by LTO » Wed Jul 20, 2016 11:30 am
thepostman2020 wrote:Calling the security forces Youn is a brilliant strategy on the part of the opposition to win the military and police to their side. [Sarcasm set to stun]
People power is Bullshit unless the security forces defect. I can't see that happening in Cambodia any time soon.
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/blac ... ng-115614/
I think there was a real threat of a limited mutiny in the last post election period, or at least a whiff of the possibility of it. As the protests dragged on and got larger, it did not go unnoticed that the rank&file security forces (i.e. cops and soldiers, but not necessarily the elites) are for the most part underpaid civil servants who were as or more likely to have voted CNRP as CPP. And as the protests grew, that the security forces may have even been facing down friends and family on the other side of the protest line. Rainsy played to this on facebook at the time, urging mutiny, and HE reacted strongly to Rainsy's hints, suggesting that HE also recognized the possibility. And while the racist insult "Yuon!" thrown by protestors at the security forces certainly does nothing to endear them in that moment, in the longer run much those forces come from the same stock, the same social classes as the protestors, and many probably share similar feelings about the 'yuon.' I'm not so sure that when they go home at night to the family hovel and reflect on their personal politics and feelings as Khmers, that being ranked in with the 'yuon' at work might not have some impact on their thoughts, and perhaps ultimately their loyalties.
Nothing is going to happen now or in the immediate future. We are in a mid-election lull, and except for the Ley thing, there isn't sufficient reason for the people to go to the streets. But come the 2018 erections, feelings will be running high and hot again, protests on the scale of 2013 (or bigger) seem easily conceivable. And then we'll see what happens next.
Kon Khmer wrote:...many Americans can hardly tell what DC stands for.
'Detective Comics'
[quote="thepostman2020"]Calling the security forces Youn is a brilliant strategy on the part of the opposition to win the military and police to their side. [Sarcasm set to stun]
People power is Bullshit unless the security forces defect. I can't see that happening in Cambodia any time soon.
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/black-monday-activists-blocked-from-marching-115614/[/quote]
I think there was a real threat of a limited mutiny in the last post election period, or at least a whiff of the possibility of it. As the protests dragged on and got larger, it did not go unnoticed that the rank&file security forces (i.e. cops and soldiers, but not necessarily the elites) are for the most part underpaid civil servants who were as or more likely to have voted CNRP as CPP. And as the protests grew, that the security forces may have even been facing down friends and family on the other side of the protest line. Rainsy played to this on facebook at the time, urging mutiny, and HE reacted strongly to Rainsy's hints, suggesting that HE also recognized the possibility. And while the racist insult "Yuon!" thrown by protestors at the security forces certainly does nothing to endear them in that moment, in the longer run much those forces come from the same stock, the same social classes as the protestors, and many probably share similar feelings about the 'yuon.' I'm not so sure that when they go home at night to the family hovel and reflect on their personal politics and feelings as Khmers, that being ranked in with the 'yuon' at work might not have some impact on their thoughts, and perhaps ultimately their loyalties.
Nothing is going to happen now or in the immediate future. We are in a mid-election lull, and except for the Ley thing, there isn't sufficient reason for the people to go to the streets. But come the 2018 erections, feelings will be running high and hot again, protests on the scale of 2013 (or bigger) seem easily conceivable. And then we'll see what happens next.
[quote="Kon Khmer"]...many Americans can hardly tell what DC stands for. [/quote]
'Detective Comics'