ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាសង្គម Engaged Buddhism

Latest report by RFA on trip of Ven. Luon Sovath in Montreal Canada

2012-02-28T11:57:00.001-08:00

Please, listen latest interviewing and activities of Ven. Luon Sovath while he is on his trip in Montreal, Canada by Radio Free Asia. Stay tune...

==>Interview with Venerable Loun Sovath by Phorn Ryna of RFA on 26 February 2012

Public Invitation to Meet Ven. Loun Sovath in Montreal on March 3, 2012

2012-02-27T15:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends;

Ven. Loun Sovath is currently visiting Canada. He is an outspoken activist, documentary filmmaker, and poet – and earlier this month he boarded a plane to deliver his message of Truth about Cambodia to Canadians and Khmer-Canadian community.

He will speak at an event organized by Cambodian community at Buddha Sodharam Temple on March 3, 2012 on the title of "Monk's Roles During Injustice Events in Cambodia".

Venerable Loun Sovath is a Cambodian monk who witnessed with his nephew and brother injured by bullets for trying to farm in their own land. When 12 others were sent to prison he decided to speak out. Since he became a Human Rights Defender, the Venerable Luon Sovath has been accused of incitement and threatened such as beatings, death threat, defrocking and expelling from the monastery.

Human Rights Watch has awarded a prestigious Hellman/Hammett Award to the Venerable Loun Sovath for his human rights defending work supporting communities facing forced evictions and land-grabbing in Cambodia. This once-in-a-rare opportunity to see Ven. Sovath in person that everyone should not miss it.

For further information, please consult the attach file.

Thank you,

Chuop Samnang
Event Organizer
Montreal,Canada
514-543 1479

CAMBODIAN MONK BRINGS HIS ACTIVISM TO MONTREAL'S KHMER COMMUNITY

2012-02-25T14:18:00.001-08:00

“The more they stop me, the more I am strong and stand up. Again and again, more and more,” he said.
On Saturday, Sovath called on Canadians to support land activists and victims, not just with donations, but also through advocacy and petitions to the Canadian government. Sovath’s message of peaceful action resounded through the audience.
“Before, when I was small, I wanted to do something, but I was too scared and I felt alone, so I was discouraged and I lost hope,” said Sarom Om, a Khmer Canadian living in Montreal for 29 years. “If we see someone who stands up, who has confidence, that will help people who want to stand up and help and it will continue like that.”

REPORTED BY

HEATHER STILWELL

Cambodian monk and human rights activist Venerable Loun Sovath speaks to the Khmer Canadian community at Wat Buddha Sodhara in Montreal. Photo by Heather Stilwell.

REPORTED ON

February 25, 2012

Long ago in the foothills of the Himalayas, a young Prince Siddhartha left the safety of his palace and set off on a journey to overcome suffering. Upon realizing that the root of all suffering was greed, the newly enlightened Buddha dedicated his life to teaching compassion and sympathy to others.

More than 2,500 years later, a Cambodian monk is adding a modern twist to a journey of his own.

Venerable Loun Sovath maintains that Buddhism, human rights, and democracy are intertwined philosophies. He is an outspoken activist, documentary filmmaker, and poet – and earlier this month he boarded a plane to deliver his message of peace to Canada.

“It is very difficult working for human rights and democracy in Cambodia,” said Sovath in Montreal. “I came here because I want Khmer people in solidarity to help each other.”

Sovath is well known among Khmer Canadians, many of whom left Cambodia as early as 1975 to escape the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Last Saturday at Wat Buddha Sodhara in Saint Laurent, Sovath spoke to Montrealers about Buddhism, human rights issues in Cambodia, and a monk’s role in fighting injustice.

“I’ve never ever seen such an inspirational speech like this,” said event organizer Samnang Chuop. “People can listen to him talk for hours and hours.”

Sovath spoke in particular about corporate land acquisitions and violent forced evictions in Cambodia - an escalating problem as the country rapidly develops.

Few Cambodians have official titles for their land, a legacy of the Khmer Rouge who outlawed land ownership in 1975. As a result, land disputes are common and often result in evictions to make way for urban development or agro-business.

While some of the evicted are compensated, rights groups like Amnesty International continue to document violent evictions and the detainment of protestors, often women and children. On Jan. 26, Cambodian human rights organization LICADHO reported at least five incidents in which armed forces opened fire during protests in the two months prior.

Sovath became personally invested in the land issue after police shot and injured both his brother and nephew during a land dispute in Chi Kreng community, Siem Reap Province in 2009. Four days later he had already produced a documentary on the issue and was using it “to educate the people to know the power of themselves.”

Though his activism is peaceful, Sovath continues to be threatened by government and police officials. Even high-ranking religious officials claim he is violating the monastic code. He is banned from all pagodas and is in danger of being defrocked. Still, Sovath continues his work tirelessly.

“The more they stop me, the more I am strong and stand up. Again and again, more and more,” he said.

On Saturday, Sovath called on Canadians to support land activists and victims, not just with donations, but also through advocacy and petitions to the Canadian government. Sovath’s message of peaceful action resounded through the audience.

“Before, when I was small, I wanted to do something, but I was too scared and I felt alone, so I was discouraged and I lost hope,” said Sarom Om, a Khmer Canadian living in Montreal for 29 years. “If we see someone who stands up, who has confidence, that will help people who want to stand up and help and it will continue like that.”

“I’ve lived in Canada 20 years. I love this country,” said Sok Siven. “I want my Cambodia, my Khmer people, to have a life like me in Canada also.”

Sovath’s Canadian trip will include stays in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa.

Following the track of Ven. Luon Sovath's visiting to Canada

2012-02-23T01:08:00.000-08:00

Venerable Luon Sovath is a Buddhist monk activist who has sympathized the Cambodian farmers and urban residents whose lands and homes were grabbed and forced eviction by the authority. Now, he is on a trip in Canada and many Cambodian-Canadians are welcoming and attending all his speech session. This video clip is about radio interviewing by different media outlets.

In every speech, Venerable Luon Sovath makes it clear that Buddhism, society and Cambodian people are inalienable and they must be unanimously integrated.

មិនត្រូវយកកម្លាំងប្រដាប់អាវុធមកគំរាមពលរដ្ឋដៃទទេ ទេ

2012-02-22T11:46:00.001-08:00

ម្យ៉ាងវិញទៀត ការដែលចេះតែអះអាងថា ស្រុកខ្មែរកាន់លទ្ធិប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ គឺប្រជាធិបតេយ្យតែមាត់ តែក្នុងចិត្ត នៅតែប្រកាន់ចរិតផ្តាច់ការដដែលឬ? បើមើលទៅហាក់បីដូចជាលទិ្ធប្រជាធិបតេយ្យស្រុកខ្មែរ ចាស់ខែ ចាស់វស្សាជាងប្រទេសភូមា តែហេតុអ្វីបានជាភូមា ចាប់ផ្តើមលទ្ធិប្រជាធិបតេយ្យលឿនគួរឲ្យកត់សម្គាល់ម្ល៉េះ? ដូចជាបង្កើតច្បាប់ឲ្យប្រជាពលរដ្ឋគេមានសិទ្ធិតវ៉ា និងធ្វើបាតុកម្ម ហើយកាលពីសប្តាហ៍មុននេះរដ្ឋាភិបាលភូមា បានដោះស្រាយបញ្ហាដំឡើងប្រាក់ខែ ដល់កម្មករ ដែលមកតវ៉ា ដែលមិនធ្លាប់មានជាង ៤០ ឆ្នាំកន្លងមកហើយក៏ដោយ បើទោះជាបានដំឡើងប្រាក់តិចតួចក្តី តែជាការចាប់ផ្តើមមួយដ៏ល្អប្រពៃ។ នេះមកពីភូមារៀនពីស្រុកខ្មែរ អំពីលទ្ធិប្រជាធិបតេយ្យនេះ? ចុះហេតុអ្វីបានជាស្រុកខ្មែរ ក៏ខិតខំធ្វើត្រាប់តាមអ្វីដែលអាក្រក់ៗ ដែលភូមាធ្លាប់តែកាន់របបផ្តាច់ការអំឡុងពេល ៤០ ឆ្នាំ ដូចជាការយកកម្លាំងប្រដាប់់អាវុធ ទៅបង្ក្រាប និងចាប់ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ និងព្រះសង្ឃដែលតវ៉ា និងធ្វើបាតុកម្មអហិង្សាទៅវិញ?

Phnom Penh Post

Monday, 20 February 2012 12:00

តុង សុប្រាជ្ញ

កម្លាំងទ័ពដែលគេដឹកយកទៅគម្រាមអ្នកភូមិអមលាំងនៅតុលាការកំពង់ស្ពឺ។ រូបថត ជីវ័ន

«កម្មយើងទេ ឪវាអើយ នេះមកពីយើងអន់ មកពីយើងខ្សោយ មកពីយើងធ្វើបុណ្យពីជាតិមុនមិនល្អ បានជាជាតិនេះ រងកម្មបែបនេះ» នេះជាពាក្យត្អូញត្អែរ របស់តួអង្គម្តាយ លឹម ដែលជឿទៅលើកម្មផល ប្រាប់ទៅកាន់ប្តីរបស់គាត់ ដែលពួកគាត់ បានទទួលរងការគំរាមកំហែងជិះជាន់ ពីសំណាក់អាជ្ញាធរស្រុក តាំងពីសម័យកងទ័ពជប៉ុន ដេញកងទ័ព និងប្រជាជនបារាំង ចេញពីស្រុកខ្មែរ ក្នុងសម័យសង្គ្រាមលោកលើកទី ២ ឆ្នាំ ១៩៤៥ មកម្ល៉េះ ក្នុងរឿង «គូលីកំណែន» សម្រាប់សិក្សា ថ្នាក់បាក់ឌុបសព្វថ្ងៃនេះ។
ហេតុអ្វីបានជាជាង ៦០ ឆ្នាំ កន្លងមកហើយស្រុកខ្មែរ មិនមានអ្វីប្រែប្រួលគួរឲ្យកត់សម្គាល់សោះ ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ នៅតែត្រូវគេជិះជាន់សង្កត់សង្កិនដដែល? បើទោះបីជាប្រទេសជាតិសព្វថ្ងៃនេះ មានច្បាប់ទម្លាប់ហើយក៏ដោយ? តើនេះមកពីប្រទេសកម្ពុជា ដែលអានថា៖«កម្មពុជា» បានជាប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ ចេះតែរងកម្មរហូតមកពីរបបមួយទៅរបបមួយ មិនចេះចប់ មិនចេះហើយអ៊ីចឹង?

ថ្មីៗនេះ យើងកត់សម្គាល់ឃើញថា ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ ហាក់បីដូចជាត្រូវបានគេចាត់ទុកជាសត្រូវ ជាមួយនឹងកងកម្លាំងប្រដាប់អាវុធ ដោយសាររឿងទំនាស់ដីធ្លី។ ឧទាហរណ៍៖ កាលពី ២ សប្តាហ៍មុននេះ មានការដាក់ពង្រាយកម្លាំងសមត្ថកិច្ចប្រដាប់អាវុធចម្រុះ មានទាំងប៉ូលិស មានទាំងកងរាជអាវុធហត្ថ មានកងទ័ព ដែលមានអាវុធគ្រប់ដៃ និងមានទាំងកាំភ្លើងយន្តថែមទៀត មកហ៊ុមព័ទ្ធប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ មកស្តាប់សវនាការស្រ្តីដែលជាអ្នកភូមិពួកគាត់ម្នាក់ ពាក់ព័ន្ធនឹងរឿងជម្លោះដីធ្លី និងតវ៉ារឿងដីធ្លី នៅមុខសាលាដំបូងខេត្តកំពង់ស្ពឺ។ ការប្រើកងកម្លាំងប្រដាប់អាវុធចម្រុះ ដើម្បីគំរាមកំហែងប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ មកតវ៉ាដីធ្លីនោះ ដែលមើលទៅ ជារូបភាពគួរឲ្យភ័យខ្លាចផង និងគួរឲ្យខ្មាសអៀនផងក្នុងការប្រើប្រាស់អាវុធបែបនេះធ្វើជា ដំណោះស្រាយ សម្រាប់ប្រទេសដែលកំណត់ទិសដៅថា កំពុងកាន់លទ្ធិប្រជាធិបតេយ្យនោះ។

សកម្មភាពប្រើប្រាស់កងកម្លាំងនេះ ហាក់បីដូចជាផ្ទុយទៅនឹងប្រសាសន៍របស់លោកនាយករដ្ឋមន្រ្តី ហ៊ុន សែន កាលពីខែមុន ដែលបានប្រកាសចាប់ខ្លួនកងកម្លាំងពីរនាក់ ដែលយាមដី ឲ្យក្រុមហ៊ុនធីធីវាយ (TTY) បានបាញ់អ្នកភូមិ ២ ធ្នូ ក្នុងស្រុកស្នួលខេត្តក្រចេះ យកមកផ្តន្ទាទោស ហើយព្រមានទៅកងកម្លាំងសមត្ថកិច្ច ដែលប្រើបាស់អាវុធចំពោះរឿងដីធ្លីជាមួយប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ។

តែបញ្ហាធ្វើឡើងនៅខេត្តកំពង់ស្អឺនេះ ធ្វើឲ្យប្រសាសន៍របស់លោក ហ៊ុន សែន ហាក់នៅមិនទាន់មានប្រសិទ្ធភាព ដូចការយកច្បាប់មកអនុវត្តទេ? មកទល់ពេលនេះ ជនដែលបាញ់ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋបានចាប់ខ្លួនហើយ តែមិនដឹងជានៅទីណា បាត់ដំណឹងឈឹង។

តាមពិតទៅ កងទ័ព គឺសម្រាប់ការពារទឹកដី ប្រយុទ្ធប្រឆាំងជាមួយបរទេសឈ្លានពាន ជាពិសេសប្រទេសជិតខាង មិនមែនយកមកគំរាមកំហែងប្រជាពលរដ្ឋខ្មែរគ្នាឯង ដែលធ្វើការតវ៉ាដោយសន្តិវិធី មានតែដៃទទេបែបនេះនោះទេ។ មានតែរបបខ្មែរក្រហម ប៉ុល ពត ទេ ដែលចាត់ទុកប្រជាពលរដ្ឋខ្មែរខ្លួនឯងជាសត្រូវនោះ ចុះហេតុអ្វីបានជាខ្មែរចេះតែចង់ដើរជាន់ដានប្រវត្តិសាស្ត្រ ដែលអន់ថយដដែលៗអ៊ីចឹង? ចំណែកបញ្ហាសន្តិសុខ សណ្តាប់ធ្នាប់ក្នុងប្រទេស គឺជាកាតព្វកិច្ចរបស់ប៉ូលិស រីឯកងរាជអាវុធហត្ថ គឺសម្រាប់មើលការខុសត្រូវចំពោះមន្រ្តីប៉ូលិស និងមន្ត្រីយោធាណា ដែលប្រព្រឹត្តខុសនឹងច្បាប់? ការដែលយកកងទ័ព មកបង្ក្រាប និងសម្លាប់ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ ដែលតវ៉ានោះ មានតែប្រទេសកាន់របបផ្តាច់ការទេ ដូចនៅប្រទេសលីប៊ី ដែលធ្លាប់ដឹកនំាដោយកាដាហ្វីត្រូវបានគេសម្លាប់និងប្រទេស ស៊ីរីបច្ចុប្បន្ននេះ...។ សម្រាប់ប្រទេសដែលមានឈ្មោះថា កាន់លទ្ធិប្រជាធិបតេយ្យដូចស្រុកខ្មែរ មិនត្រូវការដំណោះស្រាយបែបចុងកាណុងទេ។

បើតាមច្បាប់រដ្ឋធម្មនុញ្ញ មាត្រាទី ៣៥ កថាខណ្ឌទី ២ បានចែងថា «សេចក្តីស្នើទាំងឡាយ របស់ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ ត្រូវបានទទួលការពិនិត្យ និងដោះស្រាយយ៉ាងហ្មត់ចត់ ពីអង្គការរដ្ឋ»។ សំណួរសួរថា តើអង្គការរដ្ឋ តុលាការសព្វថ្ងៃហ្នឹង ផ្តល់ភាពយុត្តិធម៌ ដល់ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋហើយឬនៅ? ឲ្យតែប្រជាពលរដ្ឋប្តឹងប្តល់រឿងដីធ្លីជាមួយអ្នកធំ ឬក៏ឧកញ៉ាៗ នៅតុលាការ គឺប្រជាពលរដ្ឋកម្រឈ្នះក្តីណាស់។ បញ្ហាអយុត្តិធម៌នៅប្រព័ន្ធតុលាការនេះហើយ ទើបធ្វើឲ្យមានការតវ៉ា ចេះតែកើតមានឡើងជាហូរហែពីកន្លែងមួយទៅកន្លែងមួយទៀត ដោយសារតែភាពអយុត្តិធម៌នៅក្នុងសង្គម។

កាលពីមុនបោះឆ្នោត អ្នកនយោបាយ ឬសកម្មជនគណបក្សនីមួយៗ ម្នាក់ៗ នាំគ្នាចុះពង្រឹងមូលដ្ឋាន សួរសុខទុក្ខប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ ចុះចែកក្រមា សារុង មី ប៊ីចេង អង្ករ បន្តិចបន្តួចហាលថ្ងៃ ហាលភ្លៀង លុយទឹក លុយភក់ មើលទៅតាមកញ្ចាក់ទូរទស្សន៍ និងតាមសារព័ត៌មានក្នុងស្រុកមួយចំនួន ដូចជាស្រឡាញ់ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋខ្លាំងណាស់! ដល់ពេលដឹងលទ្ធផលជាប់ឆ្នោតជាបឋមលើសលប់រួចហើយ គឺមកសងគុណប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ តាមបែបប្រើកងកម្លាំងចម្រុះ ស្ពាយសុទ្ធតែអាវុធគ្រប់ដៃ និងកាំភ្លើងយន្ត មកហ៊ុមព័ទ្ធ បាញ់វាយឲ្យរងរបួស និងគំរាមកំហែងប្រជាពលរដ្ឋដែលគ្រាន់តែតវ៉ារឿងទំនាស់ដីធ្លី។ ទង្វើដល់ត្រើយសើយគូទបែបនេះ តើប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ គួរតែពិចារណាដែរឬទេ ចំពោះការបោះឆ្នោតលើកក្រោយៗទៀតនោះ?

ការប្រើកម្លាំងឡោមព័ទ្ធប្រជាពលរដ្ឋស្លូតត្រង់ដៃទទេបែបនេះ គឺហាក់បីដូចជាសត្វខ្លាព័ទ្ធស៊ីសត្វគោ ដូចនៅក្នុងទូរស្សន៍ប៉ុស្តិ៍ឌីសខោវ័រី (Discovery)អ៊ីចឹងដែរ ដែលសត្វខ្លាទាំងនោះ បើទោះបីជាវាកាចសាហាវប៉ុនណាក៏ដោយ ក៏វាមិនដែលស៊ីកូនវា ឬក៏ធ្វើបាបកូនវាទេ គឺមានតែវាការពារ និងថែទាំកូនវាទៅវិញ។ សម្រាប់សកម្មភាពនេះទៀតសោត ហាក់បីដូចជាបង្ហាញពីភាពហិង្សា នៅតែកើតមាននៅក្នុងស្រុកខ្មែរ បើទោះបីជាស្រុកខ្មែរ លែងមានសង្គ្រាមហើយក៏ដោយ តែសល់ចំហាយខ្លះពីសង្គ្រាម? ឬមួយក៏ចង់បង្ហាញសាច់ដុំដាក់ប្រទេសជិតខាងយើងថា ស្រុកខ្មែរមានកងកម្លាំង និងអាវុធគ្រប់គ្រាន់សម្រាប់ការពារជាតិ? តែតាមពិតទង្វើនេះ គឺជាទង្វើមួយគួរឲ្យខ្មាសអៀន និងគួរឲ្យអស់សំណើច សម្រាប់ប្រទេសជិតខាងទៅវិញទេ ដែលយកកងទ័ពមកគំរាមកំហែងប្រជាពលរដ្ឋស្លូតត្រង់ខ្លួនឯង ដែលគ្រាន់តែធ្វើការតវ៉ា មានតែដៃទទេនោះ។

ម្យ៉ាងវិញទៀត ការដែលចេះតែអះអាងថា ស្រុកខ្មែរកាន់លទ្ធិប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ គឺប្រជាធិបតេយ្យតែមាត់ តែក្នុងចិត្ត នៅតែប្រកាន់ចរិតផ្តាច់ការដដែលឬ? បើមើលទៅហាក់បីដូចជាលទិ្ធប្រជាធិបតេយ្យស្រុកខ្មែរ ចាស់ខែ ចាស់វស្សាជាងប្រទេសភូមា តែហេតុអ្វីបានជាភូមា ចាប់ផ្តើមលទ្ធិប្រជាធិបតេយ្យលឿនគួរឲ្យកត់សម្គាល់ម្ល៉េះ? ដូចជាបង្កើតច្បាប់ឲ្យប្រជាពលរដ្ឋគេមានសិទ្ធិតវ៉ា និងធ្វើបាតុកម្ម ហើយកាលពីសប្តាហ៍មុននេះរដ្ឋាភិបាលភូមា បានដោះស្រាយបញ្ហាដំឡើងប្រាក់ខែ ដល់កម្មករ ដែលមកតវ៉ា ដែលមិនធ្លាប់មានជាង ៤០ ឆ្នាំកន្លងមកហើយក៏ដោយ បើទោះជាបានដំឡើងប្រាក់តិចតួចក្តី តែជាការចាប់ផ្តើមមួយដ៏ល្អប្រពៃ។ នេះមកពីភូមារៀនពីស្រុកខ្មែរ អំពីលទ្ធិប្រជាធិបតេយ្យនេះ? ចុះហេតុអ្វីបានជាស្រុកខ្មែរ ក៏ខិតខំធ្វើត្រាប់តាមអ្វីដែលអាក្រក់ៗ ដែលភូមាធ្លាប់តែកាន់របបផ្តាច់ការអំឡុងពេល ៤០ ឆ្នាំ ដូចជាការយកកម្លាំងប្រដាប់់អាវុធ ទៅបង្ក្រាប និងចាប់ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ និងព្រះសង្ឃដែលតវ៉ា និងធ្វើបាតុកម្មអហិង្សាទៅវិញ? ប្រទេសទាំង ២ នេះ ហាក់ដូចជាមាននិន្នាការផ្ទុយគ្នាទាំងស្រុង ក្នុងការអនុវត្តប្រជាធិបតេយ្យរបស់ខ្លួន ដែលគួរឲ្យឆ្ងល់ ថាតើប្រទេសមួយណា អនុវត្តលទ្ធិប្រជាធិបតេយ្យពិតប្រាកដ? តិចខ្មាសភូមាទៅវិញ ដែលលទិ្ធប្រជាធិបតេយ្យទើបកើតកាលពីចុងឆ្នាំទៅមិញសោះ ហើយម្ចាស់ជំនួយ និងវិនិយោគទុនធំៗ កំពុងសម្លឹងមើលយ៉ាងដិតដល់ ចំពោះដំណើរការវិវត្តរបស់ប្រទេសភូមា និងមានបំណងបង្វែរទិសទៅប្រទេសនោះបណ្តើរៗហើយ។

អាស្រ័យហេតុនេះ រាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលកម្ពុជា គួរតែពិចារណា រកដំណោះស្រាយដោយសន្តិវិធី ជូនប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ ដែលជាម្ចាស់ឆ្នោត ឲ្យបានសមរម្យផង ជាជាងការប្រើប្រាស់កងកម្លាំងអាវុធយុទ្ធភណ្ឌ ជាមួយនឹងប្រជាពលរដ្ឋតូចតាចខ្លួនឯង ដែលមានតែដៃទទេ ដោយសារទំនាស់ដីធ្លីនេះ ពីព្រោះការធ្វើបែបនេះ វាមិនត្រឹមតែធ្វើឲ្យប្រជាពលរដ្ឋដែលបាត់បង់ដីធ្លី កាន់តែទទួលរងនូវភាពអយុត្តិធម៌ថែមទៀតប៉ុណ្ណោះទេ វាថែមទាំងធ្វើឲ្យខូចដល់កេរ្តិ៍ឈ្មោះ និងមុខមាត់របស់ប្រទេសកម្ពុជាថែមទៀតខណៈដែលកម្ពុជា កំពុងតែធ្វើជាប្រធានអាស៊ានផងនោះ។ គួរសន្សំគ្រាប់ទុកប្រើសម្រាប់ប្រយុទ្ធតតាំងជាមួយនឹងខ្មាំងសត្រូវ បច្ចាមិត្ត និងប្រទេសជិតខាងឈ្លានពានទឹកដីយើងវិញ ទើបជាការប្រសើរជាង៕

ចូលរួមផ្តល់យោបល់តាមរយៈ soprach.tong@phnompenhpost.com

Welcome ceremony for Ven. Loun Sovath in Montreal, Canada

2012-02-19T21:33:00.000-08:00

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

News by Licadho Canada

2012-02-19T21:28:00.000-08:00

Venerable Monk Sovath Speaks Out in Canada

In February 2012 Venerable Loun Sovath was invited to Montreal, Quebec by the large Khmer community that resides there. During his 6-week stay he will perform Buddhist ceremonies and advocate for land rights in Cambodia.

Venerable Sovath has been a loud advocate for victims of land-grabbing since 2009 when his own community was shot at by police during a land dispute. Since that time he travels across Cambodia reaching out to threatened communities and documenting their stories through videos, songs and poems.

Venerable Sovath‟s activism has drawn the ire of religious authorities who have banned him from all pagodas in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh provinces, and threatened him with expulsion from the monkhood, criminal charges, and even violence.

Read the whole newsletter by Licadho Canada

CAMBODIA: “O Khmer euy Khmer, chous ach knong srae”

2012-02-15T22:57:00.000-08:00

Op-Ed: Sophoan Seng Blog

Khmer expatriate Sophoan Seng, a master’s degree holder in political science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, currently Director of KEEN Investment Groups LTD and president of the Khmer Youth Association of Alberta, acknowledges that many people in Cambodia endorse the “filled stomach and stability” theory for different reasons.
“However,” Seng, a former Buddhist monk in Siemreap for more than a decade, writes, “Buddhists who have learned and experienced deep understanding of Buddha’s teachings, see that the highest goal of Buddhism is ‘liberty’, not the ‘four necessities’,” i.e., food, shelter, clothing, medicine.

