A Change of Guard

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Sunday 16 November 2014

Realpolitik and the Cambodian crisis


Economic indicators point to more and more Cambodians being lifted above poverty line with increasing per capita income and GDP, but most of Cambodia's poor remain mired in grinding poverty which makes life a real battle just to survive the day - School of Vice [everyculture]




by School of Vice


It has long been noted by most independent observers of Cambodia that most western governments [who collectively stand for the 'international community'], especially those who signed the Paris Peace Agreement, are not too greatly bothered by the principal social, political and humanitarian crises facing Cambodia or the Cambodian people post UNTAC era, notwithstanding their rhetoric.

These governments know that having the KR tribunal held in Cambodia and the sordid manner in which this soap opera drags on and on despite all its financial woes, constant meddlings by HS in the direction of the trial's proceedings etc. would compromise the fundamental concept of justice itself which the ECCC was formed [in principle] to deliver on behalf of the Cambodian people who have little say in the matter, other than powerlessly taking their formal role as involved observers-victims and giving occasional tearful testimonies; they know all about the continuing violations of Cambodia's sovereignty and the merciless decimation and plundering of the country's natural assets and living environments, the unregulated influx of Vietnamese settlers into a country that has been desperately fighting off piece-meal annexations from both the east and west [most evidently from the east] through populating 'farmers' in targeted regions, all of which make a mockery of the core principles of the aforementioned Agreement as such. Yet they decline to acknowledge these occurrences, preferring to maintain their collective silence behind the veil of 'non-interference' in the country's internal affairs; they know that their annual aid in the billions would represent no more than wasted spending on an administrative system that is corrupt to the core, and if anything this system has been strengthened directly by this very 'unconditioned' cash-flow that makes good reading for economists and statisticians, but little qualitative difference to ordinary Cambodians' lives.


In the 1990s the same governments refused to even condemn the violent coup that was staged to purge what little military threat posed by the opposition Funcinpec to the Hanoi backed regime, taking it as a fair spat between two armed sides despite the vastly estimated disparities in strength between them [HS had command over or up to 70-80 percent of the Cambodian armed divisions, including the gendarme forces, which were most closely engaged in the coup of 1998]; they also pointed to the potential return of the Khmer Rouge should they throw their weight behind Funcinpec [the two factions had fought the Vietnamese together], and once that threat eliminated, they saw the dreaded spectre of a renewed civil war as the pretext of 'working' with the HS regime!

After a prolonged period of parliamentary boycott, opposition leaders [following Sam Rainsy's frequent trips to western capitals to gauge international support and recommendations] had 'no choice', but to go down this familiar road of 'peaceful compromises' through "dialogue" with someone who makes his political career out of breaking agreements and using bullets in place of words [even his words are violent and vitriolic in nature!].

So why have they found it easier to work with this existing regime, in stead of searching for and pursuing a [more] just and lasting settlement that they had envisaged for Cambodia when they endorsed the spirit and principles of the PPA? The answer, in the main, is quite straightforward: no matter how depressing Cambodia's problems are for the Cambodian people and their sovereignty, these same problems have little or no bearing upon their identified regional and national agendas, hence the lack of political will, except where they need the country to act as a willing accomplice and dumping ground for their domestic burdens which this refugee deal perfectly encapsulates. They know too, that their Cambodian counterparts would bend themselves over backward to comply with their wishes, and all this is thanks largely to all those hard grafts their in-country embassies had put in over the years to ensure the quid pro quo channel stays unblocked, and the mutual goodwill continues to flow. After all, isn't this what 'sound diplomacy' is all about?   

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