Us = Cambodia, Them = Vietnam

It happened when I was out with a Khmer friend for dinner. We were sitting at a street corner discussing the election and my friend was talking about how the Vietnamese controlled the Cambodian government. She had heard that they controlled the Lao government too. As she talked more, I realised that for Cambodians, the Vietnamese were "the other" who were feared.

We form social bonds by creating common identities, and one of the most powerful can be the sense of nation. This identity allows us to claim things for ourselves that we had nothing to do with. For instance, when Mo Farah won the Olympics, I was delighted because "we" had won a gold medal. It even allows us to claim things for ourselves that happened before we were born. "We", being James Watt and every Scottish or possibly British person since, invented the steam engine. We even feel proud of ourselves for this. Well done us. 

The identity of the "we" can be strengthened by not just defining who the "us" are, but also by defining "them", or "the other". We even sometimes give "them" names. In Cambodia, they have given the Vietnamese the name Yuon. The Cambodian opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, has consistently decried the influence of the Yuon in Cambodia during his speeches, which appears to energise his supporters and the public.

Despite various conversations with friends and reading about politics here, I only recently grasped the depth of hate for the Vietnamese that exists within the Cambodian psyche. We were watching a film that included interviews with the late King Father Sihanouk. After Cambodian-Vietnamese forces defeated the Khmer Rouge in 1979, freeing him from their arrest in the process, he sided with the Khmer Rouge against them. He helped persuade countries that the Khmer Rouge should keep Cambodia's seat at the UN, rather than the seat be given to the Vietnamese installed government. For him, there was no other option but to side with the Khmer Rouge even if they had killed some of his children.

Vietnamese sign: "Determined to firmly safeguard national sovereignty"

This intrigued me and made me begin to understand more what people were thinking during the civil war of the1980s, and also now. But I was still not prepared for what the King Father said next. He said that he would rather have died as a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge than his country be saved by the Vietnamese. 

The man who became King, achieved independence for his country, ruled as Prime Minister, saw sons and daughters die, returned as King to a unify a destroyed country, said that he loved his country so much that he would rather that the Khmer Rouge continued its destruction of Cambodia, than Cambodia be saved by Vietnam.  I don't think there could be a clearer sense of "us" and "them" than this.

It is this division that is evident in today's politics and is galvanising opposition to the Prime Minister,  who first became Prime Minister during the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia in the 1980s. Cambodians cite history showing that Vietnam has previously tried to take over territory by movements of people first followed by formal occupation. Cambodians fear this now because of Vietnamese people in Cambodia whilst believing that the people of Vietnam today are closely linked to the people of Vietnam hundreds of years ago; just like I believe that I am linked to a guy who invented the steam engine in 1765.

Hoi An, Viet Nam: These girls sell little lanterns that float on the river.  Who can resist buying one? Depends on what you think about child labour I guess.

Feeding this fear is the real loss of some territory to Vietnam, for instance the island of Phu Quoc, and large Vietnamese companies controlling industries such as rubber and timber. Sam Rainsy has called for immigration controls of Vietnamese people despite only being two years away from Cambodia and Vietnam becoming part of an ASEAN community. This community, like the EU, seeks to forge a new common identity, a new "we". And in this "we", people will be free to live and work in any of the ASEAN countries they wish to.

The driving motive of European integration was (and still is for some) that nations will have more security because countries i.e. France and Germany, are less likely to go to war with each other. Nations are protected not by strengthening separate identities but by retaining them whilst promoting a second common "we" identity. Some would say that it's worked. Peace for Cambodia might come through this route rather than one emphasising difference.

Gordon

The King Father's Funeral - A glimpse of Cambodia's past

We were out of the country when the King Father died in October, and we missed witnessing the huge numbers of Cambodians who made their way from throughout the country to pay their respects at the Royal Palace. Catching up with what had happened also meant learning about the relationship between the people and their King Father.

Claire had been told that foreigners who have only been here for a couple of years would find it hard to understand how big a part the King Father had played in the lives of Cambodians over the last decades, and without this we could not understand their sense of loss.

This is where the King Father's cremation happened.
It was built during the 3 months mourning period. 

The King Father was a man who was anointed King by the French when aged only 18, but rather than be a puppet, he won independence for his country. Then instead of sitting and enjoying his position, he abdicated to become Prime Minister creating a period which is  thought of as the golden era of modern Cambodia. The Sihanouk Era of the 50s and 60s is the yardstick against which Cambodia currently measures itself; the dream to which Cambodia has never  returned.

Respect for authority is a characteristic that is definitely more ingrained in Cambodia than in European/North American cultures, but even Cambodians who recognised the mistakes and faults of the King Father (he was a bit too closely aligned with the Khmer Rouge initially), told us that they would weep uncontrollably when thinking of his death. He not only won them independence in the 50s, but he brought them back together again after the horrors of the 70s and the 80s, when he returned as King.

The King Father though the ages - lapels that you should buy to wear with a white top to show respect

During the 90s, there were still deep divisions in Cambodia; the Khmer Rouge was fighting and there was even an armed battle in Phnom Penh overthrowing the then first prime minister. But above this was the King Father, then King, who was the unifying figure, the moral authority that all Cambodians listened to.

It was in 2004 that he became the King Father, as he abdicated and one of his sons was appointed (by a council; it is not a hereditary monarchy) King, but his place as head of the Cambodian family remained.

You see trucks full of people every day, usually garment or construction workers, but this was for the funeral. 

So when his funeral was due to take place on Feb 1st - 4th, it was expected that Phnom Penh would be overcome with maybe a million-plus Cambodians coming to pay respects. This led foreigners, and some Cambodians, in Phnom Penh to plot their escape from the city but before we made ours, Claire and I got up early to walk the streets of Phnom Penh and witness the funeral procession.

Flanking the streets ready for the procession

Because of the procession, cars and motos had been banned from a section of the city and we walked the streets with thousands of Cambodians in a serene, peaceful and even happy atmosphere. Along with others, we stopped and looked at monkeys above our heads playing on telephone wires. We passed the Independence Monument and strolled across what is usually the busiest road and into the park. We wandered into the huge Wat beside the Royal Palace and through tree lined streets spotting things that you normally pass by. All the time surrounded by people who seemed to have something to celebrate rather than just commemorate.

It felt as if this was what the city could have been like back in the Sihanouk Era; his funeral was not just helping Cambodian remember those golden times, but were actually giving Cambodians one more experience of them.

A picture of the King Father in the procession

4x4s rule the road in Cambodia. They honk their horn and stop for nothing.  They are a symbol of wealth, power and being above the law. 

We ended the morning watching the procession with a host of Cambodians, including a bunch of little kids who had commandeered, for a better view, the roof and bonnet of a now too ubiquitous 4x4. There was no better symbol of the Sihanouk era reigning once again, if even just for a morning.

Gordon