Hun Sen's Homegrown Political Risk

Op-Ed: Leadership Skills

There is a compelling case to be made that over the last several years, we have witnessed the front end of an “ASEAN spring.” Citizens and voters across Southeast Asia have told their governments about their new and rising expectations for empowerment,governance, and rule of law. 

Indonesia’s transformation from an autocratic regime under Suharto to a dynamic democracy today is the starkest example. But voters from Thailand to Malaysia, Singapore to Vietnam, and beyond have challenged their governments to either improve delivery of services and allow for greater participation, or see their mandates diminished and new competitors established. 

Only a handful of ASEAN countries are bucking that trend, and at the top of the list is Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the country since seizing power in a 1997 coup, is poised to win his fourth consecutive term as prime minister when Cambodians go to the polls on July 28. While his victory is assured, a bright economic and political future for Cambodia is less certain. 

Unlike other Southeast Asian countries that are opening political systems created during the Cold War and investing in developing institutions by moving toward increasingly responsive and transparent regimes, Cambodia has not responded to similar signals. Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) have not demonstrated that they will tolerate real political competition. Instead, there are signs that politically related violence, corruption, and nepotism are characterizing the run up to national elections. These trends suggest that Cambodia is not moving forward with its ASEAN partners and instead is home to a political instability that should concern its neighbors and ASEAN colleagues, including the United States. 

Earlier this month, the CPP stripped all 27 opposition lawmakers of their parliamentary status, rendering them ineligible to run in next month’s elections. The move is sadly consistent with other steps by Hun Sen and the CPP to undercut political rivals and thereby stunt the growth of a maturing political system in Cambodia.  

Read the full article below:

130627_SoutheastAsia_Vol_4_Issue_13 

Original source

Summary of 21st Anniversary of Paris Peace Agreement

Op-Ed: Venerable Luon Sovath

In conclusion, PPA or Paris Peace Agreement this year has been celebrated by Cambodian people worldwide such as Canada, United States of America, Australia, Cambodia, French, Switzerland and many other countries. There are Cambodian people demonstrated in front of the United Nations in New York, and at the headquarter of the UNs in Switzerland. This commemoration has been seen as the public education, unification and peace building for all people regardless of their political tendency, color, age or social status. The participants and organizers have expected to build lasting peace and sustainable development for Cambodia. All participants and organizers got off home to the union or street to commemorate this day in order to stop all culture of pointing finger and coloring on each others. May all being experience Peace, Progressive and Justice!!

 21st Anniversary Organizer

  Watching all movies non-stop

Brief History of Vietnamese Expansionism vis-à-vis Cambodia

Brief History of Vietnamese Expansionism vis-à-vis Cambodia

In 1941, Ho created the Viet Minh, an abbreviation of "Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi," or "League for the Independence of Vietnam," and spread its anti-French activities to Laos and Cambodia, where the Viet Minh later fragmentized the anti-French local Khmer Issarak front into a Khmer Viet Minh front. In 1949, the Viet Minh instituted the "Ban Van Dong Thanh Lap Dang Nhan Cach Mang Cao Mien" ("Canvassing Committee for the Creation of the Revolutionary Kampuchean People's Party") and created the Kampuchean People's Liberation Army in 1950.

By Gaffar Peang-Meth
Professor of Political Science (retired)
University of Guam

Originally posted at: http://www.khmerinstitute.org/articles/art13vietnamization.html
On Christmas Eve 1978, more than 100,000 Vietnamese troops, backed by tanks and aircraft, crossed the border into Cambodia. In 14 days of fighting, Hanoi's army sent Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge fleeing. The Vietnamese captured Phnom Penh Jan. 7, 1979, installed a puppet regime and stayed for the next 10 years.

For victims of Pol Pot's genocidal rule, which began April 17, 1975 and resulted in the deaths of upwards of two million people, Jan.7, 1979 was the day of deliverance by Vietnam. Surely, Vietnam was their "savior" and their "liberator" at a time when the world watched and did nothing about the horrors of the Killing Fields. However, for many Cambodians, Jan. 7th is also a day of infamy. Pol Pot was replaced by those referred to as Cambodians with Khmer bodies but Vietnamese heads, the Khmer Viet Minh. This cohort was created by the Vietnamese Communist Lao Dong, trained at the Son Tay Military Academy and the Nguyen Ai Quoc political school, and led by a disgruntled regional field commander, Hun Sen, who became indebted to Hanoi for his return to power. Many Cambodians felt that substituting the Khmer Viet Minh for the Khmer Rouge was like replacing cholera with the plague.

A host of foreign governments also worried. The world was still governed by the well-specified rule of law founded on the principle of absolute, comprehensive, permanent and inviolable sovereignty and independence. As Singapore argued before the international community at the United Nations, the world is no longer safe, and peace and security are no longer assured, if a more powerful state is allowed to invade a weaker one like Vietnam had done. The Association of South East Asian Nations spearheaded calls for Vietnam to withdraw its troops from Cambodia.

