More of Hun Xen's broken promises at the donor meeting?

In Donor Meeting, Hun Sen Vows Deeper Reforms

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Wednesday, 02 June 2010

“The Royal Government considers the fight against corruption as a top priority during its fourth mandate. We have a strong will for implementing these reforms.” (sic!)

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday moved to assure international representatives and aid agencies he was committed to deepening government reforms and fighting corruption, as an annual donor meeting got underway.

Speaking at the opening of the Cambodian Development Cooperation Forum, where donors are expected to pledge more than $1 billion in aid to Cambodia, Hun Sen said the government had made the “utmost efforts to firmly and deeply implement various reform programs and consider them as life or death issues.”

The government will present a $6.2 billion development plan to donors this week, part of an updated five-year strategy for continued reform and poverty alleviation. More than 100 participants from donor countries and international aid groups such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund joined senior government ministers for two days of talks.

“The Royal Government considers the fight against corruption as a top priority during its fourth mandate,” Hun Sen said in a speech that lasted more than an hour. “We have a strong will for implementing these reforms.”

Speaking on behalf of the donors, Annette Dixon, the World Bank’s country director, said meetings would center around “key reforms, which the government is undertaking, particularly in decentralization, public financial management and reforms of the civil service.”

“Further strengthening transparency and accountability in the management of Cambodia’s public finances and natural resources will be fundamental for ensuring more sustainable and inclusive growth,” Dixon said, adding that the government had made important achievements in passing an anti-corruption law and updated penal code.

Critics of the anti-corruption law have said it lacks the teeth to root out the country’s endemic corruption.

"Prime Minister, you promised that no more journalists would go to prison"

Published on 19 February 2010
Source: Reporters Without Borders

Click here to read the RSF report (PDF)

As a judge acquitted Sok Serey, a reporter for Radio Free Asia’s Khmer-language service, on charges of disinformation and defamation, Reporters Without Borders today released a report on media freedom in Cambodia.

A Reporters Without Borders representative stressed the importance of decriminalising press offences to the information minister during a visit to Cambodia last December, when he met with government officials, journalists and civil society leaders.

Four years after Prime Minister Hun Sen promised that Cambodian journalists would not be jailed for what they write, several journalists are in prison or are facing criminal charges in connection with their work. Reporters Without Borders visited newspaper editor Hang Chakra in the prison where he is serving a one-year jail term for a story about senior government officials.

Entitled “Prime Minister, you promised that no more journalists would go to prison,” the press freedom organisation’s report is based on the findings of last December’s visit. It deplores the lack of diversity in the broadcast media and the fact that government officials are bringing more and more legal actions against the press.

The report also tries to answer two main questions: why did Hun Sen break his word and what impact will the imminent introduction of a new criminal code have on media legislation?

The reform of the criminal code was passed by the national assembly and the senate in October 2009 without the parliamentary opposition having any real say in the process. “Its deep-seated changes to the legal system will necessarily have repercussions for free expression and media freedom,” the report says, adding that “the lack of transparency surrounding the final draft is worrying the press and human rights activists.”

The report also looks at the past murders of journalists that are still unpunished, the problems resulting from fact that most journalists are very badly paid, the problem of corruption and the fate of Ros Sokhet, another journalist who is in prison.

In its recommendations, Reporters Without Borders urges the Cambodian government to reinforce the editorial freedom of the state media and to create an independent media regulatory body with responsibility for allocating licences to radio and TV stations.

Finally, Reporters Without Borders is also releasing two videos it made in Cambodia, one about Hang Chakra’s detention (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XubcHsLM8Ms&feature=channel) and one about radio station director Mam Sonando (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooYM0j25cUA&feature=channel).

Never believe Hun Xen's promise: He even lied to his own children

Hun Sen promises to quit smoking

Friday, 05 February 2010
Sam Rith
The Phnom Penh Post

AFTER surviving the turmoil of Cambodian politics for two and a half decades, Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced that he is ready to tackle a more personal challenge – quitting smoking.

“For those who don’t smoke already, it’s better not to start … I also plan to stop smoking,” he said during the inauguration of the new Ministry of Commerce building in Phnom Penh on Thursday.

“When my children got married, [I] promised that I would stop smoking when I had grandchildren,” he said.

“But now my grandchild is one year and seven days old, and I still haven’t stopped.”

However, the prime minister says he’s already cut down on his smoking habit significantly, and that he does not suffer from nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

“I don’t smoke during flights or when participating in other international meetings,” he added.

Political Cartoon: The knife cuts its own handle - "Kabet Chet Dorng Eng"

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