Cambodia Watching Down Under

360 Pages·1991·45.22 MB·English

by  Geoffrey C. Gunn, Jefferson Lee

I
CAMBODIA WATCHING DOWN UNDER
Geoffrey C. Gunn
Jefferson Lee
Institute of Asian Studies
Chulalongkorn University
IAS Monographs No. 047
1991
11
CAMBODIA WATCHING DOWN UNDER
Code ISBN 974-579-532- 1
Author Geoffrey C.Gunn and Jefferson Lee
Owner Institute of Asian Studies
Chulalongkorn University
Phyathai Rd., Bangkok 10330
Thailand
Tel. [phone] Fax [phone]
Publisher Director, Institute of Asian Studies
Cover Designed Verasakdi Mahatdhanobol
First Publish July 1991
Printing Chulalongkorn University Printing House
IAs-Institute of Asian Studies,
Chulalongkorn University
The IAS is an interdisciplinary academic research institute within Chulalongkorn University.
Its functions as an inter-institutional organization and aims to promote interdisciplinary
studies bearing on Asian affairs. The Institute's activities, beside academic researches,
seminars and scholar exchanges, also include publications, training programs and audiovisual
aids project to promote the interest in Asian affairs among the general public.
ASIAN REVIEW publishes academic articles dealing with various aspects of Asia, including
political, economic, social, cultural and foreign affairs.
The view expressed in the articles are those of individual authors and do not necessarily
represent the views of Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University.
111
Preface
The Cambodian problem remains unresolved. Internal factional struggles
and external military involvement remain an integral part of the Cambodian
suffering.
Many foreign observers find it opportunistic to fish in this troubled water.
They ascend from obscurity to champion the cause of human rights and thus
make themselves known to the public. Some others claim to be Cambodian
experts. In fact, many of them are unable even to distinguish fact from fiction
nor can they dissociate human rights from external aggression. More adyentur-
ous ones get fame out of a myriad of exaggerations of falsehoods: producing
films, articles,p amphlets etc. Out of sincere ignorance or ulterior motives, they
have effectively complicated the conflict, deceived the people, diverted the real
issues and, consequently, prolonged the war. The state of war in Cambodia has
- -
in turn served to legitimize this handful of activists, and the certain relief
organizations behind them, by allowing them to continue their self-proclaimed
--
role as saviours but at the expense of more Cambodian lives.
More experienced Cambodian watchers decline to debate with self-
--
proclaimed human-rights champions to save their own skins, of course. Short
of opposing views, information is imbalanced. The mass mediah ence risk being
accused of complicity with propagandistic pamphleteers and Elm producers.
This can hardly have happened intentionally, but it is true that sensational news
is often suited for dissemination in all forms of mass media. The role of mass
media coverage of the war in Cambodiai s thus a controversial subject, deserving
of serious study.
We are pleased to discover that Geoffrey Gunn and Jefferson Lee have
taken pains to critically investigate the Australian mass media coverage of the
Cambodian problem and to present their findings in an unemotional manner.
7'his is a rare piece of work in connection with Cambodia, which we feel will
contribute positively to a better understanding of the problem. As such, the
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Institute of Asian Studies is happy to play a part in publishing it. We would like
to thank Laura Summers for her help in commenting on the manuscript and being
persuaded to write an introduction.
Ashien Theeravit
Director
June 1991
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CAMBODIA WATCHING DOWN UNDER:
A CRITICAL VIEW OF WESTERN SCHOLARSHIP
AND JOURNALISM ON CAMBODIA SINCE 1975
Geoffrey C. Gunn and Jefferson Lee
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About the authors:
Geoffrey C. Gunn: Senior Lecturer in Southeast Asian History at Universiti
Brunei Darussalam. Former lecturer at universities in Libya (Garyounis), Aus-
tralia (UNSW) and Singapore (NUS). Author of three books on Laos and various
historical and political studies of Southeast Asia/Middle East. This author's
baptism in Indochinese politics commenced on campus at Melbourne University
in 1966 (the LBJ visit) and consummated as a teenage traveler in Indochina
during Tet 1968 and in Paris May-June of the same year.
Jefferson Lee: Ph.D. candidate in Social Sciences at Deakin University in the
area of Indochina and the Australian media. Former tutor in politics and media
at UNSW. Deakin University course writer and consultant in the areas of
international journalism, conflict studies and Indochina. This author's activism
