Individual Family Community Nation World បចេ្ចកបុគ្គល គ្រួសារ សហគមន៍ ជាតិ ពិភពលោក
Mind is the Leader, Mind is the Source of Good and Evil "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become" - Lord Buddha
Leadership is about Empowering Children Just little thing, all Cambodians should consider to practice, please teach your kids or others the best things as you are the actors of role model.
The Conflict of Generations of Cambodia Leadership In Cambodia, those post-baby boomers are known for their conceptualization on the Politics of the United Nations, Human Rights, Democracy, Free and Fair Election, and Freedom. They have lived through time of political reconciliation, non-violence, culture of dialogue, democratic elections, economic liberalization, social injustice, social gap, minimum wage and jobs seeking, and contesting leadership of two party state of Cambodia. They were not divided by monarchy and anti-monarchy, political violence of systematic atrocity and revenge, but experienced the Vietnamese military presence in Cambodia. They are not xenophobic, paranoiac, or irrational in general. They are more into conflict resolution than conflict revolution.
Leadership skills that fit your traits There are many leadership skills and competencies that, when combined and applied, go toward making you an effective leader. You have the ability to develop each of these skills within yourself. Read on for specific ideas on how you can improve your leadership skills!
Change Yourself - Good Luck LEADERSHIP is for everyone. Leadership is not solely accountable for King, President, Prime Minister, CEO or school superintendent etc. Individual requires effective leadership to handle with all his or her daily activities. Buddha said “no one save us, but ourselves; we are our own savior” is the indicator of important leadership starting from ourselves. As a member of family, one needs to manage their family’s well-being effectively. As a member of neighborhood and community, one must nurture their network and relationship effectively. As a member of a nation, one must stand up to safeguard the collective interest of the nation with courageous, striving and perpetual commitment. Nation means ourselves! As a member of the globe, one must step beyond their frontier to challenge with the world changes. Most mornings we turn a door-handle and walk out into a larger world. We move across our world, at least across a tiny section of it. This is the society of which we are part.
Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower Steve Jobs advised that potential leadership stems from potential innovation. If one has no innovation, he or she would be a follower, not a leader. For Ralph Nader, he repeated that “I start with the promise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers”. David Gergen deepened into a tangible theme that “What they must have are: inner mastery; a central, compelling purpose rooted in moral values; a capacity to persuade; skills in working within the system; a fast start; a strong, effective team; and a passion that inspires others to keep the flame alive.”
Leadership in Education Citizenship in learning: Exercises democratic rights and responsibilities within the learning community, -Demonstrates respect and appreciation for diversity, -Works and communicates effectively with others. Personal Development through learning: Sets and works towards learning goals, -Demonstrates confidence and autonomy in learning. Character in learning: Engages in learning with initiative, persistence and integrity, -Treats others with respect and compassion, - Makes responsible decisions.
Working as team to solve conflicts in working places I am more inclining to task-focused than people-oriented. I believe in tidiness, compliant, well organized, set-policy and punctual. But I might miss parts of sense of humor, people sensitivity and social outgoing etc. To handle both conflicts, I was ready on positive emotion, integrity, understanding the internal regulations as well as code of conduct, pre-destining the consequences and laying down appropriate assertiveness. It is essential to comprehend on good paper theory and actual onsite operation; they are two contradictorily items in which require wisdom, experiences and flexibility to attain it. Conflicts are happening every moment of livelihood. Workplace is one of the frequent sites to be bombarded by differences and conflicts.
Modern definition of the state and failed state in political leadership Those scholars argue that if a state failed to implement good governance, effective bureaucracy, judicial independence, social justice, people’s freedom, social equity and the enforcement of the rule of laws, the outcome of political leadership of those states shall prevail in the manner of “failed state” or “predatory state”. It means the powerful or the top leader has gained nothing beneficial under their “leadership” to build the nation of the future. He/she has gained only for personal interest and family clan. Buddha said that such leader has been deceived by greed លោភះ and ignorance អវិជ្ជា.
