Of Generation Lost
Hun Xen and Nguyen Tan Dung, one of his Viet bossesFriday, September 24, 2010
Op-Ed by MP
THE longer Cambodia remains under the yoke of Hanoi, the more difficult it will be to free her from that yoke, the less chance and scope for Khmers to help Khmers out.
Thailand will continue to pose a threat to Cambodia with tacit impunity knowing how dependent Cambodia is upon Hanoi's military-political support, just as Vietnam tacitly approves of Bangkok's belligerence towards Cambodia knowing that this would increase Cambodia's sense of insecurity and thereby her dependence upon and leaning towards Hanoi. It is, in principle, the same situation that Cambodia found herself in prior to the advent of French colonisation of Indochina in the 19th century.
The real issue - as Mr Hun Sen himself is probably aware of - is how to dislodge Vietnamese presence and influence within his regime’s structure. It is not going to be easy doing this - even if he were to make a sudden U-turn or have the political will to go ahead with it – especially, if one wishes to avoid, that is, the brutality and clinical efficiency on the scale that Indonesia dealt with the communists in the 1960s.
