You can change, if you desire to

September 29, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS (Guam)

As I contemplated the topic for my column this week, the one I am about to write did not occur to me. But the quantity of e-mail from Khmer readers and some important questions in the Khmer blog, KI-Media, obliges this column.

I didn't think that my personal story would open a torrent of mail about readers' own life experiences, but that is what happened. There are painful stories about life under Pol Pot. And a story about a schoolboy made to stand still at a school flag pole with a stone on his shoulder for an entire class period in the 1950s because he "played with girls" reminds me that the authoritarian mentality has its roots in small actions.

I am sorry some Cambodian readers feel the need to write their comments anonymously. Stand up for what you think and say. Pol Pot is dead, and change will bring down a dictator like Hun Sen. Even so, some of the questions in the week's mail deserve answers.

Answering questions

An anonymous blogger commented that as readers and the writer don't know one another, "we tend to assume. ... Eventually, those assumptions become a reality." So, he was happy to read my life story.
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