Theories of Political Leadership Oksenburg, who was specialist in China and former president of East West Center, laid out some idealistic formulations on leaders and leadership that include: A lot of lust for power Absolute ruthlessness Vision Many followers
Self-Cultivation to be an Effective Leader Self and relationship with nature according well-known scholars Both Mechanical Universe of Isaac Newton and Quantum Mechanics of Albert Einstein have clarified that self or individual is very essential to respond to the whole society, world and universe under a certain natural law which called original interdependent or inner relativism. Buddha is the first researcher who found this theory and taught everybody about this inner relation and pointed out the way of middle path, self-savior and enlightenment.
Critical Thinking is an Essential Source of Leadership An effective critical thinker: consider all relevant evidence develops criteria for making reasoned judgments make judgments on the basis of these criteria works on developing the character traits, or habits of mind that promote effective decision making You make choices every day — at school, at home, with friends, and at work. You may, for example, need to decide wheter to join an after-school activity, whether to support a friend in school elections, or how to plan your courses for the year. Using criteria to guide your decisions will help you succeed in school. But the benefits of using criteria to guide your decisions go wel beyond the social studies classroom. Developing effective criteria will ensure that you make the most effective choices when faced with challenges in all aspects of your life.
Washington, D.C. – This evening, the House passed the Cambodia Democracy Act of 2018 (H.R. 5754) to promote free and fair elections, political freedoms and human rights in Cambodia and impose sanctions on Hun Sen’s inner circle.
Chairman Royce submitted the following remarks for the record:
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for bringing this important and timely legislation to the House Floor.
I want to begin by thanking Rep. Yoho, the Chairman of the Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, for authoring this bill, which is the product of his important oversight work. I would also like to recognize Rep. Alan Lowenthal for his tireless advocacy for this bill, as well as Ranking Members Engel and Sherman for their strong support.
In four days, Cambodians will vote for a new head of government. Unfortunately, this election will not be legitimate in any way. Hun Sen and his thugs long ago decided the outcome, by marginalizing, beating and imprisoning members of the opposition.
Since Cambodia’s deeply flawed elections in 2013, we have seen intensifying attacks on Cambodians peacefully opposing their government. Hun Sen’s thuggish regime continues to crack down on political opposition and other activists who oppose his rule. Freedom House consistently rates Cambodia as ‘Not Free,’ noting harassment of the regime’s political opposition.
That’s putting it mildly. Three years ago, opposition lawmaker and American citizen Nhay Chamreoun was severely and brutally attacked by plainclothes bodyguards, who repeatedly kicked and stomped him. He was hospitalized for months. Several months later, Kem Ley, a popular Cambodian political commentator, was murdered in broad daylight for his outspoken protests of the regime.
Over the last year, Hun Sen has dispatched any notions of democracy in Cambodia. He dissolved the opposition party, CNRP, arrested its leader Kem Sokha – who now faces spurious treason charges – and completely dismembered the political system in Cambodia.
Importantly, the Cambodia Democracy Act of 2018 imposes sanctions on all members of Hun Sen’s inner circle for their role in undermining democracy in Cambodia and committing serious human rights violations. Specifically, it bars these individuals from entering the U.S. and blocks any assets or property they may possess.