His ideas are similar to those of another former monk, Heng Monychenda, who holds a master’s degree from Harvard and heads the nonprofit group, Buddhism for Development. Seng points to Buddha’s teaching that “liberty” or “Nama,” — referring to a person’s mind or spirit — and the “four necessities,” or “Rupa,” — referring to body or physical appearances — must be equalized and balanced. As Monychenda explains, “Nama-Rupa” means that mind and matter must go together. “Mind affects matter and matter affects the mind,” i.e., spiritual and economic development should not be separated into two separate realms, he says.

CAMBODIA: “O Khmer euy Khmer, chous ach knong srae” – ឱខ្មែរអើយខ្មែរ! ជុះអាចម៏ក្នុងស្រែ

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

Something is changing within the Khmer nation.

Those storied Khmer characteristics – the broad smile; the gentle, peaceful compassionate nature – and the centuries-old traditions of “korup, bamreur, karpier, smoh trang” — “respect, serve, defend, be loyal (to leaders)” — passed down through generations seem to be taking a new course.

Protesters spell the word “Aphivath” or “Development” with their shoes (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

A photo floating on the Internet shows Khmer villagers–from youth to middle age–standing barefoot under the hot sun as their colorful sandals are arranged in an empty lot nearby to make up the Khmer word “Aphivath,” or “Development.” Their symbolic protest is directed at Khmer leaders and at those around the world who are sympathetic to the disenfranchisement of the poor in contemporary Cambodia.

Photos and videos of government abuse of citizens’ rights and of citizens’ responses have inundated the Internet. Some postings inform and educate. I recommend recent postings on the Website of Radio Free Asia (February 1, “More Arrests Follow Land Clash“).

The beatings of women and children by riot police are routine — and are routinely condemned by international and national rights groups. The too common sight of Khmer women with clothes torn or ripped off by police during peaceful protests is now replaced by the sight of women protesters taking off their clothes to highlight their protests as they face the police.

Cops ripping off shirt from a Boeung Kak Lake protester

A protester removes her clothing during a protest in Phnom Penh, Feb. 1, 2012. (RFA)

Going one step further, RFA posted on its website a photograph of a half-naked Khmer woman protester facing police in full riot gear. Her action was intended to highlight the plight of Cambodian villagers from the Borei Keila community, who were evicted by armed police from their homes, which were dismantled and the co-opted land given to Phan Imex Company for commercial development.

Khmer women taking off their clothes in public to protest against authority is a new phenomenon. But, it shows something else too: Submission to injustice has a limit, and “fear,” a conditioned behavior, is being overcome.

This new behavior takes me back to an e-mail from Phnom Penh from forty-something Sambath, a graduate in political science from a University abroad, who told me unreservedly several months ago that today’s young Cambodians have become “fearless” to confront what they perceive as unjust. Sambath also said something I had not heard before: Cambodians in their mid-fifties and older are too conservative and too prudent to be helpful in the fight against dictatorship.

Sambath’s view was repeated by Teveakor, also in his forties, who holds a master’s degree from a Cambodian university. He sees Cambodians in their mid-fifties and older as a “conservative force” while young democrats need a “push force.” Teveakor claimed that he and colleagues, young democracy advocates, are struggling in the midst of their families’ poor economic situation to work on strategic planning, building and strengthening a leadership circle among younger Cambodians, and spreading political awareness amongst Cambodians they know.

Meanwhile Makara, also in his forties, told me bluntly from Phnom Penh that “writing, speaking, denouncing, suing” don’t bring down the current dictatorship. He presented a rather imaginative Machiavellian “cool technique” he thinks would shake the core of the autocratic rule — “smart thinking” if I may say so, though I will not repeat his ideas here. As Burmese icon Aung San Suu Kyi said, “Action comes out of thought.”

Their emails remind me of a former comrade-in-arms during my service with the Khmer Non-Communist Resistance, a high ranking royalist, who wrote about the “silent majority” that is hard at work.

A reader in Phnom Penh whom I never met, answered my question on the situation in Cambodia as he sees it by sending me the link to the June 2007 Global Witness Report titled, “Cambodia’s Family Trees, Illegal logging and the stripping of public assets by Cambodia’s elite,” and the link to a Human Rights Watch publication on forced evictions, with his own comment: “This says it all.”

A collision course theory

An older Khmer, Lokta Mekso, is concerned that Cambodia is headed toward a “bloody revolution” if there’s no change to the status quo. He theorizes that as Cambodians, “distressed” by the economic situation and the incessant violations of rights and freedom, release their frustrations against the regime in power, the latter will respond with increased repression. The stress-repression process is likely to spiral into an “explosion” a la Arab Spring — with inevitable bloodshed, he believes.

“There would be no change through a peaceful way,” Mekso thinks. He is frustrated that the regime has declined to alter the policies and actions that increasingly stress the population and propel them toward confrontation with authorities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDtmhFlJTdg

I have tried to capture the stress-repression spiral Lokta described. I selected photos available in the public domain, made slideshows, and posted them on YouTube — the last one posted two weeks ago. Indeed, I can anticipate the future bloodshed Mekso fears. In his analysis, this continued stress-repression spiral shall cost the “stressors” their hold to power in five to 10 years.

The most important weapon of the oppressors, repression, shall do them in, should democrats think smart and act smart.

But Mekso also worries about Cambodians’ ability to replace an autocratic regime with another one that is different in name only, a worry shared by others, and a topic for another time.

The “stomach and stability” theory

Mekso and some Cambodians suggest that political stability, improved economic well-being, and universal education comprise an environment in which a destructive collision between the government and the governed might be avoided.

The call for a “filled stomach” and for “stability” is logical. After decades of living in hellacious circumstances — from the widening Vietnamese War, the tumult of the Khmer Rouge regime, subsequent Vietnamese military occupation and a war of national resistance, and the land-grabbing actions of the Cambodian government in place, who would not welcome stability and a filled stomach?

Cambodia is no different from most of the world’s nation-states that give governments the tasks to provide for the social and economic well-being of all citizens, and for the independence and the stability of the country. The trouble is Cambodia’s current leadership does none of these.

The current leadership was installed by the Vietnamese invading troops in Phnom Penh in January 1979, and has been in control of the country for 32 years. Through rigged elections, intimidation and threats, the ruling party seeks to legitimize its power.

But, many people are poor and hungry, people’s rights and freedom are violated, and Cambodians are unhappy to see their government serving Vietnam with treaties ceding territory and illegal immigration that has brought an alleged “four million” Vietnamese to Cambodia. This leadership is being judged by its citizens who are dissatisfied with how it has fulfilled its obligations.

Surely, today’s Cambodia has experienced a 10-percent annual growth rate for the past decade, and has developed physically and materially. The vast labor camp is no more; cosmopolitan Cambodian cities attract tourists and investments.

Just as the price of peace has been too high, so, too, is the price of development.

So far, this small kingdom owes a debt between $3.3 billion and $7 billion (depending on which government source gives the figure) to foreign countries and development partners — with China taking the lead. The country’s natural resources have been plundered and sold to foreigners by members of the elite who uniquely profit. About one-third of the population lives below the poverty level; many live off the city dump grounds. Nearly half a million citizens have been forcibly evicted from their homes, their land confiscated for “economic development.”

Challengers

Teveakor, who dismissed as low the government figure of 36 percent of the populace as living below the poverty level — the “living ghosts” — argues that of the 80 percent of the population who live in the countryside, many are barely able to make ends meet; he and his friends are among them.

Makara’s e-mail about his declining health lamented that if in his more privileged economic position he is struggling to find medicines and a clinic, how much suffering is the multitude that has little or nothing forced to endure?

Teveakor theorizes that the current leadership — whose families are “filthy rich” — is never interested in pulling Cambodians out of poverty or in providing Cambodians with a good education. His reasons? When the people’s stomachs are more full and they have the skills to think and reason, the leadership’s very survival is in danger. Yet, how is education to be improved in a culture of bribery that is pervasive even among the young, all the way to the Ministry of Education? Furthermore, who wants to study when a degree can be bought at a cheap price?

Teveakor and Makara (and Sambath) don’t know one another. Teveakor and Makara say the government has an interest in keeping democracy advocates busy struggling to feed their families so they will have no time to devote to the fight for democracy and civil rights. Both are pessimistic about “a filled stomach and stability” being catalysts for change because the current status quo denies the poor any possibility of improving their living conditions and sustains the culture of corruption.

And they say, the regime successfully pulls malleable democrats into the “corruption nest” with jobs and privileges.

Both are blunt: Today’s “god” is money. With money people buy cars and big homes; since the “god” is with Premier Hun Sen and those who are his cronies, Cambodians who want cars and big homes, government positions, power and prestige, love the regime dearly.

The Buddha angle

Khmer expatriate Sophoan Seng, a master’s degree holder in political science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, currently Director of KEEN Investment Groups LTD and president of the Khmer Youth Association of Alberta, acknowledges that many people in Cambodia endorse the “filled stomach and stability” theory for different reasons.

“However,” Seng, a former Buddhist monk in Siemreap for more than a decade, writes, “Buddhists who have learned and experienced deep understanding of Buddha’s teachings, see that the highest goal of Buddhism is ‘liberty’, not the ‘four necessities’,” i.e., food, shelter, clothing, medicine.

His ideas are similar to those of another former monk, Heng Monychenda, who holds a master’s degree from Harvard and heads the nonprofit group, Buddhism for Development. Seng points to Buddha’s teaching that “liberty” or “Nama,” — referring to a person’s mind or spirit — and the “four necessities,” or “Rupa,” — referring to body or physical appearances — must be equalized and balanced. As Monychenda explains, “Nama-Rupa” means that mind and matter must go together. “Mind affects matter and matter affects the mind,” i.e., spiritual and economic development should not be separated into two separate realms, he says.

Thus, in Buddha’s teaching, you don’t stop the struggle for liberty because you want some stability and some food. Of course, “Buddha teaches that all beings need food (Rupa, the four necessities) to survive,” Seng explains, but “Buddha teaches that Nama or mind is the leader, the master; and human beings are made by mind, which, as developed positively, can master all things.” Yet, unless Nama and Rupa are brought into balance, a person cannot enter the Dhmma stream to reach the highest level of realization/enlightenment/liberty of the mind from the bondage of greed, hatred, delusion.

Seng asked: Considering Cambodia’s non-independent judiciary, economic development through land grabbing and forced evictions, coerced mass media, rampant corruption from top to bottom, political autocracy, favoritism, cronyism, among many other things, is Cambodia on the path of engineering development and stability, or establishing liberty, or balancing both, as Buddha teaches?

Change begins with each of us

An array of e-mails in my box contains similar thoughts, as summarized in an e-mail from another former high ranking member of the royalist FUNCINPEC: “The root of real change and overall change is inside each and every one of us.”

A former Khmer monk, Bouawat Sithi, a graduate of Thailand’s Djittabhawan College, founded to help poor students pursue higher education, lamented that because Buddhism is not taught or understood correctly, “egoism, anger, greed, delusion, desire, craving, hate and aversion” overwhelm many Cambodians.

Buddha used the term “Nibbana” or Nirvana to explain an image of freedom — to “free” a burning fire from its agitated, dependent, and entrapped state. Sithi explained that Buddha teaches that everyone has the capacity to attain Nibbana, and by extension has the opportunity to become a leader if s/he puts effort into becoming one. According to Sithi, Buddha teaches that in order to change the world one has to change oneself as an example for people to follow, and when they follow, one is indeed a leader.

Sithi’s commentary brings me back to a column I wrote about an inscription on the tomb of an Anglican bishop in Westminster Abbey. The inscription was actually circulated by a group of Khmer Krom expatriates in the United States a few years earlier. The description on the tomb is about a man on his deathbed reflecting on his life’s voyage: When he was “young and free” with limitless imagination, he dreamed of changing the world, but the world would not change. So, he thought he would change the country; but the country was immovable. In his “last desperate attempt” he worked to change those closest to him, his family; but the family “would have none of it.”

On his deathbed, the man realized: “If only I had changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and who knows, I might have changed the world.“

“Chous Ach Knong Srae”

The most powerful statement in e-mails I have lately received come from a septuagenarian, a former field artillery officer and instructor at the Khmer Military Academy, who instructed many well-known Khmer military officers. He has gone through six regime changes in his life: the first monarchist regime, the republican regime, the Khmer Rouge regime, the Vietnamese-installed regime, a coalition regime, and now the second monarchist regime controlled by Vietnamese-propped Hun Sen.

“Since I was born until now,” he writes, “the same old thing remains: The leaders and their families become richer and richer.” Like others, he calls on everyone to change — from their way of thinking to their everyday lifeways — so that real change can occur. But the septuagenarian sounded sad to affirm that what once was and still is. There’s “no change in Cambodian attitude.”

In many long e-mails that deal with the Khmer character and culture, Khmer domestic and world politics, he expresses deep frustration and hurt that while Cambodia’s neighbors look down on the Khmers as “Phnong” — primitive beings — the Khmers themselves “bite one another but fear them; insult one another but are afraid of them . . . Khmers cannot be convinced easily except by foreigners whom they like. They have hot tempers, and kill one another when they are mad even over small little things. If a leader says ‘go’, they go all the way serving him unconditionally and blindly…” And he goes on and on.

He recited twice in his e-mails, a Khmer poem well known to those in my generation. The poem deals with an ignoramus who does private business in the ricefield and cleans himself with an ivy leaf: “O Khmer euy Khmer, Chous ach knong srae, Yok khgnae tov ket, Dol ach choab dai, Noam knea mok het, Ae ach choab kdet, Ket lieang min chreas.“

Ignorance of the person is one aspect of the short poem. The other aspect is what Albert Einstein defined as insanity — doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

The septuagenarian lamented in his e-mail: It is “same old, same old” through generations.

The Vietnamese angle

Whoever started the idea that the Khmer word, “Yuon,” is a pejorative for Vietnamese is ignorant of the Khmer language. The Buddhist Institute’s “Dictionnaire Cambodgien” of 1968 defines “Yuon” as people from Vietnam. In general, the Yuon people from Tonking are called “Yuon Hanoi”; from Annam are called “Yuon Hue”; from Conchinchina are called “Yuon Prey Nokor.”

For my purpose, I use the English word Vietnamese. My article, “Brief History of Vietnamese Expansionism vis-à-vis Cambodia” — a research paper — was posted on the website of the Khmer Institute in 2010.

When I did research for my doctoral dissertation, I read a statement by a Khmer leader at the time who observed that “destiny” has placed Cambodia and Vietnam as neighbors until the end of time and it would be up to the two peoples how to live with one another. Like the old saying that you can choose your friend but not your family, neither can we choose who should be our country’s neighbors — who have called us “Phnong,” a hurtful insult, as the septuagenarian said above.

Conventional techniques a nation-state can use to promote its foreign policy goals include communications, diplomacy, economic and military tools, and subversion. Cambodians can use any of these techniques intelligently — a topic and an issue for politicians to sort out (as a scholar, I can comment and suggest).

A couple weeks ago I heard from Paula, 41. He is a native of Battambang province and a former refugee at several camps along the Khmer-Thai border after the Vietnamese takeover of Phnom Penh in 1979, who has graduated from an American university. He wrote, “The Vietnamese know Khmer tricks (Khmer traits?) well. They said that Khmer like power, women, and material things. If you have these things, Khmer will do anything to hold on to power. So the Vietnamese put Hun Sen on the tiger’s back. To make his Vietnamese boss happy, he’ll hold on; if he falls, he’s dead. I strongly believe that no one dares to challenge Hun Sen’s authorities. The majority of opposition members can be bought.“

Believing that “change will not come easily” because the Vietnamese run Hun Sen’s dictatorship, Paula wanted to know how any “new government” would be able to replace Hun Sen without bloodshed and be independent and fully in control of Cambodia.

I am reminded of earlier comments on Khmer blog KI-Media by an anonymous blogger identified as Pissed off, who called on Khmers to help educate every child in Cambodia as this would help solve Cambodia’s numerous problems as well as the Vietnamese problem. Recently, Pissed off, again wrote: “If you can take down Hun Sen and … his close inner circle, you can deal with Vietnam in a reasonable way later.“

Vietnam has no business in Cambodia. Yet, Vietnam is in Cambodia. Its presence is illegal from the standpoint of international law and principles practiced by states. But this presence is legitimized by the Cambodian leadership — with Hun Sen as Prime Minister and the Cambodian People’s Party as the ruling party. Moreover, this leadership that kotows to Vietnam is supported by the King Father and his son the king of Cambodia.

For me, the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity — the supreme national interests of Cambodia — are two non-negotiables. Other things may be negotiated. Armed resistance to Vietnamese incursions from the east and Thai aggression from the west is tantamount to national suicide. Cool heads must prevail.

I agree with democrats who contend that to remove Vietnam’s presence in Cambodia Cambodians need to remove what gives “legitimacy” to it, i.e., those who are the “legitimizers” of Vietnam’s presence. Stripped of its alleged “legitimacy,” Vietnam has no rationale to be in Cambodia, whose people can stand as one to deal with Vietnam.

Understanding nonviolent action (people power)

Ideas and concepts of nonviolent action about which I write here are drawn from the work of Professor Gene Sharp, “the Clausewitz of nonviolent warfare,” and Srdja Popovic, one of the Serbian Otpor leaders who brought down dictator Milosevic in 2000.

As defined by foreign affairs and national security professor Thomas C. Schelling, “political violence” and “political nonviolence” have as purposes “making somebody do something or not do something or stop doing something. The aim is to influence behavior.” Their one main difference is, “violent action often requires hot blood, while the nonviolent action depends more on cool heads.”

Nonviolent action — people power, political defiance, nonviolent struggle — is a “technique of struggle” that involves the use of social, economic, and political power in a conflict by using “symbolic protests, noncooperation, and defiance, but not physical violence.”

It is not “passive” and it is not “inaction.” Some 200 specific methods of nonviolent action, or “nonviolent weapons,” include methods of nonviolent protest and persuasion; of social, economic, and political noncooperation; and methods of nonviolent intervention. Nonviolent struggle is designed to struggle against opponents who are able and willing to use violence — the oppressors.

Nonviolent action against violent repression creates what Sharp called a “special, asymmetrical, conflict situation,” in which one side relies on violent action — arrest, imprisonment, physical harm — and the other side relies on nonviolent action, a technique which Popovic says, requires “analytical skills in unity, planning, and nonviolent discipline” (the last being the “game changer”). These skills can be taught and learned.

As Sharp puts it: “An extensive, determined and skillful application of nonviolent action will cause the opponent very special problems, which will disturb or frustrate the effective utilization of his own forces. The actionists will then be able to apply something like jiu-jitsu to their opponent, throwing him off balance politically, causing his repression to rebound against his position, and weakening his power.”

Nonviolent action may involve “acts of omission” — people may refuse to perform acts that they usually perform, or acts that are expected by custom or required by law or regulation to perform; or “acts of commission” — people may perform acts that they do not usually perform, or are not expected by custom, or are forbidden to perform; and a combination of the two.

Clearly, the three “acts” above require quality thinking, analytical thoughts and skills. It requires what Khmers called “lbaeng denh prajgna” — ” intelligence/brain skills.”

This brings me to Khmers’ Thnenh Chey, a hero in Khmer folklore who seems to never run out of ideas. When the King forbade Chey to show his face during a royal procession, Chey drew a human face on his derriere and exposed it for the King to see. Brought before the angry King, Chey swears his undying respect, that he would never violate the King’s order not to show his face, nor would he be so disrespectful and disloyal as not to be present at so revered a royal procession.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhM4bZToPwM

In another episode, arrested and transported by boat by the King’s soldiers, Chey knew his day was coming to an end, so he launched his own “psy-op”: He explained to the soldiers that he would be executed anyway so told them to let him drown and die, why bother to transport him all the way to the palace. He persuaded the soldiers to let him fall into the water, and they should shout “A Chey thleak toek” (“Chey falls into the water”) and then cheer “Hai eur, Hai eur!” (Hallelujah, hallelujah!). Chey’s psychological operation worked. He dropped into the water and swam away as the King’s soldiers cheered.

Nonviolent action does not mean inciting the people to rise up against the oppressors who spray bullets. As in jiu-jitsu, a martial art that uses the attacker’s weapon against himself or herself, political jiu-jitsu is a technique using the dictator’s best weapon, violent repression, against himself or herself.

Nonviolent action specialists remind us that just as the dictator stays in power because he has pillars of support and the people he governs obey him, the democracy actionists’ job is to pull away (not destroy) those pillars of support (bureaucracy, police, military, etc.), and persuade the people to withdraw their obedience. Cambodian democracy activists can learn much from Thenh Chey, the prince of thinking smart and acting smart.

In the final analysis, it is Cambodians who decide what their country’s destiny shall be. As I said time and again, I write to share what I know, if it helps, that’s good; if not, you would at least have read and learned something from what I write. As Confucius says, “You cannot open a book without learning something.” Of course, you can open a book and not read.

The old adage, “We get the government we deserve” means that it is citizens’ action (Cambodians’ election) or inaction (Cambodians’ large zone of indifference) that brings to the seat of power the leadership that rules over them. It is earned by the citizens.

Nonviolent action is a technique for Cambodians to consider. It is said one who does not risk anything gains nothing. The alternative is continued oppression.

As we are 46 days into this New Year 2012, I wish all Cambodian democracy activists and actionists success on whatever road they take toward the country’s future.

Remember Lord Gautama Buddha’s words of 2,500 years ago: “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may”; “I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.”

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The views shared in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the AHRC, and the AHRC takes no responsibility for them.

About the Author:

Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. He currently lives in the United States. He can be contacted at peangmeth@gmail.com.

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Venerable Luon Sovath visited Canada

2012-02-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Dhamma Friends;

Venerable Luon Sovath has been landing in Montreal, Canada, for his trip of Buddhist missionary and bringing news on his human rights activities in Cambodia to inform all Khmer diaspora in North America. He will stay in Canada for about three months before leaving back Cambodia.

Note that Venerable Luon Sovath has been invited and landed in many countries around the world such as the USA, Europe and Australia. His trip to Canada in this time is his second time to North America.

If you wish to meet Venerable Luon Sovath personally, or in group, or wish to invite him to give a speech on Engaged Buddhism, please feel free to contact him directly via Email: lounsovath@yahoo.com, or Skype: Venerable.Loun Sovath. Or you can refer to this link for more information: http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2012/02/ven-luon-sovath-visits-montreal-quebec.html

May you progress in the Dhamma. May Cambodian people are blessed by the Dhamma. May human beings are living in PEACE!

តើព្រះសង្ឃលេង ហ្វេសបុក (Facebook) គឺខុសពីវិន័យធម៌របស់ព្រះពុទ្ធដែរ ឬទេ? facebook and Buddhism

2012-02-07T23:41:00.000-08:00

Phnom Penh Post

Monday, 06 February 2012 12:00

តុង សុប្រាជ្ញ

ព្រះសង្ឃលួន សាវ៉ាត ចូលរួមឃ្លាំមើលការតវ៉ារឿងព្រៃឡង់កាលពីខែសីហា ឆ្នាំទៅ។ រូបថត ម៉េង គីមឡុង

ព្រះពុទ្ធឱវាទបានសម្តែងថា «ធ្វើល្អបានល្អ ធ្វើអាក្រក់បានអាក្រក់» ឬពាក្យសាមញ្ញនិយាយថា «ដាំចេកបានផ្លែចេក ដាំស្វាយនឹងបានផ្លែស្វាយ»។ ពុទ្ធឱវាទនេះ គួរត្រូវបានពុទ្ធសាសនិក ទាំងអស់ចងចាំ និងគោរពប្រណិប័តន៍តាមយ៉ាងខ្ជាប់ខ្ជួន ពិសេស គឺព្រះសង្ឃ ពុទ្ធសាសនា។ ប៉ុន្តែមិនដូច្នោះទេ ព្រះសង្ឃមួយចំនួនប្រព្រឹត្តខុសនឹងពុទ្ធឱវាទជាច្រើនប្រការ ដែលត្រូវបានការប្រមាថពីមតិសាធារណៈ។
កម្មៗប្រែមកថា «អំពើ» អំពើដែលលោកអ្នកធ្វើ លោកអ្នកតែងទទួល បើអាត្មាធ្វើខុសអាត្មាក៏ទទួលដែរ... មានតែព្រះអង្គ(ព្រះពុទ្ធ)មួយព្រះអង្គទេគ្មានគ្រូបាអាចារ្យណា ប្រដៅព្រះអង្គបានឡើយ...ហើយឧបាសកឧបាសិកាគួរតែកុំប្រព្រឹត្តទៅតាម កាមកិលេសតណ្ហា កុំលួចប្រពន្ធគេ ត្រូវចៀសវាងឲ្យបាននូវ ស្រី ស្រា ល្បែង...។ នេះគឺជាធម៌ដែលព្រះសង្ឃទេសនាម្តងៗដើម្បីប្រៀនប្រដៅឧបាសកឧបាសិកា ចំណុះជើងវត្ត កុំឲ្យប្រពឹត្តអំពើអបាយមុខទាំងនេះ។ សាសនា គឺជាផ្នែកមួយនៃបាវចនារបស់ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា ហើយប្រជាពលរដ្ឋដែលកាន់ និងគោរពសាសនាព្រះពុទ្ធដ៏លើសលប់គឺ៩៦,៩ភាគរយ នៃសាសនាសរុប។ (ជំរឿនឆ្នាំ ២០០៨) ដែលមានព្រះសង្ឃជាអ្នកដើរតួជាអ្នកប្រតិបត្តិតាមព្រះពុទ្ធ។ តើព្រះសង្ឃសព្វថ្ងៃប្រព្រឹត្តអ្វីខ្លះ នៅក្នុងសង្គម និងបណ្តាញសង្គមហេ្វសបុក(Facebook)?