As a result, the United Nations and other international organizations became a political-diplomatic battleground for many years between proponents and opponents of Vietnam's invasion. And so it was that the anti-Vietnamese Khmer Resistance was born, first as separate armed bands with similar goals, and later as a loose coalition of Cambodians of the fallen Khmer Republic, Cambodians of the monarchy, and the leftovers of the Khmer Rouge. Despite their differences, they worked together toward pressuring Vietnam into withdrawal and to seek Cambodian self-determination.

China-Cambodia: More than just friends?

Southeast Asia

But China's interests go even farther. It wishes, by these informal alliances with authoritarian regimes of the region, such as those in Cambodia and Myanmar, first, to counter US influence in the region, and second, to neutralize, if not undermine, the cohesion of ASEAN. Since a number of ASEAN states, discreetly supported by the United States, are challenging China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, the alignment of those states within ASEAN considered to be pro-China would in effect prevent the association from adopting a united front on that issue. Finally, China wishes to weaken Hun Sen's links with Vietnam, which go back to the time of the United States' intervention in Vietnam and, subsequently, Cambodia in 1970. Vietnam has long been seen by China as its most serious strategic rival in the Southeast Asian region. Apart from past acrimonious relations between the two countries, Vietnam currently has two territorial disputes with Beijing - both countries claiming sovereignty over the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands (see South China Sea: It's not all about oil, September 6). By Julio A Jeldres In July, in a message of congratulation to the leadership of the People's Republic of China on the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Cambodia and China, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen hailed China as Cambodia's "most trustworthy friend", despite that country's past support for the Khmer Rouge. Indeed, since the Vietnamese army drove the Chinese ambassador and thousands of advisors out with the Khmer Rouge in January 1979, China has gradually regained a foothold in Cambodia and has become Cambodia's most influential trade and political partner. Relations between Beijing and Phnom Penh are the closest they have been since the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge regime collapsed.

Senior CPC official meets Cambodian PM, hails longstanding friendship

Zhou Yongkang (L), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, meets with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (R), in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Aug. 20, 2011. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Visiting senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Zhou Yongkang met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen here on Saturday, pledging further efforts to deepen the time-honored traditional friendship between the two countries.

Zhou, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said there has been rapid growth in bilateral exchanges and cooperation in the fields of politics, trade and economy, and culture.

During his visit to China last year, the Cambodian prime minister and Chinese leaders lifted the bilateral ties to the level of a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, writing a new chapter in the Sino-Cambodian traditional friendship, Zhou said.

Zhou, also secretary of the the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, said China and Cambodia should seize opportunities and meet challenges together.

He said the two countries should work to achieve the target of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in bilateral trade at an early date, after it exceeded one billion dollars in the first half of this year.

China is ready to boost the the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership through the implementation of specific plans and projects between the two countries, thus bringing more tangible benefits to the two peoples, he said.

Cambodia Then and Now: Commemorating the 1991 Peace Agreement by Gareth Evans

Via Cambodia Watch Blog

Professor Hon. Gareth Evan
Keynote Address by Professor Hon. Gareth Evans, Former Foreign Minister of Australia and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group, to Seminar on Measuring Cambodia’s Progress Toward Equality, University of NSW Law School, 6 August 2011.
_________________________________________________________________________

The truth of that observation has been amply demonstrated in the course of events since 1993. The democratic process has remained fragile, the biggest shock coming with Hun Sen's coup in July 1997, but with plenty of other things to be legitimately concerned about before and since, including the continued obstacles put in the way of Sam Rainsy and his party operating as a full-throated opposition voice. The legal system is still in very poor shape, with far too many still having a sense of impunity, i.e that they can do just about anything without the justice system touching them, and continuing troubling signs of politicization of the courts, including for example the renewed detention just last month of human rights defender Leang Sokchuen in a case that has been taken up by Human Rights Watch, with the offence for which he was convicted being changed in the course of his appeal to one that did not exist at the time he committed it: the only crime he seems to have committed was criticising the government.

Cambodia first made its claim on my heart and mind in 1968, as some of you in the Cambodian community will have heard me say before, I was travelling across Asia, as so many young Australians have, to study in the UK, and spent a few fantastic days here, staying in a very downmarket hotel near the Central Market, drinking beer and eating noodles in student hangouts, and taking a wild ride in a share taxi up to Siem Riep -- scattering pigs, chickens and children in villages along the way-- to confront the majesty of Angkor Wat.

I had similar experiences in a number of other Asian countries, but there was something very distinctive about Cambodia. In later life I kept on running into a number of those young men and women I had met in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Nepal or Afghanistan – or people exactly like them. But I never again met any of the young Cambodians I had spent time with, or any of their contemporaries. The sad and horrible truth is that they all died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge – executed outright as middle class enemies of the state, or worked to death through malnutrition or disease out in the fields.

As the horror of the genocide unfolded, and then the protracted misery of the civil war which followed it, I made a pledge to myself that if I could ever do anything for the wonderfully kind people of this country to relieve some of that misery then I would certainly try hard to make a difference. The opportunity to do so came after I became Australian foreign minister in 1988. And of the various things I managed to achieve in the nearly eight years I held the position, nothing has given me more pleasure and pride than the Paris peace agreement concluded in 1991, whose 20th anniversary we commemorate this year, and at this seminar, one of series being held around the world.