It will be up to the president to determine who should be designated for these sanctions. But given the brashness of this regime, we do have a good idea of who the president should target:
Hun Sen: Prime Minister, President of Cambodian People’s Party (CPP)
Sar Kheng: Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior, Vice President of CPP
Tea Banh: Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defense, Member of the CPP
Aun Pornmoniroth: Minister for Economy and Finance
Koeut Rith: Secretary of State of Ministry of Justice
Sun Chanthol: Minister of Public Works and Transport
Prak Sokhonn: Minister of Foreign Affairs
Om Yentieng: President of Anti-Corruption Unit attached to the Office of the Council of Ministers, Advisor to the Prime Minister
Pol Saroeun: Four-Star General, Member of the Supreme Council of National Defense, Commander-in-Chief of RCAF
Neth Savoeun: Director-General of the National Police, Member of CPP Permanent Committee
Kun Kim: Four-Star General, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of RCAF, Chief of RCAF Joint General Staff, Chief of Personal Advisers and Cabinet of the Prime Minister
Sao Sokha: Four-Star General, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of RCAF, Commander of the National Royal Military Police
Hing Bunheang: Four-Star General, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of RCAF
Choun Sovann: Deputy Chief of National Police and Chief of Phnom Penh Municipal Police
Hun Manet: Deputy Chief of RCAF Joint General Staff
Sok Puthyvuth: CEO of SOMA Group conglomerate
Hun Mana: Chair of Bayon Height Media System
Again, thank you Mr. Speaker for bringing up this very important and timely legislation. The people of Cambodia deserve far better than the Hun Sen’s despotism. Political pluralism will soon reach Cambodia, and this legislation will not only help Cambodians attain that goal, but will also send a strong signal that Congress will not tolerate these human rights abuses.”
This analysis, Mr. Sophan emphasized on drifting authoritarian of staunch puppet to both China and Vietnam of Prime Minister Hun Sen in which has possessed deadly side-effect like what was happening during the leadership of Pol Pot (1975-1979). Watching the full analysis in youtube.
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Nobody’s Puppet
Prime Minister Hun Sen told an American filmmaker he is a patriot who resists any foreign influences, despite allegations to the contrary from Cambodia’s opposition and analysts.
The entrance to Kratie University flanked with Chinese and Cambodian flags in a photo posted on Facebook last week.
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen addresses the politically divisive issue of his historic links with the Communist Party of Vietnam by saying he has never been a “puppet” of Hanoi but is a patriot who always resisted foreign influence on Cambodia.
“A number of people claim I am a person who was installed by Vietnam; they also said I am a puppet of Vietnam,” Hun Sen said in unreleased video footage of an interview with American filmmaker Robert Lieberman for his documentary “Angkor Awakens.”
This is the first of a multi-part series, based on a rare video interview with Hun Sen by American filmmaker Robert Lieberman for his 2016 documentary “Angkor Awakens.”
“The reality is that Hun Sen belongs to Cambodia [and] Cambodia needs independence,” the prime minister said. “I also hate those who want to have political influence on Cambodia – we don’t accept it.”
Lieberman conducted the September 24, 2015 interview in a New York hotel. VOA recently obtained the interview from the filmmaker.
For decades, the opposition – the once-formidable royalist party FUNCINPEC, former opposition leader Sam Rainsy, and the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) – have clung to this and other claims in order to undermine Hun Sen’s image and to tap into lingering anti-Vietnamese nationalism in Cambodia.
Many older opposition members come from an alliance of political groups led by then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk that was based on the Thai-Cambodian border. The alliance battled Vietnam during its occupation of Cambodia from 1978, the final days of the Khmer Rougeregime, to 1989.
Campaigning for Cambodia’s July 29 elections started July 7, but with the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) government’s decision to ban its only challenger, the CNRP, last year, the role of anti-Vietnamese politics has become somewhat of a moot point.
Hun Sen has mostly ignored the opposition’s accusations that he is a stooge of Hanoi while never hiding his good relations with Vietnam. These go back to 1977 when he and other Khmer Rouge defectors crossed into Vietnam. They were welcomed and trained to form a new Cambodian government that was installed by Vietnam after it ousted the Khmer Rouge regime in January 1979.
Hun Sen became foreign minister and then prime minister in 1985. He has held onto power since with political maneuvering that has won him democratic elections and by crushing opponents with brazen armed force.
