Phnom Penh (FN), March 6 — The EU on 26 February and the USA the day after released a statement about Cambodia. Both express their concern for the “resources” and “contributions” they have “invested” in supporting the democratic process since the 1991 Paris Agreements.
Money provided to Cambodia democratic process seems to legitimize their systematic interferences in the home affairs of the country. Money gives apparently the right to dictate how a law must be written and how it must be implemented. Money gives the right to blame the ruling party, but to remain silent when the opposition launched appeals to kill Vietnamese, when the opposition speaking in local language exacerbates racial et xenophobic tensions, when the opposition organizes provocations trying to create incidents with a neighbouring country, when the opposition publishes fake treaties and fake maps with the aim to present the rulers as traitors, when the opposition insults and defames the rulers, when the opposition denies the crimes against humanity committed in the S21 Pol Pot’s security centre. All of this criminal behaviours enjoy the support of the EU and the USA.
Nobody will be surprised by the similarities between the EU and the USA as far as Cambodia is concerned. Since its creation, the EU has always been strong with the weak and weak with the strong. The EU is not a community of values; it is merely a community of interests.
But back to their statements about their money “invested” in Cambodia, we should first ask the question: what was the price paid by the Cambodian people for the Western support to the destruction of Cambodia by the US carpet bombings from October 1965 until August 1973? What was the price paid by the Cambodian people for the Western silence during the genocidal Pol Pot regime? What was the price paid by the survivors of this regime for the embargo imposed during 12 years and the support by European countries and the USA to the Pol Pot’s diplomacy and the Khmer Rouge army?
If we compare the extremely high price paid by Cambodia and the Cambodian people because of Western policies during the seventies and the eighties with the money “invested” since 1991 to impose their model of democracy, it is totally unbalanced. The money “invested” by the West since 1991 does not compensate the extreme suffering the West inflicted during more than two decades to our country. Far from that!
But it seems that the spirit of colonialism is still alive. The Western arrogance and contempt are still there. They want to impose their values, their culture, their model. At any price. Like in 1970.
Raoul Marc JENNAR PhD
Political scientist
=FRESH NEWS