Case 004 sites investigated

Case 004 sites revealed

Tuesday, 09 August 2011 15:03

Thomas Miller

The investigating judges at the Khmer Rouge tribunal released a list of 30 crime sites connected to the court’s controversial fourth case yesterday, but said there are “serious doubts” as to whether the case’s suspects fall within their jurisdiction.

The list includes security centres, execution sites and forced labour areas in Kampong Cham and Kampong Thom provinces, then part of the Khmer Rouge’s Central Zone; Pursat, Battambang and Banteay Meanchey provinces, then under the Northwest Zone; and Takeo province, then in the Southwest Zone.

Co-investigating judges You Bunleng and Siegfried Blunk said they had not previously released the list of crime sites in Case 004 “because, unlike in Case 002, there are serious doubts whether the suspects are ‘most responsible’,” referring to the tribunal’s mandate to try only “senior leaders” of the Khmer Rouge and those “most responsible” for the crimes of the regime between 1975 and 1979.

“If the court had no jurisdiction, it would be inappropriate to encourage civil party applications further to the 200 already received in this case, as this could raise expectations which might not be met later on,” the judges said.

The judges’ statement was apparently sparked by a call from international co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley, who on Friday pointed out that the judges were legally obliged to keep victims informed “throughout the proceedings” so they could apply for civil party status.

Cayley said yesterday he was “relieved” and called the judges’ publication of crime sites an “enormous step” for victims and the court.

“KHMER RICHE”

Written by Andrew Marshall
Good Weekend Magazine for the Sydney Morning Herald
Sunday 12/12/09

They live in one of the poorest countries on earth, yet they drive flash cars, dwell in mansions and scorn their impoverished brethren. Andrew Marshall meets the rich sons and daughters of Cambodia elite.

The huge Phnom Penh mansion owned by Victor's parents, General Meas Sophea. (Good Weekend Magazine)

“I’m going to drive a little fast now. Is that Okay?” There is one place in Cambodia where you can hold a cold beer in one hand and a warm Kalashnikov in the other, and Victor is driving me there. We’re powering along Phnom Penh’s airport road with Oasis on his Merc’s sound system and enough guns in the boot to sink a Somali pirate boat. Victor is rich and life is sweet. His father is commander of the Cambodian infantry. He has a place reserved for him at L’Ecole Speciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, France’s answer to Duntroon. And, in his passenger seat, there is a thin, silent man with a Chinese handgun: his bodyguard.

“His name is Klar,” says Victor. “It means tiger.”
Victor is only 21, but when reach our destination—a firing range run by the Cambodian special forces—the soldier at the gate salutes.

Devastated by decades of civil war, Cambodia remains one of the world’s poorest nations. A third of its 13 million people live on less than a dollar a day and about 8 out of every 100 children die before the age of five. But Victor—real name Meas Sophearith—was raised in a different Cambodia, where power and billions of dollars in wealth are concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite. This elite prefers to conceal the size and sources of their money—illegal logging, smuggling, land-grabbing—but their children just like to spend it. The Khmer Rouge are dead; the Khmer Riche now rule Cambodia.

CAMBODIA’S TOP TEN TYCOONS – Wikileaks Cable Viewer

CAMBODIA’S TOP TEN TYCOONS – Wikileaks Cable Viewer
Source: WikiLeaks Cable Viewer

SUBJECT: CAMBODIA’S TOP TEN TYCOONS
Sensitive But Unclassified. Not for internet distribution.

¶1. (SBU) Summary. Prime Minister Hun Sen is making efforts to bridge the gap between the political and private sector by cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with the country’s most prominent business tycoons. These business leaders contribute money to the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) and Hun Sen can call on them to fund charities and public works projects and to attract foreign investment, achievements for which the CPP can claim credit. In return, the business tycoons enjoy the added credibility and legitimacy of having the Prime Minister’s support. These symbiotic relationships illustrate the networks of business tycoons, political figures, and government officials that have formed in Cambodia, which reinforce the culture of impunity and limit progress on reforms such as Hun Sen’s self-declared “war on corruption.” Post highlights the storied lives and diverse investment portfolios of ten of the most prominent of these well-connected tycoons. End Summary.
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Kith Meng: “Mr. Rough Stuff”
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¶2. (SBU) A dual Cambodian-Australian citizen with a BA from Australian National University, Kith Meng was born on September 1, 1968. He is described as a relatively young and ruthless gangster by Mekong Bank Chairman Michael Stephen (PROTECT). Another well-connected business man in the Cambodian community claims that Kith Meng is notorious for using his bodyguards to coerce others into brokering deals. As the chairman and CEO of Royal Group of Companies (RGC), his resume runs the gamut of many different businesses. He is concurrently the chairman of mobile phone company Cam GSM Co., Cambodia Television Network (CTN), Cambo Six European soccer betting Co., and CamLot Lottery Co. He has also become an exclusive distributor of Canon products. Kith Meng owns the Northbridge International School and the Cambodiana Hotel. One of the most widely recognized achievements of the Royal Group is its new joint venture with Australian-based ANZ bank, in which both companies established ANZ Royal Bank in 2005. The Royal Group owns 45% of the new bank. Kith Meng also recently launched a new Cambodian insurance company, Infinity General Insurance, through a joint venture with Kuala Lumpur-based Infinity Financial Solutions.
¶3. (SBU) Recently, Kith Meng was elected President of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce. He also serves as an advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen and serves on the board of the Cambodian Red Cross, whose President is Hun Sen’s wife, Bun Rany. Politically, Kith Meng has good relations with the Cambodian People’s Party, FUNCINPEC, and the Sam Rainsy Party. He claims credit for negotiating the three-way deal among the parties to engineer Sam Rainsy’s return to Cambodia in early 2006. Several sources believe that the CPP has tried to strengthen its relationship with Kith Meng because it wants CTN’s ability to broadcast to a large number of Cambodians living abroad. Kith Meng speaks, reads, and writes both Khmer and English.
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Historical Context for Vietnamization of Cambodia (e.g. Viettel/Metfone; Hun Sen's rise to power)

