March 13, 2008By SOURN SEREY RATHA
UPI Asia Online
Guest Commentary
CRANSTON CITY, R.I., United States, When we talk about human rights violations in Cambodia we cannot avoid the corruption issue, because corruption is the foundation of human rights violations. A corrupt government cannot eliminate corruption.
The corrupt government in Cambodia must behave as a terrorist government in order to protect its autocratic power, based on a network of officials and their relatives. Currently, when we talk about Prime Minister Hun Sen, his family and his government, we cannot avoid talking about the corruption and human rights violations his government has committed.
From 1979 to 1984, all officials of the Communist Party of Cambodia were supported by Vietnam. They did not have actual salaries; their daily needs were provided by the party, which was controlled by Vietnam. From 1984 to 1991, the party changed its policy, encouraging its officials to get honorariums from the government. They received full salaries from 1991 to 1993 and after 1993 to the present.
If we calculate the salary of party officials from 1991 to the present, plus their benefits and pensions, it is impossible that they could have acquired the assets they currently own.
The anti-corruption non-governmental group Global Witness has reported that Hun Sen's government destroyed Cambodia's forests through logging activities for the benefit of his family and the political, military and business elite. This report did not mention other natural resources exploited by the government for its own interests, including the gemstone mines in Pailin and Ratanakiri and the gold and silver mines in Kampongthom.
Aid from the international community through the Consultative Group set up in 1996, which aimed to renew Cambodia, has not been accounted for through regular auditing procedures; most of that assistance has gone to private pockets.
At present it is easily seen that officials of the Hun Sen government and their families own a lot of property, have money in bank accounts, and utilize funds and material out of balance with their annual incomes. This is corruption. It is not something that involves the farmers or the poor. It is an area that belongs to the government and its officials.
Hun Sen's government is a corrupt government. He and his family are a symbol of corruption in Cambodia because he is the leader of the country's corrupt officials and businessmen.
Hun Sen strengthens his power by using the money exploited from the nation's resources and its people to support his own private soldiers, who violate human rights and threaten the people.
Externally it appears that Hun Sen's government was created through elections, but the actual inside story is that it is held together by military power, power fueled by corruption and corruption headed by Hun Sen's family, which leads the government.
The people of Cambodia should be clear about the corruption in their country. The international community should also understand this point. The 2004 World Bank report "Cambodia at the Crossroads," the World Food Program's case study on Cambodia, the research by Global Witness, and other evidence gathered by international groups documents the leadership's poor governance.
A government that is mired in corruption cannot eliminate corruption. To protect itself it will continue to violate human rights. A government that violates human rights is always afraid of the people, afraid they will organize into a people power movement. Such a movement, which is a form of democracy, could pull down the current corrupt government.
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(Sourn Serey Ratha is chief of mission of the Action Committee for Justice and Equity for Cambodians Overseas, based in Rhode Island, United States. He was born to a farmer's family in Cambodia, earned B.A degrees in law and sociology in Phnom Penh and an M.A. in international policy from Mara University of Technology in Malaysia. He has been a social activist for his country on the national and international levels since 1997. ©Copyright Sourn Serey Ratha.)
The corrupt government in Cambodia must behave as a terrorist government in order to protect its autocratic power, based on a network of officials and their relatives. Currently, when we talk about Prime Minister Hun Sen, his family and his government, we cannot avoid talking about the corruption and human rights violations his government has committed.
From 1979 to 1984, all officials of the Communist Party of Cambodia were supported by Vietnam. They did not have actual salaries; their daily needs were provided by the party, which was controlled by Vietnam. From 1984 to 1991, the party changed its policy, encouraging its officials to get honorariums from the government. They received full salaries from 1991 to 1993 and after 1993 to the present.
If we calculate the salary of party officials from 1991 to the present, plus their benefits and pensions, it is impossible that they could have acquired the assets they currently own.
The anti-corruption non-governmental group Global Witness has reported that Hun Sen's government destroyed Cambodia's forests through logging activities for the benefit of his family and the political, military and business elite. This report did not mention other natural resources exploited by the government for its own interests, including the gemstone mines in Pailin and Ratanakiri and the gold and silver mines in Kampongthom.
Aid from the international community through the Consultative Group set up in 1996, which aimed to renew Cambodia, has not been accounted for through regular auditing procedures; most of that assistance has gone to private pockets.
