Contributors: Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Asian Human Rights Commission
"I therefore propose that Cambodians begin to actively cultivate a new Preah Batr Dhammik instead of passively waiting for Preah Batr Dhammik to appear. It is time that we start to save ourselves before a Preah Batr Dhammik arrives to perform his task"
In my last article I wrote about Cambodians who longed for a Khmer Mahatma Gandhi or a Khmer Aung San Suu Kyi. Some
believe the struggle against the violations of rights and justice of
the Khmer people is slow because of the absence of a Khmer equivalent to
such figures.
Yet, the world's successful revolutions have rarely been led by a charismatic individual such as Gandhi or Suu Kyi.
And even those remarkable individuals, it should be recalled, also are
burdened with very human strengths and failings, as are we all. Would a
Gandhi or a Suu Kyi do well in the Khmer environment? We like them for
their abilities and skills – which can be taught and learned. Gandhi and
Suu Kyi possess strengths – which we should learn and apply – and
weaknesses – which we should learn and discard. Would those who long for
a Gandhi or a Suu Kyi be willing and ready to learn from them to
advance their causes?
A proverb says, "Nothing succeeds like success." Another says, "Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan."
From the same source
Gandhi was a Hindu political and spiritual leader in India, renowned for
his commitment to advance causes through civil disobedience and
nonviolence. His philosophical and political perspectives were derived
from the teaching of Lord Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (563BC-483BC),
himself a Hindu prince of the ruling Shakya clan.
Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's father of independence, Aung San, is a
devout Buddhist. She returned to her homeland in 1988 after years of
studying and living in England, to witness widespread killings of her
people by the Ne Win regime, and broad protests against it. As her
father's daughter, she says, she could not remain silent. She spoke out
against the regime and initiated a nonviolent movement for democracy and
human rights. In 1989 she was arrested and spent 15 of the next 21
years in custody during which she read, wrote, and meditated. She was
released in 2010.
Cambodia is an overwhelmingly Buddhist country of 14 million. Buddha teaches that we are masters of our destiny. Suu Kyi says, "Action comes after thought." Gandhi says, "You must be the change you want to see in the world." Their sentiments align with Buddha's teachings: "We are what we think. With our thought we make our world."
Without action, we go nowhere. With well-thought action we are likely to reach our objectives.
Briefly, the Hindu prince Siddhartha Gautama Buddha led a life of full
comfort in an ostentatious palace. He did not know poverty or suffering.
At the age of 29, Siddartha was riding in his chariot when he saw for
the first time an old person, a sick person, a corpse, and a wandering
holy man whose asceticism inspired him. He wanted to know what causes
suffering and how to stop it. So, in the middle of one night, he left
the palace secretly, beginning the story of Lord Buddha.
I learn from the words and the thoughts of great men and women who have
walked political paths I never experienced. They are far more eloquent
than I and I've often shared their words with my own readers. In my own
life, I've sometimes been reminded of their teachings to put myself on a
better path. I embrace one of Gandhi's 10 fundamentals to change the
world: "I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other
fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my
errors and to retrace my steps . . . It is unwise to be too sure of
one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might
weaken and the wisest might err." What great lesson of humility. Too
many of us are obsessed with the "I" and the "me" – A'thmar Anh, Khmers say. This can be a cause of conflict.
While I was a student at Georgetown University in Washington, DC in
1968, I saw protests, looting, and vandalism in Washington's streets
following the assassination of America's civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, Jr. He was shot and killed on the balcony of his hotel in
Memphis, Tennessee, one day after his famous "I've Been to the
Mountaintop" speech, in which he spoke of death threats, "What
will happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't
know what will happen now . . . But I want you to know tonight, that we,
as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm
not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man…"
Inspired by Gandhi's success with nonviolent activism, King visited
Gandhi's birthplace in India in 1959, a trip that deepened his
commitment to, nonviolence resistance. He called it, "the most potent
weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and
human dignity."
I found Gandhi's language and thought reflected in King's public remarks. Gandhi's fundamental, "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong" can be read in King's "Never
succumb to the temptation of bitterness"; "We must develop and maintain
the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is
devoid of the power to love"; "Love is the only force capable of
transforming an enemy into friend"; "There is some good in the worst of
us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less
prone to hate our enemies."
But did Buddha not teach about love, compassion, understanding, peace 2,500 years ago?
Fifteen days into the New Year 2013, I recall the principle governing
the life of Nobel Laureate Elie Weisel, a Holocaust survivor of
Auschwitz. A Jew from Romania, and a naturalized citizen of the United
States, Weisel told Boston University graduates in a commencement speech
that he walked in the footsteps of those who lived before him, that
he's "the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you."
"The knowledge that I have must not remain imprisoned in my brain. . . .
I need to pay back what I was given. Call it gratitude."