បច្ចុប្បន្ននេះ បើមើលទៅទីវត្តអារាមណាដែលមានការសាងសង់រចនាប័ទ្មទំនើបស្អាតៗ ប្រណីតៗ សូម្បីកុដិព្រះសង្ឃនោះ ខ្លះក៏សឹងធំជាងវិហារវត្តល្មមផង ហើយតុបតែងស្អាតណាស់បំពាក់សុទ្ធតែឈើប្រណីតៗ និងបរិក្ខារត្រជាក់។ វត្តណាដែលល្អៗទាំងនោះ គឺភាគច្រើនសុទ្ធតែមានព្រះសង្ឃដែលពូកែៗ ខាងស្រោចទឹក ខាងទស្សន៍ទាយដំឡើងជោគជតារាសី បញ្ចូលមន្តអាគមន៍គាថា ហើយអ្នកធំៗ បានឡើងបុណ្យស័ក្តលឿនណាស់ ខ្លះកាន់តំណែងមិនត្រឹមតែរាប់ឆ្នាំទេគឺរាប់ទសវត្សរ៍ទៀតផង កាន់បានយូរណាស់។ នេះជាតួនាទីរបស់ព្រះសង្ឃដែលតែងតែជួយប្រោសព្រំគ្រហស្ថ អ៊ីចឹងហើយ បើទោះបីគ្រហស្ថទាំងនោះប្រកបរបរទុច្ចរិត ពុករលួយលក់ជាតិ ឬក៏មានបាតដៃប្រឡាក់ឈាមក៏ដោយ? ព្រះសង្ឃដែលពូកែៗទាំងនោះ ក៏ឡើងបុណ្យស័កិ្តលឿនដែរប្រៀបដូចចៅហ្វាយឡើងបុណ្យខុនឡើង ស័ក្តិ។ ពេលនិមន្តចេញក្រៅម្តងៗគឺសុទ្ធមានត្រាព្រះសង្ហាថ្នាក់ជាតិនៅ ពីលើចីវរ និងមានអង្គរក្សឆ្វេចឆ្វាចទៀតផង នៅតែថ្ងៃដាក់រថយន្តសៀរ៉ែននៅខាងមុខទេ។ ប្រសិនបើមានញោមៗធម្មតាណាមកនិមន្តទៅឆាន់សង្ឃទាននៅឯផ្ទះ វិញគឺ ព្រះសង្ឃធម្មតានិមន្តទៅបានហើយអាត្មាជាប់រវល់ណាស់ តែបើញោមៗណាថ្នាក់ធំៗ ឯកឧត្តម លោកជំទាវ ឬក៏ឧត្តមសេនីយ៍និមន្តទៅដំឡើងរាសី ឬក៏ឆាន់នៅវីឡាវិញគឺនិមន្តឡើងឡង់គ្រីស័រ ឬឡិចស៊ីសទៅភ្លាម។ គិតៗទៅសូម្បីតែសង្ឃក៏មានអង្គខ្លះកាលីបៗដែរ កុំថាឡើយតែឧបាសកនោះ។

ព្រះសង្ឃដែលមានឋានៈធំៗទាំងនោះ ភាគច្រើនបញ្ចូលនយោបាយរបស់គណបក្សខ្លះ នៅពេលបានឡើងគង់ទេសនាម្តងៗ។ ជាងនេះទៅទៀត គំរាមកំហែង និងតាមដានព្រះសង្ឃណាដែលចូលរួមសង្កេតតាមដានប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ ដែលមកតវ៉ារឿងវិវាទដីធ្លី ព្រៃឈើ និងសិទ្ធិមនុស្សជាដើម ដោយសារព្រះសង្ឃរស់បានអាស្រ័យឧបាសក នៅពេលឧបាសកទុក្ខព្រួយគឺព្រះសង្ឃតែងតែជួយអ៊ីចឹងហើយ។ ឧទាហរណ៍ ដូចកាលពីឆ្នាំទៅ ព្រះសង្ឃលួន សាវ៉ាត ដែលចូលរួមឃ្លំាមើលការតវ៉ារឿងព្រៃឡង់ក៏មិនបានដែរ គឺមានលិខិតគណៈសង្ឃរាជធានីហាមវត្តនានានៅរាជធានីភ្នំពេញ មិនឲ្យគង់ស្នាក់អាស្រ័យនៅទេ។ ពេលខ្លះធ្វើការតាមដានព្រះសង្ឃណាដែលមាននិន្នាការនយោបាយរក លទ្ធិប្រជាធិបតេយ្យថែមទៀតផង។

គណៈសង្ឃធំៗទាំងនោះ មិនសូវគិតគូររឿងការបន្តបង្កើតព្រះធម៌ព្រះត្រៃបិដកដើម្បី អភិវឌ្ឍវិស័យព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា ឬក៏បង្កើតពាក្យថ្មីៗទៅលើវចនានុក្រម សម្តេចសង្ឃ ជួន ណាត ដែលមានស្រាប់ទេ ឬកំណត់យកនិយាមពាក្យដែលត្រូវមកផ្សព្វផ្សាយទេ គឺទុកឲ្យកូនខ្មែរទាំងបច្ចុប្បន្ន ជំនាន់ក្រោយទៀតមានការលំបាក ហើយតាំងបន្ទោសថាកូនខ្មែរមិនចេះសរសេរអក្សរខ្មែរត្រឹមត្រូវ សូម្បីការបង្កើតពាក្យប្រើជាភាសាខ្មែរនៅក្នុងទូរស័ព្ទហ្នឹង ក៏មិនទាន់ចុះសម្រុងគ្នានៅឡើយទេ។ ចុះថាតើនឹងមានបញ្ហាអក្សរខ្មែរអ្វីខ្លះកើតឡើង នៅខែក្រោយនេះ ប្រព័ន្ធអ៊ីនធឺណិត Mozilla Firefox មានគម្រោងបង្កើតកម្មវិធីអក្សរខ្មែរនៅលើវេបសាយរបស់ខ្លួន ឬមួយក៏ទុកឲ្យតាមដំណើរអ៊ីចឹងទៅ? គណៈសង្ឃធំៗបច្ចុប្បន្ននេះមើលទៅដូច គិតគូររឿងបក្ស បុណ្យស័ក្តិ និងអំណាចច្រើនជាងស្រាវជ្រាវធម៌អាថ៌ និងអក្សរសាស្រ្ត ខុសពីព្រះសង្ឃជំនាន់ដើមខិតខំរាប់ឆ្នាំបកប្រែពីភាសាបាលីមក ឲ្យកូនខ្មែរជំនាន់ក្រោយប្រើ ហើយមេដឹកនាំព្រះសង្ឃជំនាន់មុនហ៊ានចេញមុខតស៊ូប្រឆាំងជាមួយនឹង អាណានិគមនិយមបារាំង ដូចព្រះសង្ឃក្រឡាហោមគង់ ជាដើម។ សូមមានពុទ្ធដីកាជាលាយលក្ខណ៍អក្សរប្រាប់ផងសព្វថ្ងៃនេះធ្វើបាន អ្វីខ្លះ ?
ក្រៅពីនោះ មានរឿងប្លែកៗជាច្រើនជុំវិញព្រះសង្ឃដែលប្រព្រឹត្តផ្ទុយពីវីន័យ ធម៌ ព្រះសង្ឃខ្លះលួចផឹកស្រា ខ្លះលួចលេងបៀរ ខ្លះចាក់កន្ទុយលេខ ខ្លះហាត់បើកឡានលេងក្នុងវត្តពេលយប់ៗ ខ្លះលួចមើលរឿងអាសអាភាសក៏មាន អ៊ីចឹងហើយបានជាកើតមានព្រះសង្ឃហ៊ានដល់សេពមេថុន(រួមភេទ) ខ្លះទៀតឈានដល់ថ្នាក់ចាប់រំលោភសេពសន្ថវៈទៀតផង។ ឧទាហរណ៍៖ កាលពីសប្តាហ៍មុន មានព្រះសង្ឃមួយអង្គធ្វើសកម្មភាពរំលោភកុមារីដល់ទៅ២នាក់ ហើយ២នាក់ផ្សេងទៀតប៉ុនប៉ង ហើយគំរាមសម្លាប់ក្មេងស្រីៗទាំង២នាក់នោះទៀត បើស្រែក ឬក៏ទៅប្តឹងប៉ូលិស។ ព្រះសង្ឃអើយ ព្រះសង្ឃ!អីក៏សាហាវម្ល៉េះ ក្រែងទូន្មានគ្រហស្ថសុទ្ធតែ កុំឲ្យប្រព្រឹត្តអបាយមុខនានា តែព្រះសង្ឃខ្លួនឯងនោះជាអ្នកប្រព្រឹត្តទៅវិញ។ ករណីព្រះសង្ឃធ្វើសកម្មភាពយ៉ាងដូច្នេះ មិនឃើញមានគណៈសង្ឃធំៗ រឹតបន្តឹងផ្នែកវិន័យឲ្យបានធ្ងន់ធ្ងរទេ ដូចជា ចេញជាលាយលក្ខណ៍អក្សរ ប្រកាសតាមវត្តនានាទូទាំងប្រទេសជាដើម ពោលគឺទុកទាល់តែទុំជោរ បានដឹងដូចជា ករណី នេត ខៃ បាននាំគ្នាចាត់ការទាំងគណៈសង្ឃទាំងសមត្ថកិច្ច។ បើតាមរបាយការណ៍ឆ្នាំ២០១១ របស់ក្រសួងមហាផ្ទៃ បានបង្ហាញថា ករណីរំលោភសេពសន្ថវៈមាន៣៤០ករណី កើនឡើងជាងឆ្នាំ២០១០ ដែលមាន៣១០ករណី។ ក្នុងនោះករណីរំលោភសរុបក៏រាប់បញ្ចូលទាំងព្រះសង្ឃផងដែរ។ សង្ឃឹមថា ឆ្នាំនេះក្រសួងនឹង វិភាគទិន្នន័យមកបង្ហាញចំពោះករណីអ្នកប្រព្រឹត្តជាព្រះសង្ឃផងដែរ ។

សកម្មភាពអបាយមុខរបស់ព្រះសង្ឃខាងលើនេះ គួរឲ្យខ្ពើមរអើមចំពោះសង្គមជាតិ។ ឧបាសកម្នាក់ៗធ្វើអ្វីៗ មិនហ៊ានប៉ះព្រះសង្ឃទេព្រោះខ្លាចបាប សូម្បីតែនិយាយទៅកាន់ព្រះសង្ឃក៏គិតដែរខ្លាចខុសពាក្យពេចន៍ ចំណែកព្រះសង្ឃខ្លះវិញមិនត្រឹមតែរំលោភទេ ថែមទាំងគំរាមសម្លាប់ទៀត។
ឥឡូវនេះ ចូលដល់ដំណាក់កាលព្រះសង្ឃនាំគ្នាលេងហ្វេសប៊ុក ហើយឆ្លើយឆ្លងជាមួយនារីស្អាត ខ្លះស៊ិចស៊ីទៀត សំណួរសួរថាតើព្រះសង្ឃលេងហ្វេសប៊ុកមានអ្វីខុសដែរឬទេ ? បើតាមវិន័យសង្ឃវិញតើ អាចដាច់អាបត្តិដែរឬទេ? បើព្រះសង្ឃបើកហ្វេសប៊ុកទៅឃើញសុទ្ធតែរូបអាសអាភាស ឬវីដេអូគ្លីបអាសអាភាស ដែលគេបានបង្ហោះ ឬមានមេរោគ(Virus)ដែលបានផ្ញើមកចូលក្នុងខ្ទង់គណនីហ្វេសបុករបស់ ព្រះសង្ឃនោះ? ពេលខ្លះព្រះសង្ឃដែលជាសមាជិកលេងហ្វេសបុកក៏បង្ហោះរូបភាពរបស់ ព្រះសង្ឃក្នុងបន្ទប់ក្នុងកុដិ ដែលរូបថតទាំងប្រុស ស្រី នៅក្នុងបន្ទប់នោះឲ្យញាតិញោមឃើញទាំងអស់ ហើយព្រះសង្ឃខ្លះពាក់តែហង្សសាក់ (អាវកាក់)ទៀត។ តើជាការសមរម្យដែរឬទេបើនារីៗបើកនៅក្នុងហ្វេសបុកឃើញនោះ? បើតាមវិន័យធម៌ព្រះសង្ឃតាមធម្មតា គឺអាចមើលមុខស្រ្តីទាល់តែចម្ងាយសុទ្ធតែ៣ ទៅ៤ម៉ែត្រឯណោះ។ បើព្រះសង្ឃមើលរូបភាពស្រើបស្រាលបែបនេះ អាចបណ្តាលឲ្យព្រះសង្ឃដែលលេងហ្វេសប៊ុកអាចឈានដល់ការរួមភេទ ឬក៏ចាប់រំលោភដែរឬទេ? តើគណៈសង្ឃធំៗមានបានដឹងរឿងព្រះសង្ឃលេងហ្វេសប៊ុកដែរ ឬទេ? បើដឹងហើយ តើមានវិធានការដែរឬទេ?
ចូលរួមផ្តល់យោបល់តាមរយៈ soprach.tong@phnompenhpost.com

Cambodian authority and Decho must use the prowess of Dhamma or law, not the prowess of personality, to protect Cambodian citizens

2012-02-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

It is a tragedy while the government and their leaders have been bragging on economic growth, national development, peace and prosperity after the dark cloud of civil war and brutality ended, many bottom-line people like the residents of Borei Keila have continuously been humiliated by such "development rhetoric". Listen to the video clip below, a woman said "is this the development in the age of Decho?". It is shameful for Decho to be heard like this. Hence, this plague has happened every where around the world, not only Cambodia, if the top leader is not having proper conduct and moral attitude in the Dhamma. Dhamma means rule of laws, not rule of personality. As our observation remarked, our Decho has always proliferated his personality to judge and decide all issues happening in Cambodian society.

Buddha has been known as an Enlightened personality, but Buddha has never claimed himself as the central personality in deciding and determining any controversial issues. Dhamma and Vinaya which have been well promulgated for public use is the guideline, the tool for proper decision making and substantial rule for every one regardless of their status, entity or tendencies etc. However, Cambodian Buddhists are sadden and sad when their top leader has been using personality to judge and make a decision with all things. Recent public talk of Decho about ordering his Ohna colleague to arrest the violators inside his company who shot innocent protesters in Kratie because of their curiosity on the land grab, is not right on the proper practice of the Dhamma or the rule of law. Decho must follow the rule of law, he couldn't use his prowess to overlapped or undermine the existing law.

Cambodian law has solemnly condemned and punished those who committed violence and perpetrated illegal activities. Cambodian authority and Decho must use the prowess of the Dhamma/law, not the prowess of personality, in order to stop humiliating our own race and innocent Cambodian citizens.

Let collectively pray for the well-being and safety of Borei Keila residents

2012-01-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

Lord Buddha teaches us to sacrifice materials, relatives, personal organs and including personal life in order to safeguard the Dhamma or the rule of laws or righteousness. In Cambodia, the current flow of her society is in reverse to this teaching. Top leaders and their colleagues seem enjoy personal gains, personal materials, personal relatives and personal power more any other things. Their gains are at the ridge of greed, hatred and delusion. It is at a clear spot of damaging the Dhamma.

Look at the development project, Boeung Kok lake as well as Borei Keila; the residents who have been living here have continuously received unfair treatment and forcibly evicted. The status of their citizenship and the status of their human dignity have been violently perpetrated by the powerful and the riches. Nonetheless, while winners have obtained all the capacities, the losers and the bottom-line Cambodians, have become the victims. They have been victimized unjustly. Dhamma of Lord Buddha has been twisted and manipulated by the winners and the powerful. The state of weaks and bottom-line people are visibly placed as the guilty.

Let join together to pray for the well-being and safety of those forcibly evicted residents and their young children.

Image of detaining those people in a place which are not consented by them is the grave violation of human rights.

Image of policemen equipped by guns and buttons viciously forced those innocent residents. Image of policemen kicking that small boy is a grave violation of human rights.

The cycle of sufferings and tears are within us, breakthrough this cycle if we want stop sufferings and tears

2012-01-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

Cambodian proverb says "ចុះទឹកក្រពើ ឡើងលើខ្លា Choh Tirk Kropeur, Lerng Leur Klaa or means step down into the water face alligator, climb up to the ground face tiger". This proverb teaches us the "reality" that all Cambodian people especially Cambodian Buddhists must be mindful to accept this truth and search for alternative solutions to eliminate this unfavorable truth. While the 7 Makara Day has been approaching and it is a dividing day for Cambodian politicians and general people, the violence in Borei Keila has been remarkably occurring before this remarkable arrival day. If we do a Dhamma analogy with the Khmer proverb saying above, we can see that the Pol Pot regime is a deadly situation that Cambodian people were drown into the water full of alligator; 7 Makara Day is a deadly situation that Cambodian people were preyed by the tiger. As the matter of fact, the violation on the residential rights in Borei Keila as well as other places entire Cambodia are evidently witnessing the suffering and tears perpetuated by the tiger on the ground? It seems we were drown into the water, Cambodian people were died faster than Cambodian people who are preyed by the ground tiger. 3 years, 8 months and 20 days in the water might not be able to compare the suffering and tears of 33 years facing with the lingering ground tiger. If Cambodian people cannot escape from these two beasts, the suffering and tears are still pending on them.

Buddha taught that "the cycle of suffering is within us, if we cannot break through this cycle, we still experience sufferings and tears".

លោកមេធាវីជួង ជួងីកោសក់បួសជាតាបស់បដិបតិ្តសមាធិភាវនា Lawyer Choung Choungy shaved head and ordained to practice meditation

2012-01-05T00:28:00.000-08:00

លោក ជួង ជូងី មេធាវីការពារក្តីល្បីល្បាញឲ្យប្រជាជនស្លូតត្រង់និង សមាជិកគណបក្ស សម រង្ស៊ីបានកោសក់បួសជាតាបស់ធ្វើសមាធិធម៌-ភាវនាដើម្បី ស្វែងរកយុត្តិធម៌ រក្សាធម៌ និងរក្សាសេចក្តីល្អ ដែលជាគ្រឹះសំខាន់ឈាន ទៅរកការបដិបត្តិពិតប្រាកដ។

ធម៌មានន័យថាសភាវៈទ្រទ្រង់។ ព្រះពុទ្ធជាម្ចាស់សំដែងថា ធម្មោ ហវេ រក្ខតិ ធម្មចារី មានន័យថា ធម៌នឹងរក្សាបុគ្គលណាដែលប្រព្រឹត្តនិងបដិបតិ្តធម៌។ លោកមេធាវីជួង ជួងីពិតជាមានធម្មសងេ្វកយ៉ាងខ្លាំងចំពោះការវិវឌ្ឍន៏ចុង ក្រោយនែប្រព័ន្ធយុត្តិធម៌នៅកម្ពុជា ហើយការកោសក់បួសជាតាបស់ ធ្វើសមាធិភាវនានៅពេលនេះ ពិតជាជួយឱយចិត្តរបស់លោកស្ងប់ មានបញ្ញា និងអាចទាក់ទាញពុទ្ធបរិស័យ ខ្មែរទាំងអស់ឱយធ្វើដំណើរពី ក្រោយលោកទាំងអស់គ្នា។

កម្មដ្ឋានមានន័យថាទីតាំងនែការបដិបតិ្តធម៌រួមមានកាយ ចិត្ត និងទីកន្លែង ស្ងប់ញ៉ាំងអត្តភាពឱយឈានទៅរកការសំរេចធម៌ជាន់ខ្ពស់។ សមាធិភាវនា មានន័យថាបរិកម្មធម៌ណាមួយជាពុទ្ធគុណក្តី ជាធម្មគុណក្តី ជាសង្ឍគុណក្តី ដើម្បីលើកកំរិតចិត្តឱយឈានដល់ការសំរេចធម៌ជាន់ខ្ពស់។

លោកមហាត្មគន្ធី បានបដិបតិ្តសត្យកម្មនិងអវិហឹង្សា ដែលធ្វើឱយចិត្តលោក ស្ងប់សំរេចធម៌ជាន់ ខ្ពស់បណ្តាលឱយអង់គ្លេសប្រគល់ឯករាជ្យឱយឥណ្ឌា។

បច្ចុប្បន្នលោកAnna Hazareបានកំពុងបដិបតិ្តសមាធិភាវនាវដើម្បីធ្វើចិត្តឱយ ស្ងប់ដែលកើតពីសង្វេគធម៌នែអំពើពុករលួយដ៏អាក្រក់នៅប្រទេសឥណ្ឌា។

សូមចូលរួមអនុមោទនាលោកមេធាវីជួង ជួងី ក្នុងការកោសក់បួសជាតាបស់ ដើម្បីធ្វើសមាធិភាវនាវនៅពេលនេះ។ សង្ឍឹមថាពុទ្ធបរិស័ទខ្មែរនឹងចូលរួម បដិបត្តិជាមួយលោកដើម្បីសន្សំកុសលផលបុណ្យជាមួយគ្នាតែរៀងៗខ្លួន។

Lawyer Choung Chou-ngy sacrifices to keep law or Dhamma alive

2011-12-30T00:13:00.000-08:00

យើងសូមគាំទ្រលោកជួង ជូងីក្នុងការលះបង់គ្រប់យ៉ាងដើម្បីរក្សាច្បាប់ គឺរក្សាធម៌។ សូក្រាតសូ៑ស្លាប់ដើម្បីរក្សាច្បាប់គឺធម៌។ ព្រះពុទ្ធធ្វើទុក្ខរកិរិយាជិតនឹងស្លាប់ដើម្បីសែ្វងរកព្រះធម៌សំរាប់
សត្វលោក។

We support lawyer Choung Chou-ngy for his sacrifice in order to protect the law or the Dhamma.

Socrates accepted to die in order to keep the law or the Dhamma alive.

Lord Buddha practice self-mortification nearly die in order to search law or Dhamma for human kind.

May law or Dhamma be alive with all CAMBODIANS and their NATION!

Open letter to the public by EB

2011-12-27T01:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Supporters and Friends;

The recent news reported by many media outlets in Cambodia about the criminal court order towards an oversea Khmer dissent named Suon Serey Ratha who is known for his movement called "Khmer People Power Movement or KPPM", by the court of Cambodia, has linked it to other two Cambodian Buddhist monks. According to news reported by Voice of Democracy (VOD) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), Venerable Sieng Sovannara, the vice abbot of Watt Samakii Rangsy of Mean Chey District, Phnom Penh city, was interrogated on a suspicion of his association with Suon Serey Ratha and Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath.

By this order and linkage, it means two Cambodian monks mentioned above, especially Preah Krou Luon Sovath, have involved in criminal accuse or indirectly threatening?

Note that Suon Serey Ratha is known for his sharp critics towards the government and he has led an anti-movement to topple the government by traveling to different countries to persuade Cambodian dissents to join his movement including his many trips in-and-out Cambodia. He is a naturalized American and a layman.

Venerable Sieng Sovannara is a Khmer Kampuchea Krom monk whose homeland is locating in Mekong Delta River which is well-known for fertile soil, rich Buddhism and ethnic Khmer population, but this region was taken over by the Vietnamese imperialist and the communist authority has violated their basic rights irreversibly. Last few years, a Khmer Kampuchea Krom monk named Tim Sakhorn, the abbot of Phnom Den pagoda, was defrocked by the Cambodian authority and handed him to Vietnamese authority to incarcerate in Vietnam for several years before he was released and asylumed in the third country.

Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath was primarily affected by the forced eviction and land grab in his home village. His two siblings were wounded by the gunshot and many villagers and neighbors were arrested by the authority. His compassion urged him to leave Phnom Penh city, his accommodation for university schooling, to help those siblings and neighbors. Finally, he got many warning from the authority, the order from provincial Buddhist leader, and the directive from the supreme patriarch of Cambodia. The directive from the supreme patriarch banned him from staying in any pagoda in the Kingdom as well as ordered all abbots not to allow Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath to stay in the pagoda.

Though perceiving of such frightening situation, Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath has still wandered to different directions entire the country to preach to those forced eviction villagers and the victims of land grab on the importance of using non-violence, be mindful and be patient to the problems. Those victims need both spiritual refuge and peace guidance from Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath.

For the recent linkage by the municipal court, we are doubtful on the intention of the court:

Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath has not yet received official letter from the court for questioning and we would like to receive further explanation from the municipal court on this linking to his name.
Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath is a Buddhist monk whose main task is to practice the Dhamma and to spread this Dhamma to others accordingly. He has never contended with any political figure or involved with any political tendency. He has never involved with the accused Suon Serey Ratha at all.
He is a simple monk who has lived with the villagers. The monks make a living by the offering of the villagers, the villagers need spiritual refuge and peace guidance, monks must engage with them.

We do hope the Cambodian legal body will not disturb the socially engaged Buddhism of Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath.

We do hope all NGOs, human rights organizations, world religious leaders, foreign embassies in Phnom Penh, the United Nations, international communities and peace-lover individuals, pay attention to this latest legal linkage of Cambodian authority towards Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath.

We do hope all living beings live together peacefully without discriminating or taking advantage from each other by their greed (Lobha), hatred (Dosa) or delusion (Moha).

May all beings be free from greed, hatred and delusion.

May Peace and Prosperity be with you all,

Vinaya or the rule of laws is important but they must be rightly articulated

2011-12-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

Buddha taught his disciples that Vinaya or the rule of law is crucial for justice, peace, unity and advancement. However, Buddha stressed on right view and right understanding to duly implement their duty and obligation of this Vinaya. Whenever, the rule of law or Vinaya was created by a wrong view and wrong understanding, the greedy and the delusive will exploit this rule of law at the expenses of the bottom line people and the society will be inevitably apocalyptic.

Civil society or NGOs are the key player of social development. Civil society is the key actor in social, political and economic development in Cambodia. Civil society is the broker of this nation. In democratic countries, the government and civil society is inseparable and they are legally entitled to collectively work for the nation. They are guaranteed by the national constitution. In communist countries, civil society is strictly prohibited.

In Cambodia, many laws such as fishery laws, deforestion laws and corruption laws have become a tool for political supremacy. With this reality, how could one trust the upcoming civil society laws? This is the emergent question embedded in Cambodian mind and government must ensure that they have built trust for its citizens. If those laws are amended but never implemented or implemented for the greedy and the delusive, it is just a tool for modern political manipulation. We need right Vinaya and right practitioners in Cambodia.

Villagers petition via krama

Chhay Channyda

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

Photo by: Pha Lina

Villagers hold aloft a 230-metre krama yesterday during their protest in front of the National Assembly.

More than 10,000 thumbprints of villagers from communities throughout 24 provinces and cities secured to a 230-metre blue krama was submitted to the National Assembly yesterday as a petition against the passage of three worrying laws.

Before submitting the petition, which weighed 50 kilograms, about 100 villagers from land-dispute communities and villages dependent on fishing and forestry stood alongside civil society representatives while holding the scarf and chanting.

“The citizens wanted the National Assembly to know that they are very concerned over draft laws which restrict their freedom,” Yeng Virak, president of Community Legal Education Center said.

The thumbprints, which were collected on International

Human Rights Day on December 12, are in protest over the passage of the draft law on associations and NGOs, the draft union law and the draft agricultural cooperative law.

A large and vocal portion of civil society views these draft laws as violating the constitutional and international rights of Cambodians, specifically freedom of expression and association guarantees.

Heng Sam Orn, general secretary of the Independent Democratic of Informal Economic Association, said the three laws were not really needed and, if passed, the rights and freedom of expression of citizens and civil society organisations alike would be narrower.

“Law dictating what activities local communities can do in their residences is a restriction on freedom, and it will be contrary to our constitution,” he said.

Villager Nhel Pheap said that submitting the petition to the National Assembly is “a beforehand caution” for the National Assembly, which has the ultimate right to consider and approve laws.

