Philippe Peycam believes Taiwan’s democracy society could serve as a valuable example to other countries in Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia.
“[Taiwan] has a vibrant democracy ... Within East Asian society it serves as an alternative to ideas [espoused by] Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) and others who fundamentally believe that East Asians have different ideals that are not compatible with democratic and pluralistic values,” the School of Oriental and African Studies-trained historian told the Taipei Times by telephone earlier this week.
The founding director of the Center for Khmer Studies in Siem Reap, an organization set up in 1999 to promote academic exchanges and the study of Cambodian traditions, arts and literature, will draw upon his extensive experience of living and working in the country to deliver a lecture, Cambodia After the Conflict: A Personal Account, as part of the Lung Yingtai Cultural Foundation’s
(龍應台文化基金會) MediaTek lecture series, titled Taipei Salon (台北沙龍).
The talk, moderated by Kuo Cheng-lung (郭崇倫), editor-in-chief of the China Times Weekly, will examine the broader issues that led up to the emergence of the Khmer Rouge, and Cambodia’s future. The lecture will be conducted in English.
“Current regimes in countries like Cambodia are taking advantage of models like Singapore — and by extension countries like China — to claim that they are following another path,” he said. “As Taiwan embarks on a complex game with China, it needs to strengthen democratic values in other countries of the region.”
It’s almost impossible to grasp the depth of the trauma that the Khmer Rouge inflicted on the Cambodian people during its four-year reign of terror. The regime butchered more than 1.7 million of its own people, devastating much of the country’s heritage and turning symbols of culture — such as monasteries and theaters — into pigpens.
Peycam said that since a peace settlement was signed in 1991, international aid organizations have focused almost exclusively on technical and legal development. And though the growth of these systems is necessary to the creation and maintenance of a functioning state, they don’t necessarily teach “critical knowledge and critical thinking within society,” he said.
“People assume that these societies can learn the technical tricks and then they will move on from there,” he said. “But if you look at the rich/poor gap, it hasn’t evolved. The countryside is as poor as it was in the mid 1990s. It’s a very dire situation.”
Nor have Cambodia’s political elites offered much help. “They are not so much interested in running the country as running their own businesses ... Everything is for sale in Cambodia. There is no sense of collective responsibility and accountability. It is very crude in many ways,” he said.
Peycam said that Taiwan should use its experience of developing a democracy and civil society at home to exert a positive influence on other countries in the region.
“Taiwan needs to ... reap the dividends of its economic strength in Southeast Asia. Taiwan is very present [economically] in countries like Cambodia and Vietnam. But it’s not followed by more cultural or humanistic initiatives,” he said.
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