A. Gaffar Peang-MethJune 11, 2008
The Pacific Daily News (Guam)
I was driving south in the United States as my wife read out loud the April 26 New York Times column "Last Breakfast in Cambodia" by Sichan Siv, former United States ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. He described his last bowl of Kuytiev noodle soup on April 17, 1975, the day armed Maoist Pol Pot Khmer Rouge radicals entered Cambodia's capital as victors.
Siv, then manager for humanitarian relief CARE, had missed the April 12 U.S. airlift out of Cambodia as he was busy with a relief meeting elsewhere. Subsequently, he spent a year in Pol Pot's "slave labor camps" where he survived two death sentences, then escaped, was jailed in Thailand, and finally was allowed to resettle in the U.S.
Thirty-three years later, Siv's column's datelined at Angkor, ancient Khmer ruins he visited during the Cambodian celebration of New Year. The Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese troops never permitted those traditional celebrations, Siv says, "But now Cambodia is free again and the festivities are in the open." Yet, Siv also observed, "Cambodia today is not unlike the Cambodia of my youth -- there is deep poverty and enormous wealth side by side. There is unrest beneath the surface ... ."
Siv's writing takes me to the March 27 statement by Ron Abney, director of the International Republican Institute, who was injured in Phnom Penh by the March 1997 hand grenade attack on the opposition Sam Rainsy Party protesters. The attack brought the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to Cambodia. No result was revealed.
Abney's statement reads: "Cambodia hasn't really changed. Everything looks shinier and tourists who fly from their own country to Bangkok or Hong Kong to Siem Reap and its five-star hotels and then back to their homes talk of how wonderful it is to see all the changes. They should travel about an hour from Siem Reap in any direction and see what has happened to the homeless who used to pack the streets of that great city.
"In Cambodia everybody votes but nobody counts," the statement charges.
Country for sale
Ironically, on the day Siv's "now Cambodia is free again" appeared in the Times, in England The Guardian's Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark's 11-page "Country for sale" (guardian.co.uk) reported, "Almost half of Cambodia has been sold to foreign speculators in the past 18 months -- and hundreds of thousands who fled the Khmer Rouge are homeless again."
The British claimed that Russian investor Alexander Trofimov bought Snake Island, or "Koh Puos," from Cambodia in 2006, and in 2007 Cambodia's islands of Russei, Ta Kiev, Bong, Ouen, Preus, Krabei, Tres "were all snapped up by foreigners" who also negotiated to buy "public beaches" as well. The "super-rich, predominately British, French and Swiss speculators, fuelled by a high-risk machismo, came hunting for profits of 30 percent or more. Their interest was land speculation ...," the article says, and the writers accuse authorities of permitting investors "to form 100 percent foreign-owned companies in Cambodia that can buy land and real estate outright -- or at least on 99-year-plus-99-year leases. No other country in the world countenances such a deal." The article was floated on the Internet by Cambodian groups, but I was amazed by the lack of discussion about it.
Economic development comes in many forms and shades. In "Angkor Wat: A Temple to Tourism?" Susan Postlewaite writes in the April 21 Business Week, "Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of the famous ruins, is booming, and luxury hotels, galleries, golf courses and spas are rising to meet demand." Of the 2.1 million tourists who visited Cambodia in 2006, almost half went to Angkor Wat. "Everyone is happy. The government is happy, the prime minister is happy," Postlewaite quoted a consultant for the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents, about the international arrivals.
Getting a makeover
Postlewaite's "Real Estate Boom in Cambodia's Capital" in the June 2 Business Week reminds, "A decade ago, Phnom Penh lacked even a single traffic light. Today, as land speculators rake in profits and new developments lure tenants, the dilapidated capital ... is getting a makeover. All over the city, shanty towns and old villas are being sold for land value and razed to make way for high-rise apartments, office buildings, shopping malls, and new villas." Postlewaite mentioned a 42-story "residential building," a 52-story skyscraper, both funded by money from South Korea.
The sales manager for the $240 million Korean-funded Gold Tower 42 skyscraper that's expected to be completed in three and a half years was quoted as boasting, "We are 80 percent sold out," with "high-ranking Cambodians and some foreigners from other Asian countries" plunking down deposits. And don't worry that foreigners are not allowed to own real estate in Cambodia. "You can get (Cambodian) citizenship" if your investment is of a certain size; "It's a contribution to the country," Postlewaite quoted a Western law firm in Phnom Penh.
