Hing Chantha, a 45-year-old farmer in Kandal province, has lived with corruption his whole life.
Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 23 April 2010
In 1996, he opened a business selling cabbage, cucumber and other vegetables at Takhmao market. Every year since then, he figures, he’s paid $300 a year in corruption, to protect his business and keep his children in school, and for various nagging fees that eat up a quarter of his annual gross.
“The amount of money is a small sum for the rich,” he said in a recent interview. “But it is very valuable for me as a farmer, working hard from morning to night.”
Hing Chantha is an ordinary man, facing ordinary corruption, one of millions of Cambodians who see their earnings whittled away through unofficial fees, or tea money, or lose out to nepotism, patronage, theft, or tax evasion.
He’s heard about a new anti-corruption law, officially approved this month, he said, but he doubts it will eliminate the costs he continually faces. That law, which has yet to be promulgated, provides punishments for officials who engage in corruption, as well as for middlemen who perpetuate it.
For Hing Chantha—who lives in an aging wooden house with a tin roof, less than 10 kilometers from the massive Kandal province complex of Prime Minister Hun Sen—the law is far away and corruption is close at home.
“I have suffered from corruption, and I have experienced unofficial daily payments through my own life,” he said.
Hing Chantha is a thin man, short, a father of five. He carries vegetables to the market on his old motorcycle at 4 am, returning to the farm a few hours later to tend the crops he keeps behind his house.
He sat tired in a small plastic chair one morning and recalled the bribes he’s had to pay in his life: $40 to local police to protect his land from being taken by a private company; $37.50 for the birth certificates of his children; $7.50 for a marriage certificate; $18 for the privilege to sell at the market; and $30 a month to keep his children in school.
“The unofficial payments have not provided any benefit to me, but they have deepened the poverty of my daily life,” he said. “I can tolerate the poverty in my family, but I cannot tolerate the sufferings of corruption.”
Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 23 April 2010
“I have suffered from corruption, and I have experienced unofficial daily payments through my own life.”Hing Chantha, a 45-year-old farmer in Kandal province, has lived with corruption his whole life.
In 1996, he opened a business selling cabbage, cucumber and other vegetables at Takhmao market. Every year since then, he figures, he’s paid $300 a year in corruption, to protect his business and keep his children in school, and for various nagging fees that eat up a quarter of his annual gross.
“The amount of money is a small sum for the rich,” he said in a recent interview. “But it is very valuable for me as a farmer, working hard from morning to night.”
Hing Chantha is an ordinary man, facing ordinary corruption, one of millions of Cambodians who see their earnings whittled away through unofficial fees, or tea money, or lose out to nepotism, patronage, theft, or tax evasion.
He’s heard about a new anti-corruption law, officially approved this month, he said, but he doubts it will eliminate the costs he continually faces. That law, which has yet to be promulgated, provides punishments for officials who engage in corruption, as well as for middlemen who perpetuate it.
For Hing Chantha—who lives in an aging wooden house with a tin roof, less than 10 kilometers from the massive Kandal province complex of Prime Minister Hun Sen—the law is far away and corruption is close at home.
“I have suffered from corruption, and I have experienced unofficial daily payments through my own life,” he said.
Hing Chantha is a thin man, short, a father of five. He carries vegetables to the market on his old motorcycle at 4 am, returning to the farm a few hours later to tend the crops he keeps behind his house.
He sat tired in a small plastic chair one morning and recalled the bribes he’s had to pay in his life: $40 to local police to protect his land from being taken by a private company; $37.50 for the birth certificates of his children; $7.50 for a marriage certificate; $18 for the privilege to sell at the market; and $30 a month to keep his children in school.
“The unofficial payments have not provided any benefit to me, but they have deepened the poverty of my daily life,” he said. “I can tolerate the poverty in my family, but I cannot tolerate the sufferings of corruption.”
18 comments:
Rampant corruption has already become CPP culture for 3 decades.
Our consistent complaints about corruption has been a waste of time for the ruling ring has to live on bribery and corruption.
