12/19/2009
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram
"Rodley's harshest criticisms of the government in Cambodia related to the lack of democracy and freedom of expression, and the culture of corruption that seems to go to the core of the society."LONG BEACH - Carol Rodley didn't think the Long Beach community could come up with 90 minutes of questions about the country where she is stationed.
Obviously, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia didn't know Long Beach.
Even after the two-hour time slot had run out at the Town Hall meeting at Mark Twain Library, people were still lining up to quiz her.
"It was great to come here," Rodley said. "This is a lively and engaged community."
Rodley's appearance in Long Beach on Saturday was sponsored by the Cambodia Town community group. About 65 people crowded into the community room at the library to hear the ambassador speak and field questions.
A career officer with the Foreign Service, Rodley was sworn in as ambassador in October 2008, after being stationed in Afghanistan as a counselor for political military affairs. She had been stationed in Cambodia in the late 1990s.
She said the Cambodia of today is far different from the one she left about 10 years ago.
"Compared to a place like Afghanistan, Cambodia doesn't look so bad," Rodley said. "It has a lot of problems, to be sure, but they're the usual problems in a developing, poor country."
Rodley gave a mostly positive report on the state of Cambodia, citing improvements in infrastructure, private sector economic growth and what she saw as a newfound confidence in the Cambodian people in her short speech before taking questions.
For the next 90 minutes, the audience taxed Rodley's knowledge across an array of issues.
Rodley's harshest criticisms of the government in Cambodia related to the lack of democracy and freedom of expression, and the culture of corruption that seems to go to the core of the society.
Rodley said she received a lot of heat from the government when she cited a study that estimated that corruption cost Cambodia $500 million a year.
Among the positives Rodley saw were the recent conclusion of the first Khmer Rouge War Crimes Tribunal, and the arrest of others. She also said the inaugural group of Peace Corps volunteers to the country was an unqualified success and she was happy to find an arts community springing up in the country.
Greg Mellen 562-499-1291
greg.mellen@presstelegram.com
17 comments:
Ms. Rodley should apply as an anti-corruption advisor to Mr. Hun Sen and the royal government of Cambodia.
As far as debts Cambodia owed to the USA during the Lon Nol era, Ms. Rodley should propose the debt cancellation proposal to the US congress asap...considering that bombs dropped by American war planes killed over half a million innocent Cambodians. If this were to be brought to the world court, billions of dollars of compensation will undoubtedly be ordered by the judges to allocate to the people of Cambodia.
War crimes of the Nixon regime on Cambodia were documented all over in films and files.
Ambassador Rodley should keep speaking out about the corrupt Cambodian system. It robs the country of wealth and dignity. She should not be intimidated by thugs like Hun Sen and pervert Keieu Kanarith
People interested in testifying and groups with survivors who would like to become involved can contact ASRIC via e-mail at asric.apa@nyu.edu or by calling Nou at 562-985-7439.
Fuck you 5:10PM,
U.S should file a law suit against the khmer govt for harboring Vietcong and North Vietnam in their territory and then launch the attacks against the South and the Americans.Beside,American only dropped bombs on the HO CHI MING trails which were built well inside Cambodia interior.
Alas!! Everyone above has his say, and the poster#1 5:10 PM claimed that Lon Nol owed the US some $$, but this poster does not have proof to back up how Lon Nol borrowed money from the US. In contrast the proofs showed that Communist Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh and his thugs received multi billion of US dollars from a former Soviet Unions led by Stalin to take just Cambodia and Laos.
The facts were that Viets were all over in Cambodia for a long times ago, but the fight against the US was just a pretext for them Vietnamese to say "we fight the Capitalists out of Cambodia in SEA".
The French didn't kick the Vietnamese thugs out of Cambodia but the US kicked the Thais, and how do we know why the Vietnamese thugs have never left Cambodia? Our new history unmasked how the Vietnamese thugs played doubled games by borrowing billion of dollars from Soviet to take Cambodia while they already occupied her.
The one who set up the fire in Cambodia was the thugs of Hanoi who burned all Khmer people's ID so easy for the thugs of Hanoi to fabricate their new ID and so they became Khmers; and the ones pretend to put up the fire is also the thugs of Hanoi.
If Lon Nol owed the US that much then the thugs of Hanoi must pay for.
Hun Sen the new strong man of Cambodia which fled the murderous regime in 1977 and which Vietnamese have rammmené in their luggage to install in the head of Cambodia.
Hun Sen le nouvel homme fort du Cambodge qui a fui le régime meurtrier en 1977 et que les vietnamiens ont rammmené dans leurs bagages pour installer à la tête du Cambodge.
