The fear of violence is violence. The fear of possible torture - that of the camps and black pajamas - still fresh in the minds and genes of generations - is torture. Anyone tries to tell you it’s not is lying - probably in on the hustle.
While I was in Prague last month (see above) I learned fellow journalist, Mech Dara, was arrested in Cambodia. Dara, who reported fearlessly about the corruption and totalitarianism of Hun Sen, former Khmer Rouge leader, Donald Trump enthusiast and current dictator of Cambodia. Sure, he was “elected” in 2018, but I was there in 2018 - twice in February and again in June and the devolution of freedom of speech and press plummeted in those few months before the country voted for the strong man.
It’s unclear what truly motivated that vote. But I can guess. I can guess it’s the years and decades and generations of exhaustion of surviving a genocide, wars visited upon the country by western (and Russian) imperialists. The assassination, imprisonment and rendition of political opponents, exiling figureheads of democracy to France (remember, Cambodia was once a colonized by ye olde French. When I was first there in 2000, when Phnom Penh airport was still a breezeway and a landing strip, the human rights defenders and native khmer activists did indeed speak French in addition to local dialects).
I had several clandestine meetings with democracy enthusiasts, former journalists, those who witnessed the murder of other fellow activists (one gunned down at a gas station).
Message? Received.
In the run up to that election there were predictions of mass violence. There was fear over what exactly Hun Sen would do - how far he and his West Point educated son, Hun Manet would do to hold on to power?
The fear of violence is violence. The fear of possible torture - that of the camps and black pajamas - still fresh in the minds and genes of generations - is torture. Anyone tries to tell you it’s not is lying and probably in on hustle.
So we come now to Mr. Dara. A man I knew only as a tangential colleague albeit one who helped me navigate belt and road of scary Cambodia. Scarier than 2000 Cambodia. When the last outposts of free journalism was killed off. Killing fields turned into tourist traps while Hun Sen channels Saloth Sar.
Now? Today?
From the Cambodia Daily:
Mech Dara, the award-winning reporter whose recent arrest drew global outrage, has called it a career. He has quit journalism, he said, and intends to farm vegetables at home in Kandal province.
It was a stunning turnaround for the 36-year-old newspaperman, who was detained Sept. 30 on incitement charges for social media posts relating to a CPP-linked tycoon. After three weeks in jail, he apologized. On Monday, he appeared on Hun Manet's Facebook page, embracing the prime minister.
His bombshell capitulation sends a chilling message to the nation’s would-be journalists. It's a dark time for free speech in Cambodia — and there's no telling when it will end
How can we judge a man who has been a consistent and often lone Truth beacon in a world where Donald Trump has been elected - decisively - in the moldy old city (burnt out, rotting) on a hill?
I don’t blame him. But this is what relying on the western vision has gotten so many of us. Unsafe world. Unfree speech. Glad-handing a dictator to escape a fucking Cambodian prison.
Here’s to bountiful harvest, Mech. Rest. Recharge. In hopes we will still be here when you and our fellow journalists are ready to help you return.
Buckle up USA.
Buckle. Up.