At present it is easily seen that officials of the Hun Sen government and their families own a lot of property, have money in bank accounts, and utilize funds and material out of balance with their annual incomes. This is corruption. It is not something that involves the farmers or the poor. It is an area that belongs to the government and its officials.
Hun Sen's government is a corrupt government. He and his family are a symbol of corruption in Cambodia because he is the leader of the country's corrupt officials and businessmen.
Hun Sen strengthens his power by using the money exploited from the nation's resources and its people to support his own private soldiers, who violate human rights and threaten the people.
Externally it appears that Hun Sen's government was created through elections, but the actual inside story is that it is held together by military power, power fueled by corruption and corruption headed by Hun Sen's family, which leads the government.
The people of Cambodia should be clear about the corruption in their country. The international community should also understand this point. The 2004 World Bank report "Cambodia at the Crossroads," the World Food Program's case study on Cambodia, the research by Global Witness, and other evidence gathered by international groups documents the leadership's poor governance.
A government that is mired in corruption cannot eliminate corruption. To protect itself it will continue to violate human rights. A government that violates human rights is always afraid of the people, afraid they will organize into a people power movement. Such a movement, which is a form of democracy, could pull down the current corrupt government.
--
(Sourn Serey Ratha is chief of mission of the Action Committee for Justice and Equity for Cambodians Overseas, based in Rhode Island, United States. He was born to a farmer's family in Cambodia, earned B.A degrees in law and sociology in Phnom Penh and an M.A. in international policy from Mara University of Technology in Malaysia. He has been a social activist for his country on the national and international levels since 1997. ©Copyright Sourn Serey Ratha.)
22 comments:
Ratha is hungry to be on a spotlight. Beat it man, and roll on.
HAHAHA.. LOL LOL. This guy loves to have his face on the camera. LOL LOL
Any plan for PM next election? HAHA
He is weird person who I have never seen. He tries to be famous by just blaming everybody. He is Kampoul Moha Chheuy in Rhode Island. He is living near my house. No one wants to talk to him because of his attitude. He makes all Khmer who have just come to the States because of him. He does not know how to criticize for good, he knows only blaming everybody. I am sure if Hun Sen gives him $10,000, he will shut his mouth. We know that Hun Sen is a corrupted government, so he deserved to be scold. But some other people, they don't even know him, he also blam them. I’m just talking about his politic career; but for his personal life, he is very very very stupid.
He is very very very stupid
It's too bad most of Khmers who live in America does not take Ratha's path. Most preferred to drop out of school and joint the OG & robbed each other, esp. in the LA, Lowell, stockton, Philly, etc.
He has some good credential on his shoulders. I guess it safe to say he's educated. I am not taking his side, but WE NEED MORE YOUNG PEOPLE LIKE HIM. THE MEDIA IS POWERFUL TO CONVEY A MESSAGE TO THE PUBLIC. WHO CARE IF HE SHOW HIS FACE IN THE SPOTLIGHT AS LONG AS THE WORLD KNOW THAT CORRUPTION IS RAMPANT IN THE CPP. IT MUST BE STOPPED.
Corruption beget corruption...to sum up Mr. Ratha's piece.
Mr. Ratha's piece is correct when he wrote about corruption in Cambodia's case.
It is a given that corruption exist within any society, but by degree. In the case of Cambodia, we witness "favor" or "tea money" being exercise openly in every level of the government, and commerce...etc..
How did "favor" and tea money became a fabric of Cambodia society and culture?
Corruption exist in Cambodia long before Mr. Hun Sen and his CPP, but Mr. HUN Sen has turned it into an art form and a way of life in Cambodia around 1986. This was his answer to failure of communism.
Although Mr. Hun Sen and his clique were good communist, they encouraged their subordinates to keep a portion of money or rice collected from the people to supplement state income. Since then, this has become an avalanche.
Elizabeth Becker who did an extensive study on the Cambodian reconstruction...has done an excellent job in highlighting some of the point Mr. Ratha was stating. Her work is entitled "when the war was over."
Sourn Serey Ratha is a pig and looks like pig too.
To all people who are supporting Ratha. No body knows the real Ratha yet. In fact if you knew him, you would not have said good thing about him. He is really a jerk. Of course he is educated person, but it does not mean he is the best. For example Pol Pot, a well educated man from, he ended up his life by killing millions Khmer people. HRH Norodom Ranaridh, a French educated person, ended up his life by stealing money from his party and selling his hornor to Hun Sen. So, educated does not guarantee that he is good. The point is, in order to become a good person, people have to have good attitude, creative, mercy ness, helpful, and more.
