Do Min Do - To change or not to change
An independent multimedia documentary on people's call for democracy in Cambodia
Check on: domindo.asia
DoMin Do is the story of a small powerless party in Cambodia that decided to oppose to one of the longest and most authoritarian democratic government in the history of democracies. Despite the limited access to the National Media, juridical harassments and violent repressions, in less then one year the Cambodian National Rescue Partyhas built one of the greatest and most powerful revolution in South East Asia counting only on its own forces and on the power of the people that day by day start to take a role to improve the future of their country. During the gatherings and forums organized by the CNRP in all the regions of the country, a party representative was always asking “To Change or not to Change?”, from the Khmer “Do rry min do?” and the assembly was always replying in choir “Do! Change!”.
However Do Min Do does not represent olny a political motto. The expression was actually introduced by the people themselves, and the and only later by the CNRP during the electoral rallies.Do Min Do was thus born as the rebel yell of a society the critically queries itself, to rise from its past and from its collective fears.
Over the last years very few stories have been able to talk about Cambodia without recalling the darkness of the Khmer Rouge regime, the civil war, the horror of the killing field. Those stories still affect the sensitiveness and the fears of Cambodian people, and have been used to control and repress any collective attempt of expressing and acting for social and political changes.
WHEN WE STARTED WE DIDN’T HAVE ANY EXPECTATION IT WAS ALL ABOUT TELLING A GOOD STORY. IT TOOK US A WHILE TO REALIZE IT THE HISTORY WAS PASSING IN FRONT OF US.
While prepared to document another sad story about a corrupted sociopolitical system failing the moment maximum democratic expression, we found ourselves to realize day by day, that our plot was changing. There were no more individual heroes against their own antagonists, and Hun Sen, Rainsy, the CNRP, the khmer Rouge, everyone and everything was just part of great jigsaw skaken by a bigger force and falling into pieces. Do Min Do was becoming a choral story, the epic of a collectivity working at different levels as a unique force.
So the people of Cambodia gradually become protagonist of Do Min Do, and Do Min Do gradually become a great history of change.