Dear Khmerization,
I have read some news, and it comes to my knowledge about issues of land disputes. I wish to thus share my humble view on this.
After a short pause, there have been now several reports about land disputes again. When hearing these, I feel very upset with the government because most, if not all, of the problems are due to either the government’s reluctance in solving or else corruption.
People were often evicted upon being accused of settling on the state’s or Sor-Chor-Nor holders’ land. Now supposed that in most of the cases the people were the violating party, then the key question is “Why didn’t the government authorities take measures with, presumably, the squatters since the first place, prior to their long peaceful occupation which resulted in their solid settlement?” I believe that the government, having all levels of representatives ranging from village chief up to the top leadership, must be able to deal with the problem at the very start and should not have left the people to hope that they would have legal rights to the land since they had peacefully and publicly occupied the site for a long period, even longer than the legal requirement.
If the government really cares about the people’s welfare, it should protect the majority who are, and especially, the poor and the vulnerable. Ignorance and unwillingness on the part of the government are the major cause of people’s sufferings.
Best regards,
Raja Dhama
I have read some news, and it comes to my knowledge about issues of land disputes. I wish to thus share my humble view on this.
After a short pause, there have been now several reports about land disputes again. When hearing these, I feel very upset with the government because most, if not all, of the problems are due to either the government’s reluctance in solving or else corruption.
People were often evicted upon being accused of settling on the state’s or Sor-Chor-Nor holders’ land. Now supposed that in most of the cases the people were the violating party, then the key question is “Why didn’t the government authorities take measures with, presumably, the squatters since the first place, prior to their long peaceful occupation which resulted in their solid settlement?” I believe that the government, having all levels of representatives ranging from village chief up to the top leadership, must be able to deal with the problem at the very start and should not have left the people to hope that they would have legal rights to the land since they had peacefully and publicly occupied the site for a long period, even longer than the legal requirement.
If the government really cares about the people’s welfare, it should protect the majority who are, and especially, the poor and the vulnerable. Ignorance and unwillingness on the part of the government are the major cause of people’s sufferings.
Best regards,
Raja Dhama
4 comments:
Only the weak and the powerless face evictions from their lands. Talking about land titles, no one, Hun Sen included, has continuity titles because all titles were annulled by the Khmer Rouge regime. After 1979 no one has continuity titles, not even the original owners, and all titles have to be reissued, but the poor and the powerless, who been asking for titles for along time, were not issued with proper titles. The reality was that, after 7th January 1979, everybody just occupy lands and houses and just claimed to be their own- they did not have titles. titles were only issued later on.
You are talking like Cambodia is a communist state where the government can do everything. Cambodia has the free capitalist market system. As good as it sounds, there is a lot of greed in that system. Look at the US's financial crisis. It all began with the greed of those capitalist investors to issue subprime loans.
If you want to play blame game, you should learn more how the system works first. Sure maybe the government can be blamed for not being too enthusiastic about helping but you can't blame one group in problem. Problem usually consists of many groups responsible for it. Cambodia has a friendly market system which attracts investors and along with those investors, some are good and some are bad. So, you have to take what is good along with the bad.
Nothing is perfect in this world. If you live long enough, you should know that already.
one root cause is lawless. if cambodia strengthen the rule of law, people will see justice to his kind of unfair treatment, etc... rule of law cannot be emphasized enough. until people understand this, the "small" people in cambodia see always be taken advantaged of. however, with the rule of law society and its strong and strict enforcement, people from all walks of life will be protected in the name of law, and the wrong doers usually will end up in prison or jail for their injust act! people must demand the good rule of law society! god bless cambodia.
9:56pm, I agreed with you that nothing is perfect in this world, but you can't compare Cambodia to the U.S. There are people in America who committed crimes and frauds etc, but the difference is that those people get punished while people in Cambodia, especially the rich and the powerful, the perpetrators are immune from prosecution.
It is true that the system in Cambodia is a free market system, but it is more of an anarchic system than a free market, where corruption and lawlessness, reigned supreme.
The land disputes will be minimized greatly if the rich and the powerful are not too greedy and the judicial system works independently and uncorrupted. The land disputes increased by the day because the courts are conniving with the rich and the powerful to rob from the poor and the powerless.
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