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Scare tactics won’t work with Hun Sen
Op-Ed: Bangkok Post, Scare tactics won’t work with Hun Sen
- 6 Mar 2019 at 04:18
- WRITER: SEK SOPHAL
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks during a ceremony in Phnom Penh on Jan 14, where he said he would ‘step on the throat’ of his rivals if the EU ends preferential trading with the country. (AFP photo)
After six months of close monitoring and engaging with the Cambodian government, the European Union (EU) found that Cambodia has made very little tangible progress in complying with the EU’s demands that it reinstate democratic checks-and-balances, respect human rights and the independence of the media, and drop charges against members of the opposition party.
As a result, the EU on Feb 11 began the process to temporarily strip Cambodia of its Everything-but-Arms (EBA) status, which gives it a preferential, tariff-free channel to export all of its products — except for weapons — to the EU.
On the surface, it may seem as if the EU is trying to hurt Cambodia’s economy. However, the objective behind the use of such a “threat” is to force Hun Sen and the executives of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) — many of whom are running lucrative businesses across the country — to soften its stance and comply with the EU’s conditions.
Unfortunately, this sort of coercive diplomacy may not yield results.
Hun Sen is still consolidating his grip over the CPP, and any attempt to challenge his position in the party is virtually impossible. After Chea Sim, the former chairman of the CPP passed away in 2015, he took over the party helm and became its chief.
After he took up the position, Hun Sen has been strengthening his faction by promoting his close allies and relatives to the party’s central and permanent committees. During the CPP’s General Assembly last December, for instance, the premier promoted two of his sons — General Hun Manet, the Commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, and MP Hun Many — to the party’s permanent committee, along with several other senior military officials.
While it is true that Hun Sen has yet to fully bring the the CPP under his control — there are other political factions that are loyal to other CPP elites, including Interior Minister Sar Kheng and National Assembly President Heng Samring — his firm control over the military and civil sectors means his opponents within the CPP have very little chance of challenging his dominance.
As such, the EU’s use of a threat to indirectly pressure Hun Sen into compliance might not be practical after all.
Read More …Chinese tourists win, poor Cambodians lose with US$4 billion Hong Kong-backed casino in Phnom Penh
Chinese tourists win, poor Cambodians lose with US$4 billion Hong Kong-backed casino in Phnom Penh
- Tenants turfed out of Phnom Penh’s iconic low-income housing block, the White Building, were told it would be redeveloped to house Cambodians
- Instead, NagaCorp is planning a development the size of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore that it hopes will attract high-rolling Chinese gamblers
Andrew Nachemson Kong Meta , Published: 9:00am, 10 Apr, 2019
Op-Ed: This Week in Asia of SCM
Phnom Penh’s White Building, designed by Cambodian architect Vann Volyvann, before its destruction. File photoAn iconic Phnom Penh housing site known as the White Building is being turned into a multibillion-dollar casino development, as Cambodia woos Chinese tourists by catering to their penchant for gambling.Hong Kong-listed developer NagaCorp, controlled by Malaysian billionaire Chen Lip Keong, estimates it will spend US$3.8-US$4 billion on the Naga3 project, its third casino in the country, which will have hotels, condominium facilities and a 12-floor entertainment centre and outlet mall.NagaCorp’s deputy chairman Philip Lee told local media on Tuesday: “Naga3 is the single biggest private sector investment so far in the country and may be for years to come. It is about the same size as Marina Bay Sands in Singapore … which is the most expensive entertainment complex in the world.”
A Cambodian worker (R) looks through a window during demolition work at the White Building residential complex in Phnom Penh. Photo: AFPS
But the news has surprised and upset former residents of the low-income housing block and conservation activists, who had been under the impression the site was being redeveloped to house Cambodians.
Is Cambodia’s Koh Kong project for Chinese tourists – or China’s military?
Among them is Nhek Chantha, 67, who was turfed out of the White Building in 2017 and moved in with her children as she could not afford a new place.
“[The government] told such a big lie to us. It’s a very central place, they should renovate it and allow us to keep living there so it becomes a cultural site for people to see, but they think only about profit,” she said.
A Cambodian man prays to Buddhist monks at the residential complex known as the White Building before its demolition in Phnom Penh. Photo: AFPS
A Japanese company, Arakawa Co Ltd, was supposed to rebuild the landmark site and turn it into a 21-storey condominium block. Five of the floors were to be reserved for low-income housing that would go to the previous residents of the White Building and 12 floors would be used for private flats. Land Management Minister Chea Sophara in 2016 had asked Cambodians to “be patient while waiting for the new White Building to be finished in four years”.
