Saturday, October 13, 2007

Hun Sen Said Disliking Supreme Commander Ke Kim Yan for Having Too Much Land

Ke Kim Yan (Bottom right) (Photo: AFP)

01 Oct 07
By Srei Ka
Moneakseka Khmer

Translated from Khmer and Posted online

According to a senior officer of the Cambodian People's Party [CPP], Hun Sen is angry with Ke Kimyan because he sees that Ke Kimyan owns too much land. It is not known whether Ke Kimyan bought the land from the people or he just grabbed it. However, it is a fact that vast tracts of land in the regions controlled by the armed forces have become Ke Kimyan's personal property, such as in Kampong Spoe province. The same officer said that in the Pong Peay area where a Korean company is investing without laying out any capital in the CamKo City project, Ke Kimyan also owns quite a huge tract of land there. And we are not talking about a number of other provinces.

Therefore, because he sees that Ke Kimyan owns so much real estate, which partly affects some development projects and crop plantations of the people, Hun Sen is not very pleased with Ke Kiyan. However, in reality Ke Kimyan's land is not located in industrial zones but is mostly agricultural land for fruit tree growing. As such, he cannot easily sell these plots of land and is therefore obliged to keep them, thus making him look so rich in land everywhere because the land he owns is not very sought-after.

As for the other CPP officials, they are wilier as they seek only to own land in industrial zones, which can be easily traded for great profits that they immediately deposit in banks. Hence, these officials are not seen as owning much land. For instance, Cham Prasith, minister of trade, and Sok An, minister of Council of Ministers Cabinet, apparently do not own hundreds of hectares of land like Ke Kimyan but each plot of land they own can fetch millions of dollars on the market.

This officer said that some CPP army chiefs, police officers, and high-ranking officials make a lot of money and are busy sending it to overseas banks. Sending and packing money to be deposited in foreign banks is not very obvious. No one knows how much money flows out because in Cambodia there is no anti-corruption law. When an official takes office, or leaves it, he does not have to declare his assets at all. Therefore, no one knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars these officials have.

According to this CPP officer, Ke Kimnyan's possessions cannot be compared with those of the civilian officials around Hun Sen like Cham Prasith, Sok An, Keat Chhon, Pen Simorn, Chea Chanto, or Chan Sarun. Let alone these civilian officials, Ke Kimyan's cannot be compared even with the assets of fellow army chiefs and police officers, such as Moeng Samphan, Kun Kim, Pol Saroeun, Meas Sophea, and Hok Langdi.

This CPP official said that between Hok Langdi and Ke Kimyan, the former being National Police Director General and the latter Armed Forces Supreme Commander, Hok Langdi is by far the richer. He did not know from where Hok Langdi has accumulated his fortune, but his son who is training as a pilot in Australia can afford to pay $100,000 a month for renting an airstrip. If Hok Langdi is not loaded, how can he do such a thing? However, comparing the land ownership between Hok Langdi's and Ke Kimyan's, the latter beats the former by a mile. Hok Langdi does not own much land but he has a lot of money, which is not very obvious to most observers. As for Ke Kimyan, he does not have a lot of money but he has a lot of land albeit not easily sellable but very visible. For this reason, Hun Sen is said to dislike Ke Kiyan, who owns so much land but does not make huge contributions to the CPP coffers like other police chiefs and army commanders. In fact, besides owning land, Ke Kimyan is not as rich as other CPP police officers, army chiefs, and senior officials.

An economic expert said that any country would do well if corrupt officials use the proceeds from their national-asset stripping acts to build factories and enterprises or to invest in various fields in the country, making the country prosper and helping bring jobs for the people so they can make money and live a better life. This is called poverty reduction because the looters of the national assets use the national money to invest in their own nation.

According to past observation, Cambodian officials known to own millions of dollars usually divert their money overseas and seek investors to come invest in Cambodia from abroad instead, thus keeping their own money fallow. It is frequently seen that some mainland Chinese having only $100-200.000 do not hesitate to sink their small capital in Cambodia and, enjoying the complicity of some corrupt government officials, they usually become rich in the end, making millions in profit, which they take back to their own country. Because Cambodian officials tend to send their money abroad, it is normal that a country with a great outflow of capital like Cambodia sees its domestic economy slump.

