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

Cambodia hosts USA vs China

We live in a flat above a family who live in the two ground floor apartments. Gran and Grandpa (the owners), live in one, and their daughter and her husband live in the other. We generally have small conversations, only ever in the courtyard, discussing whether we are going out to eat or what food we have bought to cook; how hot it is or whether it will rain; and lately, when our parents are coming to visit or have they left yet. All stuff we can manage and then there is a realisation that the conversation can go no further, we say thank you, smile, bob our heads and scurry away.

But one day, who would have believed it, change happened.

Of the six flats you can see, ours is bottom left - kind of above my Dad's head.

This year, Cambodia is the chair of ASEAN (kind of like Asia's EU or Africa Union) meaning that Cambodia had a much larger role in regional affairs, and played host to lots of conferences and motorcades. And it was as Obama's plane arrived into Phnom Penh that Gran, going straight past the usual conversations, invited Claire into her home to watch Obama step onto the tarmac and into a motorcade that would snake through Phnom Penh.

The arrival of Obama had been talked about for weeks before. People began preparing protests to appeal for his help with land and human rights issues, or to release prisoners believed to be innocent. The media began speculating about who he would meet while in Cambodia and what he would say. The US Presidential election even became news.

In an interesting aside, my boss wanted Obama to win the election because he felt wars would be more likely if Romney won. 

But for the other 50 weeks of the year, it is not Obama or America that dominates, but China. In 2011, Chinese investment totalled $1.9bn, ten times that of the US. In 2012, China has given $500m in soft loans and grants to Cambodia, plus a $24m gift that Cambodia can use as it wants. Behind these numbers are the Chinese people and businesses playing a larger role in every day life, such as building a major new bridge that will replace one built by the Japanese.

The 2012 investments came at the same time as China was showing "appreciation", in the words of the Cambodian Secretary of State for Finance, for how Cambodia kept the issue of sovereignty over some islands in the South China Sea off the ASEAN agenda. This dispute involves Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia (all ASEAN members) and China (not a member but attends meetings).

Obama, Hun Sen (PM of Cambodia), Wen Jiabao (Premier of China)

So it was considering all of these things that I asked my boss, Rithy, whether more Cambodians have heard of Barack Obama or Wen Jiabao or Hu Jintao. He had no doubt that it was Obama. And whilst Wen Jiabao and Hu Jintao have come and gone with motorcades, flags and fanfare, Gran had never invited us to watch these on TV. In fact, I'm not sure they were even on TV.

I bet if you asked the Cambodian youth, especially in Phnom Penh, if they want to live a life like people in China or America do, they would choose America. Whilst China has cash, America has allure.

Gordon

PS, just referring back to paragraph one, if you are ever in Cambodia and somebody asks you whether you will fry your eggs, just say yes rather than trying to explain scrambled eggs in Khmer.