CAMBODIA500 : The Casino Border Plan

NagaWorld  Casino in Phnom Penh: is it the PM’s subtle way of letting Cambodians know NagaWorld has already been a border marker that separates Cambodia and Vietnam? (Photo: Theary Seng)

14 August 2012
Op-Ed by Ung Bun Ang

If the PM aims to set a world record in monologue, he will have a long way to go. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez spoke for nine hours in his state-of-the-nation speech last January. However, he beats former Cuban leader Fidel Castro by about twenty minutes, but the latter makes his frequent five hour speeches outdoors in the hot Caribbean sun, not in air conditioned hall.

In his monologue, the PM spells out his secret plan he says he is forced to reveal. He has been protecting the Cambodian border with casino buildings. He sounds far from being stupid when claiming: “One can remove border markers, but one can’t remove five-storey hotels. Don’t be stupid”.

The claim first shows Hun Sen knows border markers can be moved. This means 287 markers that he has had them planted along the Cambodia-Vietnam border have a limited use; they cannot settle border encroachment as some pragmatists expect. Second, being not stupid means there must be new casino additions to the current number of about 25 – a lot more to be exact to cover the whole border. The Cambodian border with Thailand stretches 803 km, with Laos 541 km, and Vietnam 1,228 km.

While a casino building can be a border marker, what does the riverside NagaWorld casino resort in the middle of Phnom Penh signify? If it protects the border, the threat seems to be escalating as the NagaWorld is to add 220 rooms to its existing 500. Or, is it the PM’s subtle way of letting Cambodians know NagaWorld has already been a border marker that separates Cambodia and Vietnam?

From a Vietnam’s perspective, however, it is uncertain if it would warm up to the idea of the border lined up with casinos. If Hun Sen is right that it is more difficult to move casino buildings, Vietnam will find it harder for any border encroachments. Furthermore, it could be like Kleenex tissue – thick and soft – to allow its citizens to gamble in Hun Sen casinos, delivering tax revenues to Cambodia. If the gambling tax revenues prove to be significant, it would have its own casinos, just like Singapore’s decision a few years ago to have its own gambling industry.

Therefore, the secret casino plan to protect the border is unlikely to be either effective or practical.

Perhaps worse still, the significance of the PM monologue is not so much in what he has to say, but in what he does not say. While he has the secret plan to fight border encroachments, he does not discuss the extent of the issue. He does not say what the current population of aliens by their birth country is, what their rates of migration are since 1979. Again, he may not know these facts, which will do little to instill much public confidence in his ability to tackle the border and migration issues.

The PM is indeed lucky, however, that the stupid microphone allows him to rant about anything, without even raising the slightest challenge.

Ung Bun Ang

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