Phnom Penh Thursday, 24 February 2011
“The possibility of creating the same unrest here as in other countries in not very likely."
Cambodia’s low number of Internet users make a social-media fueled revolution here unlikely, an Internet researcher says.
Cambodia’s more than 200,000 Facebook users mostly use the website to connect with friends and maintain professional social networks, said Saray Samadee, who recently co-authored a report for the Cambodia Communication review.
“The possibility of creating the same unrest here as in other countries in not very likely,” she said, referring to recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that toppled ruling governments with the help of sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
“Compared with Tunisia, they have nearly 2 million Facebook users, which is almost equal to the population of Phnom Penh,” she said. “But we have just over 200,000 users. So I do not think that can cause powerful unrest.”
Cambodia has seen its Internet users swiftly climb in recent years, though the figure of 244,000 Facebook users the company counts can be misleading, as it includes foreigners in Cambodia and Cambodians abroad.
No matter the number, the majority are online for recreation, Saray Samadee said.
“The main motivations of Facebook users here are just for seeking fun or friendship or maintaining networks,” she said.
Most of her 3,000-some friends don’t seem to pay attention to politics, she added.
8 comments:
I question the accuracy of the finding of this research as it probably based on the figures provided by the ministry of Telecommunications and Post. If the figures are so low why the Cambodian govt is so scared and thus has been blocking some of the websites?.I believe there are more than 200k of internet users in Cambodia, and mostly they are high school and university students.This is because internet cafe are springing through out Cambodia and mostly in the evening they are full of internet users.
poor Sam Rainsy.. Your wish to have a revolution in Cambodia will never happen :(
Never underestimate the wind of change in the middle east that it will not spread to Cambodia. One day when people is having enough they will revolt. As Buddhist teaching states " Nothing is to last forever,and you will not bring with you when you die".please be reminded that Cambodia does not belong to Mr Hun Sen/ Hun Manet and his cronies.One day your day will be outnumbered, Mr Hun Sen. Look around you and see what happened to people like Soharto, Saddam Hussen, Mubrak, Gaddafy etc.
We need students in the country to build up spontaneous leaders for youth movement and organize demonstrations accross the country as soon as possible to get rid of the dictator Hun Sen. Power and Freedom for the people
from kone khmer
i, too, don't think the situation is cambodia will head the direction of the middle east. cambodian people had been there, done that all in the past, and lived through the worst regime in the world, the KR. of course, there are still a lot of works to be done like more reforms, better education, better judicial system, better governance, etc, etc, however, it's not going to go that chaotic direction like what went on in the middle east and north africa right now, you know! god bless cambodia.
Hun Sen and his govt keep coming up with the excuse of Pol Pot era and that's why the country is not fully developed and reformed. That's a lot bullshit. 31 years under the one man rule, 1 billion of foreign aid annually for the last 20 years, and billions of dollars of foreign debts, and thousands of NGO organisations inside Cambodia, and yet 35% of Khmer people living under poverty of line of $0.45 per person per day (this figure would jump to over 50% if $1 per person per day is used) plus 20% of people are unemployed especially khmer youth. During the same periods Hun Sen and his families as well as his cronies have accumulated billions of dollars of wealth by selling land to foreign investors, deforestation and exploiting oil wealth and mineral resources. God may bless Cambodia, but condemn Hun Sen and his cronies.
Time will change,not the words.
Anyone couldn't believe what happened
in Tunisia,Egypt,
Yemen,Libya.
The wind of change in
Burma(dictator)and Thailand(Red Shirts)
come up again.
So,Cambodia will wake,stand up,rise up.
Time will tell what will happen.
And also,how Burma,
Thailand,Cambodia treat their people;
if they treat bad,
they will revolve and change just few hours.
People minds change
50,000 times in 24 hours per/person.
The greedy evil men
never last,they will
fade anytime.
Today someone is happy,but tomorrow
he will be sad or
dead.Who knows?
yes, rule of law counts more than people's subjective or impragmatic, emotional merry-go-round, i think. siem pad thugs is a good example of that, really!
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