Vietnamese / Its Colonization On the Khmerkroms and Other Indigenous Peoples

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By Sothy Kien

Khmer Krom: When Will Vietnam Say Sorry?

Indigenous Khmer Krom Buddhists in Kampuchea-Krom (1909)

What else is happening behind closed doors? Who is bringing justice to these people, if the only justice served is one ruled by the violator?

Perhaps the Vietnamese government never introduced or initiated the Stolen Generation but the discriminatory actions against the Khmer Krom are no less degrading or inhumane.

For over two hundred years the majority of world knew nothing about the existence of Khmer Krom people. France knew and Cambodia knew but they were abandoned to the hands of the Vietnam, a race bent on colonising all of the current Vietnam regardless of the human price tag.

How many of our ancestors died trying to defend their religion, culture and nation? How many were buried deep to their neck and used as a stand for hot tea, a well known quote by Khmers, “do not spill the master’s tea?” How many Khmer Krom women became widow or were raped, used and abused by the Vietnamese officials?
How many were forced to abandon their ancestral home and land, uprooted and dump to a small aliquot of land with no means to make their traditional living?

Today, hundred of thousands remain homeless and jobless. Children as little as five are without education and hunt the rubbish rubble for scrapes of leftover food. Thousands more are dying because they cannot afford to take their sick mother, father or siblings to a medical centre in Prey Nokor (renamed Ho Chi Minh) city.
Vietnamese people and officials, often refer to the Khmer people as “backward” or “uncivilized” a description which shows their contempt towards the indigenous peoples.

How would you feel if you were called “backwards” as if you were dump and stupid? Treated worse than a dog and told to do everything according to the ideals of the Vietnamese communist government?

If the very roots you and your ancestors have created and practiced for centuries were forced to one side and you to speak, dress and act Vietnamese? If you were a peaceful Buddhist monk who stood up for your religious beliefs only to be hammered on the bench of a prison table like a nail standing out of place?
In the eyes of the Khmer Krom people, Vietnam has much to be sorry for.
Much to be sorry about.

The pain and the suffering that the Khmer Krom people endured since Vietnam started its southward (Nam Tien) ambition to occupy the Mekong Delta in the early 1600s is something Vietnam cannot deny.

When will the cycle of hate stop? In 10 or twenty years or will it run its course of another century before our children of today learn to love and respect one another?
If one travels through Kampuchea-Krom, one can see the statue and pictures of Ho chi Minh everywhere. No one can doubt that Vietnamese communist government is proud of the father of liberation, one that freed Vietnamese people from the French colonisation. When will the day come when Vietnam stops being so proud of its nationality that it works to destroy the nation of another because they think they are far more superior than us?

Vietnam did not like having the French colonising them but we like it even less being doubly colonised by first the Vietnamese then the French. Now it is Vietnam that continues to colonise us and change our way of life to suit that of its nation without fear of justice or consequence.

“It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us. With some noble exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and enter into their hearts and minds. We failed to ask - how would I feel if this were done to me?” - Paul Keating, former Prime Minister of Australia 1991

For the western countries such as Australia, USA and Canada, the gross actions were perpetrated by their forefathers in the past, but in Vietnam these inhumane and atrocious acts are still being committed.

When will Vietnam stop being defensive and learn the importance of saying sorry as the first step of reconciliation for the sake of not only Khmer Krom but deeper still for all of human kind?

Using Australia’s prime example of Sorry Day we ask that Vietnam stop committing atrocious acts against the indigenous peoples of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam today.
We ask that Vietnam stand forth and be a positive role model for other Asian countries by apologising to those they have hurt in order to conquer their lands as the first step to reconciliation.

We ask that you start NOW.

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