August 18, 2001
THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO LEGAL GROUND TO SEIZE MY BOOK
In an August 17, 2001 letter from the Minister of Information
to the two
Co-Ministers of Interior, the Government decided to seize and
prohibit the
publication of my book entitled "Light of Justice"
launched on July 3, 2001
(see SRP press release issued on that day).
The Government decision violates my freedom of expression and
publication
as a citizen and my immunity as a Member of Parliament.
They alleged that my book "disseminates information
attacking and accusing
the Royal Government without proof, thus intentionally
creating suspicion
and defaming the Royal Government of Cambodia stemming from
the 1998
democratic elections". Therefore, the Co-Ministers of
Interior are
requested to "confiscate all copies of the book".
I vehemently protest this arbitrary, illegal and undemocratic
decision by
the Government, which shows its really authoritarian face.
In my book I have never accused anybody namely and have
never even
mentioned any name of any government official. I have just
denounced a
system that I would qualify as an "inefficient
dictatorship" (see Table of
Contents).
Instead of seizing my book, I suggest that the Government or
any government
official rather confronts me before a tribunal if anybody
feels defamed by
any sentence printed in my book. In October 1999, the French
magazine
"L'Express" published very serious accusations
against Prime Minister Hun
Sen and his wife, but "L'Express" was not seized in
Cambodia and nobody
filed any defamation lawsuit against "L'Express"
either in Phnom Penh or in
Paris.
Sam Rainsy
Member of Parliament |
September
3, 2001
A SILENT MASSACRE
In
a front page article entitled “Sam Rainsy Book Banned” in
the August 27, 2001 issue of “The Cambodia Daily”, Khieu
Kanharith, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Information
and Government Spokesman, was quoted as saying that my book
“Light of Justice” was banned because it could “stir
controversy” and makes allegations against the Government
without providing any supporting evidence. “In one part, Sam
Rainsy says that after 1979, more people died than during the
Khmer Rouge. You can’t say things like that without
evidence. That promotes instability,” Khieu Kanharith was
reported as saying.
I
would like to make a three-point response to Khieu Kanharith:
1-
My book covers several topics and addresses several
problems besides the one raised by the Government spokesman.
Why didn’t le Government first try to get me clarify or
modify any sentence they don’t like in my book instead of
summarily banning the whole book? In a democracy, both
Government and Opposition should be open to dialogue in order
to reduce tension.
2-
Literally speaking, given the size of the Cambodian
population and the natural mortality rate in this country, any
demographer or statistician would easily agree with me that
more people have died since 1979, i.e. over the last
twenty-two years, than from 1975 to 1978, during the Khmer
Rouge, who are blamed for the death of some 1.7 million
people.
3-
The real issue -- and possible controversy -- concerns
the definition of a “natural” mortality rate. During the
Khmer Rouge scores of people were summarily executed but many
others died of overwork, malnutrition, exhaustion and diseases
not matched with any medical care. For this second group of
victims, death was natural but premature because it was
provoked by cruelty and neglect. Since 1979, poverty
associated with corruption and neglect has also led to many
natural but premature deaths, as evidenced by figures related
to life expectancy and mortality rates published by the United
Nations Development Program in its “2001 World Report on
Human Development”. We can see that life expectancy is as
low as 56.4 years in Cambodia, compared to 67.8 in Vietnam and
69.9 in Thailand, and that infant mortality rate is as high as
122 deaths under age five per 1,000 live births, compared to
40 in Vietnam and 30 in Thailand. We can infer that tens of
thousands of people die naturally but prematurely every year
in Cambodia now as during the Khmer Rouge. More recently,
casualties have been compounded by the tragic and human
trafficking-related spread of AIDS, which is considered by
sociologists as potentially destructive for the nation as Pol
Pot. Moreover, successive floods over the last few years
following massive deforestation and subsequent soil erosion
have caused crop and property destructions and aggravated
poverty and its consequences on the people’s living and
dying conditions. Over a long period of time since 1979, the
number of Cambodians who die because of malnutrition, diseases
and lack of medical care due to poverty associated with
government corruption and neglect, becomes more and more
appalling and tends to exceed the number of people who were
summarily executed during the Khmer Rouge. We must stop this
silent massacre.
Sam Rainsy
Member of Parliament
|