FYI- Song Chhang <https://www.facebook.com/chhangsong> 41 minutes ago <https://www.facebook.com/chhangsong/posts/10201400198061438>· WHAT’S ON MY MIND? 30 September 2013
IT SEEMS THAT WHAT’S ON MY MIND today is in good tune with a statement someone has posted in his Facebook’s timeline, asking why most coup d’Etat leaders continue to be recognized by world powers after these leaders have come to power through questionable ways. The writer of the statement has been justified in raising such a question as the post-election situation in Cambodia seems to have been in part stalled and no good solution has been in sight besides some of the unpleasant exceptional measures such as those taken in the state of emergency, the martial law or a coup. The statement refers to Marshall LON NOL as one of the coup leaders. My mind drifts back forty years to the time I was put in charge of telling the world that the overthrow of Cambodia's head of State Prince SIHANOUK was not a coup d' Etat, but rather a legal removal of the head of State by the parliament, the National Assembly. The French used the term "Destitution." In the later years, I used the American term Impeachment and the word Coup was avoided in legal proceedings. I guess I did it pretty well as over 40 foreign heads of States, kings and presidents continued to recognize the Lon Nol government. After all, it was not a military coup and the process was all done by the National Assembly which accused Prince Sihanouk of violating Cambodia's neutrality and independence status by allowing the Vietcong/North Vietnamese to install their bases in Eastern Cambodia. March 18, 1970, the National Assembly took a vote of no confidence and dismissed the Prince from his function of head of State. National Assembly’ chairman CHENG HENG took over as pro tem head of State and the government operated with no other change while Lon Nol, Prince Sihanouk's prime minister, remained at his post as prime minister. Some twenty years later, interestingly enough, I sat down with His Majesty King Sihanouk at his Phnom Penh palace and discussed his 1970 overthrow. The King agreed that the National Assembly had in fact engineered his overthrow. Among several points we discussed at that time, His Majesty raised explicitly the role of the National Assembly which was exclusively composed of members of his Sangkum Reastr Niyum. There was an Achilles' heel in the parliamentary election which led to the 1968 formation of the Sangkum government, a fatal weakness in the selection processes of the Sangkum’s candidates for election which Prince Sihanouk himself had overlooked. The King went over those processes in details and warned me to pay particular attention to those processes if I ever wanted to organize a political party and run for the office of head of the government. That was one of the reasons why, during the full blow of the Cold Wars wind, Western democracies continued to recognize the Lon Nol government as the legal and legitimate government of Cambodia in spite of its appearance of a coup until summer 1975, when the Khmer Rouge caused the collapse of the Khmer Republic. And that’s what’s on my mind today, Monday, 30th September 2013 – Chhang Song , Long Beach, CA. On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 12:45 PM, Perom Uch <[email protected]>wrote: > Lawmaker straddles two eras > > http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lawmaker-straddles-two-eras > > As the opposition boycott drags into its second week, you could forgive > one politician for having itchier feet than most. > > After all, Long Botta has been waiting for 38 years for his second > political life to begin. > > The 70-year-old lawmaker – the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s number two > candidate in Battambang province – won his first parliamentary seat this > election, almost four decades after he last played a political role in the > Kingdom. > > An appointed cabinet minister during both the Sihanouk and Lon Nol eras, > Botta was dramatically evacuated from Phnom Penh by helicopter during the > US Navy’s Operation Eagle Pull on April 12, 1975, five days before the > Khmer Rouge took the capital. > > “This is a new life for me. I have dreamed about [this] for so many years, > and it happened [so] suddenly,” he says. > > Returning to the Kingdom from France in 2005, he became an active member > of the Sam Rainsy Party in 2008 and was asked to be a candidate for the > newly formed CNRP just a few months before the July 28 election. > > Botta, who was notified that his family would be evacuated just hours > before US helicopters left Phnom Penh in 1975, sees the recent election as > his final chance to change things in Cambodia. > > “One thing I regret is that I have not so many years left.… It’s the last > battle now. [They] have destroyed a country and I cannot accept it. That’s > why I’m back.” > > Ruling elites from the US-backed anti-communist Khmer Republic were > priority targets for execution after the Khmer Rouge took the country, and > Botta would almost certainly have been killed if he had stayed behind. > > “There is nobody left.… I am the only survivor [from the Lon Nol > cabinet],” he says. > > “I was on the top list of people to be killed.” > > Survivor’s guilt is one of many things that motivate Botta to continue a > fight against what he believes is essentially the same enemy he faced as a > right-wing politician decades ago. > > “Being someone who fought against a dictatorship and communism, I have to > fight for democracy,” he says. > > “That’s all I want. I feel too lucky to [have so] much. I cannot enjoy > this kind of life.” > > *An opportune departure* > That fateful April morning in 1975, Botta, then minister of culture, was > on his way to an emergency meeting to discuss whether then-Prince Norodom > Sihanouk should be flown back to Phnom Penh from Beijing to take hold of > the crumbling nation. > > Over the previous months, as the communists’ onslaught on the capital had > grown increasingly ferocious, the cabinet had been meeting daily. > > “The Khmer Rouge were launching missiles over the city every day – 15 to > 20 missiles. They would randomly fall in the market.