Everyday Reconciliation in Post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia: Subtle Agency and Hidden Narratives (Rethinking Political Violence)

This book examines the nature of everyday peace mobilised in post-conflict settings. It specifically aims to examine the reconstruction of relationships between local communities and former Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia, using social reconciliation as an indicator of peace. Based on the empirical examination, this study will reveal key features of everyday peace like plurality, connectivity and subtlety, and local communities agency for peacebuilding. Research questions that will be examined include what does everyday peace look like? What forms of everyday practice have community members developed and utilised? How is the local process for relationship building related to the wider peacebuilding and governance contexts in the country? And how have community members handled and destabilised the mainstream narratives related to the Khmer Rouge in the process? The volume will present new conceptual and theoretical innovations relevant to the central debates on everyday peace, with an empirical examination of Cambodia. SungYong Lee is Associate Professor at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand. His research expertise is on peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction. His recent books include Multi-level Reconciliation and Peacebuilding (with Kevin Clements, 2021), Local Ownership in Asian Peacebuilding: Development of Local Peacebuilding Models (2019), and International Peacebuilding: An Introduction (with Alpaslan Ozerdem, 2016) Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 Abbreviations 11 1 Introduction: Exploring Everyday Reconciliation in Cambodia 12 The Framework for Analysis 15 Defining Everyday Reconciliation 15 Assessing the States of Everyday Reconciliation 16 Definitions and Caveats of Key Concepts 18 Field Research 21 Outline of This Volume 23 References 27 2 Dealing with the Khmer Rouge History in Cambodia 31 “3 Years, 8 Months, and 20 Days”: The Impact of the KR Rule 32 Dealing with the KR Rule: An Overview 35 The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) 38 Civil Society 39 Contextual Environment Underlying Everyday Reconciliation Practices 41 Conclusion 45 References 47 3 Exploration of Nonviolent Coexistence 50 Violence Occurred in a Power Vacuum 51 Discouragement of Revenge 53 Healing and Commemoration 57 Direct Engagement with Former KR Leaders 63 Discussion: Conceptualising Passivity 65 Conclusion 69 References 70 4 Development and Stabilisation of Social Relationship 72 Contextual Backgrounds 73 Promotion of Passivity 74 Social Shunning 75 Avoidance of the Past 77 Sociality and Reciprocity 79 Utilisation of Buddhist Festivals 80 Offering Practical Reasons for Invitation 82 Solidarity 84 Discussion 1: The Roles of Lost Memory 87 Discussion 2: Pursuit of Emotional Needs 90 Conclusion 93 References 95 5 Plurality and Connectivity 98 Plurality: Presence of Multiple States of Reconciliation 99 Connectivity: Interaction Between Local Communities and External Factors 104 The Interactions Between Contextual Factors and Community Agency 105 Determinants of Intra-Community Dynamics 109 Intra-Community Resources 109 Mutual Interaction Within Hyper-Communities 112 Discussion: Local Actors’ Interaction with External Factors and the Scaling Out of Practice 114 Conclusion 117 References 118 6 Subtlety and Obscurity 121 Indirect and/or Symbolic Forms of Communication 122 Lack of Visibility in the Public Space 126 Practice Integrated into Other Practices 129 Local Approaches Defined Under the Local Contexts 132 Discussions: The Opportunities and Challenges of Subtlety for the Promotion of Peacebuilding 134 Conclusion 137 References 139 7 Everyday Narratives 142 The Narrative of the Political Authority 143 Narratives in Local Communities 145 Narratives Discouraging the Usage of Violence 147 Enough Is Enough 148 Let Bygones Be Bygones 148 Hatred Cannot Cease by Hatred 150 Be Mindful of the Karma That You Create 150 Narratives on Former KR Leaders 151 Not All Leaders Were Cruel 151 They Are also Victims 154 We Don’t Take Him as KR Anymore 156 Marginalisation of KR Leaders’ Narratives 157 Discussion: Bottom-Up Narratives for Conflict Disruption 160 Conclusion 163 References 165 8 Conclusion: Unpacking the Nature of Everyday Peace 167 Everyday Practices Mobilised in Local Communities in Cambodia 168 Features of Everyday Peace Practices 170 Plurality 170 Connectivity 171 Subtlety and Obscurity 173 Development of Everyday Narratives 174 Everyday Peace as an Analytical Framework 175 Significance of Everyday Peace as Peacebuilding 178 Significance of Micro-Level Conflict Management 179 Utilities for Conflict Disruption 180 Everyday Peace as the Only Resort 181 References 182 Index 184