Finally, my comment to Ratha is, He is a Moha sen chhouy person that I have never seen in my whole life."
:-)
Not all American person dropped out hight school; yes some of them did. But Cambodia too; and it happens everywere around the world. So please don't use stereoptype judgement to all Cambodian people.
Oh! I forgot. Ratha is jerk.
NO ONE IS THE BEST OF SHIT, FOOL!
Ratha may be a jerk but this peace of his writting is excelanced!
We should not look up for best guy, supper man, or supperio being fro heaven! But looking for good idea!
If the idea is good we got it do not looking for Shihanouk we will end up with Pol Pot!
May Laws and democracy rule our land some day!
Yeah, on planet of the Ape, but not here.
In Cambodia, Buddha's spirit rules forever.
Facts are fact and regardless of who has disseminate it, the harbinger of such facts are often attacked...
Mr. Ratha is attacked purely on the merit of his work.....His education is but a tool that enable him to disseminate information in a manner that is acceptable to the mass. His education does not predestine him to be a leader or entitle him to anything special.
Mr. Ratha chooses to use his education for the discourse on his thought on corruption. He has define the term and produced evidence to support his claim. He is a true academia, and base on the his work, he believe in what he said...and thus, to attack him personally for his work, is improper.
The Pig (Ratha) didn't do shit. All he did is echoing and mimicking some of the Dog (NGO) in Cambodia. You ain't gonna get no gold medal for that.
Imitation is considered to be a high form of admiration. Obviously, Mr. Ratha admires the ideals and the work with which those NGO proclaim.
Of course, some of those ideals are almost impossible to carry out, but if we rewind the clock back some 30 years, some of those NGO were presented along with the U.N. both in Cambodia and Cambodia-Thai border to feed and clothed the starving mass of Cambodia Children and Women.
If some Cambodians are unable or unwilling to show gratitude, it is all the more reason that we highlight the work of Mr. Ratha or those like his. We do not want to be accused of lacking in "sajivitor"
Mr. Ratha has his heart in the right place... He voices a thought that is in almost everyone mind.
"Tea money" at a check point, "Tea money" at boarder crossing or "tea money" for selling fish at a market to a family that earn less than 5 dollars a day...is a heavy burden.
Oh, cut out the rhetoric here, 9:15.
The Pig didn't do crap but trying to steal someone else credits here, and he ain't gonna get any Award for that. Stop dreaming, dude.
I believe only "ONE" person who wrote "negative comments" about the author of the article. Who is this coward and stupid anonimous? The author only wrote about the corruption in Cambodia. If you love Hun Sen and his condamnable and despicable deeds then you too are despicable, you moron. You don't have to lie that you know the author and you live near his home. Because you're a stupid coward who would never dare to face the truth or challenge the truth face to face. So, stop writing nonsense and face the truth you stupid pig.
SOURN SEREY RATHA, you must do your utmost to combat this malicious disease, the corruption, in Cambodia. If you don't do it, who will? Best of luck in your admirable and respectable journey. And don't be a corrupt yourself. Good strength to you. Thank you.
A stupid anonimous who post all the negative comments about the author is possibly a foreigner with malicious mind. You'll die very soon.
Oh stop living in denial, fools. I too can do what the pig did, but I don't want to lower myself that low.
To have come this far, and to be this quiet lucid in his discourse on corruption,Mr. Ratha has done an extensive reading and research on the topic of corruption, and as such, if nothing else, Mr. Ratha is to be commented by this reader even thought other may see it other wise.
It would be interesting, indeed to see those who has proclaimed that they can do what Mr. has done by generating an article along Mr. Line, especially on corruption. We would be very interest to see how they define corruption....
Poor stupid 8.55, you really don't know Ratha very well. You have fully right to say that I don't know Ratha, but is just only your oppinion. In fact, Ratha is living is Union Ave, RI. He migrated to the USA as an asylime. He attacks everybody, even the director of RFA, and other good people. He is supporter of Ly Deap, Angkor Borey Newspaper. So, watch out dude and be careful. Hell will bring you to NOROK very soon. By the way, why couldn’t you accept the fact that there are so many people who do not support him. Why you did you claim that just only one person wrote the comment? You will die soon.
die off the earth you piglet. there sre way too many harmful animals like you on the planet. die off ah choy maii.
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