Highlands of History: Indigenous Identity and Its Antecedents in Cambodia
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bs_bs_banner Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 54, No. 3, December 2013 ISSN 1360-7456, pp282–295 Highlands of history: Indigenous identity and its antecedents in Cambodia Jonathan Padwe Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai’i at Ma¯noa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. Email: [email protected] Abstract: The notion that Cambodia’s highland people may claim a distinct ‘Indigenous’ identity has emerged only recently in Cambodia. To date, advocacy for rights under the banner of indigeneity has produced few results for highlanders. Among the problems faced by advocates for Indigenous rights, problems of definition and translation represent an important challenge. Arguing that concepts like ‘Indigeneity’ are not simply adopted ex nihilo in new settings, but are rather incorporated into existing structures of meaning, this paper explores culturally produced understandings of who highlanders are, concentrating in particular on the way that the term ‘Indigenous’ has been translated into Khmer. The use of the Khmer word daeum, or ‘original’, to distinguish between Indigenous and other forms of ethnic belonging in the newly derived translation of ‘Indigenous Peoples’ points to historically sedimented beliefs about highlanders as living ancestors of modern Khmers. Keywords: Cambodia, human rights, Indigenous identity, translation In a recent debate on the floor of Cambodia’s them figured Mane Yun, a media-savvy young National Assembly, Chheang Vun, a lawmaker Bunong woman who is the founding director from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party of the newly formed Cambodian Indigenous (CPP), attacked Kem Sokha, the leader of the Youth Association. A political cartoon of Cambodian Human Rights Party. ‘Have you ever the day, published on a suppressed anti- built roads or bridges?’ he demanded to know. government website, showed the beleaguered ‘No. Never. You haven’t done a thing. You act in lawmaker in the role of a water buffalo, being the manner of a bunong from the forest!’ (VOA sacrificed as part of a Bunong ritual (KI-Media, News, 2012). In Chheang’s use of the word, 2012). Amid the media storm, the CPP parlia- bunong is a pejorative term, a commonly used mentarian eventually apologised. Khmer epithet for those who are backwards, The next month, Prime Minister Hun Sen uncivilised or savage. Bunong, sometimes himself made news with a less inflammatory, written as Phnong, is also the ethnonym of the but equally revealing statement. During his visit largest highland ethnic group of Mondulkiri to Ratanakiri province in support of a highly Province in northeast Cambodia. In protest, politicised land titling programme, four Kem Sokha and 20 other parliamentarians members of the Jarai highland ethnic minority staged a walkout from the Assembly. The follow- were prevented from presenting him with a ing day Chheang Vun defended his use of the petition against the taking of their land by term, insisting that the word Bunong remains an a government-backed rubber plantation. In a insult. ‘The people in the northeast are called speech that day, the Prime Minister made refer- Indigenous. You should not call them Bunong. ence to the issue, noting that he had recently You must be careful using that word’, the par- been confronted by a foreigner who ‘claimed liamentarian insisted (Eang, 2012). The media that the rubber plantation development . picked up the story, and reported on the vocif- leads to the loss of jobs [muk roba] of the ethnic erous objections to Chheang’s derogatory use minorities. I asked him “now can you clarify to of the term raised by Indigenous rights activists me again, does his Excellency need to promote and by Bunong leaders themselves. Among development or does he need to leave these © 2013 Victoria University of Wellington and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd doi: 10.1111/apv.12028 Indigenous identity in Cambodia people to collect resin and vines in the forest for lenges, and in collaboration with groups and tourists to look at?” ’ The Prime Minister went individuals across a wide spectrum of govern- on to explain that foreigners ‘want me to mental and non-governmental agencies and promote development. But on the other hand, organisations, Cambodia’s highland people they give me a lesson on creating rubber plan- have in recent years sought to position them- tations and how this will lead to the loss of selves as ‘Indigenous Peoples’ within contem- culture. This is too bad. Don’t be confused. porary political debates. It is a move that locates Wearing shoes, driving motorcycles, and so on them within globally circulating universalist dis- is not against Indigenous lifestyles’ (Kuch, 2012; courses about rights and forms of