Here's another non-Cambodian figure whom Cambodians admired: The
fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, political and spiritual leader of
Tibet who took exile in India in 1959 when Chinese troops brutally
suppressed a Tibetan uprising in Lhasa.
"Remain only half human"
The Dalai Lama sees nonviolent approaches by India's Gandhi, American
Martin Luther King, Jr., Philippine People Power, the Czech Velvet
Revolution, and the Tibetan and Burmese protests, as revealing the
"truth" that "freedom is the very source of creativity and human
development."
Whereas people everywhere are satisfied to be able to meet basic life
necessities – food, shelter, clothing – the Dalai Lama warns, even
if "food, shelter and clothing" are provided the people, these latter
"remain only half human." Those things don't sustain human beings' "deep
nature." This requires "the precious air of liberty," he says. It
is the "inherent nature of all human beings to yearn for freedom,
equality and dignity, and they have an equal right to achieve that."
His words remind us of Buddha's ancient teaching.
Former Khmer Buddhist monks speak
Six months ago, I wrote about America's youngest president (1901-1909),
Theodore Roosevelt, an avowed activist who said, "Do what you can, with
what you have, where you are." Those words provide a directive but not
instruction and as such encourage creativity. Cambodians have Buddha's
teaching which they can use as a guide to self-actualization and to
advance personal and collective goals.
Buddhism is a philosophy. The Hindu prince Siddhartha Gautama Buddha was
a philosopher. Khmer Buddhist scholars complain that Cambodian Buddhist
monks have not done their job of correctly teaching this foundational,
complex Buddhist philosophy.
A former Buddhist monk, Heng Monychenda, who holds a graduate degree
from Harvard University and leads a nonprofit, Buddhism for Development,
writes in his book Preah Batr Dhammik, or "Just Ruler" (1991), that
Cambodian monks failed to teach the dhamma (the way of life) correctly.
He argues in "In Search for the Dhammika ruler" (2008), the monks'
failure, and Cambodian rulers' failure to follow Buddha's teaching (to
practice the "12 duties of a great ruler"), have contributed to
Cambodians' declining "moral order" that in turn is a significant
component of Cambodia's current "great suffering."
Another former Buddhist monk, Sophoan Seng, earned a graduate degree in
political science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and now serves
as Director of KEEN Investment Groups LTD and president of Alberta's
Khmer Youth Association. He asserts that "the highest goal of Buddhism
is 'liberty', not the 'four necessities', i.e., food, shelter, clothing,
medicine." He says, Buddha teaches that humankind is sustained through a
balance and an equalization of "liberty" or "Nama" (the mind or spirit)
and the "four necessities" or "Rupa" (the body or physical appearance),
that is economic development (food, shelter, clothing, medicine) and
spiritual development (liberty/human dignity) must go hand and hand.
Monychenda agrees with Buddha's "Nama-Rupa" or "mind-matter" teaching
which means the mind affects matter and matter affects the mind.
According to Seng, it's true that Buddha sees humans need food (Rupa,
the four necessities) to survive, but Buddha sees Nama (the mind,
liberty) as taking the lead. Humans are made by the mind and through
balancing Rupa and Nama will attain their highest level of enlightenment
– the liberty of the mind from the bondage of greed, hatred, delusion.
For former Buddhist monk Bouawat Sithi, a graduate of Thailand's
Djittabhawan College, the Buddhist term "Nibbana" or Nirvana means
freedom – to free a burning fire from its agitated, dependent, and
entrapped state. Sithi says Buddha sees every person as capable of
attaining Nibbana, and by extension having the capacity to become a
leader if s/he puts effort into becoming one. Buddha teaches that to
change the world one has to change oneself to make an example for people
to follow. When they follow, one becomes a leader, Sithi explains.
But every Khmer "can and should be Preah Batr Dhammik"
Some people have innate abilities to lead. But leadership abilities can
be taught and learned. I find that blaming the lack of progress in the
struggle for civil rights in Cambodia on the absence of a charismatic
leader to be an absurd shirking of responsibility.
Monychenda posits Cambodians' failure to understand and identify Preah
Batr Thoarmmoek or Dhammik as also contributing to the decline of "moral
order."
Preah Batr Dhammik refers to one who upholds Buddha's "tenfold virtues" – charity, morality, self-sacrifice, honesty, kindness, self-control, non-anger, non-violence, tolerance. Any person "can and should be" Preah Batr Dhammik, Monychenda posits.
"I
therefore propose that Cambodians begin to actively cultivate a new
Preah Batr Dhammik instead of passively waiting for Preah Batr Dhammik
to appear. It is time that we start to save ourselves before a Preah
Batr Dhammik arrives to perform his task," writes Monychenda.
What an appropriate proposition!
.....................
The AHRC is not responsible for the views shared in this article, which do not necessarily reflect its own.
About the Author:
Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth is retired from the University of Guam,
where he taught political science for 13 years. He currently lives in
the United States. He can be reached at peangmeth@gmail.com.
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