Postlewaite says opposition leader Sam Rainsy called "many of the real estate deals 'shady.'" She writes, "The scramble for prime land has led to widespread evictions of people without clear land titles to the properties," and references a human rights group's report in Phnom Penh as claiming more than 50,000 people were evicted for development in 2006 and 2007, where "a developer wants to build a new township that will have condos, a hotel, and shopping."
"There is no balance between the big development and the rights of the people," a human rights lawyer told Postlewait.
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
Siv, then manager for humanitarian relief CARE, had missed the April 12 U.S. airlift out of Cambodia as he was busy with a relief meeting elsewhere. Subsequently, he spent a year in Pol Pot's "slave labor camps" where he survived two death sentences, then escaped, was jailed in Thailand, and finally was allowed to resettle in the U.S.
Thirty-three years later, Siv's column's datelined at Angkor, ancient Khmer ruins he visited during the Cambodian celebration of New Year. The Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese troops never permitted those traditional celebrations, Siv says, "But now Cambodia is free again and the festivities are in the open." Yet, Siv also observed, "Cambodia today is not unlike the Cambodia of my youth -- there is deep poverty and enormous wealth side by side. There is unrest beneath the surface ... ."
Siv's writing takes me to the March 27 statement by Ron Abney, director of the International Republican Institute, who was injured in Phnom Penh by the March 1997 hand grenade attack on the opposition Sam Rainsy Party protesters. The attack brought the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to Cambodia. No result was revealed.
Abney's statement reads: "Cambodia hasn't really changed. Everything looks shinier and tourists who fly from their own country to Bangkok or Hong Kong to Siem Reap and its five-star hotels and then back to their homes talk of how wonderful it is to see all the changes. They should travel about an hour from Siem Reap in any direction and see what has happened to the homeless who used to pack the streets of that great city.
"In Cambodia everybody votes but nobody counts," the statement charges.
Country for sale
Ironically, on the day Siv's "now Cambodia is free again" appeared in the Times, in England The Guardian's Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark's 11-page "Country for sale" (guardian.co.uk) reported, "Almost half of Cambodia has been sold to foreign speculators in the past 18 months -- and hundreds of thousands who fled the Khmer Rouge are homeless again."
The British claimed that Russian investor Alexander Trofimov bought Snake Island, or "Koh Puos," from Cambodia in 2006, and in 2007 Cambodia's islands of Russei, Ta Kiev, Bong, Ouen, Preus, Krabei, Tres "were all snapped up by foreigners" who also negotiated to buy "public beaches" as well. The "super-rich, predominately British, French and Swiss speculators, fuelled by a high-risk machismo, came hunting for profits of 30 percent or more. Their interest was land speculation ...," the article says, and the writers accuse authorities of permitting investors "to form 100 percent foreign-owned companies in Cambodia that can buy land and real estate outright -- or at least on 99-year-plus-99-year leases. No other country in the world countenances such a deal." The article was floated on the Internet by Cambodian groups, but I was amazed by the lack of discussion about it.
Economic development comes in many forms and shades. In "Angkor Wat: A Temple to Tourism?" Susan Postlewaite writes in the April 21 Business Week, "Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of the famous ruins, is booming, and luxury hotels, galleries, golf courses and spas are rising to meet demand." Of the 2.1 million tourists who visited Cambodia in 2006, almost half went to Angkor Wat. "Everyone is happy. The government is happy, the prime minister is happy," Postlewaite quoted a consultant for the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents, about the international arrivals.
Getting a makeover
Postlewaite's "Real Estate Boom in Cambodia's Capital" in the June 2 Business Week reminds, "A decade ago, Phnom Penh lacked even a single traffic light. Today, as land speculators rake in profits and new developments lure tenants, the dilapidated capital ... is getting a makeover. All over the city, shanty towns and old villas are being sold for land value and razed to make way for high-rise apartments, office buildings, shopping malls, and new villas." Postlewaite mentioned a 42-story "residential building," a 52-story skyscraper, both funded by money from South Korea.
The sales manager for the $240 million Korean-funded Gold Tower 42 skyscraper that's expected to be completed in three and a half years was quoted as boasting, "We are 80 percent sold out," with "high-ranking Cambodians and some foreigners from other Asian countries" plunking down deposits. And don't worry that foreigners are not allowed to own real estate in Cambodia. "You can get (Cambodian) citizenship" if your investment is of a certain size; "It's a contribution to the country," Postlewaite quoted a Western law firm in Phnom Penh.
Postlewaite says opposition leader Sam Rainsy called "many of the real estate deals 'shady.'" She writes, "The scramble for prime land has led to widespread evictions of people without clear land titles to the properties," and references a human rights group's report in Phnom Penh as claiming more than 50,000 people were evicted for development in 2006 and 2007, where "a developer wants to build a new township that will have condos, a hotel, and shopping."