on Indochina issues was fired in union politics including office holding positions
in Australian national student bodies.
VII
Preface
Undoubtedly the "Cambodia problem" has endured as a major regional
crisis of the late Twentieth Century, one that has drawn in superpowers,
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concerned regional nations and middle-powers alike. In part, the real problem
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Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia in January 1979 has been
subject to media stereotyping, media distortion, the manufacture of half truths
and down-right propaganda. One way of deconstructing and demythologising
the Cambodia problem as it is presented in the mass media would be to expose
the link betweeni nedia institutions, media ownership andp oliticalp osturing. To
this end, we seek $n this book to set a political economy analysis of media
disclosure on the Cambodia problem against the empirical evidence provided by
the albeit oligopolistic media institutions of one middle power, Australia. In so
doing, we take the long view, eschewing the "presentist" bias of print and
electronic mass media. As shown, a tradition of Australian involvement in
Cambodia was set in the 1960s and carried dirough to the early 1970s. But the
presumption in the late 1980s of Australia under the Hawke Labor Government
to force the pace on a diplomatic solution to the problem becomes more
comprehensible when seen against the background of what we identify as the
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Australian Cambodia-watching lobby a complex of pseudo-Left experts,
pseudo-experts, academic mandarins, nondescript activists, pamphleteers, dip-
lomat/politicians, aid workers and film makers, journalists and other media
sources, willynilly setting the agenda for a New Standard Consensus on Cambo-
dia, one that has consistently sought to present an invasion as a variety of
humanitarian rescue. This is not an exercise in parochialism, as the end game on
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Cambodia a UN brokered settlement and interim administration arrangement
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for the country bears the strong imprint of the so-called Australian Plan and its
Australian Labor Party backers from within the lobby. Odierwise, we would
contend, the conclusions of our study of Australia, Cambodia and the media are
generalizable enough to support a theory of a dominant ideological framework
in capitalist democracies linking media and state.
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In the preparation of this manuscript, the authors wish to acknowledge the
assistance of, among others, Rena Briand, Justin Corfield, Shane Tart, Joe
Remenyi, Theam Bun Srun and Ashien Theeravit. We are especially grateful to
Laura Summers and Jim Gerrand for a critical reading of the entire manuscript.
An earlier version of Chapter Three was originally presented by Jefferson
Lee at the "Australia and Vietnam Conference", Macquarie University, May
1986. A version of Chapter Four was originally presented by Jefferson Lee at
"News Unlimited" a Conference on Journalism and Global Ownership, Sydney,
8-1 0 February 1988. An abridged version of Chapter Five originally appeared in
Arena (Melbourne), No.81, 1987 (Geoffrey C. Gunn, "Kampuchea: The Case
for a Genocide Tribunal'?", pp.97-108). Chapter Six combines and updates
material presented by Jefferson Lee at the Australian Political Studies Associa-
tion, 1988 and 1989 Conferences.
This monograph could not have happened without a convergence of
viewpoints between the authors, even if an identity of viewpoint on all issues is
precluded by the intertwined and shifting moral, political and ideological issues
that underlay the Cambodia question.
Geoffrey C. Gunn/Jefferson Lee
April 1991
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CONTENTS
Preface: 111
Abbreviations' X
Introduction: XI
Chapter One: The Anglo-Saxon Democracy and the Southeast
Asian Neutral: Australia and Cambodia (1950-
1975) [Gunn] 1
Chapter Two' The Making of a "New Standard Consensus":
TheVietnam War's Cambodian Legacy and Aus-
lralia Media Politics [PARTONE] [LeeandGunn] 53
Chapter Three: The Sideshow that won't go away: The Vietnam
War's Cambodian Legacy and Australian Media
Politics [PART TWO] [Lee] 98
Chapter Four: The Politics of Aid to Indochina [Lee] 145
Chapter Five: Australia and the Cambodia Genocide Question
[Gunn] 194
Chapter Six: Reflections on Changes in the Cambodia Stale-
mate(1986-1989): A Return to the "Killing
Fields" or a "Marketplace" Solution? [Lee] 222
Epilogue: The Evans Plan on Cambodia (1990):
An Australian Solution? [Lee and Gunn] 273
Conclusion: 307
Chronology: 314
Select Bibliography: 325