His moment
to take final credit on his job
His swan
song to Cambodians
Unsurprisingly,
Prof. Surya Subedi will take credit of “the progress achieved towards making
state institutions independent, with particular reference to legal and judicial
reform.” He would certainly imply that without his voice, Cambodia would not
have moved to reform the legal and judicial system. Will he stop right there?
No, he will not. He would say that more needs to be done. Of course, reform
will not come to a stop unless changes are becoming the national new order.
He
will give credit to the Cambodian “Human Rights protesters,” without them he
would not be able to capture his own credit. He will give credit to the Royal
Government of Cambodia for heeding his advice and the plight of the Cambodian
people, a mark of his achievement. A
consummated diplomat will not leave acrimony behind nor stain his swan song.
It
is very delicate to navigate the treacherous water preaching human rights,
upholding human dignity where you have on one side a government that takes
pride in its achievements, in particular the armed liberation of the Cambodian
people from the claws of the Khmer Rouge Genocidal regime during which an
estimated 2.2 million Cambodians were killed, starved to death under forced
labor and on the other side a new generation of Cambodians who wants social
justice, fairness and equality. This is not nostalgia when some Cambodians dare
say that under the Khmer Rouge regime, everyone without exception is poor and
is fear of death at any second, any minute, any hour and any day, but now there
are classes of super riches, riches, just get-bys, poor and dirt poor, very
powerful, powerful, easily-at-risks, and most vulnerable people. Why? Modern
thinkers spoke about mismanagement by the leaders. Religious people spoke about
destiny and divine design. Political followers spoke about opportunities and
missed opportunities. One high-ranking official I knew said, had I not love and
protect 181,035 square kilometers of our land, but only five thousand or twenty
thousand hectares of land, I would have been a millionaire and live like a
king. He added: my mistake was that I love so much and I want to protect that
181,035 square kilometers. He missed the opportunities to get rich. Actually,
nowadays he barely makes a living.
Prof. Surya Subedi was aware of the predicament of being the
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia as appointed by
the UN Human Rights Council. His skin is thick enough to withstand the attacks
from all sides. Facing untenable situation many U.N. officials (at the ECCC for
example) washed their hands and walked away, right or wrong who cares? - Not
Prof. Surya Subedi.
Prof. Surya Subedi has stayed in the job until the end of
his 6 years mandate. We will hear his swan song on Friday January 23, 2015 at
03:00PM. We would know more what kind of person he is.
January 16, 2015
