FEEDBACKS & OPINIONS

A hopeless life for generations...

by Que-Chi Truong-Bolduc

Begging has never been an easy task for anyone, and begging has never been a choice. But some individuals have been doing just that for many years now, and they have no intention of ever stopping. Why? For what reason? What sort of power that makes them, or more precisely, that pushes them to do such a thing? And to beg for what, you may ask…

The answer is quite simple really, they beg fervently for any kind of help that they could get, just to provide some desperately needed reliefs for the poor people of a place on earth. The faces of these poor folks, young and old, have touched their hearts so deeply that they could never forget, could never leave behind. They keep on coming back with every donation they got, big and small, they come back over and over, year after year… The goodhearted fellows I am talking about here are the self-appointed “Beggars of Compassion” or if you prefer, the “Vagrants of Salvation”, they are the associates of the ViDan Foundation.

 

Who are the poor villagers? What happened to their home? Where did they live before coming to these waters? All those questions…

Who are they? ... The people that live in this area speak the same language as we do, eat the same food, dream similar dreams, wish similar wishes… But even the simplest wish is out of touch for them, just because they are the unfortunate stateless Vietnamese. As estimation varies depending on the sources of information, the number of Vietnamese that has resided in Cambodia ranging somewhere between 15,000 and 160,000 people as of 2013.

What happened to their home? … The majority of stateless Vietnamese were born in Cambodia. Their families have lived there for many generations, so far back that they consider Cambodia as their homeland. The relationship between the Khmer and the Vietnamese are complicated, but at one time, the Vietnamese people and the Khmer people have shared a peaceful life next to each other and have confided in each other their joys and concerns. History books retold that the first Vietnamese people have settled in Cambodia a long time ago, traced back to the early nineteenth century during the ruling of the Nguyen lords. In modern days, more Vietnamese arrived to join the community during the French colonial periods and even more came around the time of the administration of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. During the Khmer Rouge governments in the 1970s, the Vietnamese suffered greatly since they were targeted for total extermination. But taking refuge in Viet Nam provided them no relief with insufficient basic food supplies and their own inability to find jobs due to lack of skills. They were considered as refugees in Viet Nam rather than real flesh and blood countrymen and women. During various political upheavals in the region, the Vietnamese people kept getting displaced between Cambodia and Viet Nam, constantly risking their lives in every single conflict. The Vietnamese people living in Cambodia used to own land before the arrival of the Khmer Rouge. Due to being forced to flee to Viet Nam, they lost their land when they returned in the early 1980s.

Up until the period between 1992 and 1993 and around the time of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) administration, numerous Vietnamese migrants came back to Cambodia to settle down.

In 1996, Cambodia law on nationality technically allowed Vietnamese born in the country to request legal citizenship, but due to pushing back of various political factions of the government, the Vietnamese were denied this opportunity. The situation resulted in most Vietnamese became stateless with no birth certificate nor identity paperwork of any kind. Without proof of residency, they have no right to vote nor to benefit common rights such as attending school, access to healthcare, or applying for jobs. Without ID cards, they do not have the right to purchase land, even if they manage to buy a small piece of land, they cannot legally retain it since they are not considered as citizens of Cambodia. These Vietnamese people were born in this country and have been living in this area all their lives, as was the case of their parents and grandparents. They consider themselves Cambodian and cannot understand why they are regarded as legal immigrants by everyone else in this country. Despite the resentment felt toward the Vietnamese due to old history between the two countries, some local Khmers acknowledge that Vietnamese and Khmer people have lived in peace in the past. The Khmer thinks of the resident Vietnamese as Cambodian since they were born there and wish that the Vietnamese would be treated reasonably by the local government. But that could not be helped, and so the Vietnamese have resigned to a life of wanderers, floating aimlessly from one place to the next on the water of Cambodia rivers, working meager jobs to survive day by day… Then the next generation following the footsteps of the previous one, with the same hopelessness and the same struggles. They are stateless Vietnamese that live precariously in ramshackle boathouses floating along the Tonle Sap great lake or we called Bien Ho, with its length of 250 km, and the Mekong river flowing through the provinces of Siem Reap, Kampong Chhnang, and Pursat. Smaller groups scatter around in Phnom Penh or in the southeastern provinces adjoining with Viet Nam such as Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Kampot, Kandal, Kratie, and Takeo (references 1, 4).

