Dear Editor:
The Boston Globe's article "Revisiting a painful chapter in Cambodia" (4/1/01) claims that some individuals within the Cambodian American community are upset with Loung Ung, author of First They Killed My Father, because she is a Chinese-Cambodian representing the Cambodian experience. The article goes so far as to claim that some individuals have threatened Ung because they "continue to deny the genocide's existence." Nothing can be further from the truth. As a university lecturer on the Cambodian experience, community activist, and a person of Cambodian descent, I have never met a single Cambodian who would deny our homeland's destruction under the Khmer Rouge regime. The Khmer Rouge killed an estimated 25 percent of the Cambodian population. Virtually every single Cambodian alive has lost at least one family member in the Killing Fields. The notion that we would deny our own tragedy is not only absurd but perverse.
As for the suggestion that some members of the community have "attacked [Ung] for being half-Chinese while writing on behalf of Cambodians," this is consistent with Ung's repeated attempts in her book to portray the Cambodian people as racists. In her book she claims that the Khmer Rouge were engaged in a policy of "ethnic cleansing" and depicts the Killing Fields period as one of ethnic conflict - a battle between evil dark-skinned Khmers and innocent light-skinned Sino-Khmers. The truth is that the 1.7 million people who died in the Killing Fields died as a result of Communist fanaticism and the Khmer Rouge's paranoia. The Khmer Rouge killed anyone who threatened their authority, such as the educated class, religious leaders, and former Khmer Republic officials. They could have cared less whether you were dark-skinned or light-skinned, Sino-Khmer or pure Khmer - if you were a threat to them, you were in jeopardy of losing your life. To blame ethnic conflict for the suffering of the Cambodian people is irresponsible and offensive because it suggests that only Sino-Khmers were harmed by the Khmer Rouge and implicates criminal guilt to the rest of the Khmer population, most of whom were themselves victims of the Khmer Rouge.
Members of the Cambodian community are not outraged with Ung and her book because it has been written by a Chinese-Cambodian, but because it is such a gross distortion of the real Cambodian experience. If the Cambodian community were really so sensitive about having a Chinese-Cambodian represent their experience, they would have protested Dr. Haing Ngor's starring role in "The Killing Fields." Instead, Cambodians throughout America gave the movie very favorable reviews because they felt it truthfully and accurately reflected their experience, despite starring a Chinese-Cambodian. In contrast, Ung's book is riddled with erroneous claims about Khmer history and culture and grossly distorts the Killing Fields period. Whether she is Khmer or Sino-Khmer, Cambodians would have thanked Ung for giving the public insight into the horror of the Khmer Rouge regime had she written her story truthfully and accurately. Instead, in sensationalizing her story, Ung has sacrificed not only truth and accuracy but also common decency. We who have lost family members to the Khmer Rouge have been deeply hurt and angered by this misrepresentation of our people's story, and Ung's prostitution of the suffering of millions of Cambodians for personal glorification and profit is morally inexcusable.
While I believe most Cambodian Americans who have been angered by Ung's fabrications would not advocate threats against her in any way, shape or form, we are nevertheless a threat to her. We are a threat to Ung because we possess enough knowledge of Cambodian history and culture to uncover her as the fraud that she is. We are a threat to Ung because we do not blindly worship someone as heroic just because the media sells her as such. Finally, we are a threat to Ung and the image she has created for herself because hopefully what we have to say will make people think critically about the many inaccuracies and inconsistencies in her story. The mere fact that Ung's fabrications are compelling and has won her some literary acclaim and fame does not make the story itself any more legitimate.
An in-depth analysis of Ung's book can be found in the articles section of the Khmer Institute website (www.khmerinstitute.org). The article will give readers a better understanding of the many inaccuracies in this book and the injustice that the author does to the memory of 1.7 million people who died in the Killing Fields. On April 17, 1975 the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia and proceeded to attempt to destroy our history and culture. Now twenty-six years later, Cambodian history and culture are under attack once again...by the many misrepresentations and fabrications in Ung's First They Killed My Father.
Sincerely,
Sody Lay
Lecturer at UCLA
Executive Director of the Khmer Institute
