What a shame! - Op-Ed by Ly Diep of Angkor Borei News

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Cambodia today: From democracy experiment to one-party kleptocracy

Excerpt from "Country for Sale" Global Witness

“Human dignity, equity, meeting the basic needs of the people, participation and the development of people’s capacity and choice are among the principal values and objectives of human rights. Economic and political policies and practices in Cambodia do not accord any particular importance to these values.” - Quote from statement to the UN Human Rights Council by the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Cambodia for Human Rights, Yash Ghai, 12 June 2007.

After decades of war and one of the most horrific episodes in recent human history – the Khmer Rouge regime – Cambodia’s warring factions signed a peace agreement in 1991. This heralded the start of one of the biggest and most costly peacekeeping operations in history, and the beginning of international efforts to bring democracy and development to Cambodia. Expectations that the UN-organised elections in 1993 would bring major political change were not realised, however. The incumbent Cambodian People’s Party, whose leadership is drawn from former Khmer Rouge cadres, refused to accept that they had lost the vote and muscled their way into the government. They completed their reversal of Cambodia’s tentative progress towards democracy in July 1997, when they dislodged their coalition partners in a bloody coup d’état.

It is now 17 years since the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, and the country once regarded as the international model for post-conflict nation-building has become Southeast Asia’s newest kleptocracy; its reputation marred by massive corruption, human rights abuses, impunity, repression and undemocratic governance. Contrary to the spirit of the 1991 Peace Accords, Cambodia’s political influence and wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small ruling elite. The misappropriation of the country’s rich natural resources – its forests, land and fisheries – has been central to this accumulation of wealth and consolidation of political power.

Government officials, senior military figures and their business associates use the police and armed forces as their own private armies, with little balance from a politically-controlled judiciary or a civil society slowly beaten down over the years by killings and threats. State officials and powerful interests around them are able to appropriate natural and economic resources as well as the property of others, harass any opponents and suppress their rights.

Cambodia’s natural resources could have provided the means with which to kick-start the post-conflict economy. Revenue generated from logging, plantations and fisheries should have gone towards poverty alleviation and rebuilding essential infrastructure. Instead, systematic and institutionalised corruption and economic mismanagement have deprived the entire population of the revenue that could have come from these public goods.

Since the suspension of the country’s logging concessionaire system in 2002, focus has shifted to alternative sources of income generation through the exploitation of remaining state assets, including fisheries, land and mineral deposits. The rise of Cambodia’s mining and oil sectors represents just one part of the diversification of natural resource exploitation in Cambodia.

An examination of Cambodia’s business sector reveals that the country’s beaches, casinos, forests, hotels, islands, land, national buildings and ports and are now predominantly controlled by a handful of government-affiliated tycoons, high-ranking police and military brass, or family members of senior political figures. Meanwhile, residents who have lived on the land are simply forced to leave, often with brutal evictions enforced by the police, military police and the armed forces.

Rivals Seek Audience With Former King [-Sam Rainsy: "Our country now is sinking like a ship in the ocean"]

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
02 October 2008

Both Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy plan to visit Cambodia's former king in Beijing separately in coming months.

Hun Sen plans to call on the former king, Norodom Sihanouk, following an Asia-Europe Meeting, scheduled for Oct. 24 in Beijing, prior to Sihanouk's Oct. 31 birthday, when he turns 87.

Sam Rainsy is planning to meet with the former king in late November, "in the name of national reconciliation," the opposition leader said in a letter.

"I will extend well wishes to the king father on his birthday, and then I will go to the ASEM in Beijing," Hun Sen said at a scholarship award ceremony at Phnom Penh's National School of Pedagogy Thursday. "Right now I've told the king father's protocol office to arrange my schedule to meet the king father."

The annual two-day Asia-Europe Meeting brings leaders from 45 Asian and European countries, including Cambodia, together for political, security and economic discussions.

Following Hun Sen's visit, Sam Rainsy is scheduled to pay a call on the former king in Beijing.

"Our country now is sinking like a ship in the ocean," Sam Rainsy wrote the former monarch in French. "Our people are dying like abandoned animals. That's why I myself and for all Cambodian citizens, I would like to assist you in helping the country in the name of national reconciliation."

SRP Deputy Secretary-General Mu Sochua said Thursday the letter to the king reflected Sam Rainsy's worries for the future of the country, following the ruling Cambodian People's Party extension of power after July's elections.

Sam Rainsy will likely discuss alleged irregularities in July's election and "the political situation," she said.

'One-Party' Will Hurt Democracy: Observer

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
01 August 2008

The domination in the polls of the Cambodian People's Party Sunday could lead to one-party rule and a decline in democracy, a local human rights official warned Thursday.

"One-party rule will affect democracy," said Ny Charya, monitoring chief for the rights group Adhoc.

"We are concerned about the future freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and others; that's what we think about," Ny Charya said, as a guest on "Hello VOA"

The government remains at a deadlock following Sunday's polls, with the CPP leading an unofficial vote tally with 90 of 123 National Assembly seats. A new government must be formed within 60 days, but all elected members must join, by swearing in, said Sok Samoeun, director of the Cambodia Defenders Project, who was also on "Hello VOA."