"There is no balance between the big development and the rights of the people," a human rights lawyer told Postlewait.
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
11 comments:
There have been many articles from different sources, agencies, researchers and other people who really have caring heart for the cambodian and country.
they all see and describe the same exisitng problems in Cambodia but no one really describe what kind of solutions to help poor Cambodian people. I guess nobody dare to challenge the Mafia ring Hussen and his Vietnames boss have created.
Welcome back Dr A. Gaffar Peang-Meth.
We didn't hear your voice since you
left Son Sann group.
sometimes i wonder is this overwhelmingly typical of the scenes in cambodia or is it just one of those political attack on anyone's political opponent? one has to wonder out loud the reality of development in cambodia for someone to paint such cynical pictures of the present situation in cambodia. i've been there myself and also had traveled all over the world to different contenants of the world and saw that poor people are just about living everywhere in every country of the world. even in tiajuana, mexico, bangcock, thailand, manila, the philipines, vietnam, etc... i think in any society anywhere, there are poor people and rich people, a huge gap. that said, i do want to see cambodia does a better job than those countries; however, i have to wonder, are we being too hard on cambodia? are we expecting too much at a break-neck speed on cambodia who just happened to experience peace and development in the last 5 years or less? i see it as a great expectation for opposition and others to apply to cambodia without looking at the reality of the situation and how cambodia just now beginning to wake up from the nightmare the literally destroyed almost everything in cambodia social fabric. it is so easy to paint bleak pictures of cambodia and to scrutinize her like a criminal, thus overlooking some of the achievement cambodia strifed so hard to accomplish. i give cambodian gov't some credit for making many effort to reform cambodia. yes, i agree that there are still a lot more works to be done on reforms in gov't, however, even democracy anywhere in the world takes time to develop. sometimes, i am too ran out of patient with the pace of cambodia moving forward, and i'm often wish the turn of gov't to change and be replace by western educated individuals who've seen the world and educated about the world, and want to adopt bring those wisdom and know-how to cambodia without any obstacle whatsoever.
sometimes, too, i wonder, what about the majority of the cambodian people that lived in cambodia for a long time? what would they think about overseas cambodia who they said abandon the homeland to go overseas, and only want to come back when cambodia is peaceful, and who without regards to compromise and sharing of power, just wanted to storm into cambodia and take over from the people who said they are survivor and fighters, etc... this is where they don't necessary agree to. i think there ought to be some kind of compromise and some kind of balance of power with all political party. because adjustment does takes a while, a little more time to accept and get used to. and this is the way i see the situation in cambodia, can't force changes overnight.
on the other hand, i also can see the impatience of the opposition party group as well, especially when we compare cambodia to the neighboring countries and see how slow to change and develop cambodia is, they run out of patience. so, despite all the disagreement between parties, i'm sure glad someone is doing something to bring about changes to cambodia. i can see that all in all, things are going good for cambodia despite the disagreements, etc... perhaps, it is a bless in disguise. it is good to protest and demonstrate to put pressure on gov't to reform etc... god bless cambodia.
Is it the mentality of the leaders there or is it just how they do business in cambodia? Sometimes, one has to wonder out loud. It seems like the cycle of impunity or double standard never ends. Perhaps, it will take some very strong, educated leader to take Cambodia out of this kind of endless suffering mentality. The question should be, how to do it without sabotaging or disturbing peace and scare investors away and left cambodia forever impoverished. Anyone has a solution? Hint: war is not a solution; some kind of compromise of a win/win all situation is better, if you ask me. thank you.
Hun has only 10 fingers and 10 toes, there are 14M people in Cambodia. He lost the count very quickly.
Poor people, do we have poor in Cambodia?
The CPP leader is physically blind and his members mentally blind.
Go CPP go.
Bullshit, it it Ah Jkout's (Gaffar's) regime who left everyone behind to be slaughter by the Khmer Rouge.
On the other hand, we are the one who cleaned up after Ah Jkout and freed everyone from the suffering, and no one was left behind.
A lot of Ah khmeng lops in Long Beach!
Long time no see!
Lok Gaffar Peas Mék.
How have you been?
Help to liberate Champa!
Champa is happy, and they don't want idiot (Gaffar) to do them any favor.
How can he liberate Champa if they are dead and the rest mixed with Youns? Dr. Gafar cannot even liberate his birth country, Cambodia from Youn, so? LOL LOL
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