Le blog de Sangha OP

WALK OF MIND 3

Cliquez ici pour lire le texte en français Le sillage de la décadence  

The wake of decadence:

We are always looking for a text on our country, written by French, an American, not to understand, but often to approve its content. This admiration is based on two things: the power of words and the beauty of the sentence that is the French or the correct English. He wrote well, because it is French, English or American, etc. Many of these Westerners become for us a reference to cite in support of our ideas. I read as other compatriots who love to write. It must be recognized that it is difficult to find among our elders and our contemporaries of their strong ideas which to highlight, because they do not like to write.

I asked the question to Mr. Keng Vanssak, deemed to be great Khmer thinker: Why do not you write about the ideas you have defended? His answer is simple: the writing is not a Khmer tradition. "In our society, the transmission of knowledge is always made by the oral route". And however, when we took time to search the trace of writings Khmers, we found it, but always in small quantity of publication everywhere.

During the French protectorate, after independence and even today, the publication of the Khmer literature is still absent in the national will. This default is that our nation today is a nation without books. This deficiency is in contradiction with the imposing Khmer temples on the territory of the country for itself the richness of the culture of our Nation. By this lack of Khmer books, our young Khmer continue to learn the history of their country, the culture of their ancestors and Khmer thinking in books written by foreigners. Thus, the foreign culture becomes a single thought for us.

For example, I heard a compatriot who told me: "my ideas do not count if they are not their support in learned Western ideas". Another said: "I don’t write, because I always fear to commit errors of French". What modesty to think so. Of course, they are always afraid to make errors, by the respect for the language. If our desire to write for a reason is sincere, why we are afraid? Of course, there is always the desire to enhance the ideas we want to defends, but what is the utility to search in the register of foreigners to strengthen the national value.

We feel to be always worn on the Khmer decadence with this deficiency of the books and this inferiority complex. Of course, we are not asking the khmers intellectuals to be superior to learned foreigners in scientific knowledge, but at least equality with them in the perception of our country and our culture. Do we speak or write with Khmer thought experience; we quickly see that how we see our homeland would be completely different.

There is today the internet allows us to communicate rapidly with the Khmer community in the world. But to pass the message in Khmer, we are largely behind the other languages, namely, the Thais, Vietnamese, for example. I recently tried to publish my articles in Khmer, but I struck immediately of the technical difficulties and Protocol with the site that hosts my blog. I can do, but it is not insured that other Internet users can read my articles and this use are authorized by the site longer. I address all computer scientist Khmer to work on these problems whose solution could compensate for the happiness of our compatriots, the inadequacy of the publication of the books or articles in the Khmer language. I also address leader’s different sites to help the young Khmer to communicate with each other in Khmer writing for one purpose: freedom of expression.

The internet gives us the freedom to express our ideas, without going through the complicated circuit of the search for a Publisher to publish a book, perhaps one for life, including the ideas expressed are quickly outdated after a few months of the publication of the book. Over the internet, we do not seek the quality of the text, but the speed of desire to share with others an idea, a passion that we loved it well. When I wrote a text to publish in my blog, I always wrote with the heart. I reread rarely my text after the end of the drafting, because if I connect, I'm sure that I wouldn't have the courage to publish. Oh well, if I've made mistakes, this is not serious, because it is my heart that speaks to their raw state. I ask all readers to forgive me this cute sin.

We need to learn Western science in all areas of high technology to allow us to live with the progress of today, but the Khmer culture must remain a foundation of knowledge, because this culture has a strong base that allows us to chart our own course: the way Khmer. I do not know where his way is, but I am sure that the Khmer can find it without foreign aid. If we continue to walk in the wake of our decadence, we would never see the beauty of Khmer thinking.