COUNTERVAILING FORCE'S FORUM
February, 2010
By Neay K'rudth
Watch What's Pulling Us Down!
Every day, Khmers are waking up to confront relentless waves of
internal and external threat to our individual liberty, cultural
traditions, political and territorial sovereignty, economical space,
last but not least the already weaken environmental resources.
The enemies are masquerading as members of the media, civil servants,
law enforcement, political leaders, diplomats, and the vilest of them
all are those disguised as businessmen and investors. With so many
unguarded routes of entry, these "toxic" agents have been targeting
and inflicting serious damage to our social system's vital organs
including unity, freedom, peace and security.
The enemies' persistent assaults appear to meet no discernable
resistance from the folks at the wheel. Often it looks as if no one
is "home" to challenge the aggressors, giving these beasts the
audacity and the incentive to strike and plunder at will. The
enemies' typical arsenal ranges from simple bribery to brutal
silencing of the media and dissidents, deliberate misapplication of
economic, legal rights, political, police and military power. The
first objective of the enemies, whether foreign or domestic, is the
same -- to induce psychological "regression" which ultimately causes
Khmers to abandon the will to resist their acts of predation.
Structural Encroachment:
What we are facing is what social scientists call "structural
encroachment", a process that is difficult to characterize, but is
evident primarily in its consequence, i.e. border disputes,
corruptions and impending tyranny, human, labor rights abuse, social
inequality and injustice, local land grab, etc. Typically it is
associated with the maintenance, development, and institutionalization
of systems of "privilege" and the "marginalization" and further
"impoverishment" of the under-privilege.
The game of structural encroachment is played by our enemies at two
levels:
Amateur level: Local acts of violence and terrorism committed on civil
society by paramilitary group, or criminal enterprises sponsored by
shady power brokers well-connected to the establishment.
Professional level: Carried out by the business profiteers, the
wealthy and the powerful, including the ruling authority, engaging in
structural violence through manipulation of social conditions to their
own advantage. Still higher, at nation state level, the leverage of
concealed or overt economic, political/military power to coerce and
subdue a weaker state.
The means and methods employed by our enemies have all the markings of
"prisoner of war interrogation" practice using a well-known concept
called "conceptual violence". The author had to use some publicized
excerpts from the recently controversial "CIA's Interrogation Manual"
to illustrate the similarity of context related to our condition as a
country under seize.
By now most of us who are current with the events on the international
scene are probably very familiar with the Iraq War and the terms used
by the American media, such as "enemy combatant", "water-boarding
torture", "Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq", and the serious disregards for
human rights by the U.S. Military operating in Iraq.
The CIA manual instructs their "interrogators" to deliberately create
a context to extract intelligence from the "enemy combatant" through:
-- Isolation
-- Disorientation
-- Environment menace
In our situation we recognize our enemies' attempts, with various
level of success, to isolate us by underwriting the corruptions and
the abuse of power by the wealthy and powerful elites, to destroy
mutual trust and driving a wedge between the privileged few and the
under-privileged mass, between government and citizens. The out-of-
control migration across the border sends community of migrants to
settle in the middle of prime land, water, and food resources, and
come in direct competition with existing and struggling native and
indigenous communities, stifling their chance of growth beyond mere
subsistence. The ultimate consequence is much similar to the living
example of the Palestinian West Bank and the Gaza Strip split apart by
the State of Israel.
The inequality, injustice, and the lack of equal access to opportunity
push the majority of our population into grinding poverty and
hopelessness, which cause crimes and lawlessness that will eventually
break down the existing social orders. Civil society in desperation
will resort to animal instinct and starts preying on one another for
survival. When people are assaulted by continuous hunger, pain and
suffering, they will lose sight of the social norms and become
disoriented, as a result anarchy sets in. This is the exact condition
that the "interrogators" or the enemies want to achieve. Living
example can be found in many countries in Africa, Central and South
America.
Living under watchful eyes of the secret police/military, and under
constant threats of unlawful arrest, or worst, assassination and
disappearance drives powerless citizens under such duress that they
are too afraid to exercise their freedom of expression, and keep to
themselves. As a consequence they perceive their surrounding
environment, even in the privacy of their own home, as utterly
oppressive and hostile -- a menace to anyone's psyche. A living example
can be found in our neck-of the-wood -- Burma.
Our people are seen going about their daily life on the surface, but
there is a undercurrent threat that a certain sector of our
compatriots are yet to be aware of due to their selective ignorance,
blinded by greed, and fool themselves with a false sense of security--
relying on so-called "friendly outsiders" to come to their rescue the
next time around, and perhaps free of "charge"? The reality is we are
no different than an "enemy combatant" being hold down and "water-
boarded" by the "interrogators". Our enemies are very sophisticated
and very determined not to lose their grip on our throat.
Like the "interrogators" they surround us and pin us down to enhance
feelings of being cut off from anything known and reassuring, i.e. our
dignity, independence, self-reliance, solidarity, cultural and
national pride, etc.
Like the "interrogators" they use the "threat" of coercion (economic,
politic/military leverage), which is usually more effective than
coercion itself, to weaken or destroy our resistance.
Like the "interrogators" they torture our psyche to make us vulnerable
to our own internal pain. Pain that we feel we are inflicting on
ourselves, pain that is likely to sap our resistance. After a while,
we are likely to exhaust our internal motivational strength --
regression is the ultimate result our enemies wish to extract when our
resilience has finally worn down. Like the "enemy combatant" after
being water-boarded a hundred-plus times the mind and the body
basically break and give up what the enemies ultimately want -- our
autonomy.
The author wish to leave the discussion for conscientious Khmers to
contemplate and hopefully to be able to envision and feel the imminent
danger, which keeps on sweeping our nation's freedom and security down
under the treacherous water we are crossing at this moment in our sad
history. The intent is to forewarn our compatriots from losing sight
of the "important" and to stop squandering precious time by engaging
in partisan politics, and begin placing things and events in the
proper perspective -- do not ever underestimate the enemies. If and
when our will to resist has broken, there will be no politics to speak
of, but there will surely be "tyranny".
The author personal belief is humbly unsophisticated -- one centimeter
of gain in favor of the Khmer mass and Khmer homeland is definitely
RIGHTIOUS, no matter who's done it, or what reason or rhyme is being
used to justify the gain. Anything on the contrary, whether it's a
decree or edict from God, it shall have no merit.
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile -- hoping it will eat him
last", Sir Winston Churchill.
Peace
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