Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The Vietnamese

With the election approaching, many of the ethnic Vietnamese in Phnom Penh are expressing increasing fear – fear of racial/ethnic violence directed against them by the opposition party and/or opposition party supporters.

I first started hearing concerns over this election from the Vietnamese a couple of months ago, just small talk in the cafes. They were saying that they felt this election had more potential for anti-Vietnamese problems than any election since 1998, but the reasoning seemed non-specific at the time. In an effort to get a better handle on these fears, over the last couple of weeks since the beginning of the campaign I’ve made it a point to have my afternoon coffee at cafes in the Phsar Kandal area of Phnom Penh, (where there is a large ethnic Vietnamese population,) hoping to overhear some scuttlebutt, perhaps talk to some local Vietnamese about their fears. I got a bit of both.

It has been said that the ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia support the CPP (the ruling party of Prime Minister Hun Sen, the Cambodian Peoples Party) because the CPP will not deport the illegal Vietnamese immigrants from the country. But to listen to the Vietnamese talk about it, while this is certainly an element, perhaps a stronger element from their point of view is that the opposition parties have always represented potential discrimination and even ethnic violence against them.

In my couple of weeks listening to the Vietnamese talk about the election, rumors have swirled and grown and are getting thicker. Though not verified, there is tell of groups of intimidating young men stopping Vietnamese appearing people in the evenings, demanding to know “what number” (which party) they support. “Number 7” is said to be the safest answer. They tell of racial epithets yelled by passing CNRP supporters, of Vietnamese caught alone after dark receiving a beat down, of women soup and egg sellers having their wares overturned and smashed by groups of young men. In light of these rumors the Vietnamese offer safety and security advice to each other: Vietnamese should not go out after dark, be careful not to get caught alone even during the day, don’t challenge them, just say “7” and keep your head down. They are also making contingency plans of where to go should widespread violence erupt, exchanging phone numbers, determining whose house is most secure, where they should gather, how they can get there, etc.

None of this should come as a surprise to Cambodia watchers. This sort of anti-Vietnamese intimidation and violence is far from unprecedented. The Vietnamese are the Khmer’s ethnic Other, the first minority group onto which blame falls during times of political and social tension.

The relationship between Vietnam and Cambodia is complicated, and traditional ethnic antagonism is deeply intertwined with historical and political animosities which are not completely unjustified, but when things turn bad in Cambodia, it is often if not always the poor, powerless ethic Vietnamese that take the violent brunt of it. They were massacred in a nationalist fury under Lon Nol in the early 70s, and again by the Khmer Rouge, not only in the late 70s when the KR were in power, but through the 80s and right up into the mid 1990s. Racially provocative rhetoric has been part-and-parcel of every Cambodian election since 1993, with the Royalist and the Sam Rainsy party leading the way in this regard. In the pre-election period of 1998, ethnic Vietnamese were assaulted and murdered in the provinces. During the post-election opposition protests of 1998, when the anti-Vietnamese rhetoric became particularly heated, there was significant anti-Vietnamese violence in Phnom Penh, including the murders of a couple of Vietnamese women, innocent street sellers, by an angry mob right in front of the French Embassy.

The Royalists (FUNCINPEC), and now the opposition party, (formerly the Sam Rainsy Party [SRP,] now the Cambodian National Rescue Party [CNRP]), have always played to the anti-Vietnamese sentiments in their election rhetoric, employing a convoluted mix of anti-government (the current government is seen to be aligned with Vietnam,) anti-immigration, nationalistic, historical and racial rhetoric. In this election (2013) the opposition has altered the rhetoric slightly, reframing much of it in terms of land issues and jobs in a seeming attempt to make it more palatable to the western press, but the underlying racial appeal remains the same, just in slightly new garb. (And, unbelievably, the international press and English press in Cambodia was apparently fooled, or perhaps indifferent, even sometimes playing into it in their reporting.)