… You could not believe > [what it was like],” Botta says. > > Stopping at his office ahead of the meeting that morning, Botta received a > phone call from Timothy Carney, his tennis partner and first-secretary at > the US embassy. > > It was 8:15am. > > “He said, ‘I have to speak to you in French so there is no confusion. You > and your family have to take your suitcases and join the US ambassador to > leave Cambodia this morning at 9am’.” > > “I almost collapsed.” > > Knowing his family would be targeted if the Khmer Rouge took the city, > Botta scrambled to pick up his wife and two children. > > There was no time to even say goodbye to his parents or other family – all > of whom were later killed. > > Although Norodom Boulevard would have been the obvious route to the US > embassy, Botta took the parallel Monivong Boulevard – a seemingly banal > decision that became momentous. > > Prime Minister Long Boret had asked the police to stop all ministers > trying to reach the American embassy along Norodom Boulevard to prevent > them from fleeing the Kingdom, Botta says. > > “Most [of my colleagues] were killed. Except me, because I chose the right > street,” he says, the disbelief still evident all these years later. > > Botta adds, however, that he did not know at that point he would be unable > to return to Cambodia. > > “I realised 15 minutes after we left Phnom Penh in the helicopter that the > US was planning to leave the country forever.… I thought to myself, > 'Cambodia is over'.” > > *The path to politics* > As a young student in the early 1950s, Botta enjoyed the slow pace of life > in the capital. > > “Sometimes I see the old pictures.… Around the Sisowath High School there > is nothing around and there are big flowers everywhere.… It’s the period I > enjoyed most in Cambodia,” he says. > > His father was the chief medic at Ang Duong Hospital, where the family > would sleep several nights a week while he worked the night shift. > > The other hospital medic rotating nightshifts happened to be Sinn > Sisamouth, the legendary Cambodian singer, who at that point, had yet to > break into the big-time. > > “He would sing while giving vaccinations. He was close to me … and already > girls used to come to see him at the hospital,” Botta says. > > “It was a small bed, but for Sisamouth, it was for ladies, even the > princesses sometimes.” > > After sitting the French baccalaureate at the Lycee Descartes in 1960 at > 17, Botta won a scholarship to study in Toulouse, France. > > But as the only Cambodian at a French university of 10,000 students, he > felt alienated from his home country. > > “Once a month, when I got my scholarship money, I would go to a small > Vietnamese restaurant to eat. It was so expensive. I was well-dressed on > payday just to eat a small piece of fish and rice.” > > After completing a PhD in nuclear physics in 1967, Botta returned to > Cambodia with his betrothed Long Serey, whom he met in France. > > A year later, at the age of 26, he was appointed the director of the > nation’s secondary schools. > > Soon after, in 1969, as Cambodia became increasingly entangled in the > neighbouring Vietnam War, Lon Nol appointed the right-leaning Botta as > education secretary in his cabinet. > > Despite the rampant and infamous corruption of the general and his > officials, Botta maintains that he personally remained steadfast against > graft – a stance that eventually forced him to resign from the cabinet. > > “I told him, 'General, I cannot work as a minister and accept this > corruption. But one day if you need me to fight communism, call me.' I told > him that.” > > He says that he was not aware of the Lon Nol-led coup that toppled > Sihanouk in 1970 and installed the Khmer Republic until it happened. > > “It was very complicated with Sihanouk. I respected him; he respected me, > too.… We were friendly, but politically, we did not agree,” he says. > > According to him, at one public meeting in 1969, Sihanouk proclaimed later > Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan and Botta as the two most > “incorruptible” people in the Kingdom. > > “[Sihanouk] was very complicated. He played left against right.” > > In 1973, Lon Nol called him back to be an adviser, and he was appointed as > minister of culture in 1974. > > Again, his anti-corruption stance irked others in the government, > especially the generals, who would receive pay for twice the number of > soldiers than were really in their battalions. > > “They would ask the postmen to put on uniforms. God, they were > incompetent.… Many times the generals went to ask Lon Nol to dismiss me,” > he says. > > Late in 1974, as the Khmer Rouge drew closer to Phnom Penh, Lon Nol called > a cabinet meeting in which Botta claims he was the only one to admit the > general’s position had become untenable. > > “I said, ‘Marshal, it’s time for you to take some rest.’ > > “That night, I did not sleep in my apartment. I asked my bodyguard and > driver to go home. I took my wife and two young children and an M-16 gun > and we went to my office inside the palace and slept there.” > <http://www.phnompenhpost.com/sites/default/files/styles/full-screen/public/6-saukham-koy-arrives%20us.jpg?itok=H1oIf-eV> > > *The second coming* > Botta frequently refers to his second political coming as a “new life” and > says many people he meets today assume he had been killed. > > “One day, four years ago, I went to the Sisowath High School.… I saw a > lady of 40 years old.… She asked me what I was doing there, and I said I > was a student here in 1959. > > “I mentioned my name and she stared at me.… ‘Are you really Long Botta? I > thought you were dead already’.” > > Despite preparing to now enter a political fray very different to what he > dealt with in the 1970s, it’s clear that Botta’s formative years in > politics, set against the backdrop of the Cold War and the rise of the > Khmer Rouge, still colour his way of looking at the country. > > “I am fighting against the same leadership I was 40 years ago. But today, > it’s reverse. We are now in the countryside where people support us … > [while] before, [the Khmer Rouge] were in the countryside.” > <http://ibuddhi.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html> > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. > This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. > Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc > Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. 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