Sar Bora, president of the Cambodian Food and Service Workers’ Federation, said Cambodian civil society intended to continue advocacy protests against the laws, even if the National Assembly passed them.

Omlang villlagers who marched to the provincial court are admirable

2011-12-23T11:08:00.000-08:00

Omlang villagers of Kompong Speu Province collectively marched towards to the provincial court in order to protest the court for its abusing of power in a land dispute between the investors and the farmers. Apparently, courts in Cambodia are notorious for its corruption and biases. Many decision makings by the courts, the winning will be rich people, powerful entities, foreign investors and Oknha or tycoons etc. For farmers and poor Cambodians, they have repeatedly disappointed by the court if their complains or legal procedures handed to the courts. If the Cambodian government which has been hybridized by half communist and half democracy is going to use legal domination to oppress on the weak by favoring the strong in its new face of political orchestration of instilling political supremacy in this very immature nation, the justice and peace will never prevail. Buddha advised us to lead a life with heedfulness, not carelessness. With this heedfulness, Omlang villagers who marched to the provincial court are admirable.

ទិវាសិទ្ធិមនុស្សនៅបឹងកក់

2011-12-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

ទិវាសិទ្ធិមនុស្សលើកទី៦៣

2011-12-17T21:34:00.000-08:00

Prey Lang prayer ban defied

2011-12-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

By Phnom Penh Post

May Titthara

Thursday, 15 December 2011

Photo Supplied

Members of the Prey Lang network participate in a prayer ceremony yesterday at the Bayon Temple in Siem Reap in order to raise awarness of deforestation in the Kingdom. More than 100 villagers defied police attempts yesterday to break up a praying ceremony they held at Angkor Wat to seek divine help in their battle to stop the government from allowing private companies to destroy the protected Prey Lang forest.

Svay Phoeun, a member of the Prey Lang network, which advocates for the protection of the forest, said officers from the Apsara Authority and police tried but failed to stop them from holding their ceremony at Bayon temple in the Angkor Wat complex.

“We still continued even though the police tried to block us, because what we did was not wrong,” he said.

The 360,000 hectare forest – Cambodia’s largest, spanning six districts in the provinces of Preah Vihear, Kratie, Stung Treng and Kampong Thom – is under threat from 33 separate economic land concessions that have been granted to private companies.

Duong Sovanara, a member of the Prey Lang network, said the group had chosen the Bayon Temple for their ceremony for two reasons – because it was a magic site and because it was somewhere they could draw the attention of passing tourists to the destruction of the forest.

“We would like to ask the government to find a quick resolution to prevent [the destruction of] Prey Lang, otherwise it will be destroyed quickly by private companies,” he said.

Chea Sophat, cultural heritage police chief in Siem Reap province, said he had refused to allow the villagers to celebrate their praying ceremony because they had not received official permission.

“We will allow them to do their praying party after we get permission from the director general of Apsara Authority,” he said.

Seng Sokheng, a representative of the Community Peace Building Network, said villagers had secured such permission before about 30 police officers occupied their ceremony.

“What the authority did is illegal in Cambodian law, because they did not allow villagers to celebrate the Buddha ceremony,” he said.

“It also a violation of human rights.”

Bun Narith, director general of Apsara, could not be reached for comment.

CAMBODIA: The people must no longer wait for Preah Batr Dhammik to come to their rescue

2011-12-15T14:23:00.000-08:00

FOR PUBLICATION

A nation of 14 million people, of whom 95 percent are Buddhist, Cambodians should be perfect actors for change. Their Lord Buddha preached, "To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life." He counseled men to be activists and "actionists." Do Cambodians who talk Buddha's talk, also walk his talk? As Buddha asked: "What good will do if you do not act upon them?"

Op-Ed: Sophan Seng
AHRC-ETC-057-2011
December 15, 2011
An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

CAMBODIA: The people must no longer wait for Preah Batr Dhammik to come to their rescue

Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth

The end of 2011 is filled with less than happy news on Cambodia and her people that dampens the holiday mood. On the first of December, Radio Free Asia presented a somber broadcast on the culture of corruption permeating Khmer youth, starting with kindergarten children, the teaching corps, and moving up to education officials in government. Allegations of corruption at this foundational level do not bode well for Cambodia's future.

The report on corruption by RFA's Keo Pich Meta began with an illustrative Khmer saying "Tumpaeng snorng russei," which refers to bamboo shoots that will grow and replace aging bamboo trees. Bamboo shoots are the nation's future pillars. The saying counsels children to go to school, study hard, become educated, to help build a prosperous country.

RFA's report describes unspecified numbers of Khmer children and youth, the bamboo shoots, who are unlikely to grow up to become strong future pillars of a broadly prosperous society. They have fallen prey to societal ills, drugs, laziness, a lack of desire to learn, an avoidance of schooling, among other things. Of course there are children and youth going to school, the report says, but in the course of their schooling it has become customary to bribe teachers for better grades so students can move to the next level.

Having learned a culture of corruption at such a young age, these small bamboo shoots will probably carry the culture of societal ills with them as they grow.

Numbing the spirit, hurting the dignity
Neither was the news from Cambodia in November encouraging to those who advocate for Cambodians' civil rights. In late November, the small community of people of Boeung Kak Lake – those left from the original 4,000-plus residents who were victims of forced eviction – took to the streets to protest against the real estate firm Shukaku Inc., owned by ruling Cambodian People's Party Senator Lao Meng Khin. The people of Boeung Kak Lake were holding on desperately to the 12.44 hectares of land that remains after the lake and adjacent 120 hectares were co-opted by the government and leased for 99 years to Shukaku for development.

News accounts and photos of the encounter are available on the Internet. Khmer women linked arms to protest injustice. Police wielding riot shields closed in on them. Women were knocked to the ground. A woman protester cut her wrist. Some women removed items of clothing and used them to hit at police. Some women protesters were arrested and taken away. A week earlier, a 33-year-old mother of 2 had jumped off the Japanese Friendship Bridge to her death: What is life when one's home and land are taken away?

Around the same time, Amnesty International released "Eviction and Resistance in Cambodia," a publication in which four Cambodian women tell stories of their struggle and hardships endured during their fight against forced removal from their homes and land. One woman of the indigenous Kuy minority tells how she leads her community to protect the land, the natural resources, and the Prey Lang forest, where the Kuy have lived for generations. The stories and the photos in Amnesty International's report are compelling. These are reinforced by the growing number of videos available on You Tube that document contemporary events in Cambodia.

Readers should log on to see "Life in a Cambodian rubbish dump," an Online posting by Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Amy Simmons, of photos by Spanish photojournalist Omar Havana. Havana spent seven months secretly documenting the lives of a Cambodian community of about 500 people who "live – or survive – in a rubbish dump" about 30 kilometers from the world-renowned Angkor Wat Temple (located some 5.5 kms north of Siem Reap city, where a hotel room can cost more than $1,500 a night).
In Havana's words, "What I saw (at the dump) was from another world." "Most of the little children are aged between three and 15 and they are always smiling – that was what shocked me." Havana quoted a little boy: "I smile all the time, I'm lucky. Today I'm going to eat this (bag of blood) and tomorrow I will see the sun again."

I felt numb reading the text and indignant at the poverty depicted in Havana's photos. Affected in spirit and in heart, I am haunted by American civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr.'s observation that "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

So I grouped some photos available in the public domain of Cambodian citizens' human rights protests, made a video title "Tor Sou! – Struggle!," and put it on YouTube, accompanied by Cambodian Messenger Band's Khmer song, "Land and Life." I wrote a short note to Khmers asking that they do something to help their countrymen, the poor and marginalized; to non-Khmers, I pleaded they not forget those shown in the photos.

It was not the kind of end-of-the-year message I had in mind.
Incredibly, this video on forced eviction elicited instead some anonymous comments, both supporting and decrying the Vietnamese presence in Cambodia. Whatever happened to critical thinking that requires one to stay with the topic and ask only relevant, necessary and indispensable questions on the issue at hand?

Hurting the brain
If the images of a government orchestrating brutalities against its citizens were not dispiriting enough, Hun Sen also managed to assault those who appeal to a thoughtful audience. In public remarks, Hun Sen lambasted reporters from Radio Free Asia for their coverage of his wife and followed up with personal attacks on broadcasters from the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia for coverage he deemed critical of his government. Earlier, he threatened: "Close the door, beat the dog!"

While some expatriates exclaim that a prime minister should not lose his temper and scream at reporters like that, I was considering if there is any difference between the behavior of former Khmer Rouge commander Hun Sen's behavior, and his former boss, Pol Pot's demand for unquestioned uniformity backed by the slogan, "No gain to keep (a person), no loss to waste (a person)".

In addition to the demoralizing news described above, Cambodia Daily reported on a finding by the UK-based Maplecroft Deforestation Index 2012, categorizing Cambodia as at "extreme risk" as "1.4 million hectares" of forest have been lost over the last decade from illegal and uncontrolled logging, large scale agro-industrial development, and weak governance. Some 60 percent of the forests "richest in biodiversity" have been lost. Cambodia ranks 9th worst for deforestation among 180 countries.
Maplecroft's analyst Granziera singled out China as "driving forest loss in Cambodia through illegal timber" collection. The Daily reported deforestation surging to new heights last year, and that rights groups alleged "land concessions have topped 2 million hectares."

Still last month, the Berlin-based Transparency International, engaged in the fight against corruption, released its Index (based on such factors as bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of public funds, and effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts), ranking Cambodia 164th (out of 183 countries) – a fall from 154th last year – with unchecked graft. Cambodia scored only 2.1 points on a 10 point scale, with 10 points indicating a corruption-free government.

Also, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal's saga continues. The KRT was meant to try people responsible for deaths of 1.7 to 2.5 million people during the rule of the Khmer Rouge, provide justice and closure for victims and their families. But it has become a show trial that ultimately will not achieve the stated aims.
Cambodians say "Chheu kbal," or "headache." It's no secret that I am one of many countrymen who seek change to the status quo.

Regime change
Lord Gautama Buddha taught 2,500 years ago that "Nothing is permanent," that "Everything changes." Humans are not the children of inevitable karma: "I do believe in a fate that falls on (humans) unless they act," Buddha said. Action, on the other hand, will result in an altered outcome. Buddha said, "I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done." Thus, if we don't do anything our lot would not change; no one is responsible for our fate but ourselves. We are what we think, Buddha said, and we make the world with our thoughts.

A nation of 14 million people, of whom 95 percent are Buddhist, Cambodians should be perfect actors for change. Their Lord Buddha preached, "To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life." He counseled men to be activists and "actionists." Do Cambodians who talk Buddha's talk, also walk his talk? As Buddha asked: "What good will do if you do not act upon them?"

Change is what Cambodians in general say they want in Cambodia. Opposition parties and opponents to Hun Sen and the ruling party want regime change.

Understandable, but how?
On Nov. 25, self-exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy declared on the Voice of America's "Hello VOA" program, that he has "no more trust" in the Hun Sen regime, and called for "regime change": Cambodians must break off and liberate themselves from the corrupt regime that sells land and natural resources to foreign companies, gives away national territory, and now engages the people in billions of dollars of public debt that no government can pay back.

The Daily reported a Finance Ministry statement released on Nov. 7 saying by late 2010, Cambodia owed foreign countries and development partners a debt of "$3.3 billion, or 29 percent of GDP" – whereas Hun Sen claimed the debt totaled "only $2 billion"; the National Bank said the debt is $5.4 billion of which $2.5 billion was borrowed from foreign countries; while CPP legislator Cheam Yeap said the debt stood at $7 billion or 63 percent of gross domestic product. Take your pick!

On Nov. 21, three Sam Rainsy Party lawmakers resigned from the National Assembly. The purpose was to render the assembly "unconstitutional," hence, any law it enacts is not valid. Article 76 of the Constitution stipulates the National Assembly "consists of at least 120 members." Rainsy says, with three SRP members resigning, the assembly does not have 120 members, hence, it is not constitutional.
On the day Rainsy spoke of regime change from Paris, 22 SRP members and 3 members of the Human Rights Party boycotted the assembly's deliberation on the 2012 national budget law. The idea was to invalidate the law that allocates $2.7 billion in public expenditure and allows the regime to incur $1.1 billion in foreign debt through concessional loans.

But the CPP-controlled assembly met and voted 86 to 0 to pass the national budget law after only three hours of deliberation. No opposition member was present to challenge it.

The Lotus Revolutionists
The Khmer Lotus Revolutionists have attempted to group Cambodians of all political-ideological tendencies into a movement to pursue three goals: 1) to liberate Cambodia from the Vietnamese colonization; 2) to liberate the Khmer people from the dictatorship of royalists-Communist Khmer Rouge-CPP/Hun Sen "puppet of Vietnam"; and 3) eventually, to build a free, independent, democratic regime based on human rights and free choice.

The Lotus Revolution members call for a boycott of Cambodia's elections – which they charge are "rigged, manipulated, under threats and intimidation, therefore, unfair and nonfree " that only serve to "perpetuate" Vietnamization and dictatorship over the Motherland. They declare it Cambodians' "sacred duty" "not to go vote, not to register as candidates." Without effective implementation of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords and the 1993 Constitution of Cambodia, the "end justifies the means (as a last resort!)" to attain their goals, they say.

Some Cambodians speak
One year ago I wrote in this space about Makara, a graduate in English literature from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, who accused Hun Sen of being "a thorn, the source of the country's many problems," but asserted "not everyone" in the current regime or in the opposition is "all virtuous" or "all evil"; that Cambodia has "good people … but we have a powerful, selfish, greedy, family-ism (sic) leader."
Makara, who gave me permission to quote him in my article, said the democrats can be an alternative to Hun Sen and cronies; that democratic values and free expression are solid essential elements of durable stability and order; and that there's no alternative to a good education for all Cambodians. He saw opposition leader Sam Rainsy as "smart and clever … but a bit cowardly to face Hun Sen." Rainsy "doesn't need to dare to walk to prison," said Makara, "but who cares for a leader speaking from abroad?"
Those were his words in 2010. Last Monday, a clearly more discouraged Makara wrote: "I have no hope for Cambodia's prosperity, nor for the future of poor Cambodians. The (economic) development is only for Chinese and Vietnamese companies, and for the Vietnamese living in Cambodia."

And there is Sambath, a young political science graduate from a foreign university who returned to Cambodia, about whom I have previously written. He said last week that as long as the current "violent" government continues its "activities disastrous to the nation, change will occur unavoidably."
Sambath's words echoed Khmer senior citizen, Lokta Mek So, who also said last week: "Distressful atmosphere is on the rise, so is the repression. If both continue, there will be a collision in few more years." But Sambath thinks in terms of "the next decade."

Even as a student, Sambath has been a strong advocate for political socialization and political acculturation as necessary catalysts for political change. He sees that the absence of "independent, critical thought" among youths and cadres of opposition parties makes the opposition's failure inevitable. "They talked and discussed in the same way I have heard their political leaders or bosses have done. They colored others in the same manner too. Sambath found the youths and cadres of the CPP to be aggressive and disciplined.

He posited that change cannot occur "now" not because the CPP is strong, but rather because the "opposition parties are hopeless," preoccupied with "dividing villagers" for votes in the elections. Then Sambath offered an opinion he had not shared in the past. He said his generation of younger people has grown "fearless" of the authorities, and "more self-confident," while Cambodians in their mid-50s and older, who have experienced social and political turmoil and war, are "too fearful" of the government, and have not been forthcoming and helpful to the younger generation.
Sambath says Hun Sen has exploited the situation psychologically, making threats of social and political unrest and war if the CPP is not in power. The logic seems to be that a weak government will be torn by internal divisions and unrest. With the CPP in power, however, there is no need to fear unrest because the government is too powerful to be challenged.

Last week, Sambath confided: "We (my peer group and all my friends) have concluded our primary objective is to raise political and social awareness among Cambodian youths through a ‘youth-educate-youth' program." He explains that the better informed will guide the less-informed to understand their "important roles" in society.

Recall Teveakor, who was introduced in my last column. He and Lokta Mek So and Sambath do not know one another. Teveakor, a homegrown activist, also believes change is inevitable, but several "most important" things need to be developed: An effective system/method of work requiring a "new thinking," "the right people" with leadership skills, a more politically aware citizenry. Not unlike Sambath or Lokta Mek So, Teveakor sees the current regime as weak, with Hun Sen the only person holding the CPP together; but regime opponents are in disarray and tend to act "without vision, plan, strategy," and are selfish, opportunistic exploiters who can be bought.

Teveakor believes that a good education and a more effective political socialization of Cambodians are the best way to bring durable change to the country, and the older generation must pass general knowledge to the younger generation and help develop more leaders.

Though he mocked Cambodians' inclination to pray for an imaginary Cambodian messiah, the mystical Preah Batr Thoarmmoek (Preah Batr Dhammik) to come to their rescue, Teveakor lamented Cambodians have no leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr.

A monk named Monychenda
Recently, an e-mail from a former Buddhist monk, Bikhu Monychenda, arrived in my box. I was happy to be reconnected with him. In 1981-1982 he traveled along the Khmer-Thai border, where we met. He was in his yellow robe traveling Lord Buddha's path, and I was in the Khmer Resistance traveling a different road.

The Bikhu left the monkhood and earned a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University in 1998, but has remained a "passionate Buddhist scholar writing many books and papers relating to Buddhist values," wrote an interviewer in 2008.

Monychenda's "In Search of the Dhammika Ruler" (2008) discussed Cambodia's declining "moral order." Fascinating was Monychenda's analysis from a Buddhist scholar's standpoint of what has caused Cambodians such "great suffering."

In his book (in Khmer), "Preah Batr Dhammik" or the "Just Ruler," (1991) Monychenda examined how Cambodia's rulers' failure to follow Buddha's advice (to practice the "12 duties of the great ruler"), the Buddhist monks' failure to provide adequate teaching on the dhamma (the way of life), and Cambodians' inability to understand and identify Preah Batr Dhammik, as being causes for Cambodians' suffering.
Monychenda argues that Preah Batr Dhammik is just a "title" for one who upholds Buddha's "tenfold virtues" – charity, morality, self-sacrifice, honesty, kindness, self-control, non-anger, non-violence, tolerance, conformity to the Law. As such, not just the king or ruler, but any person "can and should be" Preah Batr Dhammik in contemporary Cambodia.

"I therefore propose that Cambodians begin to actively cultivate a new Preah Batr Dhammik instead of passively waiting for Preah Batr Dhammik to appear. It is time that we start to save ourselves before a Preah Batr Dhammik arrives to perform his task."

In other words, Monychenda says, wait no longer. Each Khmer can start to develop and apply the Buddhist self-help concept – first you help yourself. I shall return to Bikhu Monychenda later in my writing.
As 2012 dawns, there are small but hopeful signs that a growing number of Cambodians – young people and scholars among them – who understand the need for Cambodians to shed their cultural tendency to be dependent and submissive and replace that with a more affirming cultural value to act on behalf of oneself and one's community as Lord Buddha has encouraged.

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About the Author: Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. He currently lives in the United States. He can be contacted at peangmeth@gmail.com.

The views shared in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the AHRC, and the AHRC takes no responsibility for them.
# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights in Asia, documents violations and advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the protection and promotion of these rights. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Protecting forest and trees mean to protect your life and the Dhamma

2011-12-09T23:27:00.000-08:00

Arama or temple in Cambodian language derives from Arama Ropa Rokkha Ropa means a place which is full of trees and natural atmosphere. Trees and forest are very important for Buddhism. Lord Buddha were born in the forest, renunciation to live in the forest, attaining the Dhamma in the forest, and Parinibbana or passing away in the forest. Forest is very important for sustainable development, for biodiversity, for environment and for local residents to survive on the subsistence basis. But after the coming of capitalism, the hunt and thirst for raw material resources has made many corrupted officials and predatory developing countries have used many excuses to extract money from natural resources. This video clip is showcasing the excuse of Cambodian government in their effort to earn extra money by turning forest into land for concession in the political rhetoric of planning industrial development. Local people who have walked along march across the Prey Long forest, which is the last dense resort of Cambodian forest, to express their protest on the non-transparent concession of the Cambodian government. If you are Buddhists, protecting forest and trees mean to protect your life and the Dhamma.

Residents blocked road to protect their rights of owning land and housing

2011-12-09T23:05:00.000-08:00

Buddha taught his disciples on the importance of attaining Vimutti and this Vimutti is the highest goal for Buddhists. Vimutti means liberation or absolute freedom. Absolute Vimutti refers to the eradication of greed, hatred and delusion. However, life of householders and general residents, Vimutti means full deserving of rights in living, housing and owning a land. It also includes other basic rights such as rights of speech and expression, and rights of social participation etc.

Below video clip broadcasted by RFA showcased the zero tolerance of Cambodian residents from Koh Kong province who have been so vigilant on searching temporary Vimutti and their collective action to block the road for resolution is critically visible.

Evictions imperil Phnom Penh residents

2011-11-24T18:06:00.000-08:00

Increasing violence used in bid to make residents of Cambodian capital make way for developers.

Cambodian police have been using increasing force to thwart protesters fighting to hang on to their lands against developers looking to erect skyscrapers, shopping malls, and apartments in the Boeng-Kak Lake neighbourhood of the capital.

Civil rights groups estimate that over the past decade, one in ten people in Phnom Penh alone have been forcibly evicted from their homes.

Activists say the forcible evictions are a violation of their democratic rights.

Al Jazeera's Steve Chao reports on the growing violence being used to force people from their homes.

Source: Aljazeera

Urban poor residents of Boeung Kok Lake are counter-sued by the authority

2011-11-09T21:42:00.000-08:00

Is it a travesty of justice in Cambodia? While the urban poor residents of Boeung Kok Lake were terribly forced to leave their home and their homes were violently destroyed by the authority, they file a legal complain tot he municipal court, but now the authority is counter-suing them on the complain of defamation? Buddha mentioned that peace is justice, peace without justice is not peace; and justice is justice, no one can ruin justice by playing with it.

Forced Eviction Songs by Boeung Kok Lake Residents

2011-11-09T19:32:00.000-08:00

This song is not only can reduce stresses from the heart of forced eviction victims, but it has become a legendary hard drive to record violence caused by development in Cambodia. Buddha said "peaceful and non-violence which are standing on dedicating mean is more powerful than forces and violence".

Interesting Summery of Lecture Series organized by CAN Cambodia on 5 November 2011

2011-11-09T11:23:00.000-08:00

Op-Ed: Can Cambodia
==>Saturday, 5 November 2011 on Engaged Buddhism: The Roles of Buddhism in Human Resource Development in Cambodia: Past, Present and Future by Ven. Luon Sovath, www.luonsovath.blogspot.com

In short, Buddhism is the religion of Sekha or education. Three Sekha has been exponentially repeated by the Buddha: Sila Sekha or the education of morals, Samadhi Sekha or the education of meditation, and the Panna Sekha or the education of wisdom. These 3 Sekhas is illustrated quite interesting in the Eightfold Path such as Sila Sekha is inclusive in right speech, right action and right livelihood; Samadhi Sekha is inclusive in right effort, right concentration and right meditation; Panna Sekha is inclusive in right thought and right view.

Dhamma delivery approaches of Lord Buddha stresses on three levels: Athi Kalyani or preliminary discourse (Sila), Machhe Kalyani or secondary discourse (Samadhi), and Pariyosana Kalyani or highest discourse (Panna). These three levels of discourse is comprehensive in the Viniya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka and Abhidhamma Pitaka. Or at the Sutta level, these 3 approaches are Morals/Ethics, Meditation and Wisdom.

For Cambodia, human resource development is one of the factors among natural capital, financial capital and social capital.

In the past, French tried to pressure on Khmer Buddhist Sangha to serve the protectorate's missions. But when there were perpetual struggles from the Buddhist Sangha, French protectorates agreed to open a Buddhist Institute (BI) to provide space for Cambodian Buddhist monks to learn and create an education at a systemic structure. Suzan Karpeles was the first director of the BI. Scholars have noted that BI is the substantial place for developing nationalism and movement in late decades in liberating and protecting Cambodian nation.

Somdech Chuon Nath is the key leader in reforming Cambodian Buddhism and building productive national central nationalism. His work in translating Tipitaka into simple Khmer language is a great move in modernizing Cambodia.

At the moment, the 60,000 Buddhist monks residing in over 4000 monasteries are the important agents for human resource development in Cambodia. But the lack of giving enough aids to those agents in approaching human resource missionary. If those Buddhist monks are not properly equipped with talent and knowledge, Cambodian Buddhism would be just symbol or a tool for politicians to utilize it, and the future of human resource development in Cambodia will be irrelevant.

According to the lecture organized on November 5, 2011 (10am of Cambodia Time Zone), Ven. Luon Sovath outlined important facts of Buddhism in developing human resource in Cambodia following:

- Since the Angkorean era, Buddhism and Hinduism have played important roles in developing human resource in Cambodia. The startling structure of temples and inscriptions are the evidence of building human resource for the development of this nation.

- Buddha is the awaken one. His teaching has been used in modern day such as human rights, democracy, human freedom and equality. People desire for peace, freedom and basic rights which this desiring is fundamentally deriving from Buddha's teachings.

- In Cambodia, many schools and meditation centres have been sprawling to serve the need of the people in uplifting their children from the dark to the bright. But many decades of war and conflict clearly shun this task. On other hand, Preah Krou Som Buntheoun who is a Buddhist scholar of Cambodia in Vipassana meditation has been shot to death in the day light without having proper investigation or bringing perpetrator to justice. Keen intellect like Preah Krou Som Buntheoun is a priceless treasure for Cambodia in building human resource.

- In the past, many Cambodian Buddhist monks emerged as the front-line leaders of social, cultural, economical and political development. For instance, Somdech Chuon Nath and Somdech Huot Tart etc. had put much of their effort in educating the public and guiding them to the right path.

- Core teaching of Lord Buddha rests on human value arising from internal virtue and mindful concentration. The teaching has changed people from violence to peace lover, jealousy to loving-kindness, hatred to compassion, and delusion to right understanding and right thought.

- Human resource is knowledge, but in Buddhism knowledge must be endorsed by virtue arising from pure heart and humanity. Knowledge without virtue is the flaw in human kind according to Buddha's teaching. Many so-called pundits have been committing violence and devastating the society as whole because of their lack of virtue and moral value.

- As noticed, Buddhism is the state religion in Cambodia but why many past political regimes and modern leadership of Cambodia have been exposed by its terrible violence and human rights abusing? This might be because the Buddhist monks have not done their duties properly, the Cambodian Buddhists have less knowledge and practice on core teaching of Buddhism, and the government has not used principles of Buddhism to develop the nation correctly.