‘They only go to Chinese shops’: why Cambodia’s influx of mainland tourists is causing tensions
Arakawa did not respond to requests for comment on Monday and Land Ministry spokesman Seng Lot said he did not know how or why the land was transferred to NagaCorp.
Constructed in 1963 as part of the Bassac River Front cultural complex and overseen by legendary architect Vann Molyvann, the White Building was, along with the rest of the city, evacuated in 1975 by the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge occupation which targeted artists and intellectuals.
A Cambodian boy walks past spirit houses at the residential complex known as the White Building in Phnom Penh before its demolition. Photo: AFPS
After the regime fell in 1979, a mixed crowd including artists and musicians moved in, turning it into a colourful and close-knit, if sometimes seedy, community until the government demolished it two years ago, saying it was not structurally sound.
Read More …Cambodia: Free Opposition Leader From House Arrest
Cambodia: Free Opposition Leader From House Arrest
Immediately Drop Bogus Case Against Kem Sokha
Op-Ed: HRW
(New York) – Cambodian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release opposition party leader Kem Sokha from house arrest and drop the politically motivated criminal case against him, Human Rights Watch said today. Sokha, president of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) at the time of his arrest, has been without his freedom for over 18 months.
On March 19, 2019, an investigating judge in Cambodia’s politically controlled courts rejected Sokha’s renewed request to drop the charges against him. The judge provided no update or additional information about the completion of his investigation and whether the case will be sent to trial.
“For a year and a half, Cambodian authorities have imprisoned Kem Sokha, first in a remote jail and now in his own home; denied him visits from colleagues, diplomats, and journalists; and conducted a baseless investigation with no end in sight,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The government should immediately end Sokha’s arbitrary detention and release him.”
On September 3, 2017, eight members of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s personal bodyguard unit and about 100 police officers arrested Sokha at his home in Phnom Penh. An investigating judge charged him with “colluding with foreigners” under article 443 of the Cambodian criminal code, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. He was immediately stripped of his parliamentary immunity on the grounds that he was caught in the act of committing a crime, even though the purported evidence against him was a highly edited video of a speech he gave in 2013, more than four years earlier, in which he explained that his party had received advice from a United States-based NGO.
On June 5, 2018, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a body of independent experts, declared Kem Sokha’s pretrial detention “arbitrary” and “politically motivated,” and said that Cambodian authorities should immediately release him.
Sokha spent a year in pretrial detention in a remote jail during which his health sharply deteriorated. On September 10, 2018, a judge ordered him released under highly restrictive conditions of judicial supervision that amount to house arrest. Under article 208 of Cambodia’s criminal procedure law, the investigating judge may only detain a felony suspect on legally justified grounds for up to 18 months. However, the judge has wide discretion to determine bail conditions, which allows for severe restrictions on the suspect’s freedom of movement and other rights. There is no provision in Cambodian law that allows for house arrest.
Read More …Is this the act of victims are victimized?
Dear Respectful Members,
This thread is to express my deep sorry and frustration that because of what I mentioned about “PM Hun Sen didn’t appear in the group photo because he said he was at the toilet?” that made Louk Pu BA faced removing from the Campro group (link 1, link 2). Whatever reasons his removal is referred to, I think that, this action is just a paralleled “victims are victimized” conduction in Cambodia society.
Observing from those most fundamental activities to the most essential practises on national stage, they are showing us (the underdogs) the path to its evilization that we should shoulder to deevilize them, if possible. Parents have victimized their children by just their excuse “I am your father/mother”, neighbours have victimized children through their funny bullying behaviours, and state leaders have used laws for their advantage to suppress the victims of land grabs and incompetence of the courts and dissents etc.
unsustainable. Once, the conviction was laid that “While the Western countries believe in giving space and liberty to their citizens to bravely speak up their voice and fully engage in social development in the hope of long term survival of their motherland, Cambodia is in dichotomous effort by the government. This historical and remarkable contrast has happened since Cambodian people protest against the additional border treaty with Vietnam in 2005, many of them were arrested and jailed, once Prime Minister Hun Sen promised to make coffins for those who dare to claim back Khmer Krom lost land for Cambodia, and with many other occasions including banning Alex from his campaign to protect the Cambodia forests, is seen as an attempt to threat those bottom line people activism who are working to protect their lands and forests and to open way or encourage the wrong doers such as land grab activities, deforestation and logging, and forced eviction etc. to continue their wrong deeds without obstacles” (original link).
e end, this is how the wise have learnt to accept, to tolerate, and to exchange knowledge within a healthy multi-cultural setting. Some regulations and rules are good in producing healthy multi-cultural society, but some are just tools for the controllers to exercise their own biased territory. So let be frank in ourselves and treat things fairly and credibly.