Now, with the election nigh, even those new clothes are beginning to fall away. There are increasing reports of anti-Vietnamese sentiments being yelled from opposition party parades. And the reports are coming not just from Vietnamese but Cambodian and western observers. At Sam Rainsy’s return to the country on July 19, I heard several anti-Vietnamese chants (though interestingly it went unreported in the local English language press.) And apparently Sam Rainsy, as he stumps through the country in this final week of the campaign, has ratcheted up the anti-Vietnamese rhetoric, helping to fuel some of his supporters’ anti-Vietnamese resolve.

Many ethnic Vietnamese in Phnom Penh are scared, and justifiably so – of the increasing anti-Vietnamese fervor of this last week, and even more of what may follow the election.

Also see:
Cambodia Daily: 'In CNRP Campaign, a Subtler approach to 'Vietnamese Issue'
Cambodia Daily: 'CPP the Clear Choice for Ethnic Vietnamese Voters'

7 comments:

  1. I totally agree with you regarding such discrimination caused by CNRP, particularly Sam Rainsy; and the press never bothers to say anything.

    However, CPP has no willing to deal with illegal immigrants from Vietnam. That's their weaknesses in which CNRP uses as a tool in their policy.

    Moreover, from my uncle's observation and a lot of hearsay, tons of Vietnamese immigrants stay at the Cambodian border, and there were encroachments in many places.

    The history is long, but people still remember Cambodia's lost lands - Prey Nokor, Koh Tral, etc. The evidence is real, Khmer Krom people are still speaking Khmer in those areas.

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  2. Vuthy, when you say we remember do you actually know how Prey Nokor and Koh Trai came to be controlled by Vietnam? Do you know the role which Khmer kings played in both situations by encouraging French/Vietnamese settlement and administration ? Most Khmer people who harbor hatred for Vietnamese don't. I believe there would be considerably less hatred if Khmer people actually studied their history rather than simply pass on folktales which do little but reinforce prejudices.

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  3. In addition to your point, Jeff, is that somehow those who believe they're "Cambodians" regard all Vietnamese as immigrants. My father's family has roots in Takeo dating back to the early 19th Century many of whom were massacred under Lon Nol regime & the Khmer Rouge because of that kind of rhetoric & xenophobia. It's unfathomable, the level of ignorance, even among the so-called US-educated younger generations. Very sad.

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  4. I'll be in Phu Quoc / Koh Tral in search of these Khmers. Any help appreciated.

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  5. Vietnam !

    The land of liars,cheaters and thieves !

    https://dindooohindoo.page.tl/Vietnam-_-DNA-_-Lies-and-Theft.htm

    Lies and Theft - the DNA of the Yuon Vietnamese Limpet Limpdick




    85 year old Yuon Granny . "smuggles 5 kg of Opium"


    http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/ho-chi-minh-city-cops-bust-grandma-with-nearly-5kg-of-heroin-30008.html

    Lies of the Yuon - Ex- Viet Gen - "made War Hero claims - 8 out 10", were 100% lies

    http://www.thanhniennews.com/politics/ignominy-as-exleader-caught-lying-about-vietnam-war-heroism-33017.html

    Yuon Liars,Cheaters and Thieves - "1 Beauty Queen for each Product"
    http://www.thanhniennews.com/entertainment/queens-of-scandal-a-look-at-vietnams-hilarious-beauty-pageant-farce-factory-28717.html
    http://www.bangkokpost.com/most-recent/421026/vietnam-beauty-contest-rigged

    No.1 Counterfeiters


    http://thanhniennews.com/business/vietnam-could-become-the-next-big-counterfeiter-25698.html

    No.1 Counterfeit Condom Makers

    http://saigoneer.com/saigon-health/2111-vietnam-has-major-a-counterfeit-condom-crisis
    http://www.irinnews.org/report/100190/vietnam-s-counterfeit-condom-crisis

