From December 2-4, 2011, Vietnam organized the Fifth Festival
Culture, Sport and Tourist of the Khmer in South Vietnam to lure the
tourists. This festival is organized every three years. The fifth
festival is organized in Krabao (Tinh Bien) district, Mouth Chrouk (An
Giang) province.
In three days festival, it covered many activities, such as: Boat
Racing, Ox racing, exhibition, cultural shows, Khmer music shows, etc.
There were twelve Khmer-Krom delegations from difference provinces
attending this event. This year, there was a Khmer-Krom delegation from
Toul Ta Mouk (Binh Phuoc) province which is not from the Mekong Delta
region. There are very few Khmer-Krom still living in Toul Ta Mouk
province because it locates near the border of Kampuchea-Krom and the
Champa Kingdom (currently a central part of Vietnam).
As a normal tourist attending this festival, they will think that it
is very nice of the Vietnamese government organizing this festival to
help the Khmer-Krom having opportunity to show off their culture, sport,
and especially their Khmer identity.
The Voice of Kampuchea-Krom Radio had interviewed some Khmer-Krom who
attended this festival. They were happy to see the festival like this,
but they pointed out that this festival is just used to polish the
regime’s propaganda to the world:
• This is a Khmer festival, but most of the organizers, MCs, even some performers are Vietnamese.
• The Banners are in Vietnamese. Some banners have the Khmer language
to indicate what province the Khmer-Krom delegation is from, but the
names of the provinces pronounce as Vietnamese. For example, instead of
calling the Preah Trapeang in Khmer language, they wrote in Khmer as Tra
Vinh. Same as other provinces.
• It is a festival for Khmer-Krom to enjoy, but Vietnamese organizers
sell tickets for Ox racing. The Khmer-Krom people are poor, so most of
them don’t have money to buy the ticket to enjoy their traditional Ox
racing sport. Moreover, more than half of the ox racing teams is
Vietnamese, not the Khmer-Krom teams.
• Vietnamese government sent many polices to patrol for the safety,
but when the Khmer-Krom women’s necklaces were robbed, none of the thief
were caught and let the Khmer-Krom women suffered.
If Vietnamese government has a good heart to help Khmer-Krom to
preserve their culture and traditional sports, just simply let the
Khmer-Krom freely organize their own festivals. Please do not interfere,
Vietnamize, and use the Khmer-Krom as puppet performers to entertain
the tourists for the Vietnamese government’s benefits. Originally posted at: khmerkrom.net
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