Brother Enemy–the War after the War

A History of Indochina Since the Fall of Saigon

By Nayan Chanda

(MacMillan Publishing Co., New York, 1986)

Excerpts from Chapter 7 (Calm Before the Storm)

Birth of a Khmer “Liberation Army”

The Vietnamese Politburo met again in mid-February [1978] in the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City at the secluded compound of what used to be the police training school of the fallen Thieu regime.  The meeting studied the nuts and bolts of the plan for setting up a Cambodian Communist party and a resistance organization.  Shortly after the meeting, Le Duan and Le Duc Tho met separately with Cambodian party cadres who had lived in exile in Vietnam since 1954 and the ones who had escaped from Pol Pot’s purges to seek asylum in Vietnam.

Of some one thousand Khmers who had regrouped in Hanoi in 1954 under the Geneva Agreement, only a handful had stayed behind in North Vietnam.  The majority had returned to Cambodia to join the anti-U.S. resistance, and few of them survived the war and the purges.  So the Khmer candidates for leadership in February composed a small group whose main achievement was survival.  There was Pen Sovan, a forty-year-old cadre who had come to North Vietnam in 1954, along with one thousand others, who had been educated in the party and army schools in Hanoi and made a major in the Vietnamese army.  There were Chan Si and Khang Sarin, majors in the Vietnamese army; Tang Saroem, another Khmer exile, who was working as a labor supervisor in Vietnam’s Hon Gai coal mines; Keo Chanda, the Khmer language newsreader from Radio Hanoi; Chea Soth, a news editor from the Vietnam News Agency.  And with them were escapees from Cambodia, political cadres like Hem Samin, Yos Por, Hun Sen, and Bou Thang.

Dragged out of their nondescript offices and refugees barracks, there were suddenly presented to the top Vietnamese leaders whom they had previously known only in pictures.  By a turn of fortune there too were to be leaders in a new Cambodia still in the womb of the future…

New CEO of Phnom Penh Post

Phnom Penh Post FRIDAY, 31 DECEMBER 2010 15:00 CATHERINE JAMES

Moun Ramady, Post Media’s new chief executive officer. Photo by: Will Baxter

 

Media’s new chief executive officer Moun Ramady is not fazed about taking the helm of a newspaper company at a time when globally the industry is downsizing. On the contrary, he says that in the Cambodian market there is plenty of room to grow.

“All the newspapers in the world are shrinking, and we are growing. People are shutting down, and we are expanding. I see the potential,” he says.

His vision for Post Media’s publications - both Khmer and English editions of The Phnom Penh Post - is expansion, particularly for the Khmer edition, which he describes as “the future of Post Media”.

“[The Post Khmer] is going to overtake the English edition, no matter what,” he says.

“The expat readership for the English edition here is maybe 20,000, but for the Khmer edition, you’ve got a population of 14 million. In the future, the flagship of the company will be the Khmer edition. And this is where our future is.”

Moun Ramady says although the company is operating at a loss, he is confident this will turn around as the fruits of expansion take hold. For example, The Post’s online site is getting between 20,000 and 30,000 hits a day.

Khmer Rouge history: pathway to grab guns for fighting

ខ្មែរក្រហម - 

អត្ថបទចុះ​ផ្សាយ​នៅ​ថ្ងៃ ព្រហស្បតិ៍ 14 កក្កដា 2011 - ព័ត៌មានទើប​កែប្រើ​លើកចុងក្រោយ​ ថ្ងៃ ព្រហស្បតិ៍ 14 កក្កដា 2011

