May 23, 1991

Sophal Ear is a 16 year-old high school senior in Oakland, California. He was an infant when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975. His article is reprinted from a recent issue of Khmer Conscience.

Copyright © 1991 Sophal Ear

Are We Ready for Democracy?

By Sophal Ear

I have learned that it is often dangerous to staunchly support any one side of the Cambodian conflict. As long as a faction is unwilling to sacrifice its public or private agenda for the sake and salvation of the suffering people in Cambodia, no genuine movement can be made.

It is ironic that two communist countries, China and Vietnam, could have found enough stupidity in themselves to fight on the land of another country. Would all of this have been different, had the United States not left Vietnam in 1975?

I realize that reminiscing on what could have happened does nothing to change what has unfolded or what will unfold. I understand that Vietnam has traditionally loathed and often schemed to possess Cambodia. I also suspect that Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge conspired together. In fact, was it not until Pol Pot’s aspirations to attack Vietnam that Vietnam had a sudden change of heart toward the genocide?

And on top of which fits the Sihanouk equation. Sometimes, it all sounds like a communist broth of betrayal, double cross, double speak, and the blood and life that thousands of Cambodians gave up.

Who has done more damage to Cambodia and her people? Is the crime of occupation larger than that of genocide? Has China or Vietnam come out the clear and undisputed winner? Any way it goes, communism has squandered and destroyed yet another country.

Who really has the interest of our people in his heart? In the way the following people have acted—Pol Pot, Sihanouk, Hun Sen and his boss China’s leaders—I should think not. We know that most of these people had their day in the sun, at the helm of the country, and what have they done? Is there a leader in sight, one who will not resort to communism, one who has a chance of winning democratically and realistically?

Perhaps the first question I should have asked is: Are the people living in Cambodia ready to accept democracy when it passes by? Because experiences are the events that shape a people. And the experiences have been traumatic. All roads eventually lead to democracy; some take a litlle longer than others, but there are no shortcuts to the state of democracy. There are only experiences along the way.

Cambodia and some of her people have matured through tragedy, but have we learned something? The people who populate Cambodia, have they learned anything? We have the advantage of standing on the sidelines and looking inward, of listening to many truths, of being able to obtain a good life and a good education, if we aspire to. After 15 years, we are a severed people of expatriates and of sufferers or even both. But can everything return to normal or business as usual with only a pinch of democracy?

How many of us are willing to return to our country, and almost certainly lose benefits…? How can we return in peace, if we risk being turned into pieces from the million landmines, an inherited legacy of our past?

As reprinted in "The Vietnamese People" NGUOI VIET Weekly, Vol. 13, No. 2101.