- In developing human resource, Buddhist monks must play important roles in this assignment. So, the monks should not hibernate in temple waiting food to be offered by the laypeople only. Monks must learn hard by exploring the core teaching as much as they can from both their own researches and associating with pundits in order to develop themselves. Beside this, those monks must outreach the communities and desperate people to impact their lives and upgrade their understanding.

- Human resource doesn't mean to refer to everyone. 14 millions Cambodian people is understood as quantity, not the quality. So how many percent of Cambodian people have been become human resource? 5% is considered very scarce for Cambodian nation.

Q & A

- Referring to the question on "Why Cambodian people cannot forgive each other?". Ven. Luon Sovath elaborated that the term "Khmer" means we should understand each other. The fundamental fact of Khmers being shared the same language, culture, religion and tradition etc. He emphasized that "Khmer" is Khmer, not Khmang (enmity) or Khmoch (ghost). For instance, his social works are for Khmer but why Khmer are so cruel on his works. While the Buddhist monk leaders, the authority and my tasks, all are for Khmers, why we must create enmity of each other?

- Referring to the second question on "Why they say Buddhism is against materialism, if so how can we develop the nation without materialism?". Ven. Luon Sovath explained that Buddhism is not against materialism, but Buddhism is against the wrong use of materials. For instance, money is useful for human beings if we use it for the needs and in a right way, but if someone used money to hire someone to kill someone else, it is wrong. Buddha said this kind of using of money is wrong. The teaching of less desiring and simplicity is not against materials but to use materials wisely. In order to use materials wisely, Buddha advised us to develop "Panna" or wisdom.

- Referring to the third question on "Buddhists believe in the law of Kamma, this belief ushered them to stay quiet and patient, that why Buddhists are likely so passive, not active at all. For example, Burmese Buddhists are so quiet under the oppression of junta regime which is very different from countries like Egypt or Libya?" Ven. Luon Sovath answered that Kamma means action including verbal action, physical action and emotional action. Kamma means struggle, active and pro-active. For instance, if a person is sick, that person must treat themselves or go to see the doctor. This is called Kamma.

In short, Buddhism is the religion of Sekha or education. Three Sekha has been exponentially repeated by the Buddha: Sila Sekha or the education of morals, Samadhi Sekha or the education of meditation, and the Panna Sekha or the education of wisdom. These 3 Sekhas is illustrated quite interesting in the Eightfold Path such as Sila Sekha is inclusive in right speech, right action and right livelihood; Samadhi Sekha is inclusive in right effort, right concentration and right meditation; Panna Sekha is inclusive in right thought and right view.

Dhamma delivery approaches of Lord Buddha stresses on three levels: Athi Kalyani or preliminary discourse (Sila), Machhe Kalyani or secondary discourse (Samadhi), and Pariyosana Kalyani or highest discourse (Panna). These three levels of discourse is comprehensive in the Viniya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka and Abhidhamma Pitaka. Or at the Sutta level, these 3 approaches are Morals/Ethics, Meditation and Wisdom.

For Cambodia, human resource development is one of the factors among natural capital, financial capital and social capital.

In the past, French tried to pressure on Khmer Buddhist Sangha to serve the protectorate's missions. But when there were perpetual struggles from the Buddhist Sangha, French protectorates agreed to open a Buddhist Institute to provide space for Cambodian Buddhist (BI) monks to learn and create an education at a systemic structure. Suzan Karpeles was the first director of the BI. Scholars have noted that BI is the substantial place for developing nationalism and movement in late decades in liberating and protecting Cambodian nation.

Somdech Chuon Nath is the key leader in reforming Cambodian Buddhism and building productive national central nationalism. His work in translating Tipitaka into simple Khmer language is a great move in modernizing Cambodia.

At the moment, the 60,000 Buddhist monks residing in over 4000 monasteries are the important agents for human resource development in Cambodia. But the lack of giving enough aids to those agents in approaching human resource missionary. If those Buddhist monks are not properly equipped with talent and knowledge, Cambodian Buddhism would be just symbol or a tool for politicians to utilize it, and the future of human resource development in Cambodia will be irrelevant.

In short, Buddhism is the religion of Sekha or education. Three Sekha has been exponentially repeated by the Buddha: Sila Sekha or the education of morals, Samadhi Sekha or the education of meditation, and the Panna Sekha or the education of wisdom. These 3 Sekhas is illustrated quite interesting in the Eightfold Path such as Sila Sekha is inclusive in right speech, right action and right livelihood; Samadhi Sekha is inclusive in right effort, right concentration and right meditation; Panna Sekha is inclusive in right thought and right view.

Dhamma delivery approaches of Lord Buddha stresses on three levels: Athi Kalyani or preliminary discourse (Sila), Machhe Kalyani or secondary discourse (Samadhi), and Pariyosana Kalyani or highest discourse (Panna). These three levels of discourse is comprehensive in the Viniya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka and Abhidhamma Pitaka. Or at the Sutta level, these 3 approaches are Morals/Ethics, Meditation and Wisdom.

For Cambodia, human resource development is one of the factors among natural capital, financial capital and social capital.

In the past, French tried to pressure on Khmer Buddhist Sangha to serve the protectorate's missions. But when there were perpetual struggles from the Buddhist Sangha, French protectorates agreed to open a Buddhist Institute to provide space for Cambodian Buddhist (BI) monks to learn and create an education at a systemic structure. Suzan Karpeles was the first director of the BI. Scholars have noted that BI is the substantial place for developing nationalism and movement in late decades in liberating and protecting Cambodian nation.

Somdech Chuon Nath is the key leader in reforming Cambodian Buddhism and building productive national central nationalism. His work in translating Tipitaka into simple Khmer language is a great move in modernizing Cambodia.

At the moment, the 60,000 Buddhist monks residing in over 4000 monasteries are the important agents for human resource development in Cambodia. But the lack of giving enough aids to those agents in approaching human resource missionary. If those Buddhist monks are not properly equipped with talent and knowledge, Cambodian Buddhism would be just symbol or a tool for politicians to utilize it, and the future of human resource development in Cambodia will be irrelevant.

Interview with Ven. Luon Sovath in Sydney, Australia (Part 1 & 2)

2011-10-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S99kWP-tFTc

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyPV5vFSRlo

Please donate to help Ven. Luon Sovath pursue his work to assist the poor and the evicted people in Cambodia. Please visit:
http://luonsovath.blogspot.com/p/appealing.html

I accept to die but I don't accept to be defrocked: Ven.Koeun Ravy

2011-10-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

"I accept to die with my saffron robe, I will not allow the authority to arrest and disrobed me as I have done nothing wrong in the Buddhist Vinaya. By this order, I cannot travel or escape to stay in any temple in the country, I must stay in this temple and accept to die in this place as a monkhood".

Listen the report by RFA today (audio embedded here),
the problem happened with Venerable Koeun Ravy in Watt Soriyaaraam Bay-domram, Banan District, Battombong Province, South-West of Cambodia in the accusation of Vinaya offense on the code number 2 regarding "stealing".

According to the news, the scheme of stealing stemmed from few Achaa Watt or clergy leaders accused Ven. Keoun Ravy of stealing money in an amount of 200 dollars which it has been reserved for electricity bill. This accusation filed to the Kana Thera Saphea Khet or Provincial Buddhist Sangha Order (PBSO) by few clergy leaders in the temple in a support from one of the powerful local policemen. Referring this website, the PBSO didn't conduct investigation into the case but just follow the filing in the support of that powerful local policeman who is the member of the Cambodian People Party (CPP).

Seeing this, there are hundreds of laypeople including monks have paraded to support Ven. Keoun Ravy including opposition parties activists such as SRP and NRP in location. The people who came out to street to parade for the support of Ven. Keoun Ravy claimed that the Order by the PBSO is not just and it is politically motivated. Previously, Ven. Koeun Ravy has greeted the supports of opposition party members.

Ven. Keoun Ravy is 26 years old, he confirmed in the radio interview that "I accept to die in my saffron robe, I will not allow the authority to arrest and disrobed me as I have done nothing wrong in the Buddhist Vinaya. By this order, I cannot travel or escape to stay in any temple in the country, I must stay in this temple and accept to die in this place as a monkhood".

Note that, the order (directive) of the PBSO has limited time period 15 days in between October 16 to November 1, 2011 for Ven. Koeun Ravy to choose two options: to volunteer disrobe himself or be forced to disrobe.

Let pray for Ven. Keoun Ravy together.

Latest activities of Ven. Luon Sovath in Cambodia reported by Al Jazeera

2011-10-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Al Jazeera reporters spent full day with Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath for his socially engaged Buddhist activities with laypeople and the victims of forced eviction of Boeung Kok Lake residents.

The video shoot, comments and interviewing were extensively conducted.

Please, stay tune for his latest news on both domestic and international media as well as his visiting to the Boeung Kok Lake site for spiritual guidance, preaching them strength stemming from internal emancipation, non-violence and hope to those forced evicted residents. Note that many homes of urban poors in Beoung Kok Lake areas were devastated by bulldozers and arms authority in recent months. This human right violation has again shocked the world. The world can see that the government and authority are having no willingness to treat those urban poors fairly.

Stay tune...

Dhammaduta responded to Hanzze: a brilliant debate

2011-10-25T01:40:00.000-07:00

This is just a re-posting again from this link: http://luonsovath.blogspot.com/2011/10/latest-update-of-ven-preah-krou-luon.html#comments But we posted only the comments of Dhammaduta. I think Hanzze will not be minded.

Dear Hanzze;

Your words have become a conspiracy that after the authority marginalized him by threatening all students, friends and supporters to isolate him, now it comes to your term "financial isolation".

Your logic of not allowing monks to touch money is inapplicable in the present change. Buddha's Vinaya allow monks to carry or hold money in hand but not mentally attachable to it. Buddha allowed monks to use it wisely especially for the purpose of four necessary needs. More than this, Ven. Luon Sovath has his own Maggathayaka or follower who can take care all those money and monk's necessary belongings.

The works of defending human rights, animal rights and natural rights is the duty of Lord Buddha and all his followers including Bhikkhu monks and laypeople (Sangha). Your words are the same as Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong's who has considered the work of defending those rights belonging to laypeople only. Logically speaking, your words mean totally amputate the tasks of Lord Buddha and degrade the Buddha Dhamma.

Four Brahma Vihara encourages us to help others (human beings, animals and nature). It is the immeasurable quality of people mind ie:
1. Metta = Loving Kindness
2. Karuna = Compassion
3. Mudita = Sympathetic joy
4. Upekkha = Neutral mind or free of four biases:

1. The bias by love
2. The bias by hatred
3. The bias by delusion
4. The bias by scary

Ven. Luon Sovath has mediated more than 10 years and his mind is full of these immeasurable quality of mind or Brahma Vihara.

Dhammaduta
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Of course, Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong of Cambodia has been ordained by a Vietnamese monk during their victory over Khmer Rouge regime. Somdech Tep Vong is not good in teaching the Dhamma. He has exchanged and traded with laypeople by reading their fortune or watering magical water to laypeople in expect of returning back some money or material. The Nissaggiya 20 has been fully attesting to his saffron robe.

But regarding holding money for necessary needs is wise for Bhikkhu monks. In the past, laypeople kindly offered transportation to the monks or monks preferred to walk with bare foot. In the present, if monks don't have money in hand to give to the taxi drivers, their bare foot cannot tolerate with many glasses cracking pieces.

Regarding Somdech Tep Vong, he is not welcome by major Cambodian Buddhists as he doesn't rightly practice the Buddhist teaching, every time he has chance to speak or deliver the Dhamma, he couldn't elaborate the discourse clearly, but he can elaborate the goodness of Vietnamese troops during the 7 January 1979 in details and clearly.

Cambodian people have called Somdech Tep Vong, the Supreme Patriarch of 7 January 1979.

As a fact, many critics have come to his ears but he is still working as a missionary of 7 January day very well.

Dhammaduta

Continue...
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The problem of Metta is wisely debatable. Metta with attachment and Metta with detachment.

Worldly Metta is the attachment Metta (Lokiya Metta). Supra-abundance Metta is the detachment Metta (Lokuttara Metta). Only those whose Dhamma Padipatti attained the Annaakaamimagga (the third stage of dhamma stream attainment), ones should detach worldly Metta.

Ven. Luon Sovath has practiced meditation several years, and he has never proclaimed that he has attained any stage of Dhamma stream (note that there 8 stages of Dhamma stream attainment). He is still be a simple monk who spent much of his time for study and meditation. Now he has become deeply inspired by the suffering of his relatives and other fellow Cambodians who have been treated unjustly. His worldly Metta has been personally accumulated and now this Metta has been gradually sharing with others.

Theravada Buddhism is referred to the elderly teaching which aim to attain Nibbana more than other purposes. But the elderly teaching has never neglected or rejected the sharing Metta of Bhikkhu monks with laypeople and surrounding communities.

Ven. Luon Sovath is different from lay people by his yellow robes, shaving head, mendicancy, celibacy and living a homeless life with simplicity.

His daily activities are:
1. Bappajaa = renouncing the world
2. Bhikkhu = mendicant
3. Samana = peaceful person
4. Caratha = wandering to all directions for the welfare of human beings
5. Metta = sharing the Dhamma and loving kindness with others
6. Avihingsaa = non-violence
7. Khanti = forbearance
8. Soraca = trustworthy
9. Yonisomanasikkhara = pondering conscience
10. Samadhi = meditation

Dhammaduta
-----------------------------
Traveling is not different from walking or drinking water or breathing air through our nose, all those can bring many lives to death but do the monks break the vinaya by such unintentional deeds and microscopic insects?

Buddha rejected the teaching Jainism whose doctrine is very extreme...all Jain monks must filter the water 100 times before they swallow through their throat.

Buddha Dhamma is middle path or eightfold path you elaborated last time. In the part of wisdom: right thought and right view must be critically applied them.

Wisely applied, faster traveling for the Dhamma purpose can help the needs and the destitutes.

Engaged Buddhist monks with society is not contradict to the Vinaya as Sangha is part of society. Monks and laymen are original interdependent (Padicca-samupattha).

Dhammaduta;
-----------------------

Latest update of Ven. Preah Krou Luon Sovath

2011-10-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Dhamma Friends;

The journey of Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath for the defending of human rights in Cambodia has not been smooth and easy, but thing has kept his socially engaged Buddhist value moving and alive is from his internal strength and the supportive mindset of everyone. So please, continue to give him support as much as you can.

Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath has been in Cambodia after his long journey for the international campaign for the respect of human rights in Cambodia. Buddha and human rights is the same. Nonetheless, Buddha also valued and respected the rights of animal and nature as well.

However, his arriving in Cambodia saddened after he realized that his pet (dog) he has ever fed him food in the Watt Unaloum temple has been lost after he went to feed him food on the 21th of this October.

Pressure from the authority towards Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath has blatantly happened by threatening all his students, friends and supporters to isolate him; but now it has been happening with his dog pet who is considering his last friend living in Watt Unaloum.

The journey of Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath for the defending of human rights in Cambodia has not been smooth and easy, but thing has kept his socially engaged Buddhist value moving and alive is from his internal strength and the supportive mindset of everyone. So please, continue to give him support as much as you can.

Click this link to see the list of donors from previous weeks and we hope you continue to support him. The total amount has been already received by Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath for his human defending work as once Buddha accomplished.

Lakeside, Phnom Penh.mov 2

2011-10-20T14:57:00.000-07:00

Interviewing Preah Krou Luon Sovath by World Khmer Radio

2011-10-19T17:14:00.000-07:00

Listen interviewing Preah Krou Luon Sovath by World Khmer Radio on October 12, 2011 broadcasted on October 16-17, 2011. Video clip re-posted from peakkdey's channel:

Summary of the Interview

Virak Oum: Firstly, I as well as other Cambodian people want to know your purposes of coming to Australia?
Ven. Luon Sovath: My first intention in coming to Australia is by the kind invitation of Cambodian-Australians to attend Pchum Ben Festival here. As you know, I am marginalized by the Cambodian Buddhist leaders to banning me from staying in any temple there. With this banning, I cannot fully practice Buddhism and my opportunity in participating with Pchum Ben Festival doesn't have in Cambodia. Second intention is to seek for assistance from all Cambodians and main stream people to write letter, petition including other campaigns to request Cambodian supreme patriarch to drop those directives that have banned me from staying in the temple.

Virak Oum: Kona heard Preah Dejkun mentioned about the banning by the supreme patriarch by the directives accused Preah Dejkun on the incitement, let returning back to the background of this banning, why the supreme patriarch issued such directives?
Ven. Luon Sovath: Po (yes), it is because of my social engagement in helping the people (farmers) who were facing with violence committed by the local authority in a land grabbing. But when I preached about non-violence and threatening or other unwholesome deeds, and as I am a monk, I have no material means to help them but to preach and to spiritually guide them. Hence, the authority was mad at me, later on there were directives from the supreme patriarch accused me of incitement and politic, and ordered all temples not to accept me to stay.

Virak Oum: According to the video clips broadcasted online by the International Human Rights Websites highlighted some violent acts of some monks towards Preah Dejkun, are those acts appropriate in Buddhism?
Ven. Luon Sovath: Po (yes), actually in Buddhism if we look at scriptures especially Lord Buddha, He gave up secular power as the emperior to live a simple life and instructed people to love peace, practice Dhamma for enlightenment, and non-violence. I became a monk in accordance with this example and the Dhamma discourses in the scripture. I was ordained by the genuine preceptors and I have practiced the right Dhamma, not by other excuses. But look at those monks, they acted violent towards me and their acts were not independent. They worked in accordance with the signals of others. Those accusations occurred without durable to the Buddha Dhamma, the Vinaya and the state law. The acts as well as the directives were solely issued by the private individuals, not by the Bhikkhu monk assembly in accordance with the Buddha Vinaya. By those interferences of secular authority and the individual decision-making of the Bhikkhu monk, it led to violence over me and banning me from the temple which are not durable to the Buddha Dhamma and the national law.

Virak Oum: Up to now, are there any organizations giving support?
Ven. Luon Sovath: Po (yes), what I have been carrying out, there are huge supports from individual Cambodian and NGOs in both domestic and international arena. especially those victims of abuses and bad treatment from the authority. Only the supreme patriarch and authority who are not giving me any support. In contrast, they have accused me of involving with politics or committing incitement.

I would like to proclaim that my activity is purely following the Buddha Dhamma. I don't incite people to hate this group or love that group. I have never destroyed national assets or taken those public wealths as personal property, or I have never committed any crimes by killing or abusing innocent people. Why they accused me as a political monk? In contrast, the few Buddhist top leaders have become a monk by the ordaining from whom? What goals did he primarily set up in becoming a monk? And what has he done for Cambodian Buddhism nowadays?

If we debate on the term "politic", in developed countries, top leaders have encouraged their citizens to involve in politics, more they talk and involve in politic, the country leaders will admire them. Those participations can help improve the country. Politic or Nayobay comes from Naya and Ubay means "strategy leading to progressive". In Cambodia, people are explained in a wrong concept and as an evidence, Nayobay in Cambodia was devastated by the previous regimes and some bad leaders, that these lead to the inactive involvement of the Cambodian citizens. Many people scar when they heard the term "Nayobay". During the war and genocide, Cambodian innocent people were entrapped by the violence and murdering. But up to now, this image is still haunting them. The Cambodian top leaders are still using this term to threat and discourage the Cambodian people.

I would like to ensure that Nayobay is the leadership that can lead to advancement and development. And if it can lead to advancement and development, why we are so scaring of it? And we should not accuse each other or color each other any more. Who is the top leader of Nayobay? If we look at by taking as a good example is the Buddha. He was the leader of human being and Devas. His Nayobay is non-violence, peace, unity, compassion and enlightenment. His Nayobay is to sacrifice and embrace detachment. Some of Cambodians have also accused me of doing Nayobay. Of course, do I have attached to any position, wealth and power status? In reality, in sending our children to school is allowing them to learn about Nayobay. In developed countries, citizens can debate on all issues including politics, economic and social and the leaders encourage them to do so. But in Cambodia, debating about politic, economic or social are not encouraged at all.

Virak Oum: So after visiting here, Preah Dejkun will go to Cambodia?
Ven.Luon Sovath: Po, I will travel to Sydney to seek more support in writing letters to request supreme patriarch to drop those directives and accusation. I would like to appeal everyone to support whatever you can to find justice and development for Cambodians. From Sydney, I will return to Melbourne to stay there few days. I will leave Australia to Cambodia on October 20th, 2011.

All Buddhists must practice the Buddha Dhamma together in a right thought, right view, right speech, right action and right dedication.

(Unofficial translation by Pheak)

Engaged Buddhism in Cambodia: Challenges and Controversy by CAN Lecture Series

2011-10-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

Op-Ed: Can Cambodia
Lecture Series of CAN CAMBODIA

- Saturday, 15 October 2011 on "Engaged Buddhism: Challenges and Controversy" by Ven. Dr. Hok Savann, www.hoksavann.org

According to the lecture by Ven. Dr. Hok Savann, Cambodian Buddhism and Cambodian Society is inseparable. Thus, Buddhacakra (Buddhist dimension) and Anaacakra (secular dimension) must be lifted up equally. Buddhist laws and the universal human rights law is the same. Buddhist belief and Buddhist thought is considered a tort law or traditional law which is required the enforcement of secular law (national constitution and sub-decrees) to duly serve society.

Cambodian Buddhism is very substantial for legality, unity and social engagement. Without durable legality, unity, and social engagement, Cambodian society is hardly advancing. However, the respect of the rule of law must not happen only among lower citizens, the upper administrators must be duly obeying it as well. For instance, the lower thieves who stole chickens and ducks have immediately been punished but the thieves who are sitting on office chairs are immune of punishment.

Ven. Dr. Hok Savann doesn’t support the participation of Bhikkhu monks to vote or to choose secular leaders in each national election. Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka have become members of parliament but the image of Buddhist monks in the assembly are not appropriate at all among those lay law-makers and the practices of the assembly.

Regarding to Ven. Luon Sovath whose Buddhist top administrative banned from the temple is not due to the Viniya of Buddhist Sangha order. Ven. Luon Sovath’s activities and involvements with those victims of land grabs and forced evictions are not offending any chapter of the Viniya. It is just a social norm that Cambodia has never had monk like Ven. Luon Sovath. If the top administers of Buddhist Sangha accused Ven. Luon Sovath of violation of Viniya, they have to sit down and point out what parts of Viniya has he offended? Banning from the temple is an absolute order which Buddhist temples are owned by the laypeople; and it could not solve the problem. Otherwise, it is showing the not-independence of Buddhist Sangha administrative in Cambodia.

In conclusion, Cambodian Buddhist monks should not spend too much time in chanting mantra or building luxurious temples, they must pay attention to produce human resources and explain the laypeople on the daily basic needs to improve living standard; outreaching to the youth who are young seed of society.

Note: if you want to listen the whole Lecture, please click this link: http://cancambodia.info/?p=83 and if want to join with us next Lecture session, please submit to this group: http://groups.google.com/group/cancambodia

Lecture on Engaged Buddhism by Ven. Luon Sovath

2011-10-13T23:59:00.000-07:00

Op-Ed: Can Cambodia

Dear Dhamma Friends and Can Network;

I am honored to announce that our first Lecture Series on Skype is following:

(Time and date is basing on Cambodia)

When: Saturday, October 15, 2011

Time: 10:00am - 11:30am (prompt)

Topic: ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាសង្គមនៅកម្ពុជាៈ ផលវិបាកនានានិងវាទប្បដិវាទ
Engaged Buddhism in Cambodia: Challenges and Controversy

Speaker: Venerable Luon Sovath

Medium: skype id: cancambodia

Brief schedule:
- Speaker introduction
- Lecture session (30mn.)
- Q & A

Rules:
Skype is different from Paltalk because admin cannot control the coming voice, so participants must make sure that he/she is positioning in a quiet place. We are testing with skype in this time but if it is not working good, we will go to Paltalk which you can join our room at: CanCambodia in according to the schedule announced.
- No interrupting while lecture is on the process or others are speaking.
- Questions and discussions must be relevant to the topic.
- The whole session will be recorded for further research and public learning.

More information about the speaker and relevant sources of the topic:
- http://luonsovath.blogspot.com/
- http://www.inebnetwork.org/
- http://www.engagedbuddhists.org.uk/
- http://www.bpf.org/what-buddhists-are-saying/resources-for-socially-engaged-buddhists

Plea:
We are working on a pilot project on Engaged Buddhism in Cambodia, so your contributions to access to any sources of papers, books and organizations on Engaged Buddhism in Cambodia are very welcome!