ដំណើរ​ឆ្ពោះទៅ​ការ​តស៊ូ​ដោយ​ប្រដាប់​អាវុធ​របស់​ខ្មែរក្រហម

ទាហាន​ខ្មែរក្រហម

AFP

ដោយ សេង ឌីណា

កាលពី​សប្តាហ៍​មុន លោកអ្នកស្តាប់​បាន​ជ្រាប​រួចមក​ហើយ អំពី​ដើមកំណើត​របស់​ចលនា​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​ខ្មែរ និង​ការតស៊ូ​តាមផ្លូវ​នយោបាយ នៅកម្ពុជា។ នៅថ្ងៃ​នេះ សេង ឌីណា នឹង​រៀបរាប់​អំពី​ព្រឹត្តិការណ៍​សំខាន់ៗ ដែល​ជំរុញឲ្យ​ពួក​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​ខ្មែរ បោះបង់​ការ​តស៊ូ​តាមផ្លូវ​នយោបាយ ហើយ​រត់ចូលព្រៃ ធ្វើការ​តស៊ូ​ដោយ​ប្រដាប់អាវុធ​វិញ។

បទ​អត្ថាធិប្បាយ​របស់ សេង ឌីណា ស្តាប់ (08:52) 14/07/2011

នៅ​ឆ្នាំ១៩៦២ មេដឹកនាំ​របស់​បក្ស​ប្រជាជន​ស្ទើរតែ​ទាំងអស់​ត្រូវ​បាន​ចាប់ខ្លួន និង​ផ្តន្ទាទោស​ឲ្យ​ជាប់គុក​អស់​មួយ​ជីវិត ក្នុងនោះ​រួមមាន​មេដឹកនាំ​សំខាន់ៗ ដូចជា កែវ មាស និង នន សួន ផងដែរ។ បក្ស​ពលករ​កម្ពុជា​ក៏បាន​សម្រេចចិត្ត​រំលាយ​បក្ស​ប្រជាជន​ចោល ដែល​ជា​ហេតុ​នាំ​ឲ្យ​ពួក​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​លែងមាន​ឧបករណ៍​សម្រាប់​ធ្វើ​ការ​តស៊ូ ​ផ្នែក​នយោបាយ​ទៀត។

ទូ សាមុត បាត់ខ្លួន សាឡុត ស ឡើង​មកដឹកនាំបក្ស

ក្នុង​ពេល​ជាមួយ​គ្នានោះ រចនាសម្ព័ន្ធ​របស់​បក្ស​ពលករ​កម្ពុជា​បាន​ជួប​នឹង​របត់​មួយ​យ៉ាង​សំខាន់។ ទូ សាមុត ដែល​ជា​លេខាបក្ស បាន​បាត់ខ្លួន​ដោយ​មិនដឹង​មូលហេតុ។ យោងតាម​លោក Ben Kiernan សាឡុត ស និង​បក្ខពួក​ទំនងជា​មាន​ជាប់​ទាក់ទង​នឹង​ការបាត់ខ្លួន​របស់ ទូ សាមុត នេះ។ នៅក្នុង​មហាសន្និបាត​ខែ​កុម្ភៈ ឆ្នាំ១៩៦៣ សាឡុត ស ត្រូវបាន​ជ្រើសតាំង​ឲ្យ​ធ្វើ​ជា​អគ្គលេខាធិការ​បក្ស​ជំនួស ទូ សាមុត ដោយ​រំលង នួន ជា ដែលជា​អនុលេខាបក្ស។ ឯ អៀង សារី ក៏​ឡើង​ជា​មេដឹកនាំ​លំដាប់​ទី​បី​ក្នុង​បក្ស។ សោ ភឹម, វ៉ន វេត, សុន សេន និង ជួន ជឿន ហៅ ម៉ុក ស្ថិតក្នុង​ចំណោម​សមាជិក​នៃ​គណៈកម្មាធិការ​មជ្ឈិម​បក្ស។ ចំណែក​អតីត​មេដឹកនាំ​ចាស់ៗ ដូច​ជា នន សួន និង កែវ មាស ជាដើម ត្រូវ​បាន​គេ​ផាត់​ចេញ​ពី​រចនាសម្ព័ន្ធ​ថ្មី​នេះ។

Opposition highs and lows

Thursday, 14 July 2011 15:02

James O’Toole and Thomas Miller

An SRP source even told American diplomats in March 2006 that Hun Sen had “recently offered to take opposition leader Sam Rainsy into the government as a deputy prime minister, possibly with broad authority over various ministries”. “Rainsy reportedly declined, telling the PM that such a move would be ‘political suicide’ for an opposition leader,” according to the source. 

Photo by: Heng Chivoan

Sam Rainsy speaks to reporters in Phnom Penh in 2009.

As one-time Funcinpec leader and National Assembly President Norodom Ranariddh was forced from the parliamentary leadership in 2006, US embassy officials cast a worried eye over the state of political pluralism in the Kingdom, according to newly released diplomatic cables.

“What is disturbing is that the [Sam Rainsy Party] is on the sidelines, cheering on FUNCINPEC’s problems, just as FUNCINPEC did nothing to assist the SRP when Hun Sen was attacking the opposition during 2005,” a March 2006 cable states. “Both parties believe they would be beneficiaries of the other’s demise; unfortunately, neither party leader trusts the other enough to overcome past differences and work together to achieve the reforms needed within the Cambodian government.”

