A SOULLESS NATION: In Need of Principles of First Things

First published in The Phnom Penh Post as part of the Voice of Justice columns, with Khmer translation in Koh Santepheap, 2007.

The Lesser-Among-Evils Mentality

We are a soul-less nation. We have lost our moral bearings. We have reduced our choices to scraps and tattered spoils.

Among the countless legacies left by the Khmer Rouge - the 2 million deaths - there is one that is particularly damaging and darkening to the soul, the prevailing mentality (and I believe, an existing reality) that everything Khmer and in Cambodia is relegated to a choice of "the lesser among evils": of all the bad choices before us, this is the less bad; this election is free, fair and peaceful as it counted only 5 political deaths in comparison to the 25 of the last one; one-third percent abject poverty rate is nothing in comparison to the cannibalism under the Khmer Rouge; so what if there are charges of corruption, the judiciary is not independent, and standards are sub-international - the Khmer Rouge Tribunal will move ahead.

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