Their houses on the river and lake, remarkably bright in primary colors and iconic designs, are an assemble of bamboo poles and barrels held together so that the houses can float on water. These floating houses are so fragile that they are vulnerable to all kinds of natural elements. A strong wind could menace the flimsy structure, a large wave could topple the entire house, never mind a serious storm on the great lake. A solid house on stilts such as the one owned by their Khmer neighbors is entirely out of reach for the Vietnamese people here. And so, the houses keep on floating anchorless and as hopelessly as the owners’ lives, rising and falling following the capricious nature of the water levels of Tonle Sap.

The floating hamlets with their boathouses in bright colors and exotic designs might present a beautiful sight to the tourists passing by in their transportations but the reality behind the look is totally devastating…

The main food source of these people is fishing and working a meager job. These efforts could only provide enough food on a day by day basis. The villagers are mostly fishermen, but they are only allowed to fish in the water surrounding their boathouses, which severely limiting the amount of fish they can catch. Even this livelihood has been constantly threatened by natural conditions, arbitrary taxes, and unjustified punishments imposed on them by various local authorities and immigration officers. In some places, the predicament of the Vietnamese villagers has just descended from worse to worst by decisions of the local authority in relocating the hamlet elsewhere to clean up the river. This situation has created additional hardships for the water dwellers (references 1, 2, 3, ViDan reports).

Given the choice, they would prefer life on solid earth. They would have fewer worries about the safety of their children. Despite the swimming skills acquired from life on the water, the risk of children drowning still extremely high in the Vietnamese community in Tonle Sap.

A life on muddy and polluted water has a large share of the danger of various natures, ranging from drowning to collapsing houses to sickness due to poor hygiene. The Vietnamese people do not have electricity nor running water, not even a proper bathroom. Their toilets are opened directly to the water below, where they fish and the children swim…

 

Poor sanitary has been the main cause of death of so many children next to drowning. The diseases suffered by people of third world countries all happen here, from eczema to typhoid, to diarrhea… especially diarrhea, this illness has taken countless lives of Vietnamese children living in these floating villages (references 1, 2, 3, ViDan reports).

These forgotten people are hard workers and dedicated parents. They work tirelessly to provide meager foods to their families, and they love their children with all their hearts. They worry about the education of their children since public schools are inaccessible due to a lack of birth certificates. Furthermore, due to extreme poverty suffered by these Vietnamese families, the parents concentrate more on finding enough food for a single day and need the help of their children for the task. Education in this case takes a backseat, and many children bear the consequences of not knowing how to read or to write.

 

Taken together, these adversities lead to the reality that just a small number of children were able to enroll in a government-run school. Even though such an institution as the one built in 2012 and supported by MIRO, does accept all children.

No different than other children of their age group, the children of Tonle Sap are innocent and carefree. They play in their houses, a mere little shapeless room in a rundown shapeless boat, floating aimlessly on the water of the great lake. They swim in the polluted water and they visit friends, having a playday. All normal and healthy activities that millions of children carry on every day after school. It is heartbroken to realize that these Vietnamese children will share the same faith as that of their parents in a no end vicious cycle of life. That is the reality of the stateless Vietnamese of Tonle Sap without any document to prove their existence, they are truly forgotten.

There is also Christian floating school in a muddy area that offers basic Vietnamese classes taught by a local teacher for a small fee of seventy US cents for two hours of class. Even so, only a mere forty percent of kids can afford to join (references 1, 2, 3, 4, ViDan reports).

A few floating schoolhouses supported by donations are offering lessons in Vietnamese to the children of Tonle Sap. The teachers from Viet Nam teach the kids rudimentary mathematics, some reading, and writing skills in Vietnamese. More often than you may think, older teens share a single classroom with younger kids, or sometimes they need to bring along their little siblings to school so that they can keep an eye on their charges while studying. Nonetheless, all of them no matter the age range, are happy to come to school and spend a day of learning.

