minister Yem Sambo terminated their
mission. Then a fate of Khmer Krom was over; Some sources claimed that
King Sihanouk had a collusion with the French to swap Kampuchea Krom
with full guaranteed independence for Cambodia. However, there was no
reliable sources to confirm that but the circumstance might prove itself
despite King Sihanouk was not solely responsible for a loss of
Kampuchea Krom. King Sihanouk and his government seemed well
collaborate with the French authorities while the Democrats firmly
demanded immediate and full independence through peaceful and even
violent means. The French neither wanted the Khmer Vietminh nor the
Democrat to run a future independence government but King Sihanouk,
their first handpick. The French wanted to maintain their friendly
governments in the three Indochina countries before they left. As the
French increased their animosity toward the Democrats, they tried to use
the king to weaken or to eliminate them from a political stage. In
September 1949, King Sihanouk dissolved the parliament and postponed the
constitution by ordering the French and Marocan troops to surround the
parliament building. Some called the king's action as a constitutional
coup against the elected Democrat majority. The Democrat's struggle for
independence through their legitimate voices in the parliament
completely failed since the French never let Khmer Parliament
unilaterally declared independence.
Between 1949 to 1951, the country was run without parliament and constitution, and the king
briefly
ran the government by himself. On July 1951, the second general
election took place; the Democrat, yet a viable and popular force, won
55 seats out of 78 seats. The continuous victory on the poll by the
Democrats made the king formidable and nervous as he had planned to
enter politics in the future. The newly elected Democrat Members
strongly rejected a partial independence granted by the french, and they
insisted full independence without conditions while some frustrated
members turned to violent mean by joining an armed struggle with Khmer
Isarak. As the Democrats were still the lame ducks in the parliament,
King Sihanouk saw a susceptible opportunity to jump into politics. In
1952, he announced " a Royal Crusade" to struggle for independence;
numerous people across the country joined this movement including the
Royal Armed forces. King Sihanouk openly called for all Khmer to stand
up against foreign invaders--the French and the Vietminh troops.
Finally, the French had no alternative choice but granted full
independence to Cambodia under King Sihanouk leadership rather than
under the Democrats or the Communist Khmer Vietminh who had professed
animosity towards them more than the King. On November 9, 1953, after
nearly a century under the French Protectorate, Cambodia became an
independence state for the first time over 500 years since the end of
Angkorean Era.
On April 1954, the Geneva Conference on
Indochina war was held by the five permanent members of the UN Security
Council including all involved countries and Cambodia, but the big five
powers disagreed over many issues. The US, which would not sign an
agreement at the end, wanted all the three Indochina countries to be a
separate independent and non-Communist states. While the Soviet
supported Hanoi's policy to rule Indochina alone as the Communist
Indochina Federation. Nevertheless, China and France had some common
grounds when they wanted peace and separate independent states no matter
Communist or non-Communist. China did not want to see the Indochina
Countries become close allies with the Soviet or the US in the future
but the peaceful, neutral, and cooperated countries behind its
backyard. Beijing's foreign policy never let Hanoi control over
Indochina; any greater and stronger Vietnam will pose a great threat to
China's security from the South while it is already facing Russia on the
North, Japan on the East, and India on the West. The fight among the
big powers in the Geneva Conference produced a favorable result for
Cambodia, for it received full independence without partisan and
continuous wars as compared with Vietnam and Laos.
In
conclusion, Khmer independence was achieved by many factors, but
publicly, people do not receive full story and images of the struggles
for independence. In deed, we recognize a great Royal Crusade and a
leadership of King Sihanouk over a cause of the independence, but he was
not an initiator or a spearhead of the struggle. Virtually, he just
jumped in to reap victory when time is suitable. The Khmer Nationalists
and Democrats, who had tirelessly and bravely struggled for
independence, were left out and persecuted later. All these Khmer Heroes
had sacrificed their energies and lives for the cause of Khmer
independence without full recognition. By the end of 1955, the
Democratic Party and its members--the backbone of Khmer democracy--
ceased to exist in a political stage, for the new independent government
they had sacrificed for turned against them, and set a precedence for
autocratic rule until today. However, we should not use this argument
to stoke among Khmer when current situation demands all Khmer to unite
against Hanoi which has covertly colonized our country via its proxy
CPP.
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