FILE – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, center right, and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc, review an honor guard in Hanoi, on Dec. 20, 2016. (Tran Van Minh | AP)
Vietnam backs, not controls, Hun Sen rule
According to a recent publication by Stephen Heder, a respected Cambodia scholar, Hun Sen’s CPP and the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) have long had a “comprehensive relationship” in which they strongly support each other and defend their respective roles from any political challenges.
Hun Sen’s recent banning of the opposition and ongoing crackdown on independent media and civil society would thus have Hanoi’s support, he argues, though that doesn’t mean that Vietnam dominates in Cambodia.
“[K]eeping the CNRP out of power, if necessary by eliminating it from the contest for power, is a strongly shared CPP-CPV common interest that lies at the core of their comprehensive relationship and is most concretely manifest in the relationship between their security forces,” wrote Heder, a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. “However, this and other CPP-CPV common interests do not add up to Vietnamese domination of Cambodia, as is shown, inter alia, by Cambodia’s refusal to toe Vietnam’s line on the South China Sea,” according to Heder.
In recent years, Hun Sen’s ever tightening embrace with China has been a point of growing media and diplomatic attention. Beijing has provided support and massive loans for his government as it abandoned Western-backed multiparty democracy, while Hun Sen in turn gives diplomatic support for China’s quest for dominance in the South China Sea region.
Demonstrators set fire to a monument marking Cambodian-Vietnamese friendship in Phnom Penh August 30, 1998. (Reuters)
Cambodia’s relations with Western countries have suffered since 2017, with cuts in donor support and the U.S. recently slapping sanctions on some Cambodian officials. In 2017 alone, China accounted for 30 percent of all investment in China, according to The Asean Post.
Ear Sophal, an associate professor at Los Angeles’ Occidental College who has researched Cambodia’s aid dependency and China’s global resource demand, said Hun Sen’s claim of resisting foreign influence was dispelled by the fact that Vietnam and, more recently, China gained control of large swathes of Cambodia’s natural resources, infrastructure and economy at the expense of ordinary Cambodians.
“Cambodia is now seen as having been for rent for a long time,” he said. “The renter is currently China. Perhaps we can say Vietnam owns Cambodia, while China rents Cambodia from Vietnam.”
Sophal added, “But [Hun Sen] does need more friends than only Vietnam and China – he needs to have Western friends too.”
Hanoi (VNA) – Over the past five-tear term of the National Assembly, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has done a lot for the Cambodian people, helping raise public confidence in the upcoming general election.
The maintenance of peace, political stability and security has created favourable conditions for Cambodia to continue recording new and greater achievements in socio-economic development and in the improvement of the people’s living standards.
Cambodia has emerged from a low-income country into a low-middle income nation, and is on the path towards the high-middle income status by 2030.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan said on Wednesday it will not be sending election monitors to Cambodia for a general election this weekend, although Tokyo – a major donor to the Southeast Asian nation – has sent such observers for numerous elections in the past.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is on course to extend his 33 years in power after the main opposition party was dissolved last year and following a crackdown on dissent, including civil society and independent media, prompting criticism by some that the election is a sham.
Cambodia announced on Tuesday that as many as 220 observers from 52 countries would monitor Sunday’s general elections.
Japan sent election monitors to Cambodian elections in 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said it would not be doing so this time.
He did not give further details but noted that Japan was providing purely “practical” assistance.
“We’ve taken various opportunities to express our concerns and call on them to improve the situation,” he told an afternoon news conference, when asked about Japan’s stance on Cambodia’s human rights situation.
“In order to ensure the trust of the electoral process, we have sent experts and provided machines and technical assistance. We have supported election reform in this way.”
A Japanese foreign ministry official said Japan had made the decision after they considered the situation surrounding the Cambodian election.
The election has been criticized by the United Nations and Western countries as fundamentally flawed after last year’s dissolution of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and the imprisonment of its leader, Kem Sokha.
Human rights activists gave Japan’s move mixed reviews.