Still, countless Vietnamese children have not gotten a decent school to attend. They love to learn, and they love their teachers, the dedicated teachers of the stateless school children. Teachers and students, both are superheroes in my eyes. The teachers don’t have any fancy superpower, but they do have the power of the pen, the magic wand that allows them to open their pupils ‘eyes and to peak into an open world of words. The kids are mini superheroes surrounding their beloved masters to learn “cai chu” or “the word” and then have simple dreams for the future.

How cruel when we know that even the simplest dream would be impossible for them to have?

The plights of the stateless Vietnamese are so overwhelming that no one person could carry the burden. They are powerless to change the course of their destiny and they need to have faith in their compatriots living abroad to speak up for them.

In the face of hardships, I admire their courage to get up every single day to fight a desperate fight for the right to live and to hope for a better tomorrow for the next generations.

The first time I have heard of stateless people was from the newscasters reporting on the story of a team of youth soccer players and their assistant coach, that got stranded in a deep cave due to high water flooding the entrance in Thailand. I was so worried at first, then was ecstatic with their miraculous rescue, all thanks to the efforts of people from their country and from all over the world. At that time, I have not had a single idea about the plight of my own countrymen and women, living such a hopeless life on the water of Tonle Sap.

I was born in Saigon Viet Nam and left my homeland in the early 1980s to land in Paris France. My North Star lead me to Boston Massachusetts in the US of A, where I have built my own family with my soul mate. The period of time I spent in Viet Nam was difficult, due to many changes in that time in the history of my country. But time had gone by and things got settle one way or the other… The difficulties I had faced in the past were so insignificant compared to the predicaments of the people of Bien Ho. Their story touches me so profoundly that I feel compelled to write this article to express my own thoughts on their hopelessness. I sincerely hope this assessment would raise further awareness about their struggles and one day, many powerful authorities would combine forces to assist them in getting some sort of documentation necessary for a better life for future generations.

I do not like to dwell in the past but rather focus on the future because the future is where everything matters... But that is only relevant when we have a future to plan on, what do these people of Tonle Sap have as future? Misery, heartbroken misery, a life of no tomorrow... That sums up their future for generations to come. The stories of their hardships are reported in many articles, reports, opinions, or testimonies from various news outlets and platforms. Not that we need any more proofs, but these writings just added an extra level of urgency to the matter at hand (references 1, 2, 3, 4, and ViDan reports).

When we look at our children, we imagine them as outstanding citizens of the country we live in. We have at least one citizenship, most of the time two, a Vietnamese one as our native citizenship, and another that our host country gave us. We are thankful and proud of our citizenships and contribute enthusiastically to better the place we call home.

But home... that simple word is also an unreachable thing for the stateless people living in Tonle Sap because they simply don’t have a home, don’t have a state, nor a country... they are just that, the stateless citizens of nowhere as defined by the world NGO which stands for Non-Government-Organization.

Are you still wondering why the “Vagrants of Salvation” act the way they are acting; behave the way they are behaving? A resounding NO is what I almost hear from all of you, the good people all over the world, Vietnamese or not Vietnamese.

I believe from the bottom of my heart, I believe that you all want to contribute any way possible and imaginable, just to give these unfortunate souls a little something, to make their days flow by just a tad lighter...

But what are the “things” or the “kinds of stuff” that anyone can give without creating too big of a burden for the giver? After all, everyone has one’s own expenses and one’s own plans, and of course, we all remember the old saying that always makes sense “charity starts at home” ... But if we just stop and think for a moment... one US dollar could purchase a simple pair of footwear for the barefooted children, five US dollars could pay a third of a monthly “salary” of a teacher teaching these poor kids, and maybe ten dollars would be just enough to provide a bag of rice to a frail old person that has not gotten anything to eat for a while, and a large sum of two thousand US dollars was enough to rebuild and repair a community hall that serves as a place of various activities for the village, as well as a school for the kids.

This picture is for the time when living conditions are normal. What about when disasters strike? I am talking about devastating natural disasters such as the droughts that have lingered for months with no end in sight, canceling all travels and food searching.

I am talking about the pandemic that is currently wreaking havoc all around the world. The pandemic would be controlled thanks to a vaccine or a treatment that will come in due time. People from different countries hopefully would get their normal activities back sometimes in the future. But …

How about the people of Tonle Sap? The drought would go away eventually, and when the water flooding back, maybe some of them would be too sick to move or too weak to get up and to fight a feeble fight. Children, weaken adults, frail elderlies, would they still be around when natural disasters start to settle down?