    Fake Gold

    http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/405657/vietnamese-caught-with-fake-gold

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHk4TGWx0ZM

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  6. What do to with these Vietnamese Yuon Limpets ? dindooohindoo

    ttp://thanhniennews.com/health/premature-ejaculation-a-common-problem-among-vietnamese-men-survey-26890.html
    http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/society/104054/infertility-rate-among-younger-couples-goes-up-in-vn.html

    Their women have vagina massages

    http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/15484/vagina-massage-services-freely-advertised-in-vietnam

    Their women have stopped lactating !!

    http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1599699/womens-low-sexdrive-blamed-falling-birth-rate

    Sample the innovations of the Vietnamese Yuon

    http://www.thanhniennews.com/health/men-suffer-horrific-pranks-in-vietnam-35227.html

    They have a street of infertile women !

    http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/special-reports/117166/the--infertility--alley-in-saigon.html

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  7. Events in the History of a nation - which scar a nation and its people - are similar to the history of other nations - with people, of the same DNA

    Take the trauma of the Khmer - w.r.t Vietnam - on Khmer Krom.1 Million Khmer living like dogs in Yuon Vietnam - AND with millions of Yuon, exported to Khmer land - as farmers, fishermen and traders is the combo doom

    Hoon Sen has not raised the issue of the millions of Yuon, in Khmer land - as they vote for him ! And Hoon Sen has not raised Khmer Krom with the Viet govtt, ever - not the land seized by the Yuon - but the rights of the Khmer in Yuon Land !

    Y ? Hoon Sen is a Viet spy and stooge.The Viet intel have dirt on Hoon Sen - w.r.t his work with Pol Pot and his collaboration with Viet Intel - when he was with the Khmer Rouge - and his extra-marital affairs,rapes,murders and mistresses.dindooohindoo

    But even before Krom, the Viets have been using low cost options, to rape Khmer - like the Viet sex bomb, who seduced the Khmer limpet King Chey Chetta - and took over his land, and then killed the limpdick

    ALL THE ABOVE IS THE HISTORY OF THE INDIANS - WHICH IS THE DNA OF THE KHMER AND KHMER KINGS LIKE CHEY CHETTA AND HOON SEN

    Indians were raped and pillaged by several races - and Indians ceded their land AND THEIR WOMEN - to save their lives.It was WW 2 which created India - like Khmer land. Before that there was no Indian nation - just a Brit colony.

    Many Indian Kings were killed by their wives and lost their gold and kingdoms.

    Like Khmer land - there is no Indian race and the ruling elite are all invaders who stayed in India for 500-1000 years.The true Indians are dark/black skinned and called Dasyus.

    Khmer land is controlled by Chinese.Yuon,Thai and PRC - in terms of economic and commercial power.The Khmer re employed as menials and scavengers.

    The Chey Chetta story is like the story of an Indian Coward king called RAMAGUPTA

    What did this rat Rama Gupta do ? The limpet banis went to war,with the Sakas - and they trapped him,and captured the limpet.Then what did the bania do ? The Sakas asked for the bania's wife,as security - and the bania,sent his wife,to the Sakas (just like Lord Rama ,told Sita,to whore herself).

    Then the historians make us believe,that the brother of the bania,went dressed as the wife of Ramagupta, went to the Sakas,and rescued the whore wife of Ramagupta, and killed the Saka king !? (just like the story of Chammiya Padmini).It is possible that the Mughals asked for sex with Chammiya Padmini - based on the past hindu track record, w.r.t Ramagupta.

    And then what could be the next step ?

    Then the brother of the limpet Ramagupta,killed Ramagupta and married the wife of Ramagupta ! It is said that the whore wife,of Ramagupta, was earlier,meant to marry the other brother !

    JUST LIKE CHEY CHETTA AND HIS FAMILY

    Which nation will be destroyed 1st - India or the Khmer land ?

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