So, don't get mad, get even.
There's a limit to the amount of frustraction we can bear.
Bribery and corruption of all descriptions will be gone as soon as we rise in armed revolt to overthrow the corrupt regime.
We have to do something about it before it is too late.
I'm ready for it. How about you?
Let's be real about it Khmer culture since the Sihanouk regime till today all are very corrupt. It's the culture that the next generation inherited. twenty odd years ago I questioned the integrity of the FUNCINPEC the KPNLF conduct and behaviour when they would return to Cambodia, I was told then that they will be different what they did along the boarder was because they were resistance without money and support (at the boarder they are viscous and most corrupted)but after they have returned for FUNCINPEC they were worst money grabing including the Ranariddh himhelf. The point is it's not CPP it's the damn culture now, it will take a real long time to change custom changing this behaviour there must be a will from political institution that is strong and independent. If you look at the current political structure it is all design to protect the leader in fact give them more power and excuses to even commit more corruption. The so call educated people nowadays are also corrupted, they don't lead by example. A change of politic and strong will to wipe out this bad habit is need for Khmer to survive existing trends will lead to our destruction....
Yes! Kg Speu peasants and villagers were brave enough to sit blocking the traffic on Rt#4 to fight for justice. If they can do it, so do we.
we, students and teachers, have a lot to learn from them. The so-called intellectuals are worth nothing, but total cowards and losers.
blame on the people vote the government. not the government.
TO GE RID OF CORRUPTION WE MUST GET RID OF CPP-COMMUNIST PEOPLE PARTY OR HUN SEN'S REGIME. I PERSONALLY WOULD LIKE TO SEE A CHANGE OF CAMBODIA LEADERSHIP. HUN SEN CAN'T BE PM FOR LIFE. THE LONGER HE IN POWER THE MORE HE ABUSE HIS POWER AND CAMBODIA WILL BE IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. STAND UP CAMBODIANS.
10:11am,
Whether CPP or any other party event the SRP in power - they will corrupt as well. Do you know the "power corrupt, and absolute power corrupt absolutely". The only way to clear corruption is by having a strong institution and a strong anti-corruption laws. Anti-corruption must be in place and implemented with havey punishment (5 yrs to life in present). No one should be about the law- just like HS said, but that would include the HS himself if he does some against the law.... so strong institution is the way to build a strong and just nation for all citizen....
everyone would agee that corrupted existed long since before KR, before current administration and so forth. we all got to help stop this traditional practice once and for all by creating an anti-corruption committee that carry out investigation, punishment and report by using law, etc... people got to say no more and say no! they have to understand that it only hurt our country. create a task force that discourage corruption at all cost, really!
Cambodia is not the right place for you to spend your golden year,if you coul not ignore corruption,lawlessness,and etc...
I agree corruption is very prevalent in Cambodian culture, even among everyday people. If people don't wake up, everything that is called Cambodia/Cambodian is damned to doom.
I visited Cambodia in 2008. I bought something from the market and handed the lady seller one hundred dollar bill. She tried to cheat me by short changed me with the exchange rate. I was so angry.
In 2010 I took my family to visit my birth country again. I passed through immigration official at the border, they requested "coffee money," however amount I was willing to give. Here is the irony. When the official saw on our American passport that we were borned in Cambodia, they separated us from the rest of the foreigners in our tour bus group. Then they requested "coffee money." They would not dare to request this stupid "coffe money" from foreign borned tourists or asked from us in front of them, perhaps too embarrass.
Needless to say these corrupt Cambodian border jerks make me loath visiting the country I love.
Sometimes I wondered if it is even worth it to visit this backward country corrupted to the very core.
If this culture of money-swindling and corruption do not change, Cambodia will forevever stuck in poverty, and never rise to anything, much less become developed.
11:31 YOU NEED TO DO MORE HOMEWORK. DO YOU SEE HOW THE SYSTEM WORK IN CAMBODIA NOW? OH BY THE WAY I HOPE YOU CAN GO STAND ON A STREET AND CURSE TO PM HUN SEN, SAY SOMETHING BAD ABOUT GOVERNMENT AND SEE WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO DO WITH YOU.