“It’s heartening that Tokyo finally woke up to the reality that it’s not worth Japan’s time or reputation to formally send election monitors to observe a Cambodian election…in which the major opposition party is barred from participating,” said Kanae Doi, Human Rights Watch Japan Director.
“Had they gone, Japan’s observers likely would have been used as propaganda by the Cambodian government to cynically justify an election which will be neither genuine, nor free and fair.”
But Doi said Japan could still do more.
“Japan should still act now to freeze any ongoing assistance to the biased National Election Commission, and prepare a post-election statement that will take a hard line in pointing out the fundamental flaws in the election,” she added.
Reporting by Mari Saito, Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Jacqueline Wong
On July 22, 2018, The Irrawaddy published a news on corruption among the arm-force elites, adding to “Cambodia’s Dirty Dozens” by HRW and recently translated by VOA into Khmer, The Irrawaddy pinpointed the closest link of General Pol Saroeun in millions of mining corporation. Tax evasion and hiding conflict of interests are most important that the General has been conducting in Cambodia.
A tangled web
The Paradise Papers reveal that Uddor Meanchey Mining was set up in the Cayman Islands to play a key role in what could have been a multimillion dollar project to turn Sidara’s coal mine into the main supplier of a planned power plant that would sell electricity to Cambodia, Thailand and back to the mine to keep it running.
The leaked records, reviewed by The Irrawaddy, include emails and documents ranging from share purchase and transfer agreements to certificates of incorporation, directors resolutions, legal opinions, checklists, client lists and invoices — all prepared by or shared with the offshore law firm Appleby.
According to the records, a joint development agreement setting the project in motion was struck in June 2007. The partners included two Cambodian companies, EuroAsia Power and Rexwell Engineering Cambodia; another Caymans firm, AEI Asia; and Rexwell Engineering Limited, registered in Guernsey, a British crown dependency in the English Channel with its own reputation as a tax haven. Appleby was AEI’s legal counsel.
The plans called for Sidara to transfer the license for her coal mine to EuroAsia Power, which she also held shares in, according to the Cambodian Commerce Ministry’s business register. EuroAsia Power would then dig up and ship the coal to a 2,400-MW power plant to be built, owned and operated by Rexwell Engineering Cambodia near the mine.
The two Cambodian companies would operate as subsidiaries of holding companies set up in the Cayman Islands.
The plan was to have all shares in EuroAsia Power transferred to Uddor Meanchey Mining. All shares in Rexwell Engineering Cambodia would be transferred to another company also registered in the Caymans, Uddor Meanchey Power Holdings. Together, the two offshore companies would own the mine and plant.
The chart illustrates the connections between the main companies involved in Noup Sidara’s offshore venture, including her shares in Uddor Meanchey Mining Holdings, which was registered in the Cayman Islands from 2007 to 2012. Most of the other companies have also since been dissolved. Ratanak Stone Cambodia Development remains registered in Cambodia. / Sources: Paradise Papers; Cambodia Commerce Ministry; Global Witness
Among the directors both Uddor Meanchey holding companies appointed was the affiliate of another Guernsey firm, the Sarnia Management Corporation.
On its website, Sarnia Management offers to help “wealthy individuals and their families with flexible and bespoke approaches to protect and manage their assets” with the aid of “jurisdictions and relationships all around the world.” The 2016 Panama Papers, an earlier leak of offshore financial records, named Sarnia Management as an intermediary for more than 200 offshore companies, many of them registered in Niue, a pebble of an island state in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with — like the Caymans — zero tax on offshore earnings.
The records don’t say how much the project partners expected the coal mine and power plant to cost, let alone earn. But they budgeted nearly $10 million for advisors on the power plant alone.
It appears their grand plans soon fell apart, however. In June 2008, only a year after the joint development agreement was signed, AEI Asia told its partners it would be terminating the deal.
