The lifelong birth-right denied and an unfulfilled exit

Gaffar Peang-Meth
1944-2022

This is not only a dedication to the late Professor Gaffar Peang-Meth but also an indictment of the current Cambodian Government. Gaffar all of his life wanted a better fairer Cambodia. He sought to accomplish it as a diplomat, warrior, academic and policy advocate. An internet search of his name produces a wealth of writings not only as to how his aim could be achieved but also how troubles could have been avoided, and still could. Sadly his premature death meant Gaffar was denied seeing his ambitions fulfilled. He leaves the question though – can Cambodia afford to thwart the noble efforts of people like him exiled from Cambodia?

I am very appreciative that Mr Chan Thul Prak and Kiripost decided to post my article and was happy for them to abridge and edit it to meet their specifications.  In Cambodia there are few media outlets now brave enough to accept such critical pieces.  However some readers might like to see the original with its extra notes and the links to the various sources used.  So here it is:

The Lifelong Birth-Right Denied and an Unfulfilled Exit

The homing instinct exists in many creatures not just human beings. It's a natural instinct most graphically observed with the Salmon and Turtle who somehow manage to return to find their exact birth-places across thousands of miles to spawn and even to end their days.

Human beings might not have to endure such physical feats but the yearning to return home can be just as strong. Some who have left their birth-places and “traveled each and every by-way” want to go home to see people and places of their early years. Others who have forged successful careers abroad want to go home with their skills and knowledge to share and to benefit their people. Many, however, just simply want to end their life where it began.

Queen Elizabeth II ended her days at Balmoral Castle in Scotland where she had spent much of her carefree childhood before devoting her adulthood to a lifetime of service as reigning monarch. We all know of people who have made that same final choice. It is or should be everyone's life-long birth-right.

I do not know if the late Professor Gaffar Peang-Meth wanted to end his days back in Cambodia, but I do know that he definitely wanted to return to see places and people, and to share his rich lifetime of experiences with them, especially today's youth. He had been a most successful teacher and academic. As a young man all the way back in 1975 he said this:

“The desire to do something is very strong. I would go back to Cambodia tomorrow, tonight, if I could do something.....”

What I do know is that Gaffar was effectively denied the right to return as indeed are too many of his peers and compatriots, and for one reason only. The current Cambodian Government fears the kind of free expression he advocated. It does not matter to them if those opinions are offered in good faith to advance the country. It regards any contrary views to its own as a threat to its hold on power.

This is just one fundamental international principle violated by the Cambodia Government - Articles 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which it is party.

Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

I first encountered Gaffar in the late 1990s from his articles around the same time as Cambodia was opening up to the internet. Every article was well-written and reasoned, often with a touch of humour or levity and without malice. Gaffar was amused by my frequent use of his favorite analogy to describe Cambodia's politics as it sums up the situation perfectly.

“I am reminded of a ranking official of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations who, in the early 1980s in the United Nations, dubbed Cambodian factions' enduring political negotiations, the Ramvong, a popular Khmer traditional circle dance, with participants moving continuously in a circle, around and around, with hand movements and simple footwork. "There is an end, be patient," he said.”

Except the ranking official was wrong. There is seemingly no end. The Ramvong is still going on today. Any curious reader may even wish to see the person who featured most in Gaffar's writing leading and dancing the Ramvong.

It is true we do seem go around in circles in Cambodia. The same issues do crop up with remarkable regularity, usually with the same or no responses. The Ramvong dance doesn't seem to have a formal Caller, like its folk-dancing equivalents elsewhere, but there is only person calling the tune.

Gaffar expressed a different tune which is why independent commentators like me were drawn to him. Most other Cambodian analysts fall in to one camp or the other, the most ambitious moving in and out of nominally independent institutions and organisations. I should explain that some in Cambodia confuse independent with bipartisan composition of bodies which came about when efforts were made to share power. Independent or bipartisan they all proved to be futile. Today ruling party adherents occupy all state institutions and many organisations claiming to be independent – research bodies, the media, trade unions and NGOs.

Gaffar did not claim to be independent – he was a republican at heart, but at least he did know and could explain to students and the Cambodian public, as few others can, the distinctions between the various forms and the implications for democracy and the choices open to citizens.

But then in today's Cambodia, had Gaffar come home and sought to teach students about republicanism, he would soon be in serious trouble. It would not matter to the ruling party that this is a perfectly legitimate debate and one Cambodian students should study. They should learn about an elected or appointed President versus a hereditary Head of State like Queen Elizabeth. However to do so could be easily regarded as a plot against Cambodia's King and a breach of its Lese Majeste laws introduced and modelled on the lines of neighbouring Thailand.

Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral Castle shortly before she died still performing constitutional duties with her 14th and 15th Prime Ministers. 