The American diplomatic cables released on Tuesday detail the struggles of the Royalist movement through the middle of the past decade, from the perceived frustrations of Ranariddh in being passed over for the kingship to the corruption allegations that dogged the party as Hun Sen sought to oust them from the coalition government. At the same time, the halting reform efforts of the SRP are depicted in the on-again, off-again relations between Sam Rainsy and Hun Sen.

With the 2004 coronation of King Norodom Sihamoni, who drew praise in the cables from American diplomats for his graceful and unassuming style, Ranariddh is said to have displayed “petulance” and alienated fellow Funcinpec members in his apparent frustration at being passed over. Eating dinner with US diplomats in October 2004, three senior Funcinpec officials reportedly “expressed grave doubt in Ranariddh’s leadership ability, suggesting that, rather than raising his stature, he is increasingly making himself a laughing stock”.

As years pass, American diplomats see the once-powerful party undone. “Because of corruption and nepotism, the party is losing support from the people and talented officials, such as the SRP’s Mu Sochua, have left the party,” a Funcinpec party member tells American diplomats, later saying most of the royalist party’s officials were “weak and interested only in womanizing and money”.

Cambodian People’s Party official Prum Sokha, meanwhile, reportedly complained that Funcinpec officials “have bloated the staffing of ministries with relatives and party members without consideration of qualifications or interest in the jobs”.

Cambodia's leaders are murderous kleptocrats: author

Stephen Long reported this story on Thursday, July 14, 2011

JOEL BRINKLEY: for the first time in the last few years Cambodia has young people who have graduated from college and realise that things are not right, that their country needs to change.

Listen to MP3 of this story

STEPHEN LONG: Cambodia is one of the world's poorest nations. At least 30 per cent of the population live on less than a dollar a day.

The Australian Government gives over $64 million in aid to Cambodia every year - the world, more than a billion. But how much of that actually gets to the Cambodian people?

Joel Brinkley is the author of a new book called Cambodia's Curse. He says Cambodia's leaders are murderous kleptocrats who pocket most foreign aid, while selling the nation's rice crop for the own gain, and leaving their people to starve, as the world turns a blind eye.

Joel Brinkley spoke to me from his home in California.

JOEL BRINKLEY: Cambodia is an oddity in that 80 per cent of people who live in the country live in the countryside with no electricity, no clean water, no radio, not television. They live more or less as they did 1,000 years ago.

Occasionally somebody might have a cell phone or a motorbike and some people have televisions powered by car batteries but they live in very primitive conditions and that's 80 per cent of the population.

STEPHEN LONG: One of the things that moved me in your articles was the description of the plight of the children.

Phnom Penh Post debut Wikileak Cables on Cambodian Tycoons

Kith Meng - “Mr Rough Stuff”
	Chairman and CEO of the Royal Group Kith Meng was described in the cable as a “relatively young and ruthless gangster”. He could not be reached for comment.
Ly Yong Phat - “The King of Koh Kong”
	Ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat’s nickname derives from his prominence in his home province. According to the cable, Ly Yong Phat has business interests in tobacco, electricity, casinos and resorts.
Lim Chhiv Ho - “The Gatekeeper”
	The director of Attwood Export Import Co Ltd - a liquor distributor - Lim Chhiv Ho is “one of Cambodia’s most well-connected women”, according to the cable.

Comprehensive brief history of Khmer Rouge and CPP

Of course, the journey of Khmer Communist Movement has significantly backed by Vietnam since the birth of this movement in Cambodia. The author has comprehensively elaborated the emerge of Indochina Communist Movement to fight against French Colony and it's contingency up to present. Khmer Labor Party was split into three groups: two in Cambodia, one in Vietnam. But this three groups have never given up in interacting with each other. Thanks Vietnamese active communist aka Achar Mien or Son Ngoc Minh who was able to embed his legacy in Cambodia. And modern CPP is the pride and success of Achar Mien. I remembered when I was young, while Cambodia was totally led by Vietnam and this country changed from Monarchy to Non-monarchy (State of Cambodia), the money photos of Sihanouk were replaced by the face of Son Ngoc Minh. Once, Funcipec failed to persuade Khmer Rouge to defect to their group, it was possibly because Funcipec is not one of the three communist divisions split their struggling paths during their recession. 

ខ្មែរក្រហម - អត្ថបទចុះ​ផ្សាយ​នៅ​ថ្ងៃ ព្រហស្បតិ៍ 07 កក្កដា 2011 - ព័ត៌មានទើប​កែប្រើ​លើកចុងក្រោយ​ ថ្ងៃ ព្រហស្បតិ៍ 07 កក្កដា 2011

 

Click her to listen the whole analyzing

ដើមកំណើត​នៃ​បក្ស​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​កម្ពុជា

ប្រភពដើម​នៃ​បក្សកុម្មុយនិស្តកម្ពុជា គឺ​កើតចេញ​ពី​បក្សកុម្មុយនិស្ត​ឥណ្ឌូចិន​

ដោយ សេង ឌីណា

មុននឹង​បង្កើត​ជា​គណបក្ស​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​កម្ពុជា ចលនាកុម្មុយនិស្ត​ខ្មែរ គឺ​ជា​ផ្នែក​មួយ នៃ​គណបក្ស​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​ឥណ្ឌូចិន របស់​ ហូ ជីមិញ។ នៅ​ឆ្នាំ​១៩៥១ ទើប​ចលនា​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​ខ្មែរ​បាន​បែកចេញ​ពី​គណបក្ស​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​ឥណ្ឌូចិន ដោយ​បង្កើត​ជា​គណបក្ស​ខ្លួនឯង មានឈ្មោះ​ថា គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​បដិវត្តន៍​កម្ពុជា។