But the two offshore holding companies lived on a while longer. Uddor Meanchey Mining, the one Sidara owned shares in, was dissolved only in 2012, five years after it was registered in the Caymans. Rexwell Engineering Limited was dissolved the same year in Guernsey, and AEI Asia appears to have been wound down as well.
Rexwell Engineering Cambodia and EuroAsia Power no longer appear on the Cambodian Commerce Ministry’s business register.
Op-Ed: East Asia ForumAuthor: Astrid Norén-Nilsson, Lund UniversityNext week’s Cambodian election is not a contest between parties — it is a vote on the legitimacy of the election itself. With the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) dissolved by court order just eight months ahead of the election, the incumbent Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) faces no real challenger.The CNRP has called for a voter boycott, which has turned the election into a referendum over its own legitimacy. The CPP has declared illegal the act of publicly calling for a voter boycott (or even proclaiming one’s intention to abstain), creating confusion among citizens whether voting abstention itself could be judged illegal.A high voter turnout would smooth Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s path to establishing a new authoritarian order. The government has indicated that it is set on achieving a voter turnout of over 80 per cent, which would be far higher than the record low 68 per cent turnout at the last national election in 2013. A high turnout would make the creation of a new national narrative that relegates the CNRP to history a more feasible project. The election could be cited as proof that the nation has come together to express support for the CPP’s resolute derailing of a ‘colour revolution’ in the making.
Yet a high voter turnout is not strictly necessary for the administration’s stability or even likely to impact on its future policy direction. The government’s efforts to ensure a high turnout are in the first place intended to secure the appearance of legitimacy, rather than to win the people’s hearts and minds.
Once the legitimacy of the new government is publicly unchallengeable, there will likely be efforts to genuinely deepen popular support by tying continued CPP rule and its thwarting of alleged (foreign-backed) revolution to national pride. This would go hand-in-hand with the government’s successful efforts to take politics out of the equation in terms of citizens’ thoughts about their futures: having had their political awakening eclipsed, Cambodia’s urban youth are steering away from politics towards business and entrepreneurship instead.
In the final analysis, it is the act of holding an election rather than the turnout that matters. The election will sanction Hun Sen’s continued hold on power, and the government will construe this victory as a new chapter in the country’s political development after the demise of the political opposition. Though there may be a slight softening of political repression after the election, this will likely not be felt so much by the media and civil society. Since the election will mainly serve to establish a definite ‘before’ and ‘after’, the administration will need to defend the ‘new normal’ that the election ushers in. The fact that former CNRP voters have been bypassed by the election leaves too many issues unresolved for the government to soften its stance substantially.
Meanwhile, a militarisation of the National Assembly prepares for military oversight over policy. The government will continue to court key constituencies previously singled out by the CNRP (such as garment workers, civil servants and the armed forces) with favourable economic policies such as incremental salary raises. As for foreign policy, Cambodia will likely continue its roaring pivot to China and Russia, unperturbed by the election’s lack of recognition by the international community (the European Union and the United States have already proclaimed that, without the CNRP’s participation, the election will not be considered legitimate).
The holding of the election and its outcome may be written in stone, but exactly how it fits into the democratic backsliding of the country is still being sculpted. Multi-party elections will by all appearances remain important in Cambodia beyond 2018, but from now on the fireflies (small, insignificant parties that crop up around election time) may buzz more loudly. The notion of multi-party democracy, embodied by the procedural spectacle of elections, has rooted itself deeply in Cambodia.
At the same time, the government intermittently flirts with the notion of one-party rule, such as when Hun Sen publicly reflected in June that one-party states such as China and Vietnam also let the private sector lead national development. After Cambodia’s government turns the page on 29 July, it may increasingly allude to the merits of de facto one-party rule while continuing to fervently protect the formalities of multi-party democracy.
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Cambodia opposition says it has been ‘cut off’ in lead up to election
“We have never banned criticisms but we ban insults and incitements because in an election situation, people need security physically and mentally,” government spokesman Phay Siphan said.
