letter to the editor

Do Cambodians have freedom of Religion?

The article by D. Gillison in the Cambodia Daily on Sep. 18 shows some alarming statistics which deserve proper and deep analysis.
If we consider that Cambodia has 13 million inhabitants then the statistics show:
Population # of Pagodas/
Churches/Mosques # of worshippers per place of worship
Buddhist 93% 12,090,000 4163 (59%) 2904
Christian 2% 260,000 2400 (34%) 108
Muslim 5% 650,000 500 (7%) 1300

It is surprising that Christians, who represent 2% of the population, have 2400 churches or 34% of the total number of places of worship in Cambodia. Massive financial support from Christian groups from abroad fund the recent surge of church construction. Fundamentalist churches from the USA and Korea are very rich and very active in Cambodia. Today, these churches may not be well attended, but the objective is to use them as examples of successful proselytization, conversion, dissemination of the faith, to solicit money from believers back home. They show off the new buildings as examples of the church’s money well spent ‘saving souls’. These souls are mostly children. Children are happy to attend church meetings because they are given food and treats. During the children’s programs, adults and parents are not allowed to join or observe, so they don’t understand what is going on. Most Buddhists would assume that charity comes without the expectation of conversion yet these churches don’t give without also sermonizing. It is easier to manipulate a child’s mind than an adult’s. This will have grave consequences for Khmer society if families are divided; children becoming Christian while their elders remain Buddhist.
Cambodian leaders should be concerned about the threat that these fundamentalist groups pose to Khmer culture and society. Cambodian Buddhism is still recovering from the dark days of the Khmer Rouge. Khmers born between 1970 and 1993 have very little exposure to Buddhism, and as adults cannot teach important Buddhist values to their children. In Laos, Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka, where Buddhism is strong, there is less of a risk to the children. The Christian proselytizers are often ignorant of the damage they do to Khmer culture, focusing instead on the appearance of successful conversions to raise more money to continue their exploits here.
Freedom of Religion is a Human Right because it defines freedom of thought. Bribing poor children with treats and food to convert them to an alienating religion is not compatible with freedom of thought. Selling radio and television time to evangelicals is corrupt and corrupting. Christians do not have a monopoly on morality. Buddha lived and taught centuries before Christ, and in-deed many of Jesus’ best teachings bear a great similarity to the clarity of the Dharmapada. Perhaps it is the Cambodians who should be converting these guests to the Way.

“When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the missionaries had the Bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed; when we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.”
-Jomo Kenyatta, 1952
We know now that the soul is the body, and the body the soul. They tell us they are different be-cause they want to persuade us that we can keep our souls if we let them make slaves of our bodies.
-George Bernard Shaw

redundancy

To call someone a fat twat in Cambodia is redundant, because twat is the khmer word for fat.

motodop manners

When you want to tell a moto taxi that you have had a pleasant ride on the back of his moped, tell him, “I enjoyed my heinie”. This will let him know you appreciated the extra bit of duct tape he put on the metal seat you rode on, and the care he took when driving through every pothole at full speed. If he replies, “Joy my heinie?!”, you can reply, “Enjoy my heinie, away!”.

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route 3

route 3
Originally uploaded by ubikwity.