Republicanism would not be the only subject to get Gaffar in trouble. As an academic, writer, and orator, he was an effective communicator. This skill is also deterred in Cambodia unless the ruling party's message is being conveyed. Even though Gaffar was equally adept at taking issue with the Opposition, Royalists and latterly those associated with Sam Rainsy their most prominent leader, that would be of no consequence to the ruling party. We know what happened to one equally-skilled communicator who did likewise. The late Kem Ley was assassinated. The killing ended his stream of “fables” that were eagerly devoured in Cambodia.

Gaffar in a classic understatement said “my article would bring out friends and adversaries, praise and unkind comments”.

Gaffar, who lived in the United States, died unexpectedly. He had been diagnosed in the fall of 2022 with B-cell lymphoma and recommended to a trial being conducted at the National Institutes of Health near his home. He had agreed to the trial, hoping to help himself, of course, but also to contribute to the knowledge base about this illness. Although his cancer had been successfully addressed by the trial medicines, after a long rainy Thursday before Christmas, he fainted massively fracturing his skull. He died a week later on December 30, 2022. The Cambodian community in the US organized a memorial service, working diligently to bring it together in January and Gaffar's wife and sons appreciated their dedication.

In Cambodia and elsewhere, the sad news, did not go far. It escaped me. I did notice last year that Gaffar's and my exchanges appeared to dry up. However I thought that he might be doing the same as other exiles. Some I knew were laying low before Cambodia's “elections” with the much anticipated handover of power by Prime Minister Hun Sen to his son Hun Manet. Would it mark a real change? The hope was that Hun Manet who had himself been educated in the United States, and who had met some of his exiled compatriots, would show greater appreciation of their talents. Would he welcome them home?

Well so far Prime Minister Hun Manet hasn't done that. In fact more Cambodians have gone in to exile. Freedom of expression is still curtailed. Only this week an articulate human rights advocate faces defamation charges initiated by former PM Hun Sen.

It is too early to say that Hun Manet will not meet the hopes and prayers of those exiles to make at least one return home before they die. Surely some of the freedoms he saw and enjoyed have rubbed off? After all he was hosted for many years in the West, graduating from the Military Academy in Westpoint, a Master's at New York University, and a Doctorate from Bristol University in the UK. His higher degrees are in Economics where of course to maximize human resources is a quality every country should attain. He knows too all about opportunity costs – the income and benefits foregone because of actions not taken.

So it remains an open question posed by Gaffar and many others. Can Cambodia afford to keep ignoring the opportunity provided by the potential contribution he and other exiles could make at home in Cambodia?

Or does Hun Manet himself want to stay saddled with the legacy he inherited of denying Cambodians their birth-right?

Dotted around the world are various places called “Exiles Club”, colonial legacies, vestiges of some are still around, and others like this one – the first I frequented on St Helena but now sadly demolished. 

If Cambodians who are exiled abroad had their own Exiles Club it would have a burgeoning membership!

.....ooo0ooo.....

Extra Notes

Popular Cambodian delicacy

1. Just issued is a United Nations report on the state of the world's migratory species: "the conservation status of migratory species overall is deteriorating" and "the greatest threat for many migratory species, surpassing habitat loss and fragmentation....is overexploitation"

2. I have often written, as a human resources professional, about Cambodia's waste of talent which is more by design than an accidental consequence of past internal conflict.  Former Prime Minister Hun Sen has long since called out his compatriots living abroad. Sophal Ear described this, as I replicated in an earlier blog from which this extract is taken:

A further manifestation of the bias was Cambodia's hastened legislation to restrict people of dual nationality from holding top institutional offices, a move that of course affects more Opposition figures. 

3. Interestingly after I'd drafted this article, Touch Vibol  and I had another one of our exchanges.  Usually but not always, he and his colleagues take the ruling party line on issues.  On the one that sparked the exchange - my colleagues at local Human Rights NGOs should not comment on "hot topics" - I think he is motivated to prevent trouble and the fate that that has befallen our colleague. (Please click on the link in the article.)

Needless to say if they were to do so, then not only would it consolidate the self-censorship that now pervades media in Cambodia but of course it also ends the concept of self-advocacy skills that we have carefully nurtured over the past 25 years.  That has sometimes brought success and even good rapport with some in authorities.

4. If anyone wishes to delve deeper in to my engagement in Cambodia, then they may wish to read my blog written to mark 25 years in Cambodia.

Now there is one thing that the ruling party cannot accuse me of, the same as Gaffar, being critical only of it, its government and authorities. I too have taken task with the Opposition and even with Civil Society colleagues.  For example on "executive interference in Rule of Law", they correctly decry it in general but not if and when occasionally it has worked in their favour.

If to illustrate even more the claim to be genuinely "independent" I do criticise donors and my own country UK in particular.