បទ​អត្ថាធិប្បាយ​របស់ សេង ឌីណា

បក្សកុម្មុយនិស្ត​ឥណ្ឌូចិន
 
លទ្ធិកុម្មុយនិស្ត​​បាន​ចាប់ផ្តើម​​រីកដុះដាល​ខ្លាំង នៅ​ទូទាំង​ពិភពលោក តាមរយៈ​​ចលនា​ប្រឆាំង​នឹង​អាណានិគម ដែល​ចាប់ផ្ទុះឡើង​ នៅ​ក្រោយ​សង្រ្គាម​លោក​លើកទីពីរ។ នៅឥណ្ឌូចិន ដែល​ស្ថិត​ក្រោម​អាណានិគម​បារាំង​ ក៏​មាន​ចលនា​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​មួយ​ដែរ គឺ “បក្ស​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​ឥណ្ឌូចិន” ដែល​​បង្កើត​ឡើង​ដោយ ហូ ជីមិញ នៅ​ឆ្នាំ១៩៣០។ បក្ស​នេះ​ប្រមូលផ្តុំ​ចលនា​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​ដែល​មកពី​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា វៀតណាម និង​ឡាវ។

នៅ​កម្ពុជា​ សាខាបក្ស​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​ឥណ្ឌូចិន​ ត្រូវបាន​បង្កើតឡើង ​នៅ​ឆ្នាំ​១៩៤២ ដោយ​អាចារ្យមៀន ហៅ សឺន ង៉ុកមិញ។ យោងតាម​លោកស្រី Elizabeth Beckerឈ្មោះ សឺន ង៉ុកមិញ នេះ គឺជា​ការ​ច្របាច់​បញ្ចូលគ្នា​រវាង​ សឺន ង៉ុកថាញ់ និង ហូ ជីមិញ។ ធ្វើ​បែបនេះ គឺ​ក្នុង​គោលដៅ​ឆ្លៀត​យក​ចំណេញ​ពី​ប្រជាប្រិយភាព​របស់ សឺន ង៉ុកថាញ់ ដែល​ជា​ប្រមុខ​ដឹកនាំ​ចលនា​ប្រឆាំង​បារាំង​ដ៏​ល្បីល្បាញ​មួយ គឺ​ចលនា​ខ្មែរ​ឥស្សរៈ។ ប៉ុន្តែ សឺន ង៉ុកថាញ់​ មិនមែន​ជា​មនុស្ស​កុម្មុយនិស្ត​ទេ។

In Cambodia, Comedians Double as Government Propagandists

In the state-aligned media that dominates the country's airwaves, enormously popular comedians, often bearing the rank of colonel in the prime minister's personal bodyguard unit, inject the party line into Cambodian popular culture

Colonel Chuong Chy, who like many of Cambodia's famous comedians is also an officer in the prime minister's special bodyguard unit, performs under the stage name Koy. Though his stage character is flamboyant, in person he is terse and severe.

The popular comedian Colonel Ou Bunnarith, aka Krem (L), performs with his troupe at the studio of the Cambodian television station Bayon.

Chek, whose real name is Colonel Chhum Bunchhoeurn, in an interview, still wearing his makeup.A Cambodian comedy troupe performs in Phnom Penh.

San Mao is reported by The Phnom Penh Post as Colonel Thou Chamrong

Prum Manh was also reported as a CPP colonel by The Phnom Penh Post

Jun 15 2011
By Julia Wallace
The Atlantic

"We work for the prime minister, so why should we perform for Sam Rainsy? ... If we eat a person's food, we have to work for that one." - Krem, aka Colonel Ou Bunnarith

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- One recent Sunday afternoon, television audiences across Cambodia watched a middle-aged man named Krem as he was introduced to the mother of his young girlfriend.

The mother, Oeurn, looked dubiously at her daughter's poorly dressed, extravagantly mustachioed suitor.

"How did you spend the Cambodian New Year?" Oeurn asked him.

"I went to Preah Vihear," Krem replied, referring to a contested 11th century temple on the Thai border that has sparked several skirmishes between Cambodian and Thai forces over the past few years. "We performed comedy for the soldiers who protect us from Thai invasion. I would like to ask the New Year's angel to protect our soldiers and let them defeat the enemy."

A bit later, Krem abruptly announced to Oeurn, "Phnom Penh municipality now has less garbage and is cleaner. Do you know who did that?"

"Who?"

Potemkin graft crackdown in Cambodia

Potemkin graft crackdown in Cambodia
By Sebastian Strangio
Asia Time Online

"Donors have failed to hold a small corrupt elite to account," said George Boden, a campaigner for international graft watchdog Global Witness. "Donors should ensure that central government does not exert an undue influence over the anti-corruption agencies, that all credible allegations of corruption are investigated and that whistleblowers are given the protection that they deserve."