At the same time, this economic expert said, however, that it is probably because the Cambodian officials are afraid they might be accused of having a lot of money from stripping the national assets that they dare not make investment in their own country, preferring to pack up and send their loots abroad while continuing to suck up money from inside the country. This is why some diplomats have said that the Cambodian elite are never satiated.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never enough for these croc head from green deal to grab individual khmer. what's leaders?

Anonymous said...

The CPP officals are all thieves of the nation big and small. Hun Sen is trying to find mistake in Ke Kimyan but it's about the land grabbing. This one-eyed prime minister is not to be trusted.

Anonymous said...

They're all corrupted.
Hun Sen is the most corrupted!

Anonymous said...

It makes me wonder why they never want to retire and all want to stay in power for as long as they can. They use all necessary dirty tricks to get elected. They would never hand over the government administration even that they lost the election. It is so good for them to stay on and on. Cry Cambodia, as you never see any light at the end of the tunnel.

Anonymous said...

My advice to Ke Kim Yann is to stay out from political party and create an accademic of National arm force to strengten your integrity and your respect from the mainstream of all Cambodians inside and out from Cambodia. You need to give up 75% of your landgrabbed to poor people so that you can win their heart to give you and your family all their respect. Our proverb goes" Monous kai Yuork Samdey and Damrei kai yuork Pluk " that means Each of us have been born with nothing and will depart from this world also with nothing" but each of us want millions of others to remember what we have done to contribute for the good society ( tveu Bonn ). THe destiny of Cambodia is now in the hands of "Arm force". If they prepare to rebuilt their country with good social justice, they have to stay out from all political parties and stay as neutral. They will be rewarded as National Heros. But if they stay with any political party, they will be condemned as puppet of a political leader. Their life won't be easier. They cannot be the Boss and they will be all the time being bullied by a political leader. It is their wisdom to make this very important decision. Areak Prey

Anonymous said...

Ke Kimyan should stay until time is right. Because the one-eye hyena ganster is waiting on the side line to grab it and it would be the biggest mistake Cambodia ever make gain.

Anonymous said...

It is no nightmare as long they sell, sell, sell; buyer develop, develop, develop which create jobs, jobs, jobs.

Anonymous said...

I agreed that CPP regime won't stop down unless the arm force or people power of Cambodia topple them down or international community like the US helps to bring Hun Sen from power. Otherwise, Cambodia will be corrupted and poor forever. The Thaicong and Vietcong will encroach our land more and more.

Some Khmer people supports CPP because they want to be corrupted and earn easier money like Hun Sen. They don't care what bad things that Hun Sen has done and being done to Khmer people. Hun Sen tries to destroy Cambodia for Vietcong benefit as Sihanouk did in the past.

Khmer Washington DC

Anonymous said...

Wrong, wrong, wrong, Cambodia will not be in poverty forever. We are slowly growing out of it. Soon there will be no more extreme poverty, and then you will see the growth of middle-classes ... . Then once again, we will put down in history that pure khmer can run Cambodia better than any westerner trained khmer.

Anonymous said...

Once again, we have some idiot (such as 9:50PM) who tries to divide Khmers by painting different colours to Khmers in different walks of life. Such an idiot should not be allowed to play any important role in the Cambodian society.

Wherever Khmers are trained or brought up, they are great Khmers as long as they are not corrupt, they don't forget their own culture, they care about the well-being of Cambodia, they work to protect Cambodia's sovereignty, and they show respect for all Khmers, whether Khmer Kandal, Khmer Krom, Khmer Leu, Khmer Sorin, and Khmer Mon.

9:50PM is, however, quite right to say that Cambodia will not be in poverty forever. That's because those corrupt CPP high-ranking officials will not live forever to suck Cambodia dry. Some of them are already dying of cancer, and their plundered wealth still cannot cure their illness.

Anonymous said...

Nope, there is no need to divide any khmer, they are all divided naturally and became independence by themselves. That is why Cambodia is the smallest country in region left, and we don't want to have anything to do with those independent fools (Khmer-whaever.)

Anonymous said...

HUN XEN IS GOING TO KILL HIS SON BECAUSE HE WAS TRAINED IN THE WEST?

oH! THAT VIET PRESSURE IS SO STRONG!

Anonymous said...

No because he was there for only a few years, how much influence can he get. Plus, he's probably home sick most of the time like many students who went to France, UK, AU, Korea, ..., and Japan.

Anonymous said...

Merl, merl.... lauk sak pee hah...
chouy merl dey kanlaeng nah yerng arch tov plon pee bro chea chhon ban?