ខុសឬត្រូវនៅករណីលួន សាវាត Ven. Luon Sovath

2011-10-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

ពន្លឺអាស៊ីទ្វីបជាឈ្មោះនៃសៀវភៅពុទ្ធប្បវត្តិ ដែលរៀបរៀងឡើងដោយ Sir Edwin Arnold នៅឆ្នាំ ១៨៧៩ នៅសេចក្តីផ្តើមនៃសៀវភៅពន្លឺអាស៊ីទ្វីបនោះយើងបាន សង្កេតឃើញ ហេតុការណ៍ជម្លោះមួយដែលកើតឡើងរវាង ទេវទត្តកុមារនិងសិទ្ធត្ថកុមារទាក់ ទងនឹងសត្វហង្ស ទេវទត្តកុមារជាអ្នកបាញ់សត្វហង្ស ឯសិទ្ធត្ថកុមារជាអ្នកជួយសត្វហង្ស ជម្លោះដណ្តើមកម្មសិទ្ធិលើសត្វហង្សបានកើតឡើងរវាងអ្នកបាញ់និងអ្នកជួយ ទាំងទេវទត្តកុមារទាំងសិទ្ធត្ថកុមារជជែកយកឈ្នះតែរៀងៗខ្លួនថា ខ្លួនគឺជាម្ចាស់លើសត្វហង្ស

ទេវទត្តកុមារនិយាយថា "សត្វហង្សគួរតែជារបស់យើង ព្រោះយើងគឺជាអ្នកបាញ់" ឯសិទ្ធត្ថកុមារក៏និយាយថា "សត្វហង្សគួរតែជារបស់យើងព្រោះយើងគឺជាអ្នកជួយសង្គ្រោះ" ជជែកទៅជជែកមក ជម្លោះដណ្តើមសត្វហង្សនោះ មិនអាចដោះស្រាយបានទេ នៅទីបំផុត ដើម្បីឲ្យដាច់ស្រេចក្នុងរឿងនេះ អ្នកទាំងពីរក៏ ចូលទៅរកចៅក្រោម ដើម្បីឲ្យជួយដោះស្រាយជម្លោះ ចៅក្រមលុះពិចារណាដំណើរដើមទងរួចហើយក៏ សម្រេចសេចក្តីថា"ជនណាករុណាអាណិត សត្វនិងជាអ្នកជួយសង្គ្រោះសត្វ ជននោះគប្បីបាន ជាម្ចាស់នៃសត្វដែលរងគ្រោះនោះ ព្រោះហេតុនោះ អ្នកជួយសង្គ្រោះជីវិតសត្វ ទើបឈ្មោះថាជាអ្នកប្រោសសត្វ ជនណាបៀតបៀនយាយីសត្វ ជននោះមិនគប្បីបានជាម្ចាស់នៃសត្វដែលរងគ្រោះនោះទេ ព្រោះហេតុនោះ អ្នកបៀតបៀនយាយីសត្វទើបឈ្មោះថាជាអ្នកយាយីសត្វ"

ទោះបីបើសាលក្រមចេញមកក្នុងលក្ខណៈជួយការពារសត្វដែលរងគ្រោះក៏ដោយ ដោយអំណាចនៃទិដ្ឋិមានះ ភាគីដែលចាញ់ក្តី គឺ ទេវទត្តកុមារក៏មិនសុខចិត្តដែរ ហើយក៏ចងគំនុំគុំកួនសិទ្ធត្ថកុមារជារៀងរហូតមក បើទុកជាសិទ្ធត្ថកុមារចេញសាងផ្នួសហើយសម្រេច បានការត្រាស់ដឹងជាព្រះសម្មាសម្ពុទ្ធជាម្ចាស់ក៏ដោយ ព្រះទេវទត្តក៏នៅតែព្យាយាម បៀតបៀនយាយីព្រះអង្គ ជារៀងរហូតលុះដល់ដង្ហើមចុងក្រោយទើបដឹងខ្លួនហើយ ទទួលសារភាពទោសកំហុស ។បើយើងលើកយកករណីជម្លោះការពារ អ្នកស្រុកដែលរង គ្រោះរបស់ភិក្ខុលួន សាវាតមកជាករណីសិក្សា នឹងឃើញថា លោកហាក់ដូចជាឈរនៅខាងភាគីរងគ្រោះ គឺ អ្នកស្រុក បើពិចារណាដំណើរដើមទងនៃហេតុការណ៍ដែលកើតឡើងនោះដោយចិត្តប្រកាន់យុត្តិធម៌ សាលក្រមអាចវិនិច្ឆ័យបានថា
"ជនណាករុណាអាណិតអ្នកស្រុកដែលរងគ្រោះនិងជាអ្នកជួយសង្គ្រោះអ្នកស្រុកដែលរងគ្រោះ ជននោះគប្បីទទួលបានការគាំទ្រនិងសេចក្តីស្រឡាញ់រាប់អានពីសង្គម អ្នកដែលជួយសង្គ្រោះអ្នកស្រុកដែលរងគ្រោះ ទើបឈ្មោះថាជាអ្នកប្រោសអ្នកស្រុកដែលរងគ្រោះ ផ្ទុយទៅវិញ ជនណាបៀតបៀនយាយីអ្នកស្រុកដែលរងគ្រោះ ជននោះមិនគប្បីបានទទួលការគ្រាំទ្រនិង សេចក្តីស្រឡាញ់រាប់អានពីសង្គមទេ ព្រោះហេតុនោះ ជនដែលបៀតបៀនយាយីអ្នកស្រុកដែលរងគ្រោះទើបឈ្មោះថាជាអ្នកមិនជួយប្រោសអ្នក ស្រុកដែលរងគ្រោះ"

សរុបសេចក្តីមកថា ជនដែលមានការុញ្ញចិត្តជួយ ឈឺឆ្អាលទុក្ខលំបាក របស់អ្នកស្រុកដែលរងគ្រោះដូច យ៉ាងភិក្ខុ លួន សាវាត គប្បីទទួលបានការគោរព រាប់អាននិងលើកតម្កើង ព្រោះការគាំទ្រនិងការលើក ទឹកចិត្តស្មើនឹងការជម្រុញអ្នកតស៊ូឲ្យក្លាហានឡើង ក្នុងការទាមទាររកយុត្តិធម៌ជូនសង្គមដែលអយុត្តិធម៌បាន ព្រោះយុត្តិធម៌អ្នកណាៗក៏ត្រូវការ មនុស្សមិនអាច រស់នៅក្នុងសង្គមដែលខ្វះយុត្តិធម៌បានទេ យុត្តិធម៌ត្រូវ តែឈ្នះអយុត្តិធម៌ សមដូចពុទ្ធតម្រាស់ថា អសាធុំ សាធុនា ជិនេ គប្បីឈ្នះអំពើអាក្រក់ដោយអំពើល្អ អំពើល្អប្រៀបដូចជាយុត្តិធម៌ដែលសង្គមខ្វះខាតត្រូវតែតស៊ូដើម្បីយកឈ្នះ ឯអំពើអាក្រក់ប្រៀបដូចជាអយុត្តិធម៌ដែលសង្គមត្រូវកាត់បន្ថយនិងលុបបំបាត់ចោល ព្រោះហេតុនោះ អ្នកស្រឡាញ់ យុត្តិធម៌សង្គមត្រូវហ៊ានចូលរួមចំណែកក្នុងការតស៊ូ ដើម្បីយុត្តិធម៌ ។ ទាញយកសៀវភៅពន្លឺអាស៊ីទ្វីប(អង់គ្លេស)

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ព្រៃឈើសព្វថ្ងៃនេះ គួរត្រូវបានបញ្ឈប់កាប់បំផ្លាញ Phnom Penh Post

2011-10-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

Monday, 03 October 2011 12:01

Tong Soprach

ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ និងព្រះសង្ឃតវ៉ារឿងព្រៃឡង់នាពេលកន្លងមក។ ភ្នំពេញ ប៉ុស្តិ៍

នៅក្នុងទ្រឹស្តីមេរៀនភូមិវិទ្យាក្តី បរិស្ថានក្តី តែងតែសរសើរគុណប្រយោជន៍ចម្បងៗរបស់ព្រៃឈើដូចជាជម្រកសត្វព្រៃ អាចអូស-ទាញទឹកភ្លៀង អាចថែរក្សាអា-កាសធាតុ និងជាពិសេសគឺជួយទប់ទឹកជំនន់។ តើដំណាំដើមកៅស៊ូ ដើមដំឡូងមី ដើមកាស្យា និងដើមល្ហុងខ្វង ដែលរាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលផ្តល់ដីព្រៃសម្បទានទៅឲ្យក្រុមហ៊ុនទំាងតូច ទាំងធំ កាប់បំផ្លាញព្រៃស្តុកទៅធ្វើដំណាំកសិឧស្សាហកម្មទាំងនោះអាចទប់ កម្លំាងទឹកជំនន់បានដែរឬទេ?

ពីមួយថ្ងៃទៅមួយថ្ងៃ ដីព្រៃឈើកាន់តែខើចទៅៗគួរឲ្យសង្វេគ ដោយសារតែការកាប់ទាំងស្របច្បាប់ ទាំងអនាធិបតេយ្យ។ ឧទាហរណ៍៖ កាលពីជំនាន់កាប់ឈើខ្លាំងជាងគេពីទសវត្សរ៍ឆ្នាំ១៩៩០ និងដើមឆ្នាំ២០០០ បើនៅខេត្តក្រចេះ អ្នកស្រុកណាដែលមិនចេះរកស៊ីឈើទេគឺគេមិនហៅអ្នករកស៊ីធំដុំ ទេ ហើយពួកគេម្នាក់ៗក្លាយជាអ្នកមានលឿនណាស់។ ប្រសិនបើយើង ទៅដល់ទីរួមខេត្តក្រចេះ ឬទីរួមស្រុកស្នួល អ្នកក្រចេះនឹងប្រាប់យើងថា ម្ចាស់ភោជនីយដ្ឋាន សណ្ឋាគារ ឬក៏ផ្ទះសំណាក់ឈ្មោះនេះ ឈ្មោះនោះ គឺពួកគេជាអតីតអ្នករកស៊ីឈើធំៗ។ យ៉ាងណាក៏ដោយអ្នកស្រុកក៏បានរៀបរាប់ពីអ្នករកស៊ីរបរនេះដែល ត្រូវបណ្តាសាព្រៃឈើផងដែរ ខ្លះបានលុយដុល្លារទាំងគីបៗគឺចាញ់ល្បែងនៅកាស៊ីណូអស់សល់តែគូ ទខោ ខ្លះក៏ព្រាត់ប្រាសនិរាសប្តីប្រពន្ធកូន ខ្លះក៏កើតជំងឺអេដស៍ ខ្លះត្រូវបានចាប់ខ្លួន ខ្លះក៏ធ្លាក់ខ្លួនក្ររហាមរកអង្ករច្រកឆ្នាំងស្ទើរគ្មានផងដែរ។

ទាំងនេះគ្រាន់តែជាផលវិបាកមួយផ្នែកចំពោះបុគ្គលដែលបានកាប់ បំផ្លាញព្រៃឈើ តែមួយផ្នែកធំនោះគឺធ្វើឲ្យប្រជាពលរដ្ឋរងគ្រោះដោយសារទឹក ជំនន់ ដែលបង្កឡើងដោយខ្វះខាតព្រៃឈើជួយទប់ស្កាត់។ ដូចបានឃើញស្រាប់ហើយនៅតាមកញ្ចក់ទូរទស្សន៍ក្នុងស្រុកនានា ប៉ុន្មានថ្ងៃនេះ គឺលិចស្ទើរតែទូទាំងប្រទេសដែលស្រុកខ្លះដែលធ្លាប់តែស្ងួតសោះ ក៏លិចទឹកដែរ ហើយទឹកជំនន់នេះក៏ឆក់យកជីវិតមនុស្សចំនួន១៤៨នាក់ លិចសាលារៀនចំនួន៨០០ខ្នង...នេះបើយោងតាមតួលេខរបស់គណៈ កម្មាធិការជាតិគ្រប់គ្រងគ្រោះមហន្តរាយ។ ឧទាហរណ៍៖ ខេត្តដែលទទួលរងគ្រោះវេទនាជាងគេខេត្តកំពង់ធំ គឺទឹកបុកពីទន្លេមេគង្គផង ទឹកទន្លេសាបផង ទឹកភ្លៀងជាប់ៗគ្នាមកពីកន្ទុយព្យុះហៃសានប្រទេសវៀតណាម និងហៃណានពីប្រទេសចិន ហើយទឹកធ្លាក់ចេញពីភ្នំនានាផង ដែលកាលពីមុនខេត្តនេះមិនធ្លាប់កើតមានដ៏ធ្ងន់យ៉ាងដូច្នេះទេ។ នេះ សបញ្ជាក់ថា៖ ដើមកៅស៊ូ ដើមដំឡូងមី ដើមកាស្យា និងដើមល្ហុងខ្វង មិនអាចជួយទប់ជំនន់បានទេ នេះចេះសល់ព្រៃឡង់ខ្លះៗគ្រាន់ជួយទប់ផង ចុះបើគ្មានព្រៃនេះមិនដឹងទៅជាយ៉ាងណានោះទេចំពោះខេត្តនេះ ។

តើរាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលអាចថែរក្សាទុកព្រៃឡង់ និងព្រៃស្តុកសេសសល់ផ្សេងៗទៀត គ្រាន់ជួយទប់ស្កាត់ទឹកជំនន់ផង និងស្របទៅនឹងទិសស្លោកទេសចរណ៍ធម្ម-ជាតិរបស់រាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលផង បានទេ? ខ្ញុំគិតថា រាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលមិនគួរអនុញ្ញាតឲ្យក្រុមហ៊ុនដីសម្ប-ទាននានា បំផ្លាញព្រៃស្តុកទាំងនេះទៀតទេ គឺប៉ះពាល់យ៉ាងធ្ងន់ធ្ងរដល់ការរស់នៅប្រជាពលរដ្ឋដែលរស់នៅ ទីនោះ និងប្រឈមមុខយ៉ាងខ្លាំងនឹងគ្រោះធម្មជាតិ។ ប្រការនេះរាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលគួរតែរកដី និងព្រៃសម្បទានអភិវឌ្ឍន៍ណាដែលមិនធ្វើឲ្យរាស្រ្តយំរាល់ថ្ងៃ គឺធ្វើដូច្នេះប្រៀបបានធ្វើបុណ្យ៧វត្តអ៊ីចឹង មិនចាំបាច់ធ្វើបុណ្យ តាមរបៀបប្រជាពលរដ្ឋរិះគន់ថា៖«បុណ្យក៏ធ្វើឈើក៏កាប់នោះទេ» ដែលការចុះចែកអំណោយតាមភូមិដូចជាពេលមានគ្រោះមហន្តរាយទឹកជំនន់ លើកនេះជាដើមគឺមានអ្នកនយោបាយមួយចំនួន ខិតខំឆ្លៀតឱកាសជិតដល់ខែបោះឆ្នោតផងនាំគ្នាចុះទឹក លុយភក់ មើលទៅហាក់បីដូចជាប្រឹងប្រែងចុះជួយប្រជាពលរដ្ឋរងគ្រោះយ៉ាង សកម្មណាស់ តែដល់បោះឆ្នោតជាប់ហើយដេកនៅវិឡាយ៉ាងរំភើយចង់រាស្រ្តយំពេញ ស្ទើរតែគ្រប់ស្រុកដោយសារដីធ្លី បឹងបួ ព្រៃក៏មិនឈឺក្បាលដែរ។ ដូចពាក្យចាស់លោកថា៖«ដល់ត្រើយសើយគូទ» អ៊ីចឹង។ សព្វថ្ងៃនេះទៅជាប្រជាពលរដ្ឋភ័យព្រួយហិនហោចព្រៃឈើ ជាងរាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលទៅវិញ ហើយឥឡូវនេះ ឲ្យតែមានបញ្ហាគ្រោះមហន្តរាយកើតឡើងបែរជាទម្លាក់កំហុសទៅលើការ ប្រែប្រួលអាកាសធាតុ(Climate change)ទៅវិញ ដែលការលើកឡើងនេះមិនសមហេតុផលសោះ។

ស្រុកខ្មែរបច្ចុប្បន្ននេះ ខុសពីមុនគឺឲ្យតែមានទឹករាងធំបន្តិច គឺលិចណាលិចណីតែម្តង ឲ្យតែមានទឹកធ្លាក់ពីភ្នំគឺលិចភឹ្លប ឲ្យមានខ្យល់ព្យុះភ្លៀងពីណាពីណីមក គឺលិចទឹក និងប៉ើងទាំងផ្ទះសម្បែងប្រជាពលរដ្ឋខ្ទេច ដូចកាលព្យុះកេតសាណាឆ្នាំ២០០៨ គឺខេត្តកំពង់ធំដដែលទទួលរងគ្រោះជាងគេ។ ដែលកាលពីមុននៅក្នុងមេរៀនភូមិវិទ្យាទសវត្សរ៍ឆ្នាំ៨០ ដែលខ្ញុំបានរៀនគឺស្រុកខ្មែរមានរាងជាបាតខ្ទះ ហើយមានភ្នំ និងព្រៃឈើធំៗដែលមានក្រឡាផ្ទៃដល់ទៅ៧៣% នៃផ្ទៃប្រទេសគឺអាចគេចផុត និងជួយទប់គ្រោះធម្មជាតិដូចជាខ្យល់ព្យុះ និងទឹកជំនន់ជាដើម។

ជាការពិតហើយ កាលនោះស្រុកយើងកម្រជួបប្រទះគ្រោះមហន្តរាយមែន គឺដោយសារព្រៃឈើនេះហើយ។ សូម្បីតែភ្ញៀវទេសចរជិះយន្តហោះក៏ធ្លាប់លាន់មាត់ថា៖«ឯណា ទីក្រុងរបស់អ្នក បើមើលទៅសុទ្ធតែព្រៃឈើយ៉ាងដូច្នេះ?»។ តែឥឡូវនេះសាកល្បងមើលពីលើយន្តហោះវិញគឺស្រុកខ្មែរទាំងមូលឃើញ សុទ្ធតែទឹក រកព្រលានចុះមិនចង់ឃើញផង ហើយកាលពីសប្តាហ៍មុន មានភ្ញៀវទេសចរបរទេសប្រហែល២០០នាក់ បានជាប់គាំងនៅឯប្រាសាទបន្ទាយស្រីដោយទឹកបាក់ពីភ្នំគូលែនមក ភ្ញៀវទាំងនោះនាំគ្នារត់ឡើងដើមឈើសឹងតែមិនទាន់គ្រាន់តែ២ទៅ ៣ម៉ោងសោះរត់មិនចង់ទាន់ផង។ នេះចេះហេងទៅប្រាសាទបន្ទាយស្រីដែលមាននៅសល់ដើមឈើខ្លះគ្រាន់តោង ឡើង ចុះបើទៅប្រាសាទណាឆ្ងាយៗមិនមានដើមឈើធំៗគ្រាន់តោង តើត្រូវធ្វើដូចម្តេច? នេះហើយបញ្ជាក់ប្រាប់ភ្ញៀវទេសចរបរទេសទាំងនោះថា ស្រុកខ្មែរជាទេសចរណ៍បែបធម្មជាតិគឺទឹកធ្លាក់ពីភ្នំពិតៗ មែនទេ?
ម្យ៉ាងវិញទៀត ក្នុងនាមខ្ញុំជាកូនខ្មែរនៅពេលធ្វើដំណើរទៅក្រៅប្រទេសម្តងៗ គឺខ្មាសគេណាស់នៅពេលដែលគេសួរថាតើក្រឡាផ្ទៃព្រៃឈើនៃប្រទេស របស់អ្នកសល់ប៉ុន្មាន? ខ្ញុំមិនដឹងឆ្លើយថាប៉ុន្មានឲ្យប្រាកដ។ តែបើផ្អែកតាមសៀវភៅភូមិវិទ្យាថ្នាក់ទី១២បោះពុម្ពនៅឆ្នាំ ២០១១ គឺសរសេរថាព្រៃឈើនៅក្រោម៤០% នៃផ្ទៃប្រទេស ហើយថយចុះជាលំដាប់។ សូមរាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលក៏ដូចជា ក្រសួងអប់រំយុវជននិងកីឡាដាក់វិញ្ញាសានេះសម្រាប់ប្រឡងផង៕ soprach.tong@phnompenhpost.com

Please, use the original source for your reference: Phnom Penh Post

Chi Kraeng Duong Chet (Lang Grabbing Song at Chi Kraeng)

2011-10-10T00:12:00.000-07:00

We Are All Human Rights Defenders

2011-10-08T23:52:00.000-07:00

The next morning, Sovath woke at 4 a.m. He snuck quietly out of his pagoda, undetected by police, and slipped into the village. He went door-to-door, waking each family, until he had assembled a group of over 50 citizens - the elderly, the young, even pregnant women and children. They set out across the rice fields in the direction of the main road.

Sometimes the most effective defense of human rights begins with the simplest of questions.

Published on May 9, 2010

"Why can't I be here?"

"What law did I break?"

And sometimes, just: "Why?"

The latter was a question that the Venerable Luon Sovath began asking early in life. The 32-year-old grew up in Cambodia's Siem Reap province and came of age in the midst of Cambodia's vicious civil war. He witnessed horrific violence as the Khmer Rouge attempted to regain control of the country.

Growing up, there was rarely a clear answer to the question "why?" The violence was usually senseless; the injustice seemed systematic. Only two things were certain: First, the war was tearing his family apart; each of his 11 siblings had become entangled in the conflict. And second, he did not want to join them.

So at age 15, Sovath took a different path: He became a monk. His choice allowed him to escape harm during Cambodia's decades-long war, and instilled the virtues of karma, reflection, and justice.

Today, Cambodia's guns are mostly silent, but another battle rages: The fight over land rights. Since 2004, over 250,000 Cambodians have been victims of illegal government land seizures to make way for commercial development, plantations, dams, and mining concessions.

The government provides its citizens no due process in these evictions, and the use of military police to enforce them is common. The people benefiting from land seizures are uniformly well-connected businessmen with the means to call on virtually every state mechanism for support: high-ranking government officials, courts, district and provincial officials, police and soldiers.
The ideology behind Cambodia's current battle never sat well with Sovath's Buddhist ideals. And ironically, the same vows that sheltered him from one conflict would ultimately plunge him into another.

The Chi Kreng Land Grab
On March 22, 2009, Sovath got a panicked phone call. There was trouble in his home village in Siem Reap's Chi Kreng district. The government had recently awarded all village farmland to a politically-connected company and they wanted to bulldoze the site. Nearly 100 military and police forces were moving in to enforce the order, accompanied by the Siem Reap prosecutor, the deputy provincial governor, and other high-ranking officials.

Some 80 unarmed villagers emerged to protest. Although they did not have titles to the land, they had lived there since the 1980s, which under Cambodia law entitled them to the right of ownership.

But the authorities weren't there to listen. Instead, they opened fire.

Three villagers were wounded, including Sovath's brother and nephew. Forty-three others were detained by police for questioning and forced to thumbprint documents forfeiting their land. Later that evening, 34 out of the 43 villagers were released, but nine villagers were detained and charged with robbery and physical assault. Two more were arrested at a later date. The charges stemmed from a complaint by two businessmen who claimed ownership of the land. The pair alleged that the land belonged to them now, and that the villagers had illegally harvested rice from the land - rice that the villagers had grown with their own hands.

The village's farmland was subsequently confiscated. The shooting investigation, meanwhile, was a whitewash. The government claimed that the shooters acted in self-defense.

Sovath arrived in time to film the aftermath, and to collect video from other villagers who had captured the shooting itself. But there was little else he could do. Or so it seemed.

Multimedia monk
A police officer came to question Sovath the next day. He was direct with his request: The police wanted his videos.

Sovath did not flinch. If one feature defines his activism, it is the almost childlike frankness with which he confronts authorities. The Asia Sentinel1 reported the following exchange:

"What law did I break?" He asked the officer.

The officer fell silent.

"If you want to borrow it you can," Sovath continued. "But if you want to take it you can't."

The officer left empty-handed, but more police visits followed. A second officer suggested that the military might storm his pagoda and seize the videos. On the third visit, after more threats, Sovath finally agreed to turn over the videos. But by then he had already distributed it to all of the major human-rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Cambodia. The contents caused a sensation: The video clearly contradicted the government's claim that the police acted in self-defense2.

On April 2, 2009, facing increasing pressure from authorities, Sovath left his pagoda for Onaloum Pagoda in Phnom Penh. He brought 100 villagers with him. "My heart was too heavy to remain in Siem Reap. I came here to try to regain my peace of mind," he told Human Rights Watch last year3.
The authorities took swift notice. A week after moving the villagers to Phnom Penh, an official from the Ministry of Cults and Religion arrived at his pagoda. The government demanded that the villagers return to Siem Reap.

The trial
With their livelihoods shattered, the villagers were forced into survival mode. Authorities had arrested strategically, targeting breadwinners and activists. The goal was to break the villagers' will. Without no land to farm and no men to work, the families were destitute.

It was a potentially explosive situation: People stripped of all they own, with nothing to lose. Sovath wanted to channel their energy in another direction.

On October 20, 2009, the trial date for nine defendants, Sovath went with the villagers for a peaceful vigil outside the courtroom in Siem Reap. Security was heavy, with approximately 150 military police armed with guns, shields and electric batons. Their plan was to observe the trial, but the public and families of detainees were barred from entering court.

As the morning progressed, police began harassing the villagers, accusing them of disturbing the hearing. There were repeated demands to disburse. Sovath filmed the scene as it developed.

Finally, authorities decided to target the ring-leader. Siem Reap governor Sou Phearin called in the province's senior monk; he arrived at the courthouse at 11 a.m. He confronted Sovath and forced him into a waiting car with a government license plate. Sovath was taken to a nearby pagoda, where he was interrogated by a group of his superiors, who accused him of inciting the villagers to demonstrate. The monks threatened to disrobe Sovath, and demanded that he sign a letter promising to cease further incitement. Sovath refused.

"What law did I break?"

An hour later, he was released.

The verdict
Commune police continued to monitor the activities of NGO staff and villagers following the trial. Sovath and the villagers, meanwhile, were making plans for further action: They wanted to be at court on October 27, 2009, to hear the verdict.

By now, his interest in the case was drawing even greater scrutiny from the authorities. The evening before the verdict, over 50 armed police surrounded the village and Sovath's adjacent pagoda. The made a show of loading their weapons. The message was clear: The villagers could not go to Siem Reap. They stayed overnight to enforce the order, three of them inside Sovath's house within the pagoda.

Then came more bad news: The trucks Sovath had hired for transported called to say they were threatened by police. They couldn't come. Sovath called a meeting with villagers and asked what should be done. They unanimously decided they would wake early and walk. It was almost 90 kilometers, a practically impossible task.

The next morning, Sovath woke at 4 a.m. He snuck quietly out of his pagoda, undetected by police, and slipped into the village. He went door-to-door, waking each family, until he had assembled a group of over 50 citizens - the elderly, the young, even pregnant women and children. They set out across the rice fields in the direction of the main road.

Two hours later, the police finally realized they had been duped. They set out on motorbike to locate Sovath. They found him 10 kilometers away, just short of the main road. A half dozen of them erected a makeshift roadblock with their bikes. They were about 50 meters ahead of the group.

Sovath responded by turning his video camera on them. The group kept marching.

"You are not allowed to go!" one officer yelled.

The group was now 20 meters from the police.

"Why?" Sovath said. "I have a right to go where I want."

Sovath now stood face to face with the angry officer. He reached out to confiscate Sovath's camera.

"Don't record us," the officer said.

"Recording is also my right," Sovath replied. "I am recording the road. If you don't want to be recorded, move away from the road."

As Sovath argued with police, the group managed to pass. One roadblock was cleared, but there would be many more obstacles.

From the roadside, Sovath called every taxi in Chi Kreng. They all refused to come. They too had been threatened by police.

The group kept walking. The police followed, setting up roadblocks every 100 to 200 meters. Hitchhiking wasn't working - all of the drivers had been warned. But finally a taxi stopped to pick up a portion of the group. It took all of 100 meters before the police flagged it down. The driver was detained and his keys confiscated. Sovath had to intervene in order to convince police that it was his fault, not the driver's. Ultimately, the entire taxi was forced to turn back in the other direction - back to where it came from.

The group kept walking, but its ranks began to thin. Sovath hailed several more taxis and trucks, but it was not until they had walked 20 kilometers that they began to have any luck. The villagers broke into smaller groups and took several trucks; some made it, some were turned back.

Sovath himself was finally picked up by NGO workers at about 10 a.m., after walking some 30 kilometers. He did not arrive at the courthouse until almost 11 a.m. By then the verdict was three hours old: Two villagers had been convicted on charges of assault and robbery, and sentenced to one year imprisonment and a US$750 fine.