Everyone out there, could you please offer a helping hand?

How would you qualify for this request? Is this considered as begging? Yes, it is but even so, I have no shame of doing it and will do it again if necessary.

This is a perfect example of acting as a distinguished “Beggar of Compassion”. Given the choice, we too would not mind one bit to become such a beggar, would we?

In a time of such dire need, our participation would be the game-changer for the Tonle Sap dwellers. “Game changer”, those are two big words but I am not shy using them because I could not think about any other words to replace and to describe the incredible impact on the life of the Tonle Sap villagers that the extraordinary answers from the Vietnamese community everywhere in the world created, in response to the call for help from Bien Ho last May 2020.

The request took shape in a timid, simple, and precise letter from an associate of the ViDan Foundation that could no longer stay quiet while witnessing the hardships of these unfortunate brethren. This person begged for rice, for sugar, for soy sauce for the stateless villagers of Kampong Chhnang and Pursat provinces in Cambodia.

The answers to the call to action were overwhelming. The outpouring of supports was from all over the world, from anonymous individuals to larger associations. Just looking at the over the top achievements communicated in reports of the emergency relief mission, we got a very clear idea of how the dreadful situation of the Vietnamese of Tonle Sap or Bien Ho has touched the heart of so many Vietnamese worldwide (ViDan Foundation reports).

“Charity begins at home”, the saying holds true for centuries. The Vietnamese abroad or Viet Kieu help their compatriots stateless Vietnamese. We are all fit the description of a Viet Kieu but the reality behind it could not be more distinct.

Providing sustenance to them is vital but raising awareness about their desperate situation is also as crucial. The journey to the salvation of our stateless compatriots is still long, winding, and full of challenges, big and small.

Please close your eyes for a moment and imagine you are one of the selfless “Vagrants of Salvation”, then open your eyes and participate within your possibility to provide some supports and encouragement to the villagers of Tonle Sap in Cambodia.

Your help is food for the soul, mind, and body of these people. Your assistance is a powerful message to tell them that we know of them, we feel their pain, that they are not forgotten, they are Vietnamese, they are Viet Kieu.

Pictures were selected from different relief missions organized by the ViDan Foundation:

• Quà Tết Muộn Cho Bà Con Đồng Bào ở Biển Hồ

• Thoát khỏi cảnh phải ngồi bẹp…

• “Chừng nào phát gạo nữa?”

• Ráng giúp cho người thiếu ăn được ấm lòng

• “Chỗ này đời sống của đồng bào mình thê thảm nhất!”

• Thêm một ngôi trường cho trẻ không trường

• 10 tấn gạo từ thiện cho đồng bào nghèo ở Cambodia

• VDF phát 6 tấn gạo cho người nghèo ăn Tết

• Xin Góp Gạo cho Bà Con Đồng Bào Đang Đói

• Chuyến cứu trợ khẩn cấp ở Biển Hồ (tháng 7/2020)

References used for this opinion piece:

• Investigative Research Report 2014, No. 2. The Situation of Stateless Ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia. LIMBO ON EARTH: An Investigative Report on the Current Living Conditions and Legal Status of Ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia.

http://www.stoptorture-vn.org/uploads/2/5/9/2/25923947/miros_stateless_vietnamese_report_2014.pdf

By Chanrith Ang, Noémie Weill and Jamie Chan Published by MIRO March 2014 

• LOA Broadcasting Viet Nam. The Vietnamese on Tonle Sap. A web-exclusive Report. By Gia Linh Vu. December 27, 2018.
• Cambodia’s Stateless Vietnamese. By the Asia Sentinel. Jul 26, 2016. 

Asia Sentinel was created to provide a platform for news, analysis, and opinion on national and regional issues in Asia. It is independent of all governments and major media enterprises. It has twice won the top award for investigative and interpretive reporting from the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA), Asia’s version of the Pulitzer Prize and it is highly respected in the business, economic and diplomatic communities across the region (see our winning stories in 2013 and in 2014).

• Vietnamese Cambodian. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Additional information could be found on the ViDan Foundation website: www.vidan.us

 

• Trang trước
• Trang sau