Ethnic Vietnamese in hot seat over border

Ethnic Vietnamese feel they are being scapegoated on social media and in person as tensions rise over Cambodia-Vietnam border demarcation

Minh Sokdey, a 36-year-old construction worker in Phnom Penh, says he loves Cambodia. But he wishes his fellow citizens would understand that he did not owe allegiance to Vietnam.

“Some Khmers love me, and some hate me,” said Sokdey, who is a Battambang-born Cambodian of Vietnamese descent.

The past few weeks, he said, have been particularly hard, as controversy over the demarcation of the Vietnamese border has intensified.

“Strangers have scolded me, telling me that I’m stealing their land – these people want to create division in society,” he said, adding that he avoids fuelling racial prejudice by walking away from hate speech rather than confronting it.

“I speak Khmer perfectly, I’m literate in Khmer script, and I have a family book,” said Sokdey, referring to the document that serves as de facto proof of citizenship.

He added that he considers himself a patriotic Cambodian who happens to be of Vietnamese ancestry.

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