Seven were acquitted, but they would remain in prison pending fresh charges and an appeal from the prosecutor. Such is the nature of the Cambodian justice system.

Sovath, meanwhile, received a call from a superior: He was ordered back to Phnom Penh immediately. Sovath said the request was impossible. He was too busy.

"You're going to be jailed," replied the senior monk.

"Why?"

The aftermath and current threat
The Chi Kreng land grab wasn't unique - over a quarter-million Cambodians have been similarly affected in the past five years. The difference was Sovath's courageous and creative response, as well as his standing as a monk.

At a time when Cambodia desperately needs a voice of justice and moral authority, the country's clergy have been conspicuously silent, often complicit. Sovath has acted at great risk to his personal safety. Critics of the Cambodian government's policy are regularly intimidated, arrested, imprisoned and sometimes killed.

The threat to Sovath is no different, despite his robes. In fact, he may face an even greater threat, given his willingness to speak out, appear in the media, and openly document abuses perpetrated by the authorities. Yet he feels a personal responsibility toward the victims of the current land crisis.

"When a monk intervenes," he says, "it carries weight."

Today, Sovath remains in Phnom Penh. He travels to Chi Kreng regularly - and at great risk to his personal safety - to continue his work there among the villagers and others. He has expanded his work to include visits with the local NGO LICADHO to other victims of land-grabbing. His free time is dedicated to producing videos documenting the human rights abuses he witnesses.

Sovath also makes regular visits to Cambodia's prisons with LICADHO, where he preaches to inmates the Buddhist virtues of patience, self-control, compassion, and of course, justice. Many of the people he speaks to are themselves victims of unlawful land-grabbing. His work is instrumental in furthering LICADHO's mission of reaching out to victims of human rights abuses.

He told Human Rights Watch that he laments the difficulties faced by landless villages throughout Cambodia: "Now when farmers raise their voices about loss of their land, they are threatened, jailed, or brought to court and sued."

"The rich have collaborated with the powerful to take the land."

Original source of this statement for your reference: http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/articles/20100509/111/index.html

Threatening speech of Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong regarding Ven. Luon Sovath

2011-10-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

==>Listen the threatening voice of Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong towards Preah Krou Saccamuni Loun Sovath in part of the Voice of Democracy (VOD) broadcasted on May 5, 2011.

Courtesy of the 8th Conference of Vesak of the UNs Day

No. If you desire to behave like the ordinary people, behave like ordinary people, (so) it will not affect on the Viniya, the religion. If you (threat intoned) lead them to do so, disrobe first before you get involve with them, so it can be called you help them to seek justice. You (threat intoned) make religion damaged in among those people and you are called seeking justice?. The status of the monk are different from the status of the lay people. Go to live with those people, go (threat), no one prohibit that in accordance with the right of belief, but using the monk status is illegal, those supporters (threat intoned) are also illegal. (Unofficial translation by Pheak)

សេចក្តីអំពាវនាវ Appealing

2011-10-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

esckþIGMBavnav

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lYn suva:t sUmGMBavnavdl;BuT§bris½TCitq¶ayCYy]btßmÖKaMRTskmµPaBRBH BuT§sasnasgÁmnigmnusSFm’dUcteTAenH

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3>              CYy]btßmÖedaypÞal; sMrab;RBHRKUlYn suva:t kñúgskmµPaBkargarsgÁm.

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elxTUrs½BÞ ¬855¦12-838-322 sáay sovathloun b¤GuIem:l sovath_loun@yahoo.com

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Dear Dhamma Friends

We are the devotees of Buddhism and students of Preah Krou Luon Sovath would like to appeal to all Dhamma friends and friends help support the Engaged Buddhism and humanitarian activity in Cambodia as following:

1. Write letter or send petition to Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong and Noun Ngeth to plea for the cancellation of orders to defrock, to silence freedom of speech of the monks, to accuse of incitement and to ban Buddhist temples in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in allowing Preah Krou Luon Sovath to stay.

2. Help support the project of “Dhamma bag or Sanghaha Dhamma” in the amount of $5 each bag to offer to the victims of forced eviction and land grabbing.

3. Help support Preah Krou Luon Sovath directly for his social Engaged Buddhism.

If you have willingness to help support, please contact Preah Krou Luon Sovath directly at cell phone: (855)12-838-822, Skype: sovathloun, or Email: sovath_loun@yahoo.com

or through Paypal at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=T23G52CLA4XGN

Note that all donation names will be published in this website: http://www.luonsovath.blogspot.com bi-weekly

We wish you with all merits and success.

Thank you very much,

Buddhism, Human Right, Democracy

2011-10-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

ព្រះពុទ្ធជាម្ចាស់មិនមែនគ្រាន់តែជាអ្នកការពារសិទ្ធិមនុស្ស ប៉ុណោ្ណះទេ ព្រះអង្គក៏ជាអ្នកការពារសិទ្ធិសត្វនិងសិទ្ធិធម្មជាតិ ផងដែរ។ ដោយព្រះគ្រូលួន សាវ៉ាត សច្ចមុនី

The Buddha is not the only Human Right Defender, but the Buddha is also animal and natural rights defender. By Preah Krou Loun Sovath Succamuni

The Cause of Progress - Ven. Loun Sovath

2011-10-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

A violent land dispute left four men in hospital and twelve in jail. Luon Sovath swapped his paintbrush for a camera after his family were shot. Video is a source of information, and information is a community's power. And become a human rights defender and video activist.

The problem of people and the path of Buddha are not different. Buddha's role was that of a man who saved people. So we need to follow the peaceful path of the Buddha. He has been threaten of defrocking, eviction and arrest.

Authority: this law prohibits you to participate in any activity that can destroy our religion. And religion belongs to the government. You can come to visit the villagers but you cannot lead them to protest.

I want to verify with the villagers. Everyone, did I gather and lead you to protest? No he does not. Did I lead you to protest? No, you don't. So you can see that I didn't lead them here to protest.

What is the problem brother? We are not going to stop until you meet with the head monk. I have to ask you to get out of the car to meet the head of the monks. Come on. What you are doing is wrong. We warned you but you do not listen to us. Get out. Drag him out.

They shot my relatives and they want to harm and to arrest the monk too. This is such an injustice. They arrested our villagers and now they want to arrest our monk too. This is unfair.

Please you cannot arrest the monk. They said they are not going to arrest him.

They have not been able to successfully defrock me. So they are finding other methods, like forced eviction. My room which I have lived in for 20 years as a monk has been taken. But I will struggle to get justice for people, for society and for myself.

The Cause of Progress - Loun Sovath Teaser Trailer from Little Ease Films on Vimeo.

Cambodia's activist monk remains defiant despite temple ban

2011-10-03T00:46:00.000-07:00

Updated October 3, 2011 15:42:32

A Cambodian monk, who has been targeted by the government for his social activism, says the country's top leaders are responsible for the poverty and suffering of some of its citizens.

Venerable Luon Sovath came to prominence after a forced eviction from his village in 2009 turned violent, and police opened fire on land protesters, injuring four people.

The villagers called the monk in to help document the incident and advocate on their behalf.

This began his work travelling the country, helping to inform people of their rights and to protest against land grabs.

He says this practice of what he calls "engaged Buddhism" has resulted in him being arrested and being threatened with beatings, death, and defrocking as a monk.

In April this year, the ruling body for Buddhist monks in Cambodia banned Venerable Luon Sovath from going to temples in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane
Speaker: Venerable Luon Sovath, a Cambodian monk and social activist

Click this link to listen the whole interview

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/201110/s3331046.htm

The emerge of engaged Buddhist monks in Cambodia

2011-10-03T00:16:00.000-07:00

Hence, Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath has witnessed with land grab and intimidating from the rich and authority since 2005 in his birth place. He has risen up to involve with the suffered people in the expect to lead a better change for them. As a monk, his weapon is the compassionate devotion and the use of non-violence mean for the sake of human beings.

Words of Lord Buddha have encouraged Buddhist monks to wander near and far to preach the Dhamma beautiful on both the beginning and the ending in the purpose of bringing most benefits to the unfortunates, the poor, the weak and the human kind. World's religions have shared similar characteristic as those religious men are responsible for correct understanding of the teaching, implement the teaching accordingly, and outreach their compassion to all directions of the world. Buddhist engaged monks have carried out this mission worldwide since the Buddha was alive and the tasks have been continuing nowadays.

In case of Cambodia, the ravaged war has not discouraged Cambodian Buddhist monks from engaging with the communities and society. Many Buddhist-based organizations are stationing importantly on improving livelihood of the destitute people. Hence, Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath has witnessed with land grab and intimidating from the rich and authority since 2005 in his birth place. He has risen up to involve with the suffered people in the expect to lead a better change for them. As a monk, his weapon is the compassionate devotion and the use of non-violence mean for the sake of human beings.

Currently, at the notorious land grab and forced eviction of Beoung Kok Lake in the heart of Phnom Penh city, Ven. Sing Tonly has firmly stood in front of the gun men of servants of the rich and the powerful. His surveillance stemmed from the injustice in society and the land concession lasting 99 years in the scrupulous contract between the government and the tycoons as well as the foreign business owners. According to his word, the concession period of 99 years is to murder the Cambodian nation.

Ven. Sing Tonly has emerged as another Buddhist monk who has seen the land concession is not justifiable for the development. The forced eviction happened by those land concessions are not a rational for development in Cambodia, but he has seen it as the excuse to plunder this nation and it can lead to the extinction of this nation in the future.

For more information, please listen to his interviewing with the Khmer Post below:

The disconnection between the belief in Buddhism and the social problems in Cambodia

2011-10-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

By Pen Bonna
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Soy

Buddhism teaches that we all come to this world naked, when we die, we will not take anything with us with the exception of the sins and good deeds that we perform. Therefore, true Buddhist believers should not fight each others to fulfill our greed.

Buddhism is the state religion and it is worshiped by Buddhist Khmer families in general. For example, during each year’s Pchum Ben celebration, no Cambodian families would miss visiting a pagoda, whether they are rich or poor. However, when you compare the current social problems in Cambodia and the [intrinsic] value of Buddhism, one can see that the majority of Cambodians only worship Buddhism superficially only, they do not worship Buddhism out of their heart or out of their true belief at all. Why is that so?

The 15 days of the Kan Ben and Pchum Ben celebrations ended on Tuesday. Each pagoda in the kingdom was busy receiving Buddhist devotees. People from all creeds tried to visit a pagoda to celebrate Pchum Ben. This action seems to show that Cambodians are true believers of Buddhism, of sins, of “retributions” which are part of the Buddhist core.

Based on the busy traffic in pagodas during the Pchum Ben season, it is hard to believe that the Cambodian society is riddled with so many social problems because Buddhism provides a just philosophy that everybody can believe and worship. The foremost philosophy that Buddhism teaches to people is: “Do the right deeds and you will reap good deeds, do the wrong deeds and you will reap bad deeds” during this lifetime or during the next lifetime. However, Cambodia had continuously met with unending war and genocide, as well as major and minor problems.

Analysts who follow the situation of the Cambodian society have pointed out 2 major issued that we should reflect on. The first issue is the fact that a number of Buddhist followers worship the religion without clearly understanding the teachings of Buddha. Any religion aims to direct people to perform good deeds, but the problem stems from the fact that the worshipers do not practice their belief properly because they do not understand and they twist religion for other purposes. The second issue stems from the fact that people are using religion only as a shield, but they do not truly believe it in their heart and they do not practice it according to Buddhist meaning at all.

There are many philosophical viewpoints that benefit from Buddhism and they can use to build a blissful society. Just look at the Pchum Ben celebration alone, people can learn to practice good deeds or sinful deeds. But on these major philosophical viewpoints, people seem to forget about them as soon as they leave the pagodas.

The wrong practice of Buddhism does not happen among the lay people only, even fervent Buddhist followers and monks are not practicing Buddhism properly. Because of this, social problems and disputes in pagodas are taking place all the time.

This shows that there is a disconnect between the worship of Buddhism and the complicated problems taking place in the society. In true Buddhism, religious belief should come from our pure heart, and it should worshipped with intelligence, but it should not be just a superficial action.

Under this condition, Buddhist followers should reflect on their action to see whether they are practicing their belief properly as true Buddhists or not? If they don’t they should make amend immediately.

Buddhism teaches that we all come to this world naked, when we die, we will not take anything with us with the exception of the sins and good deeds that we perform. Therefore, true Buddhist believers should not fight each others to fulfill our greed.

ពុធ 28 កញ្ញា 2011
ដោយ ប៉ែន បូណា
RFI

ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាបានបង្រៀនថា មនុស្សកើតមកមានតែខ្លួនទទេស្អាត ស្លាប់ទៅវិញក៏មិនអាចយកអ្វីតាមខ្លួនបានដែរក្រៅតែពីសម្ពាយ បុណ្យនិងបាប។ ដូច្នេះ សម្រាប់អ្នកដែលមានជំនឿលើព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាពិតប្រាកដ គ្មានការចាំបាច់អីដែលមនុស្សត្រូវប្រកាប់ប្រចាក់គ្នាដើម្បីបំពេញ ភាពលោភលន់ហួសហេតុរបស់ខ្លួនឡើយ៕

ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា ដែលជាសាសនារបស់រដ្ឋ បានទទួលការគោរពប្រតិបត្តិពីសំណាក់គ្រួសារខ្មែរទូទៅដែល ជាពុទ្ធសាសនិកជនដោយគ្មានអ្នកណារំលងឡើយ។ ជាក់ស្តែងនៅក្នុងពិធីបុណ្យភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌម្តងៗ គេជឿជាក់ថា គ្មានគ្រួសារខ្មែរណាដែលមិនបានទៅវត្តឡើយទោះជាអ្នក នោះជាអ្នកមានឬអ្នកក្រក្តី។ ប៉ុន្តែ ប្រសិនបើគេឆ្លុះបញ្ចាំងពីបញ្ហានៅក្នុងសង្គមកម្ពុជា បច្ចុប្បន្នធៀបទៅនឹងតម្លៃនៃព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា គេនឹងឃើញថា មនុស្សជាច្រើន ហាក់ដូចជាគោរពព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាតែសម្បកក្រៅ តែមិនបានផុសចេញពីទឹកចិត្ត និងជំនឿពិតប្រាកដឡើយ។ តើហេតុអ្វីបានជាដូច្នេះ?

រយៈពេល១៥ថ្ងៃនៃពិធីបុណ្យ កាន់បិណ្ឌ និងភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ បានបិទបញ្ចប់ហើយកាលពីថ្ងៃអង្គារម្សិលមិញ។ ទីវត្តអារាមនីមួយៗមានសភាពមមាញឹកយ៉ាងខ្លាំងក្នុងការទទួល ពុទ្ធបរិស័ទ។ មនុស្សម្នានៅគ្រប់ទិសទីសម្រុកនាំគ្នាទៅវត្តដើម្បីឆ្លងបុណ្យ ភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ។ ព្រឹត្តិការណ៍នេះបានបង្ហាញថា ពលរដ្ឋខ្មែរមានជំនឿមុតមាំណាស់លើព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា លើអំពើបុណ្យបាប និងលើទស្សនៈ«កម្ម ផល»ដែលជាស្នូលនៃព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា។

ប្រសិន បើគេពិនិត្យមើលអំពីភាពមមាញឹកនៃទីវត្តអារាមក្នុងពិធីបុណ្យឆ្លង ភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ គេប្រហែលជាពិបាកនឹងជឿណាស់ថាសង្គមកម្ពុជាមានបញ្ហាចាក់ស្រេះ រាប់រយជំពូកយ៉ាងដូច្នេះឡើយពីព្រោះថា ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាដែលបង្កប់ដោយទស្សនៈវិជ្ជាដ៏មានតម្លៃត្រូវបានមនុស្ស ទាំងពួងជឿជាក់ និងគោរពប្រតិបត្តិគ្រប់ៗគ្នា។ ទស្សនៈវិជ្ជាដំបូងដែលមនុស្សទូទៅបានស្គាល់បំផុតនោះគឺ « អំពើល្អ ទទួលផលល្អ, អំពើអាក្រក់ ទទួលផលអាក្រ់» បើទោះជាមិនមែនជាតិនេះក៏ជាតិខាងមុខដែរ។ ប៉ុន្តែ ប្រទេសកម្ពុជាបែរជាជួបនឹងសង្គ្រាមវិនាសកម្ម និងវិបត្តិតូចធំមិនចេះចប់មិនចេះហើយទាល់តែសោះ។

ក្រុមអ្នកវិភាគតាមដានសង្គមកម្ពុជា បានមើលឃើញហេតុផលសំខាន់២ដែលគួរពិចារណា។ ហេតុផលទី១គឺប្រជាពុទ្ធបរិស័ទមួយចំនួនគោរពប្រតិបត្តិសាសនាដោយមិន បានយល់ពីខ្លឹមសារនៃព្រះពុទ្ធឱវាទឲ្យបានច្បាស់លាស់ឡើយ។ ជាការពិត សាសនាអ្វីក៏ដោយ ក៏សុទ្ធតែមានគោលដៅតម្រង់ទិសមនុស្សឲ្យប្រព្រឹត្តអំពើល្អដូចៗ គ្នា។ ប៉ុន្តែ បញ្ហានៅត្រង់ថា អ្នកដែលតាំងខ្លួនគោរពបូជាសាសនាមួយចំនួនមិនបានប្រតិបត្តិសាសនា ឲ្យបានត្រឹមត្រូវឡើយដោយហេតុតែមិនយល់ ហើយក៏ប្រែក្លាយខ្លឹមសារនៃសាសនាឲ្យទៅជាប្រការដទៃ។ ហេតុផលទី២គឺ មនុស្សមួយចំនួនទៀតគ្រាន់តែយកសាសនាធ្វើជាខែល តែខ្លួនមិនបានជឿជាក់ចេញពីបះដូង និងមិនបានអនុវត្តតាមខ្លឹមសារពុទ្ធសាសនាពិតប្រាកដឡើយ។

មានទស្សនៈវិជ្ជាច្រើនយ៉ាងដែល គេអាចទាញយកបានជាប្រយោជន៍ពីព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាសម្រាប់កសាងសង្គម មួយប្រកបដោយភាពសុខដុមរមនា។ គ្រាន់តែឆ្លុះបញ្ចាំងពីពិធីបុណ្យភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌតែមួយក៏គេអាចមើល ឃើញខ្លឹមសារសំខាន់ៗជាច្រើនដែរសម្រាប់ឲ្យមនុស្សប្រព្រឹត្តតែអំពើ ល្អ ស្គាល់បុណ្យ និងស្គាល់បាបដែរ។ ប៉ុន្តែ ទស្សនៈវិជ្ជាសំខាន់ៗទាំងនោះច្រើនតែត្រូវបានគេបំភ្លេចចោលនៅ ក្រោយពេលចេញពីវត្ត។

ការអនុវត្តផ្ទុយពីគន្លង ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាមិនមែនមានត្រឹមតែក្នុងចំណោមបុគ្គលសាមញ្ញប៉ុណ្ណោះ ទេ តែក៏មានដែរក្នុងចំណោមអ្នកដែលតាំងខ្លួនជាអ្នកមានសីលខ្លះ និងរហូតដល់ព្រះសង្ឃមួយចំនួនផង។ បញ្ហាចាក់ស្រះក្នុងសង្គមកម្ពុជាបច្ចុប្បន្ន និងជម្លោះក្នុងទីវត្តអារាមដែលកើតមានជាហូរហែគឺជាឧទាហរណ៍ ជាក់ស្តែង។

ត្រង់ចំណុចនេះ អ្វីដែលគួរឲ្យកត់សម្គាល់គឺ សកម្មភាពដែលបានសម្តែងឲ្យឃើញពីការគោរពបូជាព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា ហាក់មិនស៊ីសង្វាក់គ្នាទាល់តែសោះទៅនឹងបញ្ហាចាក់ស្រេះនៅក្នុងសង្គម។ នៅក្នុងព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា ជំនឿដែលជាកុសលពិតប្រាកដគឺជាជំនឿដែលផុសចេញពីទឹកចិត្តបរិសុទ្ធ និងប្រកបដោយបញ្ញា តែមិនមែនជាការសម្តែងឲ្យឃើញខាងក្រៅឡើយ។

ក្នុងន័យនេះ ប្រជាពុទ្ធបរិស័ទទាំងឡាយគួរតែនាំគ្នាពិចារណាឡើងវិញអំពីទង្វើ របស់ខ្លួនម្នាក់ៗថា ខ្លួនបានប្រព្រឹត្តស័ក្តិសមជាពុទ្ធសាសនិកជនហើយឬនៅ? បើនៅ គួរកែតម្រូវជាបន្ទាន់។

ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា បានបង្រៀនថា មនុស្សកើតមកមានតែខ្លួនទទេស្អាត ស្លាប់ទៅវិញក៏មិនអាចយកអ្វីតាមខ្លួនបានដែរក្រៅតែពីសម្ពាយ បុណ្យនិងបាប។ ដូច្នេះ សម្រាប់អ្នកដែលមានជំនឿលើព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាពិតប្រាកដ គ្មានការចាំបាច់អីដែលមនុស្សត្រូវប្រកាប់ប្រចាក់គ្នាដើម្បីបំពេញ ភាពលោភលន់ហួសហេតុរបស់ខ្លួនឡើយ៕

Original source: KI Media

បទសម្ភាសន៍ជាមួយព្រះភិក្ខុលួន សូវ៉ាតនៅប្រទេសអូស្រ្តាលី

2011-09-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

==>បទសម្ភាសព្រះតេជព្រះគុណ លួន សាវ៉ាត ដោយវិទ្យុអូស្រ្តាលី 26 Sept. 2011

Summary of the Interview in English

Interviewer: Venerable, what are your purposes in coming to Australia?
Ven. Luon Sovath: My purposes to come to Australia this time is to participate with Khmer Buddhists in Australia during this auspicious Bon Pchum Ben during this Rain Retreat Season as in Cambodia I am expelled from the pagoda by the Supreme Patriarchs and the Chief Monk of Siem Reap because of my activity in engaging with the evicted communities and the victims of land grabbing. Other purpose is to bring petition for the greater support of everyone in requesting the supreme patriarch as well as the chief monk of Siem Reap province to withdraw their orders.

Interviewer: Now, Venerable is arriving Australia, do you plan to travel to other cities as well or just stay in Melbourne?
Ven. Luon Sovath: Yes, I will travel in accordance with the invitation and friendly relationship of the Buddhist friends here.

Interviewer: so Venerable plans to stay in Australia only one month?
Ven.Luon Sovath: Yes

Interviewer: Recently, Venerable has faced many problems because of your engagement with the social activities, could Venerable discuss those issues in details for the audience here?
Ven. Luan Sovath: Truly, it is because my engagement and outreaching to the communities of land grab victims and forced eviction. In reality, it is not my problem, it is the government problem whose people have been suffered. Look at the Australian government, the suffering of the people has been justly dealt. In Cambodia, the suffering of the people have been deeply embedded by the lawless activities, physical violence and bullet shooting.

According to Buddha's teaching, everyone is equal and fully exercising basic rights. If the government followed this teaching, it would have no problem in society at all. Authority at all levels must not abuse their power. When people at the rural areas are facing suffering and violation from the richs, the policemen or authorities must help them. But in contrast, those authorities and policemen beat and shoot at the people.

On behalf of a Buddhist monk, I take no side, no discrimination and no violence. I am undertaking four sublime states of the mind ie. metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathy) and upekkha (neutrality). But I am not seen by this virtue, contradictorily the authority accused me of violation the rules of Buddhism and joining the political activity. Of course, all these accusations are baseless.

So I would like to appeal to everyone to deeply research on this matter and help to write an appealing letter, petition or other lobbying activities by submitting to the international communities, embassies, Cambodian government and the Buddhist institution etc. to withdraw those orders.

Interviewer: According to the order of Supreme Patriarch Noun Ngeth, it means to force Venerable to stop those activities or to defrock Venerable?
Ven. Luon Sovath: The order is tending to accuse me of political involvement and violation of Buddhist's principles. In reality, the order has clearly distorted my Engaged Buddhism, freedom of speech and rights of social participation. Understand that the order is not the rule or the principle of the Buddha's teaching. It is just a personal decision which is evidently a totalitarian manner to force me to be arrested, defrocked or expelled from the country.

But for me, I will not stop from my Engaged Buddhism. I will stand firmly with those victims in Cambodia. For me, if I am defrocked, I am keenly arrested by the new criminal law to put in jail or convicted by the authority.

I have become a monk in order to seek my personal knowledge, to help the social causes and propagate Buddhism. I am wondering, their accusation tends to stop all those primary intention of how becoming a monk of mine or what?

Buddhists and people nationwide and worldwide have supported me and my original purposes in engaging with the communities and propagating Buddhism.

Interviewer: If Venerable went back to Cambodia, is there any pagada Venerable will go to stay?
Ven. Luon Sovath: In accordance to Buddhism, the actual pagoda is inside our heart, the pagoda outside is just a symbolic one. Lord Buddha played important role in teaching us how important is the pagoda inside ourselves. Buddha traveled from places to places without having proper pagoda to stay. I am a Buddha's student, I must do the same.

Interviewer: Venerable, has you been concerning of personal security and safety?
Ven.Luon Sovath: Every being is afraid of danger and insecurity. I am the same. But my returning back to Cambodia is not feeling in insecure as I have done nothing wrong. Those who are feeling insecure because of their bad deeds and lawless activities.

Interviewer: what is your plans in Cambodia when returning back to Cambodia?
Ven. Luon Sovath: My plan is the same: to learn and practice Buddhism, to outreach to all communities and propagate Buddhism. Those plans are in accordance with principles of Buddhism, universal laws, human rights and freedom of speech.