belonging, RFA Cambodia, 2012). and opens a space for collaboration with inter- As these cases illustrate, the term ‘Indigenous’ national advocates from the worlds of environ- has taken on new relevance in Cambodian poli- mentalism, sustainable development and the tics. Chheang Vun’s explanation that ‘Indig- promotion of human rights. enous Peoples’ – chun chiet daeum pheak tech While Indigenous Peoples and their advo- in Khmer – is the appropriate way to describe cates have managed to obtain some policy those who were once referred as savages illus- responses to their concerns – notably in the trates the point. So, too, does Prime Minister field of bilingual education – to date, identity- Hun Sen’s deft explanation that Indigenous based advocacy has failed to achieve signifi- identity and participation in the modern world cant reforms, and those claiming the status of are not incompatible. And yet both cases dem- Indigenous Peoples have been excluded from onstrate how far Indigenous Peoples have yet to meaningful participation in policy-making pro- go to obtain their political goals. The fact cesses on the issues that directly threaten their remains that one still hears Bunong used as an livelihoods and well-being. The list of these insult on the floor of the National Assembly, issues includes: legal and illegal logging and while the Prime Minister’s vision for the ‘devel- deforestation of village lands (Global Witness, opment’ of the northeast leaves little room for 2007; Padwe, 2011b: 110–111); various forms the recognition of Indigenous land claims and of expropriation, including the awarding of little space for highland people to express their economic land concessions (United Nations own desires. Cambodia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2004; NGO Forum, 2006); the establishment of protected areas and Indigenous politics in Cambodia conservation-based exclusions of Indigenous The concept of Indigenous identity is not indig- Peoples from forest resources (Baird and enous to Cambodia. Indeed, the possibility for a Dearden, 2003); and the creation of large-scale politics of Indigeneity in Cambodia is very infrastructure projects such as hydropower recent. While English-language terms like dams and trans-national transportation corridor ‘Indigenous’, ‘Indigeneity’ and ‘Indigenous projects (Hirsch and Wyatt, 2004; Padwe, identity’ have circulated among Cambodia’s 2011b: 115–116). The establishment of com- international development community since the munal land titling under the 2001 land law early 1990s, a stable translation for the term was developed with the participation of Indig- ‘Indigenous Peoples’ as chun chiet daeum enous Peoples’ representatives and was initially pheak tech has only been available in the lauded as a solution to problems of land loss Khmer language since the crafting of the coun- and marginalisation. However, while several try’s Land Law in 2001 (Baird, 2011a: 167). The communal land titles have been awarded term, which assigns the category of Indigenous recently, tract sizes are small, the programme identity exclusively to highland ethnic minori- has faced numerous delays in implementation ties, has emerged during a period when Cam- and highly politicised initiatives such as Prime bodia’s highland peoples have faced numerous Minister Hun Sen’s deployment of thousands of challenges, including loss of land, loss of university students to assist in land titling have autonomy, and increasing economic and politi- introduced confusion into the titling process cal marginalisation (Fox et al., 2008; Padwe, (McAndrew and Oeur, 2009; Woods and Kuch, 2011a; Baird, 2011b). In response to these chal- 2012). © 2013 Victoria University of Wellington and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd 283 J. Padwe Table 1. Indigenous and national populations of Southeast Asia Country National populationa Indigenous populationb Percentage Indigenous Burma 48 337 000 14 400 000–19 200 000 30–40 Brunei 406 000 71 000 17.5 Cambodia 14 305 000 197 000 1.4 Indonesia 242 326 000 50 000 000–70 000 000 20.6–28.9 Laos 6 288 000 2 400 000–4 800 000 38.2–76.3 Malaysia 28 560 000 3 400 000 11.9 Philippines 94 852 000 12 000 000–15 000 000 12.6–15.8 Thailand 69 519 000 1 100 000 1.6 Vietnam 87 840 000 10 000 000 11.4 aWorld Bank (2011). bInternational Working Group for Indigenous Affairs (2010). There are many reasons for the intractability surrounding the term ‘Indigenous Peoples’ add of these issues. Caroline Hughes, for instance, to the challenges confronting advocates for argues that where international agencies have Indigenous rights in Cambodia. Notions like taken the lead on promoting human rights ‘Indigeneity’ are not simply adopted ex nihilo in reforms such as the establishment of collective new settings. Rather, as Anna Tsing (1999: 157) title to land in Cambodia, their pursuit of has suggested, processes of translation