International Aid in Context

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Friday, June 11, 2010
Op-Ed by MP

IT should be apparent to all concerned by now that there can be no scope for meaningful reforms leading to the growth of civil society unless political institutions themselves are overhauled. One could say Cambodia had a brief flirt with democracy in 1990s which was violently snuffed out by the coup in 1997 as the Hanoi backed CPP could not see its survival being secured under genuine political pluralism.

It was not so much because Cambodia herself was not ripe or ready for democracy, but subsequent developments (such as the current secrecy surrounding border delineation between Cambodia and Vietnam) indicate that her socialist neighbour to the east was not in the mood to see a vibrant democratic state flourishing next door either. That would be destabilising to a regime which was just content to inaugurate economic reforms without loosening its political grip on their 90 million subjects.

So one could see here domino theory being applied in reverse - a factor in US foreign policy in the 1960s and 1970s in this part of the world.

The donors know the Cambodian regime has holes in its pocket, yet they see nothing wrong in putting their cash into that pocket. If their long term aim is to engage the social rebuilding of a fractured post-war country, irrespective of, or in denial of political liberty and human rights, then they could perhaps succeed to an extent. The state then as repressive as it has been could only be made to feel more invincible and impudent in its flagrant excesses. With every road paved and bridge constructed through loans and donors' money, it is another concrete evidence of a 'win win' strategy and a platform for the ruling party to engineer electoral outcomes at the expense of the politically disenfranchised opposition.

How can judges and policing personnel be trained to be professional in the exercising of their respective duties where their appointments were decided and offices formed solely on the basis of their political affiliations and party memberships?

What are the donors playing at exactly beside fuelling authoritarian rule and giving sustenance to a regime that refuses to accept that it has long outlived its usefulness? If, on the other hand, the donors are pouring in their aid with a view to counteracting growing Chinese influence in the country without insisting on concrete betterment in its governance or even poverty alleviation, they are possibly doing what the Chinese themselves have been decried for doing: aiding rogue regimes.

One is not surprised to learn that Western governments and donors (which include Japan and Australia) do not always make an effort to replicate their domestic conditions or norms through their actions overseas, and this fact can be excused with or tempered by reference to extenuating circumstances, yet the extent to which their own electorate have effectively been kept in the dark over their missions in places like Cambodia is quite alarming. For most people around the world living in aid dependent countries the whole culture of international aid and provision has proved more often than not to be a mixed blessing. The immediate effect of this culture has been to distort the economic realities of the local people by creating a sudden boom in expatriate driven economy that puts some locals in their blessed shade, but many out of their means.

It is perhaps no accident that Cambodia - not unlike most developing countries that have the good fortune of being the chosen ones among recipients of international finance and assistance – is a land of extremes – i.e. that between wealth and object poverty, luxury and destitution, power and powerlessness, security and despair...

Gulf States' Aid for Cambodia's Cham Muslims Raises U.S. Concerns

01 Oct 2008
Geoffrey Cain
World Politics Review

With a growing U.S. security presence in the region, and Chinese aid flowing into Cambodia at an unprecedented level, the Chams could simply be a pretext for galvanizing U.S. influence in the Asian country.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- U.S. policymakers have raised security concerns about radical Islamic charities in Cambodia after delegations from Kuwait and Qatar promised $700 million in soft loans and investment for the country's embattled infrastructure. In an August speech, U.S. ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said militant groups are vying for influence over the country's Cham Muslims, and that Gulf states should "be careful" where the money goes.

Gulf delegates dismissed U.S. worries, claiming their interests in Cambodia -- garnering food security by investing in Cambodia's unused rice fields -- are economic, not cultural. But with $5 million of the loans earmarked to build Muslim institutions, the cultural element is certainly there. Pakistani ambassador to Cambodia Mohammad Younis Khan responded to the concerns over the funding by telling the Phnom Penh Post that Gulf states "simply like to help their Muslim brothers."

The loans are the latest demonstration of Middle East-Cambodia ties that began in 1991, when Cambodia's government was established by the Paris peace accords after years of civil war. At the time, Cham Muslims -- nearly wiped out by the Maoist Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979 -- had little left in the way of religious and moral authority. Islamic charities, some affiliated with militant Saudi Wahhabism, moved in to fill the void, constructing hundreds of religious schools.

The U.S., meanwhile, set its counterterrorism sights on Cambodia in 2003, after Muslim insurgents from southern Thailand allegedly tried to bomb three embassies in Phnom Penh and authorities made arrests at a Cham school where Riduan Isamuddin (a.k.a. Hambali), the mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombings, was offered refuge. The ongoing insurgency in southern Thailand is also a source of concern, with some U.S. authorities fearing that Cambodian Chams might send students to the Thai south, as well as to Pakistan, for indoctrination and training.

But many scholars argue that the southern Thai conflict, like most Islamic insurgencies in Southeast Asia, is a local conflict, hardly a front in the global "war on terror" in which the U.S. need take serious interest. Cham scholar Agnes de Feo also argues that, unlike their Thai counterparts, Chams have shown little inclination to violence because they have no claim to an independent state against Cambodia. And they're unlikely to embrace a militant movement now that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has warmed up to Cham practices in recent years, calling for a Muslim prayer room at Phnom Penh's airport and offering significant radio airtime to Cham leaders.