ភិក្ខុលួន សូវ៉ាត ព្រះសង្ឃខ្មែរមួយអង្គដែលបាននិមន្តមកដល់ប្រទេសអូស្រ្តាលី កាលពីថ្ងៃសុក្រ បានមានសង្ឃដីកាថា ព្រះអង្គពុំដែលបានប្រព្រឹត្តអ្វីដែលប្រាកចាកធម៌វិន័យព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាឬក៏ច្បាប់ជាតិ និងអន្តរជាតិនោះទេ ទោះបីជាមានការចោទប្រកាន់ពីសម្ដេចសង្ឃ នន្ទ ង៉ែត កាលពីប៉ុន្មានខែកន្លងទៅនេះថា ព្រះតេជគុណបានប្រព្រឹត្តល្មើសធម៌វិន័យរបស់ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាក្ដី។

ភិក្ខុលួន សូវ៉ាតបានមានថេរដីកាថា ក្រៅអំពីការចូលរួមពិធីបុណ្យភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌជាមួយនឹងពុទ្ធបរិស័ទខ្មែរនៅក្នុងប្រទេសអូស្រ្តាលី ព្រះអង្គក៏ឆ្លៀតឱកាសនេះ ប្រមែប្រមូលការគាំទ្រពីសំណាក់ពលរដ្ឋខ្មែរដែលស្រឡាញ់យុត្តិធម៌ផងដែរដើម្បីធ្វើជាញត្តិជូនដល់ស្ថាប័នអន្ដរជាតិនានា។

មួយរយៈនេះ ព្រះតេជគុណបានជួបប្រទះនឹងបញ្ហាមួយចំនួនជាមួយនឹងអាជ្ញាធរដោយសារសកម្មភាពរបស់ព្រះអង្គនៅក្នុងសង្គម រហូតដល់មានសង្ឃសម្រេចចេញដោយសម្ដេចសង្ឃមហានិកាយ ហាមប្រាមមិនឲ្យវត្តអារាមនៅប្រទេសកម្ពុជាទទួលយកព្រះតេជគុណលួន សូវ៉ាតឲ្យគង់នៅក្នុងវត្តឡើយ៕

(ប៊ុន ឡឺវីសីដា)

Video Footages highlighting Preah Krou Loun Sovath

2011-09-19T23:42:00.000-07:00

New Film for Amnesty International

Cause of the Progress on the Movie Trail

The Cause of Progress Film Trailer from Little Ease Films on Vimeo.

ផ្តិតមេដៃ៥លាននាក់គាំទ្រព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាខ្មែរ

2011-09-18T00:08:00.000-07:00

ការជួយផ្តិតមេដៃនិងសញេ្ញគាំទ្រញតិ្តនេះគឺជាការជួយរក្សាព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាខ្មែរ អោយមានកេរិ៍្តឈ្មោះល្អនៅលើឆាកអន្តរជាតិនិងរក្សាវប្បធម៌ជួយគ្នាទៅវិញទៅមក របស់ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាយើង។ វីរសមណៈក្នុងព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនារបស់យើងមានដូច ជាអាចារ្យស្វា អាចារ្យពោធិកំបោរ អាចារ្យហែម ចៀវ សមេ្តចជួន ណាត អាចារ្យប៉ាង ខាត់ អាចារ្យខៀវ ជុំ ជាដើម្សុទ្ធសឹងតែបានធ្វើតួនាទីយ៉ាងសំខាន់ក្នុងការចូលរួមជាមួយ សហគមន៍និង ជួយជនរងគ្រោះកម្ពុជា។

ចាប់ពីពេលផ្សឹកនិងការធើ្វទណ្ឌកម្មព្រះគ្រូទឹម សាខន និងការវាយដំយ៉ាងអមនុស្ស ធម៌ទៅលើព្រះ សង្ឃនៅមុខស្ថានទូតវៀតណាមដោយកំឡាំងប្រដាប់អាវុធ ឥឡូវវាកំពុងកើតមាន ទៅលើព្រះគ្រូ លួនសុវ៉ាត់ ដែលសកម្មភាពនិងកិច្ចការរបស់ព្រះអង្គគឺមិនមានអ្វីក្រៅអំពីជួយ ឈឺឆ្អាលដល់ជន រងគ្រោះដែលត្រូវគេរឹបអូសយកដីធ្លីនិងជំលៀសចេញពីលំនៅស្ថាន។ សាច់ញាតិ របស់ព្រះអង្គ ត្រូវបានទទួលរងគ្រោះនិងចាប់ដាក់ពន្ធនាគារពីព្រោះការយំទាមទារចង់បានដីធ្វើស្រែ របស់ពួកគេត្រ ឡប់មកវិញ។ យ៉ាងណាក៏ដោយ ការចូលរួមធ្វើសេចក្តីល្អរបស់ព្រះអង្គមិនត្រូវបាន រដ្ឋនិងក្រុម របស់គេមើលឃើញឡើយ។ ផ្ទុយទៅវិញ មេដឹកនាំគណសង្ឃមួយចំនួនបានគាបសង្កត់ បង្ខំព្រះ អង្គអោយចាក ចេញពីវត្តដែលជាជំរកសំរាប់ព្រះសង្ឃកសាងឡើងដោយសទ្ធាពុទ្ធបរិស័ទ ព្រមទាំងទូ ដាក់សៀវភៅ និងស្បង់ចីពរក៏ត្រូវបញ្ជាអោយរុះរើចេញទាំងអស់ដែរ។ ឥឡូវព្រះគ្រូលួន សាវ៉ាត់បាន ក្លាយជាព្រះសង្ឃ ដែលគ្មានវត្តសំរាប់ជ្រកនៅក្នុងព្រះវស្សាដែលជាពុទ្ធបញ្ញតិ្តអោយព្រះសង្ឃគ្រប់អង្គស្នាក់ នៅមួយកនែ្លង អោយគ្រប់បីខែ។

ការបញ្ចូលព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាជាសាសនារបស់រដ្ឋមានន័យថារដ្ឋជួយឧបត្ថម្ភព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាឬ បំផ្លាញព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា? ចុះហេតុអ្វីមេដឹកនាំសង្ឃមួយចំនួនត្រូងស្ថិតក្រោមការអភិសេករបស់ មេដឹកនាំលោកីយ៍? មេដឹកនាំលោកីយ៍ទាំងនោះមានសីលនិងការលះបង់ជាងព្រះសង្ឃឬ? ហេតុអ្វីបានជាមេដឹកនាំលោកីយ៍ដាក់ឋានះ ខ្លួនឯងខ្ពស់ជាព្រះសង្ឃអ្នកមានសីលហើយយកស្ថាប័នជាសង្ឃជាឧបករណ៍នយោបាយ?

នៅកម្ពុជា មានតែព្រះសង្ឃល្មោភបុណ្យសក្តិមួយចំនួនតូចប៉ុណ្ណោះដែលមិនបានបដិបតិ្តធម៌ បានត្រឹមត្រូវ ហើយត្រូវបានអភិសេកដោយមេដឹកនាំលោកីយ៍ ដែលជាអ្នកគ្មានសីលប្រាំនៅ ក្នុងចិត្តទាល់តែសោះ។ ឥឡូវឃើញកាន់តែច្បាស់ថា ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាដែលជាសាសនារបស់រដ្ឋ ធើ្វតាមគ្រប់យ៉ាងតាមបញ្ជារបស់បក្សកាន់អំណាច។

ភស្តុតាច្បាស់ក្រឡែត គឺបក្សកាន់អំណាចកំពុងធើ្វអោយព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាខ្មែរមានភាពអាប់អួរ ជាខ្លាំង។

យើងជាពុទ្ធបរិស័ទដែលប្រកាន់ខ្ជាប់នូវព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាថាជាទីពឹងផ្លូវចិត្តនិងជីវិតស្ងប់សុខរបស់យើង យើងត្រូវធ្វើតួនាទីការពារព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា

យើងតំណាងអោយព្រះសង្ឃទាំង៦ម៉ឺនអង្គដែលកំពុងគង់នៅក្នុងវត្តជាង៤ពាន់វត្ត បានមើលឃើញ បទបញ្ជាថ្មីៗនេះរបស់មេដឹកនាំសង្ឃជាន់ខ្ពស់ចំពោះបុគ្គលព្រះគ្រូលួន សាវ៉ាត់ ថាជាការមិនគោរព ដល់គោលធម៌សំខាន់ៗរបស់ព្រះពុទ្ធ និងតួនាទីរបស់ព្រះសង្ឃចំពោះសហគមន៍ ហើយបទបញ្ជា នេះបានកំពុងគំរាមគំហែងព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាខ្មែរទូទាំងប្រទេស

យើងជាពុទ្ធបរិស័ទនិងមិត្តរួមមនុស្សជាតិទួទាំងពិភពលោក សូមរួមគ្នាថ្កោលទោសចំពោះបទបញ្ជា របស់មេដឹកនាំសង្ឃមួយចំនួននោះ ចំពោះការគំរាមគំហែងទៅលើព្រះគ្រូលួន សាវ៉ាត់ គឺជាការរំលោភ បំពានលើសិទ្ធិមនុស្ស បំបិទសិទ្ធិការបញ្ចេញមតិនិងសិទ្ធិចូលរួមក្នុងសង្គម បង្កើតសេចក្តីភ័យខ្លាចក្នុង ចំណោមព្រះសង្ឃទាំងឡាយ និងមិនផ្តល់តំលៃក្នុងការចូលរួមអភិវឌ្ឍន៍សហគមន៍របស់ព្រះភិក្ខុសង្ឃ។

យើងចុះហត្ថលេខាខាងក្រោមនេះដើម្បីការពារព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា ដើម្បីបជ្ឈប់បទបញ្ជាដែលគួរអោយ ស្អប់ខ្ពើមពីថ្នាក់ដឹកនាំសង្ឃមួយចំនួននោះ និងដើម្បីការពារមិនអោយបទបញ្ជានោះកើតមានជាថ្មីម្តងទៀត។

5 million supporters of Khmer Buddhism

2011-09-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

Your engagement in this petition will help our Khmer Buddhism reserve good reputation at the international arena and preserve our Buddhist culture of serving the people. Our hero Buddhist monks such as Acha Sva, Acha Po Kombo, Acha Hiem Chiev, Somdech Chuon Nath, Acha Pang Khat, Acha Kiev Chum etc. played important roles in engaging with the communities and the Cambodian victims.

Since the defrocking and persecution of Venerable Preah Krou Tim Sakhorn, and the inhumanely beating of the Buddhist monks in front of Vietnamese embassy by the arm forces, it is presently happening on Venerable Preah Krou Loun Sovath whose activities and works are not something else but engaging with the victims of land grabs and forced evictions. His siblings and relatives have been injured and jailed because of their cry for the returning back of their farm land. Thus, his goodness engagement is not seen by the state and their associates, the few top leaders of Buddhist Sangha have pressured on him, forcing him to leave from pagoda which is the shelter for Buddhist monks built by the generosity of the Buddhist followers, including his storage of personal books and saffron robes has been unethically ordered to remove. Now, Venerable Loun Sovath is pagoda-less during this Rain Retreat Season (Chol Preah Vosa) which all monks must take vow to stay within the pagoda for three months.

Cambodia Buddhism as the state religion here means to support Buddhism or to destroy Buddhism? Why the few top leaders of Buddhist Sangha must be under the consecration of secular leader? The state leader are obtaining higher virtue and sacrifice than Buddhist monks? Why the state leaders are positioning higher than Buddhist monks and politicizing the Buddhist Sangha?

In Cambodia, only greedy monks like those few top leaders who are not duly practicing the Dhamma are consecrated by secular leader who have no Five Precepts in heart at all. Now, it comes to the realization that Buddhism as the state religion must follow all political orders of the ruling party.

Evidently, the ruling party is ruining Khmer Buddhism.

Venerable Loun Sovath is Evicted from Wat Onaloum from Little Ease Films on Vimeo.

We are the Buddhists who have adhered to Buddhism as our spiritual refuge and peaceful life, we obligate to protect Buddhism

We are on behalf of 60,000 Khmer Buddhist monks who are staying in more than 4,000 pagodas have seen the latest orders of Buddhist top leaders towards individual Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath is a disrespecting to the core teaching of Lord Buddha and the obligation of Buddhist monks in engaging with communities. Those orders are ruining Khmer Buddhism nationwide

We are Buddhists and friends of humanity around the world jointly condemn the orders of those few top Buddhist leaders towards Venerable Preah Krou Luon Sovath as violating on human rights, distorting individual freedom of speech and social participation, breeding fear among Buddhist monks, and disregarding the social and community engagement of Buddhist monks

We are undersigning here to protect Buddhism, to stop such disgraceful orders of Buddhist top leaders, and to prevent such orders not to be occurred in the future.

Announcement and Banning Letter from the Chief Monk of Siem Reap Province

2011-09-17T01:52:00.000-07:00

Appealing Letter for Financial Support from Preah Krou Loun Sovath

Requesting Letter to the Local Authority for Freedom Celebration

Enforcing Letter from Chief Monk of Siem Reap Province to Ban Preah Krou Loun Sovath from Sheltering in any Pagoda in this Privince

Venerable Loun Sovath and the Politics of Compassion

2011-09-17T01:32:00.000-07:00

Nathaniel Adams | June 29, 2011

Recently Venerable Non Ngeth, Supreme Patriarch of the Mahanikaya branch of Cambodian Buddhism, issued a directive stating that pagodas in the country are no longer permitted to host one Venerable Loun Sovath. This pagoda ban is the latest admonition for the 31-year-old monk, who has been involved in advocacy for victims of forced evictions and land-grabbing over the last several years. Originally from Siem Reap’s Chi Kraeng commune, Ven. Sovath became outspoken on land rights issues after members of his community were detained in the midst of an on-going land dispute in which 175 families were being forcibly relocated. Intending to draw great attention to such issues, Ven. Sovath has attended protests over other notable land disputes in the country.

In Boeng Kak lake in Phnom Penh, he joined protests against the displacement of 4,000 families as a result of a joint project between a Chinese developer and a ruling party senator. And in Prey Lang, where over 40,000 hectares of old growth forest have been granted in a private concession to a Vietnamese rubber corporation, and 27 mineral exploration permits have also been issued, Ven. Sovath was there to protest as well. He has been threatened with arrest at several demonstrations and due to the pagoda ban, he is now somewhat of a pariah, being ferried between various safe houses in the country.

In his recent directive Ven. Non Ngeth stated that Ven. Loun Sovath “has been involved in politics … he joined protests with villagers and has gone everywhere with human rights activists, which is an abuse of Buddha’s rules.” Human rights groups, on the other hand, have pointed to the fact that the monastic code Vinaya does not explicitly prohibit social activism and have claimed that Ven. Non Ngeth’s comments were themselves politically motivated, since certainly it is no secret that the senior leadership of the Cambodian sangha has close ties to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. This episode raises a number of important questions about the role of a monk in the temporal world of development. Namely, when does the practice of compassion become a political act? During the course of our exploration into the social engagement of Buddhist actors, we’ve heard many monks state that “sharing compassion” is a major motivation for their work in the community. As one of the two main qualities required to achieve enlightenment (the other being wisdom), compassion is central to Buddhist practice. The idea is that by selflessly acting on behalf of others whenever and wherever suffering occurs, this begins to free one from the false notion of the individual self and the individual other. On a similar note, several monks suggested that there is a practical imperative for a monk to work on behalf of their community, as it was impossible to separate the wellbeing of a monk from the wellbeing of his community. As one monk put it rather succinctly, “if they starve, we starve."

The practice of offering compassion to those who are suffering is not an overly controversial act in and of itself. Rather, Buddhist monks land themselves in political hot water when they work to alter the conditions of social inequity by which suffering is perpetuated. This type of social activism is, of course, not uncharted waters for the world’s major religious traditions; there are certainly analogies in Christianity, notably liberation theology in Latin America and organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the southern United States during the U.S. civil rights movement. As controversial a figure in Cambodia as Ven. Sovath is presently, monastic actors in Southeast Asia have certainly not shied away from similar social critique in the past, particularly during the region’s turbulent recent history. After all, this region is the birthplace of “Engaged Buddhism,” a term coined by the Vietnamese Monk Thich Nhat Hanh as he formulated a Buddhist-inspired opposition to the Vietnam War and the great suffering it caused. The 2007 anti-government protests in Burma have been called the “Saffron Revolution” by some in the media because of the involvement of thousands of Buddhist monks utilizing their moral authority to demand democratic reforms. In Cambodia, many monks were involved in demonstrations in the wake of the contested 1998 elections that solidified the CPP’s grip on power. Some marched with pictures of Ven. Hem Chieu, an anti-colonialist monk active in the 1940s, to demonstrate the spiritual lineage of their dissent. The Dhammayietra (peace march), founded by the revered Ven. Maha Ghosananda, has taken on various political themes during its sixteen-year history. Highlighting issues ranging from repatriations to elections and from landmines to logging, the Dhammayietra also played a role in negotiations between the government and Khmer Rouge elements in the mid-1990s.

Despite this history, the Cambodian political winds have influenced the types of development problems that monks have addressed and the means through which they have addressed them in the years since UNTAC. These days it is common to see monks working on issues of HIV/AIDS, either on their own or with the support of an INGO. However, this certainly wasn’t the case a decade ago. After a 2000 meeting of the National Aids Authority organized for monks, Great Supreme Patriarch Ven. Tep Vong was reluctant to condone monastic assistance to individuals suffering from HIV/AIDS, suggesting that the scale of the epidemic had been inflated greatly by those seeking to discredit the political leadership of the CPP. He also held a fairly strict karmic interpretation of the HIV/AIDS infection in which the disease is seen as punishment for past actions. At the time, few individuals were in such dire need of compassion as those living with HIV/AIDS because of the pain and shame the disease caused. Nonetheless, it was a protracted battle for those early monks working with these individuals to gain acceptance for their activities with the sangha. The involvement of monks on these issues would not only provide comfort to the dying, but also would be instrumental in reducing stigma and changing societal (and religious) attitudes about the disease.

The question of the appropriateness of a monk’s involvement in the “political” is very relevant to the future engagement of monks in development work, that is, if development is understood as intending to address the underlying causes of poverty and injustice. If Cambodian monks are to be effective development actors in their country and not simply providers of aid, this will involve harnessing the power of compassion to address the causes of suffering, including those that are politically sensitive. At present, few issues are more politically charged than those surrounding land rights, or more dangerous for those involved. For now, Ven. Somath walks alone for those who have found themselves on the wrong side of Cambodia’s economic success, but I imagine that it won’t always be this way. As another great religious leader said famously; “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Original Source at World Faiths Development Dialogue

Preah Krou Loun Sovath: the Human Rights Defender

2011-09-17T01:22:00.000-07:00

Witness video about Human Rights Defenders, featuring the venerable Loun Sovath.

Witness video training LICADHO staff and the venerable Loun Sovath.

Video by LICADHO featuring the venerable Loun Sovath.

Video by the UNHCHR feature Human Rights Defenders from around the world, including the venerable Loun Sovath.

ព្រះភិក្ខុ លួន សាវ៉ាត ចេញពីវត្ត

2011-09-16T14:06:00.001-07:00

Social engagment of Preah Krou Luon Sovath by Licadhocanada

2011-09-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

Human Rights Defender part 1 to part 4 by Jendhamuni

2011-09-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

Cambodian monk defies his superiors to document and oppose land grabs

2011-09-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

Friday, September 16, 2011

Cambodian monk defies his superiors to document and oppose land grabs

Ven Sovath Luon: leading struggle of poor farmers

Friday, September 16, 2011
CÍAN NIHILL
The Irish Times

According to Luon, the Buddhist hierarchy in Cambodia has been corrupted by close ties to power and no longer works for the good of ordinary people.

FRONT LINE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS: GOING AGAINST centuries of tradition, Buddhist monks across Cambodia have been ordered by their superiors not to give food or shelter to the Venerable Sovath Luon, whose only crime has been to stand up against brutal land seizures.

Known in some quarters as “The Multimedia Monk” for his use of video to catch human rights violations, Luon has risked defrocking and police brutality by documenting and often leading the struggle of poor farmers in his community.

Luon spoke passionately while at the Front Line Dublin Platform about what he sees as rampant corruption around him.

His activism started after he witnessed a land grab in his village in 2009, when police fired at unarmed villagers protesting against the confiscation of their fields. Land seizures are common in Cambodia, where large tracts are being sold, often to foreign investors, for logging, agriculture, mining, tourism and fisheries, displacing thousands of people.

“Big companies co-operate with the authorities, with the powerful men and grab the land from the farmer,” said Luon. Some 475 hectares were taken in his community when more than 100 military police violently forced 175 families off their land, “while farmers were harvesting rice”.

A number of farmers were shot, said Luon, who resisted attempts by the authorities to confiscate video footage he had captured of the incident. He is now making a documentary about both the event and the protests he has led since.

“They lost the land, they lost the law – that’s what made me stand up to lead them for justice, for human rights, to find respect for them.”

The Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong, also called the Monks’ King, ordered Luon to stop his work opposing the land seizures.

According to Luon, the Buddhist hierarchy in Cambodia has been corrupted by close ties to power and no longer works for the good of ordinary people.

“They are speaking not for the law of Buddhism; [when] the Monks’ King is speaking, everything is politics,” said Luon.

An order from religious superiors banned pagodas (communities of monks) from feeding or housing Luon because of his activity.

“[It has been] very difficult because I am a monk, the monk [has] no house, only stay in pagoda” he said. For now, Luon has been forced to rely on the generosity of the villagers with whom he continues to protest.

ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាសង្គម Engaged Buddhism

Latest report by RFA on trip of Ven. Luon Sovath in Montreal Canada

Public Invitation to Meet Ven. Loun Sovath in Montreal on March 3, 2012

CAMBODIAN MONK BRINGS HIS ACTIVISM TO MONTREAL'S KHMER COMMUNITY

REPORTED ON

Following the track of Ven. Luon Sovath's visiting to Canada

មិន​ត្រូវ​យក​កម្លាំង​ប្រដាប់​អាវុធ​មក​គំរាម​ពលរដ្ឋ​ដៃ​ទទេ ទេ

Phnom Penh Post

Welcome ceremony for Ven. Loun Sovath in Montreal, Canada

News by Licadho Canada

CAMBODIA: “O Khmer euy Khmer, chous ach knong srae”

CAMBODIA: “O Khmer euy Khmer, chous ach knong srae” – ឱខ្មែរអើយខ្មែរ! ជុះអាចម៏ក្នុងស្រែ

Venerable Luon Sovath visited Canada

តើ​ព្រះសង្ឃ​លេង ហ្វេសបុក (Facebook) គឺ​ខុស​ពី​វិន័យ​ធម៌​របស់​ព្រះពុទ្ធ​ដែរ ឬ​ទេ? facebook and Buddhism

Phnom Penh Post

Cambodian authority and Decho must use the prowess of Dhamma or law, not the prowess of personality, to protect Cambodian citizens

Let collectively pray for the well-being and safety of Borei Keila residents

The cycle of sufferings and tears are within us, breakthrough this cycle if we want stop sufferings and tears

លោកមេធាវីជួង ជួងីកោសក់បួសជាតាបស់បដិបតិ្តសមាធិភាវនា Lawyer Choung Choungy shaved head and ordained to practice meditation

Lawyer Choung Chou-ngy sacrifices to keep law or Dhamma alive

Open letter to the public by EB

Vinaya or the rule of laws is important but they must be rightly articulated

Villagers petition via krama

Omlang villlagers who marched to the provincial court are admirable

ទិវា​សិទ្ធិមនុស្សនៅ​​បឹងកក់

ទិវា​សិទ្ធិមនុស្ស​លើក​ទី​៦៣

Prey Lang prayer ban defied

By Phnom Penh Post

CAMBODIA: The people must no longer wait for Preah Batr Dhammik to come to their rescue

Protecting forest and trees mean to protect your life and the Dhamma

Residents blocked road to protect their rights of owning land and housing

Evictions imperil Phnom Penh residents

Urban poor residents of Boeung Kok Lake are counter-sued by the authority

Forced Eviction Songs by Boeung Kok Lake Residents

Interesting Summery of Lecture Series organized by CAN Cambodia on 5 November 2011

Interview with Ven. Luon Sovath in Sydney, Australia (Part 1 & 2)

I accept to die but I don't accept to be defrocked: Ven.Koeun Ravy

Latest activities of Ven. Luon Sovath in Cambodia reported by Al Jazeera

Dhammaduta responded to Hanzze: a brilliant debate

Latest update of Ven. Preah Krou Luon Sovath

Lakeside, Phnom Penh.mov 2

Interviewing Preah Krou Luon Sovath by World Khmer Radio

Engaged Buddhism in Cambodia: Challenges and Controversy by CAN Lecture Series

Lecture on Engaged Buddhism by Ven. Luon Sovath

ខុសឬត្រូវនៅករណីលួន សាវាត Ven. Luon Sovath

ព្រៃ​ឈើ​សព្វថ្ងៃនេះ​ គួរត្រូវបាន​បញ្ឈប់​កាប់បំផ្លាញ Phnom Penh Post

Chi Kraeng Duong Chet (Lang Grabbing Song at Chi Kraeng)

We Are All Human Rights Defenders

Sometimes the most effective defense of human rights begins with the simplest of questions.

Published on May 9, 2010

Threatening speech of Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong regarding Ven. Luon Sovath

សេចក្តីអំពាវនាវ Appealing

Buddhism, Human Right, Democracy

The Cause of Progress - Ven. Loun Sovath

Cambodia's activist monk remains defiant despite temple ban

The emerge of engaged Buddhist monks in Cambodia

The disconnection between the belief in Buddhism and the social problems in Cambodia

បទ​សម្ភាសន៍​ជាមួយ​ព្រះ​ភិក្ខុលួន សូវ៉ាត​នៅប្រទេស​អូស្រ្តាលី

Video Footages highlighting Preah Krou Loun Sovath

ផ្តិតមេដៃ៥លាននាក់គាំទ្រព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនាខ្មែរ

5 million supporters of Khmer Buddhism

Announcement and Banning Letter from the Chief Monk of Siem Reap Province

Venerable Loun Sovath and the Politics of Compassion

Nathaniel Adams | June 29, 2011

Preah Krou Loun Sovath: the Human Rights Defender

ព្រះ​ភិក្ខុ លួន សាវ៉ាត ចេញ​ពី​វត្ត

Social engagment of Preah Krou Luon Sovath by Licadhocanada

Human Rights Defender part 1 to part 4 by Jendhamuni

Cambodian monk defies his superiors to document and oppose land grabs

Friday, September 16, 2011

Cambodian monk defies his superiors to document and oppose land grabs

មិនត្រូវយកកម្លាំងប្រដាប់អាវុធមកគំរាមពលរដ្ឋដៃទទេ ទេ

តើព្រះសង្ឃលេង ហ្វេសបុក (Facebook) គឺខុសពីវិន័យធម៌របស់ព្រះពុទ្ធដែរ ឬទេ? facebook and Buddhism

ទិវាសិទ្ធិមនុស្សនៅបឹងកក់

ទិវាសិទ្ធិមនុស្សលើកទី៦៣

ព្រៃឈើសព្វថ្ងៃនេះ គួរត្រូវបានបញ្ឈប់កាប់បំផ្លាញ Phnom Penh Post

បទសម្ភាសន៍ជាមួយព្រះភិក្ខុលួន សូវ៉ាតនៅប្រទេសអូស្រ្តាលី

ព្រះភិក្ខុ លួន សាវ៉ាត ចេញពីវត្ត