AsiaLIFE

Cambodia’s approximate 300,000 Cham population appears to be living free from religious persecution, but what is the reality of life for the Kingdom’s largest minority people? Words by Mark Bibby Jackson. Photos by Héctor Bermejo.

Imam Samath looks out upon construction work on his new mosque. “We’ve been building it for three years
now,” he says. “We still need US$3,000 or US$4,000 to complete it.”

The Imam is the spiritual leader for a small enclave of 331 Cham families in the village of Cham Ciro on the banks of the Mekong River in the province of Kampong Cham. Predominantly funded by private donations from Malaysia, the mosque also received US$5,000 from Prime Minister Hun Sen, which Imam Samath sees as a clear indication of the country’s religious tolerance.

“Throughout Cambodia, whatever their religion, people can live together in harmony,” he says.

This has not always been the case for Cambodia’s largest ethnic minority group.

Living with a Brutal Past
During the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979), Chams were barred from observing their religion and most of the country’s 130 mosques were destroyed or desecrated.

And it was not just the mosques that failed to outlast Pol Pot’s henchmen. According to research carried out by Osman Ysa for the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, around 700,000 Chams lived in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge seized power.

“Perhaps as many as 500,000 died,” says Osman (as quoted by Andrew Perrin in Time Magazine). This death rate is around double that of the Khmer population during the barbaric regime. “They were considered the Khmer Rouge’s No. 1 enemy. The plan was to exterminate them all.”

Osman argues that it was the regime’s amoral determination to make everyone equal despite the human costs that led to the Chams being targeted. “They stood out,” says Osman. “They worshiped their own god. Their diet was different. Their names and language were different. They lived by different rules. The Khmer Rouge wanted everyone to be equal, and when the Chams practiced Islam they did not appear to be equal. So they were punished.”

Now religious persecution seems to be a thing of the past, at least for Kampong Cham’s Islamic minority population.

Poverty Not Persecution
A few kilometres along the river from Cham Ciro in the village of Ror Kratholm, Khmer and Cham children play on the grounds of the local primary school.

“There’s no discrimination and no problem between Cham and Khmer children,” says the school’s director Saing Sy Moeung.

About 60 percent of the children attending the school are Cham, the rest are Khmer. All classes are mixed both in terms of gender and religious persuasion. However, just like the lessons, poverty is shared equally. The school lacks toilets, and there is no well for the children to wash. A film of dust covers the desks and benches on which they study.

Poverty is not restricted to the school. It is not religious intolerance but daily survival that is the key issue facing Imam Samath’s congregation today. “Some families are really poor, they don’t have a home to live in,” he says. “They live day by day.”

The very poor receive alms from within the Cham community and periodically the Islamic Association in Phnom Penh.

Traditionally, the banks of the Mekong would burst each year flooding the village of Cham Ciro. The homeless would take shelter in the grounds of the old mosque. According to the Imam, the new mosque will improve the condition of the homeless during the floods.

While wreaking havoc on the villagers, the floods provided perfect spawning grounds for the fish in the Mekong. When the waters receded from December to February an abundance of fish would await the nearby
fishing community. Last year, for the first time in living memory, the floods did not arrive.

“This year there are less fish than in previous years,” says Ly Y, 55, who has fished these waters since he was a child. He attributes this to the Mekong’s diminishing water level.

“The river is not as rich as before,” he says. “Sometimes I earn 10,000 to 20,000 riel, sometimes I do not earn as much as the cost of the gasoline.”

Koh Kong’s Arab Spring
Across the country in the province of Koh Kong another Cham community is embarking on a democratic process that could give them more control over the way their village is run.

Village 4 has one of the largest Cham communities in Koh Kong. Of the 1,200 Cham families in the province 1,114 live in Village 4. Like the villagers of Cham Ciro, around 95 percent of the community relies upon fishing for their livelihoods.

“There is no land to grow rice or crops so when the fishing season starts they go out to fish,” says Imam Yousos Sles, spiritual leader for the Cham population across the province.

Earlier this year the community decided to elect its own Imam, rather than for him to be selected in the customary way. According to officials, this is only the second time an election for Imam has been held in Cambodia.

The decision to hold an election seems to be a popular one, at least among a circle of men who are sitting in the shade of a large tree beside the village mosque.

“To have an Imam by vote is better than by appointment,” says Dul Karim. “We want to see the new Imam develop the community,” says Mat Moussa Kalamol Loh.

At least for Mat Moussa Kalamol Loh, who gets elected is not as important as the fact that the villagers are choosing their own Imam. “I believe in the villagers,” he says. “If they decide I will believe it. If more people decide it is better than less people deciding.”

New roads, clean water and access to electricity, these are all things that the men want their newly elected leader to bring to them, although providing more fish for them to catch is outside of even their new spiritual leader’s capabilities.