Why we don't try to understand the situation ?
It is not just in the country Cambodia. It also happened in the US or somewhere else but only a different way. All the US citizen have to pay income tax or what ever, otherwise they will fine or stick them in a prison, if they don't.
It is not a real corruption, more about the rule of protection and Cambodian did their own way.
11:34 pm, this is from 11:31
I see how the sytem work. I can assure you that i did and do more homework about Khmer more than you do!!:~)))diiiiiing. Just want to let you know I do have lunch with HS :~) What the point for me to curse HS??? HS himself already say many enough bad thing on his own clan, but without strong institution in place ... HS can anything he wants (change a few top clan around) but no good out come (no law and order in place). By the way are u in PP or outside. If you in PP - just want to advise you - don't do what you just tell me what to do--just make sure you get out the country first...(heee...haaaaa...hunnnnnnn...seeeeeen)...event the Khmer oversea still fear HS...good luck my friend if you still want to visit your motherland....
Hun Sen, you blamed and accused FUNCINPEC members, now that's your turn, you and your families and friends, you are the bad person in the world, just look at your wife, how she bleeds Cambodians everyday, she owns a oil distributing company, instead of lower oil price for poor Cambodians she keep it up for her own pocket. In western countries, when the gaz price is $1 per litre, companies pay $0.4 to government, and she pays nothing to government and the price still is as high as in the wester countries.
Of course, my friends, bribery and corruption is all over around the globe, which doesn't means we should put up with the corrupt ones in our country. Although we cannot totally wipe out the wicked for the time being, we should try harder to fight against the womb-to-tomb corruption in the ruling ring.
That's circle without end, the solution is to change leader, not only from Hun Sen to Sam Rainsy but no one of them should be PM for more than two mandates. Why ?
PM nominates judges, when PM is the same person, judges could be replaced by him, judeges must listen to him, judges could never be right, they want to keep their position.
2:08 PM I AM NOT SURPRISE YOU HAD LUNCH WITH HUN SEN. HUN SEN'S ONE OF A DICTATORSHIP OF CAMBODIA IN A HISTORY. TIME WILL TELL. WHEN THINGS COME AROUND IT'S GOES AROUND. HUN SEN'S WIFE ONE OF THE WORST CRIMINAL KILLER OF INNOCENT PEOPLE AND THE WHOLE WORLD KNOW ABOUT THAT. IF YOU HAD LUNCH WITH HUN SEN AND HIS WIFE THAT MEAN YOU ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THE MURDER. DING DONG...
Corruption corruption & corruption that is the question! Every country is corrupted. U.S is the most corrupted and bullied country in the world. Yes, there are laws, however, these rich famous/powerful and politicians use their money to manipulate the system. And most of the time, it works!
My point is, it's a culture thing in Cambodia. Especially if you owned any kinds of businesses, you must bribe the high authorities. This corrupted system has been practiced a long time ago and you guessed it, it's alive and kicking!
If this gentlemen is whining and complaining, maybe he needs to find a new profession. Otherwise, continues to bribe if he wanted his business to run. That's the only way. Go with the flow, buddy! Whining ain't gonna help! A friend of mine owned a small restaurant in U.S. The first time, when the inspector came to inspect her restaurant, it didn't pass the inspection. She had to close it down for 2 weeks. My point is, if you don't bribe anybody, they always find something. Next time, business as usual, when the inspection came to inspect her restaurant, she just handed $100 and gave him free meal. He wrote excellent comments and never gave her a hard time.
Today, she is doing very well! Her business is booming! All in all, there is good and bad when it comes to bribe somebody.
8:57 AM, you can deceive naive person but not regular person. You're comparing corruption in USA with Cambodia's. Cambodia is 1000 times more corrupted than USA. Or you're stupid or you're arrogant.
Cambodia is one of the most corrupt country of the world, Khmers must change their leader and adopt more serious laws against corruption.
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