Fred Morrice
The Nation
Opinion
Re: "Praise for Cambodia's 'old goats' policies', Letters, March 21.
The male half of the Beasley family unit has written a highly entertaining letter concerning the new marriage laws introduced in Cambodia on March 1 which pertain, of course, only to Cambodian territory. Whilst being very funny and touching on many sad truths, what this is, is nothing more than barefaced racism. It would be unthinkable in the West. Indeed all hell would break loose, and rightly so, if any government sought to enact restrictions like this on "foreign men". It would be before the courts in a blink of an eye and cast down.
However, not so it would seem in Cambodia. Marriages between old men and young women are "inappropriate", Mr Koy Kuong, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said, and foreign men who wish to marry nationals must earn a high salary to ensure that "Cambodian women can live a decent life" he continued. Foreigners who earn less than US$2,550 (Bt76,500) per month are also barred from wedding local women. It is interesting that it is a Foreign Ministry spokesman who makes these comments and not some home ministry official, given the policy only applies in Cambodia.
So, according to Mr Kuong, in a country where the International Labour Organisation says the per capita income is $321(Bt9,630) and in the countryside, where most workers come from, the average monthly income, for an entire household, is $40 a month and where the average salary for a Cambodian civil servant is $28 (Bt840) a month, for a Cambodian woman married to a foreign man to have a "decent life" the foreign man must have an annual income of $30,600 (Bt918,000) when the average Cambodian wage is about a tenth of this. Excuse me if I smell a very big xenophobic rat here.
The official line is that this law will crack down on "sham marriages and human trafficking". Well excuse me if I say rot. Since this applies only to Cambodian soil, how can a marriage undertaken in Cambodia be a sham and how does trafficking come in to it if the couple want to live in Cambodia?
This is contrary to Cambodia's undertakings in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW; October 17 1980 signature; October 15 1992 accession) and also international law. This is not a virtuous attempt to protect Cambodian women from exploitation. It is nothing more than a nasty racist policy that has been introduced by Hun Sen's government.
Fred Morrice
Bangkok
8 comments:
Hun San wants to keep the women for himself.
Phooey, "racist?", I don't think so.
I think there is some virtue in wanting to prevent traffiking.
Don't under estimate the wickedness of men.
Pheeew, that's a bullshit and ineffective law. What will happen is they will get arranged with the young guys whose faked high incomes will suffice to smuggle these poor young girls out of Cambodia into prostitution outside.
However, what do you expect from a retard leadership? Retarded laws, of course. Can't marry at 50? Tha's really nonsense.
11:20 AM
you talk like you know a lot about criminality. Talking from personal experience?
This is a useless law....too many bigger problem in Khmer....education suck, road suck and corruption very suck....nothing is going to changed in Cambodia....until world war III break out.
KOY KUN IS YOUN COMMUNIST!,HE DOESN`T WANT KHMER PEOPLES GET MORE POPULATION,THAT`S WHY HEGOT AN IDEAR LIKE THIS!.MR,KOUY KUN OPEN YOUR EYES LOOK AROUND YOUR FUCKING NEIGHBOURS COUNTRY,LAO,VIETNAME AND THAILAND,HOW MANY ARE THEIRS POPULATIONS?...KHMER PEOPLES IS STILL THE SAME,SINCE I WAS BORN UNTIL NOW I`M 51,YRS OF MY FUCKING AGE.THAT WE DO NOT CONCLUDE DURING THE KHMER ROUGE REGIME,WHO KILLED CAMBODIAN PEOPLES ABOUT 2.1MILLION PEOPLES.THERE HAS BEEN 32YEARS ALREADY,THE KHMER POPULATIONS IS STILL ONLY THE SAME!.LISTEN CAREFULLY,YOU FRICK ONEDAY THOSE FUCKING SCUM NEIGHBOURS WILL CONQUER KHMER PEOPLES EASILY
1...ASSHOLE.
And you, 12:55 PM, talked like you are a dumb elementary kid.
Do you personally accept that your life just ends when you are 50 years old??? If yes, that is maybe just you.
The stupid law just proved nothing more than the stupidity of the people who created it. The law is discriminatory and racist. Marriage and love are personal - the law should deal with the criminals, not in such a generalized way that restrict freedom from two people who could legally be in love and married.
I guess the age limit of 50 is to prevent older guys from marrying young women. Would've made more sense to restrict marriages between couples of more than 20 years age difference.
The hilarious irony however is the income restriction, since it's mostly only older guys who will be able to bring in enough money to meet that requirement. *face palm*
And once again it all comes down to this shameless, racist, and xenophobic east Asian mentality of scrutinizing everything Westerners do, treating them like ATM machines even if they aren't rich, and somehow the locals seen on every corner driving brand new luxury vehicles are beyond reproach!
Pass! Stay poor, Cambodia. You kinda deserve it.
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