Documentaire écrit et réalisé en 2008 par Gilles Cayatte, diffusé sur France 5, le Lundi 23/02/2009 20h35.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFVnZPDQDT4&feature=related
Say what? Lon Nol is gone and he carried his US debts to the grave with him. Leaving the viet war aside, current cambodian govt should not be liable to this money owed to US. We khmer are not going to cleaning up Lon Nol's mess. If your deceased dad owes money to the creditor, are you responsible for his loans? The answer is definitely "NO". US can excavate Lon Nol's grave and demand repayments, but khmers are not responsible for his loans.
united states must do better than run away as khmer republic .
TO 10:42 PM.
You can't change, that is an INTERNATIONAL LAW.
All debts in the past or presnt that khmer Gov. has loaned from any Countrie in the World, every khmer have to pay back to them that is our responsible (international law).
Now, we have to prevent corruption in our county. So that all new loans would not go into someone's pocket..
It is unfortunate past Cambodian leaders as well as the current one owed so much money to other nations. Cambodia owes to almost every larger and wealthier nations.
One of the ways wealthier nations invade and plunder third-world nations is to loan them more money than they can possibly afford to pay back, then string them along in a never-ending system of debt while their private corporations invade and take over the national economy. It's the same scam that banks use to control the People in the United States: Loan them more money than they can afford to pay back and then turn the people into lifelong wage slaves that pay the banks compounded interest.
A country is likened to person who live forever unless the country is dead-- disappearing from the world map--, otherwise what it owes to the other countries need to be settled. That's why, Cambodian leaders must not enter into any loan contract with other nations and pass on the loans for the next generations.
Loans to help rebuild or build Cambodia is not bad, but loans that are used to enrich government officials via corruption is deadly.
Unless Cambodia is self-sufficient or self-reliant then our next generations will be slaves forever to foreign countries.
In term of foreign interference, to my opinion (based on history and contemporary Cambodia) Cambodia has been victimized by Vietnam and China the most. The US had also contributed to the short-term distruction of Cambodia as well. So, to be hornest, all comments above make sense.
I'm glad that Miss Ambassador came to meet Cambodian-Americans to hear their concerns about Cambodia because Khmer inside Cambodia are unable to meet her in a town meeting like this or even if they do can they express their concerns about the Cambodian government? I don't think so. I wish she can come to other places to meet other cambodian-Americans throughout the US.
To 5:10pm
Before any reparations the US government make to Cambodia, all the Ex-Khmer Rouges members in the current government must be purged in every level...namely Hun Sen, Heng Samrin, Chea Sim, Hor Nam Hong, etc. They are incompetent and extremely corrupt, undemocratic, nepotism, despotism, you name it. It's like a tuberculosis in the body, and they must go. A new generation of educated Khmers will be the future of Cambodia and serve the interests of its people, not personal or foreign interests. Cambodians must join hands as people power to vote out all the incompetents out of office.
What Debt?We should pay for the bombs that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian Cambodian. That statement is ridiculous, it's like a murdering asking his victim, oh you have to pay for the bullet. At the time Sihanouk' made it clear that he did not want get involved in the Vietnam war. He didn't trust the U.S. because at the time, the U.S. helped to assasinate the president of south Vietnam, who was considered a political ally to the U.S.. Sihanouk, understood that the U.S. Would eliminate anyone that they felt were not longer useful to them and he was correct in assuming this, the Cia helped Lon Nol stage a coupe de tat against Sihanouk. Sihanouk turned to china for help and became entangled with the Khmer rouge regime, who was supported by China. By 1975, the U.S. Helped instigate the civil war in Cambodia and once it felt Cambodia was no longer useful to it, it Abandoned Lon Nol and his regime to die by the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Lon Nol and other high officials left Cambodia,but a few
others like prince Sirik Matak stayed and died along with
the other one and a half million Khmer people.
The US needs to pay for it's past crime and help the people of Cambodia, to get rid of Hun Sen's government and help install a true democratic government.
I missed that meeting. Next time I will make sure to attend if Madame Ambassador will ever step foot in Long Beach again. I think Madame Ambassador needs to bring in some American businesses to take a foothole in Cambodia. For example, how about importing the Cerrito Mall to Cambodia. That would be fun and show the Cambodians what is shopping American style is all about.
To say that hundred of thousands of innocence khmer were lost during the bombing is extremely exaggerate.It may be few hundred but who care.Those people may be khmer vietming and were used by yuon to carry ammo for the North Vietnamese army in the HO CHI MING trail.Well, go to hell ,you love yuon then you die with yuon.
8:47 I agree with you.
The question is Americans was BAD with Cambodians in 1968-1975.
They bombed Cambodia, imposed Lon Nol Khmers to fight with them.
And few years later, they quit. Even they know that Lon Nol Khmers would be killed by communists.
Post a Comment