Hun Sen, who has ruled this Southeast Asian nation for over 30 years, has had virtually no opposition since November when the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved by the Supreme Court at his government’s request. CNRP was narrowly defeated in a 2013 general election.
Amid condemnation from the international community, CNRP leader Kem Sokha was jailed last year on treason charges and almost 5,000 local authority positions his party had won were handed to members of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).
“Inside the country, (CNRP members) are completely cut-off from communicating with each other,” 30-year-old Khoeun Virath told Reuters at a cafe in Phnom Penh in what was once his constituency. “There is no leadership structure left.”
The National Election Committee (NEC) says it has approved 69 individual foreign observers, but doesn’t provide the number of institutions.
It has registered 107 domestic groups, which will be dominated by the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia (UYFC), an organization led by Hun Many, the prime minister’s son and a lawmaker for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).
A total of 36,000 members of the UYFC had been registered, said Huy Vannak, a member of the youth organization’s central committee and undersecretary of state for the Interior Ministry. The group will contribute almost half of the 77,534 monitors.
Dim Sovannarom, a spokesman for the NEC, confirmed that “tens of thousands” of the UYFC’s members had been ratified as election observers. UYFC provided election monitors in past polls but not on this scale.
WHO PROFITS FROM THE DEATH OF CAMBODIA’S DEMOCRACY?
Global Witness, July 20, 2018
These tycoons include:
Senator Mong Reththy, who Global Witness has linked to a massive illegal logging racket and a sand dredging scandal worth millions of dollars. When allegations surfaced that the senator was also involved in marijuana trafficking, the prime minister said that anyone attempting to arrest him should “wear a steel helmet”.
Senator Ly Yong Phat, whose sugar company operations led to some of the most violent land grabbing Cambodia has seen this century, with thousands of people thrown off their land. Sugar is just one industry in his huge business portfolio, which spans casinos, the media, infrastructure and more.
Try Pheap, previously Hun Sen’s personal advisor, who Global Witness found to be at the helm of a multi-million dollar timber smuggling operation that relied on the complicity of officials from government, the military, police and customs. His company was even granted exclusive rights to buy illegal timber that was seized by the authorities, to sell on at a profit.
Senator Lao Meng Khin, who owns Shukaku, the company behind the infamous Boeung Kak lake evictions. Residents who took a stand have been beaten, arrested and jailed by the authorities. Another of his companies, Pheapimex, holds Cambodia’s biggest land concession, which is 33 times bigger than the legal limit introduced shortly after it was granted.
Cambodia’s ruling party expected to sweep ‘sham’ elections
Matt Surrusco, Jul 21, 2018
Hang Vitou, president of the Young Analysts Group, said the ruling party’s victory was a sure bet and estimated that the CPP would win 95 to 120 of the 125 seats in the National Assembly.
Still, Hun Sen’s party continued to campaign out of both genuine and insincere fear, Vitou said.
“They are afraid that many people will not go to vote,” he said, estimating that most supporters of the CNRP would not cast ballots.
Without the CNRP, the ruling party needed to give the impression that it feared losing to other parties, Vitou added.
The CPP “pretend to be afraid but in fact they are not afraid because they know the result already,” he said.
Ear Sophal, an associate professor at Los Angeles’ Occidental College who has researched Cambodia’s aid dependency and China’s global resource demand, said Hun Sen’s claim of resisting foreign influence was dispelled by the fact that Vietnam and, more recently, China gained control of large swathes of Cambodia’s natural resources, infrastructure and economy at the expense of ordinary Cambodians.
“Cambodia is now seen as having been for rent for a long time,” he said. “The renter is currently China. Perhaps we can say Vietnam owns Cambodia, while China rents Cambodia from Vietnam.”
Sophal added, “But [Hun Sen] does need more friends than only Vietnam and China – he needs to have Western friends too.”