asianews

Let's go back to my question above. The reason I personally felt embarrassed because I am a Cambodian or a Khmer, and I do not know that there is such as word “Khom” in Khmer history, especially a Khom is a word which the Thais refer to the Khmer people in the ancient time.

There is nothing wrong with the ideas above, since in this 21st century most of the country promote human rights and freedom of expression is just one of those rights. However, given false information is what most of us think as completely unacceptable. Thai government has all the right to think and to say as well as the Thai citizens but as long as it is not affecting the other nation or people. The ideas that Thai citizens believe that Khom is not Khmer, the ancient Khmer, is what we Cambodians can not tolerate since it affects the Cambodian history, nationality, origin, and reputation.

A Thai law professor named Sompong Sucharitkul who spoke with ABC Radio Australia on Monday, August 04, 2008 has claimed that a Khom is not a Khmer. He said: "The current generation of Kampucheans are not the same as the Khom, the old Khmer, that may have been successor in title but it’s long far removed from their ancestry.” It seems like Thailand has long been rewriting Cambodian history for their Thai generations, and this kind of belief seemed to be deep rooted in the minds of every single Thai citizen and children who have been taught the wrong history about their neighbors history as what the Thai law professor above has himself been taught.

To Cambodians, such Thai belief that has been mentioned above can be considered as deprivation of Khmer history and Khmer citizens of their true history as a whole. This kind of statement and belief can really provide a misinformation about Cambodia and Cambodians to the world community, especially the statement above can be translatable that Cambodia is a liar nation since it has claimed that it is a nation of the Khom or the Khmer.

In reality, the Khmers have not yet been exterminated and there will be only one Khmer race in the world history. Even though Khmer is no longer a big and powerful race in the region, which they once were, they know that they have a very long history. The Khmer people know that after they have gone through many ups and downs of a turbulent history, there is a boat which is still floating and there is no second boat ever existed.

It maybe difficult for foreigners to understand the Thai mentality in regard to the Khmer history, but it can be well understood by the Khmers. It seems like there are some cultural, political, and historical reasons that got involved in this long Thai conspiracy to twist the true Khmer history. Even though Thailand is a stronger nation compared to Cambodia nowadays, but Thailand was only formed as a vassal state under the Khmer Empire period and later on expanded itself stronger and became a powerful nation after the Khmer golden age had vanished. After the fall of Angkor (1431), the Siamese rulers started to absorb and simplify every Khmer civilization and culture and used it as their own such as language, scripts and culture. However the Siamese do not want anything to be attached with the Khmer even though in reality they are, they have used every mean to disregard the Khmer civilization and claim it as theirs. All of these reasons without understanding the Siamese and Khmer history, foreigners will never understand the real action of the Siamese who now have been referred to as Thais.

There is proverb which says “history is written by the victors”. There is nothing wrong with this proverb, but it is so wrong and is an unethical mistake that one nation can write another nation’s history. To Cambodians, by rewriting the Khmer history and creating a word “KHOM” instead of Khmer to put in their history's education system to educate their children, the Thais have shown their long term political interests to blind the world of their own dirty actions and ignorance of their true origin, especially their actions, in trying to undermine the Khmer history and origin.