by Jayakhmer
It is quite intriguing to see Samdech Prime Minister reacted to those who did not see January 7th as a day of liberation. He said, “If you ignorant persons and extremists do not dare acknowledge the truth [of January 7, 1979], you are not humans, you are truly animals.”
That includes your truly here. I see January 7th as a day of invasion.
I am sure that Samdech Prime Minister is entitled to his opinion. Like all of us, he is free to opine on any matter. On this particular issue, I simply want to offer a different opinion.
Before getting into the substance of the matter, I want to acknowledge all Cambodians who were members of the United Front for National Salvation of Kampuchea (UFNSK) who participated in the invasion. I am grateful for their efforts for doing their very best under the circumstance to dismantle the Khmer Rouge regime. That was a noble deed.
January 7th did in fact stop the killing, but Cambodia was not free. Vietnam occupied Cambodia; therefore, by definition Cambodia was not liberated. This is why the word “liberation” has a major semantic problem. One cannot call oneself a liberated being if one is not free to determine one’s destiny. Liberation could not be further from the truth. The world knows that Cambodia was under Vietnam’s control from the day it invaded Cambodia until it was pressured to withdraw.
To form a more perfect union with all Cambodians and all political factions, Cambodia should abandon January 7th as “liberation” day.
I am quite sure that every Cambodian can embrace January 7th as a major turning point. It was pivotal in a sense that January 7th allowed Cambodia to temporarily escape from the yoke of the Khmer Rouge regime; it was also the day Cambodia went into another bondage of foreign occupation.
I wish that Samdech Prime Minister views those of us who hold a different opinion as patriots who love the country as much as he does. Imagine if everyone agrees with Pol Pot, we would not have January 7th.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
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2 comments:
I do agree with your moderate comment on 7th of January. But I don't think we should give up the day, instead changing the name of the day as " End of Genocide's day".
Why?
- We all agree that KR committing genocide...
- We do know that without the invasion of VN, the genocide would continue..
- We all understand that there were no any nations, even the UN, at that time wish to send troop to end genocide committed by the KR even they learn the bloodbath occuring..
- We all know that without the KR incursion into the VN's territory, there would be no invasion of VN and hence, the killing spree was stop..
I agree that marking 7th January 1979 as the liberation day has been too disputed since after that Cambodia was still not fully independent...Thus, mark it as "End of Genocide's day" would sound better...
Keng
I disagree with Keng.
-I do not agree that only KR who committed the genocide without the Vietnamese Rouge among them. Because Vietnamese created Viet-Khmer-Laos Rouge. Vietnamese Rouge were supreme leaders. On French map the Vietnamese owned Cambodia, KK and Laos.
- I do not agree that without the invasion of VN, the genocide would be still. It will stop until most Khmers will be all decimated along with Vietnamese nationalists who sacrificed their lives for their country Vietnam. They decimated an enitre Chinese army in the past, why not in Cambodia?
-I don't care about the UN. The members of the UN were too corrupted took bribes from Vietnam.
Lee
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