khmer sources

Im Sokha, cartoonist, is sketching the image of a high ranking official sitting in a restaurant with great quantities of food before him, the official complains he is bored with what is on offer. To the right of the page a poor man struggles with his farming tools, and as he walks, the farmer says to himself: "What can I find to eat to live for one day more?"

Im’s job, he says, is to represent the negative aspects of Cambodian life in a heterogeneous manner and to make people think more about the society they live in. He spends eight hours a day drawing cartoons for newspapers, working predominantly for local daily newspaper Kampuchea Thmey, but also drawing freelance, selling to weekly and monthly newspapers.

Hunched over a piece of paper with pen in hand at his other "office", Phka Roam Teok Roam restaurant in Phnom Penh, Im says his friends and colleagues often ask him why he doesn’t work in the comfort of air conditioning in the newsroom. Im replies that he doesn’t need to trouble himself with where he works.

"I’m the same as a reporter, and reporters don’t stay in the office do they? It is outside the newsroom where they find their news sources, and it is outside the newsroom where I find the ideas for drawing pictures," Im says.
"This café is a good office, and together with others in the media who frequent here, we all discuss … what could happen today or tomorrow. I get plenty of ideas here to do my work."

And for 24 years now, Im’s ideas have graced Cambodian broadsheet; some pro-government, some anti-government. Im says the pro-government pieces he has drawn have been the idea of the newspaper owner and not his own, as he believes in criticizing those higher up in order to promote social development.

"High ranking officials are not happy when they see themselves made fun of, but cartoons are a gentle and humorous way of criticizing and offering an opinion, without too many words. Cartoons are also an excellent medium for making people understand, even if they cannot read or write."

Im Sokha was born into a prosperous and culturally-aware Cambodia on 24 June 1955. Cambodians were painting, many were producing films and theatre was popular. Im grew up surrounded by, and in awe of these artisans. As a teenager he was very interested in advertising images in particular: roadside billboards and paintings
promoting the latest movie at the cinema. "I liked to paint scenes from Indian films … the men I painted were all very much in the mold of those Indian actors of the time."
Im had no professional training, but he did have plenty of talent and drive, and his work was oft admired by his family and friends.

At the outset of the Cambodian civil war in 1973, Im had to abandon his secondary school education at Samdech Oav High School in Kompong Cham province. The Americans were bombing the area to flush out Yeark Kong troops and Khmer Rouge soldiers living in the jungle. And then, when the Khmer Rouge were able to seize power, Im and his family, along with thousands of other city dwellers, were forced into the countryside. His family went to Prey Chhor district, Kompong Cham province. Here, Im was separated from his family and sent into a special mobile youth team, in which he helped farm and build irrigation and road systems.

Im remembers that sorrowful time: "One of my three brothers was killed in the regime, and I too came close to death all because of a painting of a rice field. When illiterate child soldiers saw this picture I had done, they wanted me killed because they thought I may have been a university student. But they researched my background, saw I was not well educated and released me."

By the time the Vietnamese chased the Khmer Rouge from power in January 1979, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians had been executed or died from overwork, disease, and starvation. Im and his family moved to Phnom Penh where he began work as a cartoonist at the state newspaper Kampuchea News owned by the Ministry of Central Media. Sokha drew many pictures about the Khmer Rouge regime, as he wanted to remind Cambodians about the horrors the country endured and to urge authorities to seek justice for the millions murdered.

"I want the Khmer Rouge tribunal to go ahead soon. I want to know who set up those killing fields before I die, and even though the Khmer Rouge issue has not been addressed for many years, the perpetrators must be punished."

During the Communist period of Cambodian history post-Pol Pot, Im received a letter of merit from the Ministry of Information for one of his most famous cartoons.

"The title of that cartoon is: ‘The poor man is caught while the powerful man goes free’. In the cartoon there is a cat carrying a piece of dried fish between his teeth, a crowd of people are trying to prevent the cat from eating the fish and are beating it with a wooden stick. Meanwhile, a tiger drags a cow; the same crowd of people now too frightened to intervene." He explains that this was a cartoon representing corruption amongst government officials who take a lot and get away with it, while the poor may steal a paltry amount and are then punished for their "crime". Im adds that this cartoon’s meaning is still relevant today, and it is often still published.

In May 1993, Im began work at Rasmei Kampuchea, a daily then based in Bangkok. Six months later, he returned to Phnom Penh to work as a freelance cartoonist. His reputation grew.
"I drew thousands of cartoons, including for English publications like The Cambodia Daily. Some media companies are pro-government, while some criticize the government. I do find it difficult sometimes to represent pro over anti. I try to be impartial and stand in the middle, but in my line of work, being either one way or the other is what it’s all about." Im Sokha says he is not a modern man.

"The good life for me is not about money, nor is it about a big house or a luxury car. The good life is about the luxury of peace in Cambodia. I want my country to get real independence, so I will continue my drawing to show this progress."