Monday, November 18, 2013

Not ‘close’ enough for comfort: report


Khieu Sopheak: We feel the stability of this government is strong and we have consistently been working to improve our connection to the people  [ For real, blind and deaf Pret CPP? ]


Amelia Woodside, The Phnom Penh Post, 17 Nov. 2013

Cambodia lags well behind its neighbours in a new study measuring the closeness of the government to its people.


The “government closeness index” ranks 182 countries based on the extent to which their politics are decentralised and their institutional politics connected with civil society.


The paper’s authors, economist Maksym Ivanyna, a PhD candidate at Michigan State University, and Anwar Shah, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, aggregated the data to create the “decentralization index”, then adjusted it by country to develop the index.


The Kingdom’s decentralisation ranking of 121 places it well below Thailand at 38, Vietnam at 60 and Laos at 78.


The majority of the data used to rank the 182 countries, however, was collected in 2005 and doesn’t factor in major recent changes in countries such as Syria – which ranked 120 – and Myanmar (179).

Decentralisation reforms have swept the globe in the past three decades, Ivanyna and Shah state in the paper, How Close Is Your Government to Its People? Worldwide Indicators on Localization and Decentralization, released last week.


“The resulting rankings could be helpful in understanding the genesis of the Arab Spring and other recent political movements and waves of dissatisfaction with governance around the world.”


Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said he had yet to see the paper’s rankings, but Cambodians were paying more attention to their government now than ever before.


“We feel the stability of this government is strong and we have consistently been working to improve our connection to the people,” Sopheak said yesterday, adding that the strength of the government’s connection to the people could be seen in people’s ability to organise at grassroots level.


An opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party spokesman could not be reached for comment.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

this i agree with. i think khmer people from all walks of life should participat i the electing and criticking of their gov't, especially if the gov't do something wrong by not helping the people, by corruption, by inaction of by injustice onto the khmer people and its citizens of cambodia. sometimes people need to keep the gov't in check, and gov't supposes to serve the people. and gov't shouldn't tell the people to be afraid of their gov't. people should be able to voice their discontent on gov't, especially irresponsible, incompetent, abusive people in gov't. i think that should be part of the changing mentality of cambodian people, to hold their irresponsible and incompetent leaders accountable for injustice. it is time, cambodia, wake up already!

sometimes, changes take place too slow in cambodia, so khmer people from all walks of life don't have the patience to wait too long!

Anonymous said...

my god, they need to bring the number of decentralization down to par with the regional asean community of nation. 121 ranking is too high. unacceptable!

Anonymous said...

and stop blaming just hun sen, instead, look for solution by reforming and call for the people who work in gov't to be ethical and competent nowadays! blaming anyone is childish! don't blame, find solution to prevent further or future problems from happening again. that is better than blaming anyone!

Anonymous said...

Khieve Sophak is Vietnamese slave and puppet, his brother is Khieve Kola the one seating and talking about bullish thing with Sin Chan Chaya at CTN, these people are cheap just pay a few hundreds dollars they can talk whatever HUN SEN wanted them to say ?

Anonymous said...

Ms. Jendamuni,

Prett is truly fitted for those BAD CPP's crooks.

Anonymous said...

Dear gentlemen,

Decentralisation is a democratic process in governing country. How far this RGC has paid much attention to this principle. Apparently NOT.

"Cambodians now pay more attention to their government".Mr. Khiev said.

Yes they pay more attention to bad behaviour s of this government. He should be ashamed about that.
Indeed, this is not a praise to the government.
Reasons have been they have fed up with it.
Cambodians have been aware of their priorities are not assisted but rather oppression. They also see that this RGC has served Vietnamese in Cambodia , as well as outside with offering land concession for a century to Vietnam.

Corruption laws has been only cosmetic. Cambodians had demanded for a decade to get this part of the passed. Delay was due to the finalisation of big part of money laundering.

Now, this self promoted PM just mentioned about the media laws. How long does it take?

This proves that Cambodia is so far behind of countries in ASEAN. Poor education corrupted to the bone, produces ineffective human resources. But those corrupted can send their children to better institution.

Using the king and the kingdom to their utmost manipulation, every crooks have enjoyed their luxury ride on pain and suffering of Cambodians.

How dare this crooks still insult Cambodians?

It is unbelievable in Banana Kingdom.

People power has risen, without assistance from the kingdom.

Praise for khmer spirit of UNITY.

Neang SA

Anonymous said...

1:09 PM Well said. This Pret CPP is proud to say that "Cambodians now pay more attention to their government".Mr. Khiev said.

To this Pret, he doesnt know that Cambodians will eat him alive if he ever walks in the street alone without his bodyguard.

Anonymous said...

Doctor Cheam Yeap said, HUN SEN party can not establish the independent group to find the true and irregularity of July Election fraud, because it is against HUN SEN law, what a fucking talking like dumb and uncivilized countries ? HUN SEN has declared he won the Election ? the Samr Rain Sy declared he won ? and when they want to find out, Doctor Cheam Yeap said can not let any one to investigate it is against HUN SEN law ? must use Nuclear Weapons or the very very strong and powerful biological or Chemical weapons ?

Anonymous said...

puok ah kdoh çé pé pé has been giving the best lip service for more than thirty years!!!! Reform, develop, all the same bullshit à la techo phnaek taul. The same yeen teang, kagnareuth, phaiy siphann, bullshiters...

Anonymous said...

IN the past YOUN had one stupid Khmer, Chey Che Tha 2, YOUN let that King to fuck her ash and that King become the stupid and forget anything and let Vietnamese took all Cambodian land, and again for this 21 century YOUN has the same strategy training one blind guy to forget everything killing his own country and give the interest to Vietnam ?

Anonymous said...

Mr. Khieu re-assured the world that the CPP government has made good improvement in listening to the people, he guarantees in five more years, the ranking will climb up to 120!

Anonymous said...

Got to love khmer, they are only good at insulting each other.♥♥♥♥♥

wattanak said...

The CPP has been working on "connecting with the people" for the last 30 years.If anyone tries doing something for 30 years, and fails to achieve their goal, then the best thing is to give it up and try something else. It's admirable that you CPP pups show persistency, but really guys? Time to let go and pass the reins on to someone else. You're overstaying your welcome.

Anonymous said...

4:21 PM,

That was not an insult, it was a statemnt of the reality. For how long must these same bullshitters keep on bullshitting? You need to come out with more intelligent and constructive answers or questions.

These monkeys have been staying far too long in power. They are never short of excuses every time someone points out their flaws; but they lack terribly real accountability.

Anonymous said...

You are very good to do pretending flip flopping mouth piece, blind, and deaf.