Phnom Penh (FN), Dec. 17 - Dear Excellencies! The Cambodian people have been closely monitoring the outlawed opposition party politicians’ activities – running down and degenerating their own nation and hindering their own people’s interest in the past few months.
Their main goal in their numerous meetings with representatives of your respective government's and/or private sector, such as government officers, lawmakers and business partners, was to persuade you and your governments to mount political and economic pressures against their native Cambodia and their compatriots.
These politicians include the convicted Sam Rainsy, Kem Sokha’s daughter Kem Monovithya, Mu Sochua, and some other high profile members of the now defunct opposition party. These people have called on your respective governments and affiliated entities to cut aid, stop investments and stop purchases from Cambodia in a bid to free the treasonous Kem Sokha and to revive their party which has been found guilty and was dissolved on the charge of ‘conspiring,’ to wreak havoc on Cambodia’s peace and development.
These selfish politicians are capable of doing anything – even if it means hurting their own nation and people and in order to seek impunity to escape imprisonment , which they rightly deserve for their offense, with the sole purpose of self survival and that of their family. Unlike our neighboring countries’ politicians, they appeal to expatriates to hurt their own nation.
Do you know who these outlawed opposition politicians really are? They are the ones who insulted the legitimate government with baseless criticisms, used racially discriminating rhetoric, promised supporters of positions in exchange for money, incited the public, created rivalries, divided social classes, created social riots and fueled racial hate.
They attempted to forcefully grasp power through an undemocratic ‘color revolution,’ following their consecutive failure in the last four national elections. They are unethical politicians since they were trying to sow ‘violence’ for the sake of grabbing power.
They are ‘pretending to be the victims’ and are good at exaggerating their "plight" in order to earn the sympathy of the international community. In appearance, they look like
a gentle tiger but with hidden claws’ with full of drama, but in fact when opportunity arrives, they tear Cambodia apart, citing democracy and human rights.
Their moves were orchestrated by their foreign bosses who wish to exploit Cambodia’s economic and geo political advantage. Actually, we express our sincere gratitude towards a number of countries and their people for their helping hands in restoring and rebuilding Cambodia; however, we need to live in dignity as an independent and sovereign state.
Cambodia has for long experienced the effects of external pressures and de facto colonization even after it had gained independence from France. We are fed up with the pressures and attempts to re-colonize Cambodia. Cambodia at present, is a fully independent state and sticks with a policy of fair share and equal rights in their international relations with other countries.
What challenges has Cambodia overcome to reach this stage where it is fully at peace and developing rapidly with remarkable economic growth, high employment rates, and decent wages and now classified a lower middle income country.
You may have already known of our sufferings in the past – beginning with the 1960s-1970s U.S. bombardment with more than three million tons of bombs dropped for no apparent reason, to the political and economic embargos in revenge for our efforts to rid our country of the genocide regime through our nationalist movement, with the assistance of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers.
It is true that the current development seen in Cambodia is partly due to the international community’s efforts. Cambodia respects and accepts their good deeds; however, we, at any cost, have to do anything possible to protect our peace, development and to maintain the Cambodian people’s social security general peace of mind and must not allow any traitors to cause destructions to the nation or any foreign individuals to interfere in Cambodia’s internal affairs.
Some of you have blindly believed in the outlawed opposition’s propaganda and condemned our government and claimed that Cambodia’s democracy and human rights were dead or took a stride back.
Would your government not take measure against any persons who conspire with foreigners to destroy your nation and oversee the undermining of your country’s peace and development? The Cambodian people do not want to see our tragedy return. The opposition have neither cared about peace nor people’s livelihood. If they have, they would not betray their nation and be against the interest of the people.
H.E. Prak Sokhon, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation told the UN Assembly in September 2017 that, “History teaches us that choosing a pathway predetermined by some Western nations had pushed Cambodia into tragedies and outsider’s interventions were most often problems rather than solutions.” The top diplomat added that Cambodia has recently been condemned in the wake of a closure of one pro-opposition international institution which violated our law, shutter of an English newspaper due to tax fraud and the arrest of the opposition leader who had openly claimed to have been trained by a superpower to overthrow Cambodia’s government.
On these matters, the minister asked which nation would tolerate them. He stressed that human rights and democracy issues were used to politically attack Cambodia’s government and that Cambodia has suffered from it for the past 20 years. We suffered in human right reports by the UN Special Rapporteurs who most often attacked and condemned the government baselessly and always praised the oppositions as the one who observed human rights and praised them as ‘main actor’ to improve democracy.
However, their offenses have never been recorded in the report, despite they leading a group of people to unlawfully uproot border demarcation pole, inciting racial hate, posting falsified bilateral border treaty and attempting to topple a legitimate government through a ‘color revolution.’
Have you ever thought that your bias to opposition side means you were looking down on the majority of voters who voted for the ruling party? Most voters casted their vote for the Cambodia’s People Party and they are confident the ruling party will carry on its development mission; however, the Western-backed former opposition party with lesser votes was trying to take the ruling party hostage, hindering Cambodia’s democracy process and causing setbacks to the country’s development and people.
The opposition party to whom you share your sympathy has no touch at all on all the achievements Cambodia has accomplished so far. They have always embedded violent content and racial language in their political messages and cheated their voters, and a lot of their supporters are in big trouble now, having no money to pay off the loan they took to fund the party. The skillful and pitiful opposition group is widely known for their corruption and sex scandals; some used overseas supporters and charity for personal benefits. They do not deserve to be ‘sincere politicians’ and do not even deserve to be our country’s leaders since they always take sides with foreign individuals.
Despite this letter being a bit long, I still have a lot of more words I want to but cannot describe about my poor country, especially about the government and people’s relentless efforts to build a nation full of peace and development. I am certain that you would never have heard about these efforts from the mouth of the oppositions you met.
I do hope that you would continue to support the efforts of peace and development and continue with your official aid, investment and purchase orders from Cambodia, as well as to condemn and advice the outlawed opposition to perform their tasks in a professional and dignified manner and to not hurt their native country.
Phnom Penh, 12th December 2017
Chao Chakmok,
Independent analyst,
Phnom Penh
