Acknowledge exploitation activities of ethnic Khmer issues in Tra Vinh province
Tra Vinh is a coastal province, with an important strategic position in socio-economic, national defense, and security development for the Mekong Delta River.
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With the characteristic of being home to a large Khmer population and diverse religious activities, including 382 worship places of 9 religions with over 560.000 believers, mostly Theravada Buddhists, it poses significant challenges in ensuring security to serve the sustainable development of ethnic minority areas.
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| On the occasion of the 2023 Khmer Sen Dolta Festival, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh congratulated the Patriotic Monks’ Solidarity Association of Tra Vinh province. (Photo: VNA) |
Improve the lives of Khmer ethnic people
Currently, 100% of Khmer ethnic minority and remote areas’ communes have car roads to their places and over 95% of the Khmer have clean water to use and electricity for daily life and production thanks to the attention to infrastructure. In addition, local executive committees and authorities also concentrate on building political systems at all levels. There are 23.988 ethnic Khmer officials and civil servants involved in the political systems at all levels, including 7.096 party members, 2 deputies to the 15th National Assembly, and 639 delegates to all-level People’s Councils for the 2021-2026 tenure.
With national identity and cultural festivals such as Chaul Chnam Thmay, Sen Dolta, and Ok Om Bok festivals being annually organized, the people’s cultural and spiritual life is constantly being improved. Every year, a large number of monks and Buddhists participate in entertainment and attract tourists. In particular, local levels and sectors always pay attention to preserving the unique characteristics of Khmer Theravada Buddhist temples, protecting and promoting ancient architecture and cultural heritage for future generations, creating special marks to attract tourists to visit and travel.
Recognize anti-sabotage propaganda tactics
The province also faces many difficulties and challenges, such as low starting points and infrastructure that does not meet the requirements for rapid and sustainable development; the lives of people in rural areas and Khmer ethnic areas still have difficulties and many other impacts affecting the work of ensuring security. Recently, organizations and individuals through social networking sites and newspapers, such as VOKK, The Prey Nokor News, and Khmer-K21 have strengthened the collection and provision of propaganda content, distortion, one-sided and false information about the political, socio-economic, and cultural situation among the Khmer people in the province.
The distorted information heavily focused on sensitive issues, such as: “the loss of Kampuchea Krom on June 4th”, “the Khmer Krom rebellion on November 16th”, the slow-pace rebuilding of the province’s welcome gate, and the handling of the Khmer people who violate the law; propagating the COVID-19 pandemic prevention, claiming that the localities are not concerned about the people’s lives.
Besides, through forums and events, people with extremist ideologies strengthen propaganda about indigenous ethnic rights, saying that “the Khmer are indigenous people so they have the right to self-determination”, advocating the struggle for independence of “Khmer Kampuchea Krom” country, protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and affecting the security situation in the Khmer region.
Reactionary newspapers and websites also organize forums and discussions annually with sensitive topics, attracting many people with extremist ideologies among the Khmer to be involved, thereby causing misunderstandings and unsympathetic views towards local authorities in implementing policies. The false information was followed by many people, many of whom had extremist ideologies and were influenced and manipulated to express their support, and then stimulating the spirit of becoming more and more extreme and aggressive.
The above information mostly affects the Khmer monks and Buddhists’ awareness, especially those who do not have the conditions to follow and access official information, causing bad public opinion among them, creating misunderstandings about land and ethnic issues, causing confusion and anxiety among the Khmer, and making it difficult to implement the Party and State’s guidelines and policies on socio-economic and cultural development for the Khmer region.
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| Cultural exchange program of union members and youth of Chau Thanh district at “Ethnic Youth Cultural Festival and commendation of outstanding ethnic youth on the occasion of Chaul Chnam Thmay 2023”, on April 12, 2023. (Photo: Tra Vinh Provincial Youth Union) |
Actively prevent and fight against
For all people, especially the Khmer monks, intellectuals and Buddhists, to boost their vigilance against plots and tricks of those who take advantage of sensitive issues to arouse and divide the great national unity bloc. Party executive committees, local authorities and functional sectors need to pay close attention to and seriously implement guidelines and policies for comprehensive development of the Khmer ethnic region. During the implementation process, appropriate roadmaps and steps must be built to gradually develop economic and cultural life, and intellectual level, thereby creating “immunity” for people against propaganda and incitement by harmful objects. It is necessary to focus on promptly and decisively resolving incidents that arise at the grassroots level, and not let harmful objects utilize and distort them.
The executive committees and local authorities also need to promote propaganda work, mobilizing people to well execute the Party’s guidelines and the State’s legal policies, showing great vigilance against the hostile forces’ distort in order to split the great national unity bloc, and contributing to building a solid people’s security posture during the first step.
In addition, they need to continue to pay attention to leading and directing socio-economic development, promptly implementing guidelines and policies, especially the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountain Areas in the 2021-2030 period. Resolution No.06-NQ/TU dated October 8, 2021 of the Tra Vinh Provincial Party Committee on continuing to comprehensively develop the Khmer ethnic region in the 2021-2025 period, with a vision to 2030, has basically been implemented at the grassroots level and had positive results, contributing to changing the Khmer’s socio-economic and cultural life.
