From: Kh. Kung (baphuon@aol.com)
Subject: If We Can redo The 1998 Election Popular Demonstration, Hun Sen Government Will Fall
Newsgroups: soc.culture.cambodiaDate: 2003-07-23 19:26:39 PST
IF WE CAN REDO THE 1998 ELECTION POPULAR DEMONSTRATION, HUN SEN
GOVERNMENT WILL FALL.

According to some NGO's observers, IF (with the big IF) the legislative election of July 27, 2003, was free and fair, Sam Rainsy Party would lead in the following provinces: Battambang, Banteay Mean Chey, Siemreap, Kompong Thom, Pailin, Pursat, Kampot, Phnom Penh and Kompong Cham. Funcipec would lead in Kompong Chhnang and Takeo.

IF the election were really free and fair, Sam Rainsy Party would win the majority. The leading poll of Sam Rainsy in these provinces can be explained by the geopolicy and demography. Indeed, most of these provinces were in the western part of Cambodia.

Battambang the richest and largest province of Cambodia, Siemreap and Kompong Thom were always the credo of Khmer freedom fighters. The children of Takeo the tougher, Battambang the intellect, Siemreap and Kompong Thom, Kompong Cham , etc., were by tradition-dedicated fighters for the liberation of Cambodia.

The western Cambodia was also, all along the past century, the save-haven of Khmer Krom who fought against Vietnam for the defense of Kampuchea Krom freedom and other Khmer freedom fighters. When Vietnamese repression were so severe, Khmer Krom fled Kampuchea Krom and took refuge in Cambodia western provinces. Lands in Cambodia western provinces were available and fertile. Those fertile lands needed skill workers to develop it.

Khmer Krom was the manpower behind the economic development of that western part of Cambodia, especially Battambang. For that same reason, Cambodia western provinces became the magnetism of other immigration, especially, Vietnamese and communist Vietnamese.

Vietminh strongholds were established in Cambodia since Thailand occupation of Battambang and Siemreap in the 1940s, even before. These Vietnamese strongholds are still there until today.

Vietnam Army had never withdrawn their forces from these strongholds. Actually, the general who commanded Battambang military region is a Vietnamese, a NVA Division General, Sung. General Sung was married to a widow Cambodian lady. Sung lived in Battambang since he was a kid. All security forces, all governors, all administrators must kowtow Sung. It was the same for other provinces. Vietnamese generals were at the top. They controlled everything. So don't whine for the Vietnamese refugees in Cambodia as reported by the recent AFP press. It was another psyop of Vietnamese propaganda.

In Cambodia, since 1993, when you vote against CPP/Hun Sen Party, you will be punished or sometime assassinated; you will lose your land, your house, your rice ration and your job. Since 1993, the districts, which voted for Funcipec or Sam Rainsy party, received nothing as domestic or international aids from and through Hun Sen government.

District bureaucracy was under Hun Sen' s thumb. District bureaucracy was a tool in Hun Sen' s hands to help Hun Sen win any election.

Hun Sen will cheat and will use violence to assure his victory. There is no doubt about that. So the election is what for? Why do we participate in that kind of cheated election? We know very well that the results will be cheated anyway?

For us, the participation of the election of July 27, 2003, has only one meaning and only one goal: Let Cambodian people prove to the world that they want political change. Let Cambodia people prove to the world that Hun Sen had cheated and used the violence to win the election. Let the world see that Cambodian people had never supported Hun Sen Regime and want the fall of Hun Sen regime.

IF Cambodian people demonstrate as she had done in the 1998 election afterward, Hun Sen government will fall.

IF we can redo the 1998 election demonstration, that means, put forty-thousand of Cambodian people in the streets of Phnom Penh uprising against Hun Sen cheating, Hun Sen regime will crumble.

So the question is: Can Sam Raingsy and Ranariddh mobilize Cambodian people to demonstrate in Phnom Penh streets as it was in 1998 election to condemn the cheating and the use of violence of Hun Sen government to quell the uprising of Cambodian people?

We hope that King Sihanouk would support Rainsy and Ranariddh uprising against Hun Sen regime. Hok Lundy says large political rallies are expected in the capital on Friday, the last day of official election campaigning.

Hok Lundy also warned that in a post-electoral environment his men would be armed and force would be used if political activists protested the result in a violent fashion. Hok Lundy menace will have no effect on Cambodian people will.

IF we can redo the 1998 election popular uprising, Hun Sen government will fall. (Update Jan-Fev2005)