Rather, the main threat in Cambodia, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller, is that its weak law enforcement and security capabilities allow extremists to use the country as a transit point for their operations. But Mueller's opinion, expressed at the January 2008 opening of the FBI office in Phnom Penh, doesn't quite match Mussomeli's repeated expressions of U.S. concern over Cham radicals under the influence of Islamic charities inside Cambodia.

Some analysts think the sudden surge of American interest in Cambodia could be a result of the growing influence of China, which eyes untapped markets in Southeast Asia and Africa to satisfy its thirst for resources. China has offered Cambodia more than $600 million in annual aid since 2005, topping all Western donors combined. On top of that, Chinese aid rarely comes with demands for democratic reform like that of Western counterparts, making it favorable for Hun Sen's scandal-ridden government. Cambodia has in return awarded Chinese companies billions of dollars in contracts to build dams that will power the Cambodian countryside, which, according to the World Bank, faces the highest energy costs in the world.

At a meeting last week in Washington between U.S. and ASEAN leaders (see Prashanth Parameswaran's WPR piece), Cambodian Foreign Minister Norodom Sirivudh summed up his view that Southeast Asia should not have to decide between the U.S. and China. With a growing U.S. security presence in the region, and Chinese aid flowing into Cambodia at an unprecedented level, the Chams could simply be a pretext for galvanizing U.S. influence in the Asian country.

Geoffrey Cain is a Phnom Penh-based contributor to the Far Eastern Economic Review and Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a U.N.-run news wire service.

From a vocal critics to a praiser of good relations with the Hun Sen regime: Washington's domino-theory revival?

US to help fund Cambodia's Khmer Rouge trial

September 16, 2008
ABC Radio Australia

The United States is to make its first donation to Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal.

Prime Minister Hun Sen says the US deputy secretary of state John Negroponte informed him of the donation when they met on Monday.

The pair have been discussing ways of improving relations between their countries.

Hun Sen says the donation will be officially declared today.

The cash-strapped Khmer Rouge court is expected to begin trials in October.

Five top Khmer Rouge leaders are facing charges before the tribunal for crimes committed by the regime.

The US embassy says the United States will also provide $US24 million to fund economic growth projects in Cambodia.

The US recently lifted a decade-old ban on direct funding to Cambodia's government and re-established military ties between the countries, with the promise oflimited military aid.

Since then, at least three senior US military commanders have visited Cambodia.

Mr Negroponte's visit, which comes amid rising concern over China's influence in the region, reverses Washington's restrictive funding policies put in place after Hun Sen seized total control of the government in a 1997 coup.

Hun Sen says that bilateral relations had improved markedly.

"I can say that we never have enjoyed such good relations as we have now and at the same time we have looked into other things that we are able to improve," he said.

Washington has been one of the Cambodian government's most vocal critics in a number of areas, including corruption and human rights abuses.

But the US has praised Cambodia for its anti-terrorism efforts following the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

Domino Theory redux: Cambodia caught up between the US and China ... again?

Adm. Timothy J. Keating, right, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, gestures as he talks to journalists at Ministry of Defense in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007. The United States is ready to assist Cambodia in military training and exercises to improve the country's capabilities to fight global terrorism, Keating said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Tue Aug 21, 2007

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - The region's top US military commander Tuesday expressed concern over China's rapid military build-up, just days after an unprecedented display of Beijing's firepower during war games with Russia.

"China professes to be advocating a peaceful rise," said Admiral Timothy J. Keating, head of the US Pacific Command, during his first official trip to Cambodia, where he met with senior defence officials.

"Some of the systems they're developing and some of the capabilities that they're demonstrating would indicate to us that perhaps their intentions aren't exactly beneficial to security ... throughout the pacific," he said.

"So we're watching carefully," he added after talks with Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Bahn.

Cambodia has in recent years become a stronger focus for both Washington and Beijing. China, a former patron of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, continues to eclipse the impoverished country's other donors with hundreds of millions of dollars in largely-unconditional aid.

Just moments before Keating's arrival at Cambodia's defence ministry, Chinese ambassador Zhang Jin Feng was seen leaving with a delegation of senior Chinese military officials.

Zhang divulged little about her talks, and Keating downplayed the ambassador's appearance, and said that his visit to Cambodia this week was not to counter Beijing's regional military influence.

"I don't view my visit as offsetting anyone else's. We're anxious to have more transparency with China," he said.

"We are not competing against the People's Republic of China militarily."

But after years in the diplomatic wilderness, Cambodia's star has abruptly begun to rise with the United States.

In particular, military ties to the country, largely snapped after Prime Minister Hun Sen ousted his then-political counterpart in a 1997 coup, were re-established two years ago with the promise of limited military aid.

Since then, at least three senior US military commanders, including Keating, have made swings through Cambodia, and in February the navy's USS Gary became the first US warship to visit the former communist country in more than 30 years.

Keating said more cooperation is possible, mainly in the form of training and military exercises.

Cambodia has also emerged as a key regional partner in Washington's "war on terror," and Keating told reporters that the US would ramp up counter-terrorism cooperation with authorities here.

"We're willing to do what we can to make their capabilities even better, and this involves information sharing, surveillance techniques and the capability to track the flow of finances around the world," he said.

Porous borders and poor policing have made Cambodia a concern for terror watchers, who warn that extremist organisations could use the country as a refuge or staging ground for operations.