PHNOM PENH - On the morning of May 12, Cambodia's local newspapers ran photos of a bedraggled figure being escorted from a small courthouse. The man, who wore a crumpled green shirt and clutched a water bottle as he leant on the shoulder of a security guard, was Top Chan Sereyvuth, a former prosecutor at the Pursat provincial court in the country's west.

During his trial, it was alleged he had ordered subordinates to extort money from a man found transporting wood through his province - just one in a long line of corrupt dealings. On May 11, judges at the court found him guilty on corruption charges and handed him a 19-year jail term. Two of his bodyguards were also sent down for 15 and 16 years respectively.

The Cambodian government welcomed Sereyvuth's conviction as

the first high-profile case to be brought by its new Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), formed last year following the passage of long-awaited anti-graft legislation. While observers were initially divided about the government's commitment to fighting corruption, the ACU has so far netted some big fish.

Cambodia struggles to play China off against its other neighbours

Courting the Khmer

Cambodia struggles to play China off against its other neighbours

Jun 9th 2011
The Economist
PHNOM PENH

TWENTY kilometres (12½ miles) down the Mekong river from the capital, Phnom Penh, a new container terminal is taking shape on a 30-hectare site. Upstream, two new ports are planned. Whereas other countries that share the mighty waterway favour dams and power plants, the Cambodians are turning the Mekong into a commercial highway. As Sam Olan, the deputy director of the container terminal argues, the project is tailored to the war-ravaged country’s needs: transport by water is cheaper than by road and requires less maintenance—and there are not many good roads anyway.

Like much else in Cambodia today, the new port is being built by the Chinese; 50 or so Chinese engineers and technicians live on site. The Cambodians are confident they will get their new port quickly and on time (it is due to open next year)—one of many reasons why the Chinese are welcome there, as in other poor countries.

As one of the poorest countries in South-East Asia struggles to end its dependence on foreign aid, the Chinese presence has become pervasive. Just down river from the new container terminal is the huge Chinese-built Prek Tamak bridge, which opened last year. The Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, recently broke ground on a $46m Chinese-built road linking the capital to the coastal province of Kampot. There, a new Chinese-built hydroelectric power station is about to begin operation—supplying, by one official estimate, half of Cambodia’s demand for power. The Chinese plan to build three more. Overall, China accounts for almost half the foreign investment in the country.

Book Reviewing by Sambath Meas from the argument of Joel Brinkley

My Review of Cambodia's Curse by Joel Brinkley

Cambodia’s Blessed
by Sambath Meas






In his foreword to Marie Alexandrine Martin’s Cambodia: A Shattered Society, Jean-François Baré wrote, “At the head of the list of vanquished, I would obviously be inclined, as would Marie Martin, to place the Khmer people, a martyred people. But the Khmer people also produced the Pol Pots, the Ieng Sarys, the Khieu Samphans, the barely adolescent yothea who, under their leaders’ directions, used methodical and murderous obstinacy in applying Bertolt Brecht’s sorrowful aphorism: ‘If something about a country is wrong, you have to change the people and choose another one’ –this same Khmer people, imbued among other interacting factors with a concept of hierarchy (neak chuo, knowing one’s place) that worked both to help make Cambodia so peaceful and to make the Khmer revolution so terrible when ‘the children were in power,’ through an astonishing and terrible structural reversal.”

So forget about the tribes (whose countries are now called Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam) that migrated from their ancestral home in southern China to Southeast Asia and engulfed the lands of Mon, Khmer, and Malay. Forget about Thailand and Vietnam tug-of-war for supremacy in this region, using Cambodia as a rope, the French ironclad colonization, the American bombing, or Vietnam and China’s influences. Disregard the fact that the Khmer Rouge leaders consisted of ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese and studied Marxism in Paris, France. What Jean-François Baré is driving at in his foreword is, there’s no one to blame for Cambodia’s weakness and demise but the Khmers themselves.

No one revels in this sentiment more than Joel Brinkley. He devotes his entire book to show how the Khmer leaders (psychopathic, autocratic, and kleptocratic) and people (ignorant, stupid, lazy, foolish and gullible) are a hopeless case and therefore, can’t be saved. Basically, the donors should not give Cambodia’s government any more money and should pack up and go home.

In fact, the premise of Cambodia’s Curse is to debunk those who attributed the American bombing to the rise of the Khmer Rouge regime, which ultimately killed almost two millions of its own people and destroyed its entire nation.

Brinkley reflected, “In this climate William Shawcross, a British journalist, wrote his seminal book, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia. It concluded that the American bombing of Cambodia, intended to destroy Vietcong sanctuaries there, drove the peasantry to the Khmer Rouge and ensured their victory. The liberal media (and I was a card-carrying member; I read and admired his book while flying to Cambodia in 1979) heaped adulation on Shawcross.”

Brinkley has come to a realization that “now, thirty years later, with passions cooled, it is quite clear that his conclusion was wrong.”