Moneakseka Khmer
21 Aug 06
Translated from Khmer
Civil society officials have stated in a similarly hopeless manner that Cambodia's economy would continue to deteriorate so long as the anti-corruption law keeps being blocked from adoption. Mrs. Chea Vannat, former director of the Social Development Center, stated last weekend that for a country plagued by corruption like Cambodia there should be an anti-corruption law to prosecute the corrupt officials.
She noted that the tentacles of corruption are strangling this society since the childhood of its inhabitants. In order to avoid being discriminated against by the teachers, while giving pocket money to their children to go to school, parents have to spare some more money for them so they could pay the teachers. This is corruption pure and simple.
Sek Borisoth, director of the anti-corruption coordinated action program, PACT, also gave a similar explanation, saying that corruption is discovered from the time one opens his eyes; that is, the parents give the children money to bribe the teachers. At the same time, Sek Barisoth also gave an overall definition of this word corruption, calling it the use of one's role, authority, influence to attract benefit for oneself or for one's group.
Based on a number of documents on corruption, any country or any society that tolerates corruption causes material loss, and lack of mutual trust, especially between the people and the government, and it could be a barrier obstructing the country from development and growth.
Sek Barisoth said that corruption brings forth a greater gap between the life of the poor and that of the rich. Because of corruption, the rich has all the possibilities to do whatever they want because they could use their money to give orders to the corrupt officials, thereby encouraging social injustices.
Also in this connection, the International Monetary Fund, IMF, used to warn the Hun Sen government about the imbalance in the living conditions of the people in present-day Cambodia. IMF said that this great disparity in the livelihood situation of the poor and that of the rich is a very worrisome sign that could be the starting point of a new revolution.
Nevertheless, it is noted that the Hun Sen government has paid only scant attention to criticisms if it does not arrogantly hit back at its critics.
The recently published report of the Economic Institute of Cambodia, based on a survey of the private sector in 2005, contends that the Cambodian Government has lost to corruption as much as $300 million annually. This money, if used to pay the common civil servants, would be enough to raise the latter's monthly salaries to 100 or 150 dollars.
However, there is no hope that the government has the real will to clean up corruption. Currently, it is seen that only 10 percent of the people--most of them the cronies of Hun Sen from the CPP--are millionaires living a life of incomparable luxury while millions of Cambodians are facing near-death starvation, without counting those who already died from hunger.
People ask whether the $20 or $30 salaries that the Hun Sen government is paying its civil servants-- sometimes it takes them two months of waiting to get a one-month pay--are enough to enable them to have a decent life. This is not different from using Cambodians as a shield for this government to stay in power so that its cronies could continue to engage in corrupt practices with impunity, many of them becoming dirty rich in the lakes of tears shed by the Cambodian people.
The circles of NGO officials have no hope whatsoever that the government under Hun Sen's leadership would conduct a reform against corruption although recently it arrested and imprisoned 13 persons involved in corruption. Among them, 11 were accused of illegal logging in Rotanakiri province, one was former governor of Kampot province named Put Chandarith, and another was a department head at the Rural Development Ministry involved in misusing the World Bank fund. Despite this measure, it is said that it was directed only against small officials and was motivated by political rivalry. It is believed that even if Cambodia had an anti-corruption law, if the government does not have the will to fight corruption, this anti-corruption law would remain ineffective.
She noted that the tentacles of corruption are strangling this society since the childhood of its inhabitants. In order to avoid being discriminated against by the teachers, while giving pocket money to their children to go to school, parents have to spare some more money for them so they could pay the teachers. This is corruption pure and simple.
Sek Borisoth, director of the anti-corruption coordinated action program, PACT, also gave a similar explanation, saying that corruption is discovered from the time one opens his eyes; that is, the parents give the children money to bribe the teachers. At the same time, Sek Barisoth also gave an overall definition of this word corruption, calling it the use of one's role, authority, influence to attract benefit for oneself or for one's group.
Based on a number of documents on corruption, any country or any society that tolerates corruption causes material loss, and lack of mutual trust, especially between the people and the government, and it could be a barrier obstructing the country from development and growth.
Sek Barisoth said that corruption brings forth a greater gap between the life of the poor and that of the rich. Because of corruption, the rich has all the possibilities to do whatever they want because they could use their money to give orders to the corrupt officials, thereby encouraging social injustices.
Also in this connection, the International Monetary Fund, IMF, used to warn the Hun Sen government about the imbalance in the living conditions of the people in present-day Cambodia. IMF said that this great disparity in the livelihood situation of the poor and that of the rich is a very worrisome sign that could be the starting point of a new revolution.
Nevertheless, it is noted that the Hun Sen government has paid only scant attention to criticisms if it does not arrogantly hit back at its critics.
The recently published report of the Economic Institute of Cambodia, based on a survey of the private sector in 2005, contends that the Cambodian Government has lost to corruption as much as $300 million annually. This money, if used to pay the common civil servants, would be enough to raise the latter's monthly salaries to 100 or 150 dollars.
However, there is no hope that the government has the real will to clean up corruption. Currently, it is seen that only 10 percent of the people--most of them the cronies of Hun Sen from the CPP--are millionaires living a life of incomparable luxury while millions of Cambodians are facing near-death starvation, without counting those who already died from hunger.
People ask whether the $20 or $30 salaries that the Hun Sen government is paying its civil servants-- sometimes it takes them two months of waiting to get a one-month pay--are enough to enable them to have a decent life. This is not different from using Cambodians as a shield for this government to stay in power so that its cronies could continue to engage in corrupt practices with impunity, many of them becoming dirty rich in the lakes of tears shed by the Cambodian people.
The circles of NGO officials have no hope whatsoever that the government under Hun Sen's leadership would conduct a reform against corruption although recently it arrested and imprisoned 13 persons involved in corruption. Among them, 11 were accused of illegal logging in Rotanakiri province, one was former governor of Kampot province named Put Chandarith, and another was a department head at the Rural Development Ministry involved in misusing the World Bank fund. Despite this measure, it is said that it was directed only against small officials and was motivated by political rivalry. It is believed that even if Cambodia had an anti-corruption law, if the government does not have the will to fight corruption, this anti-corruption law would remain ineffective.
3 comments:
Who says NGOs are all pro-Viet and pro-Hunsen's regime?
_________
Qui dit que les ONGs sont tous pro-Viet et pro le regime de Ah Chhkaer Yuon Hun Sen?
10/04/06
AKnijaKhmer
I said it Mr! Cambodia is going nowhere with all these NGOs!
NGO one day and the next day these NGO can be a private business organization!
Yesteryear, Samdech Hun Sen mockeringly insulted the teachers' request of the increasing salary,
"If you, teachers, really wanted to increase the saraly, let's lay off almost the teachers, so we have only a few thousand of them, then the salary will be increased twice or thrice! hahhahhahhahha!"
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