The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Cambodia’s tipping point” plus 9 more

Dear Editor,

Cambodia is undergoing a phenomenon, the beginning of "Cambodia flourishing", if you will. Even amidst the high-tension political brinkmanship, Cambodia has reached the tipping point, that is slowly but surely ushering in the Cambodia Spring.

However, the season of spring flourishing must first be preceded by the season of discontent, the period we are in now.

Recently, I witnessed first-hand this season of flourishing when I rode in the back of the pick-up truck carrying Sam Rainsy from the airport to Democracy Square upon his return from exile on July 19, 2013, and again at Democracy Square the day he left for the United States for his daughter's wedding on August 6, 2013.

On both occasions, crowds in the hundreds of thousands openly, fearlessly convulsed onto the truck and stage demanding change. Their passion, palpably pulsating and electrifying the Cambodian air, acts to diminish the prior existing fear.

This season of discontent will be here to stay for some time, snowballing into a monsoonal downpour of discontent, until there is a complete change of leadership. The people demand a surgical reformation in the formation of a government led by the CNRP's Sam Rainsy, and not Band-Aid changes the CPP will need to and has started to undergo in the inserting of a newer crop of parliamentarian sons.

1. The voters who have no direct experience of the Khmer Rouge.
Three and a half million of the country's 9.5 million registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 30. Of these 3.5 million young registered voters, 1.5 million, or 15 per cent, are first time voters. What do these numbers tell us?

One, these 3.5 million registered voters below the age of 30 are not directly traumatised by the Khmer Rouge. Moreover, many of them were children during the turbulent years of the 1990s, with some only coming of age in the last election five years ago.

They, unlike their elders, have not accumulated the fear and trauma of having lived through the Khmer Rouge and having witnessed election violence and murders confronting the voters in living colours of prior elections.

I returned to Cambodia in September 1995, less than two years after the United Nations-organised elections. I joined the campaign trails of the Khmer Nation Party in 1998, when travelling to each province took an average of a day through yawning gulfs of crater-sized potholes every few yards on the national roads and each village is its own remote, isolated universe.

In 2002 I traveled the provinces as an international consultant of the US International Republican Institute to train political party agents on the first commune elections, and once again joined the campaign trails of the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP, formerly the Khmer Nation Party, changed to keep the CPP from appropriating the name by splitting the party) for this commune election as well as the national elections the following year in 2003.

The roads were semi-improved, but each village was still its own remote, isolated universe.

Once again in 2007 and 2008, for the commune and national elections respectively, I joined SRP on the campaign trails.

In between these elections, I travelled to the provinces for my work, first in 1997 to each provincial prison to assess the state of juveniles detained in these prisons.

And since, I've travelled to each province on numerous occasions in my capacity as the head of the NGO Center for Social Development, known for its justice and reconciliation forums, and most recently as the founding president of CIVICUS Cambodia to conduct the Speak Truth To Power (or, in Khmer, Courage Without Borders) curriculum for teachers, monks and other educational and provincial leaders.

All to say, I have witnessed first-hand the conditions across Cambodia through these 18 years and have paid acute attention (for personal and professional reasons) to the voices and yearnings of the people in trying to understand for myself and for my work these seemingly intractable problems in search of solutions.

And one of my strong beliefs in light of what is happening now during this 2013 election season is this: We are witnessing a new phenomenon – the blooming of a Cambodia Spring, with angst of discontent as the inevitable precedent to the flourishing which will inevitably follow.

The manifestation and timing of it could not have been perceived till it is actually happening, as it is now.

But this phenomenon did not happen out of the blue, magically; it grew organically and was nurtured along the way.

It is part and parcel of all the educational efforts and advocacy and challenging of the status quo and the demanding of each dollar raised to the wage of workers and hotel staff, of each improper land concession.

Then we are given the tools of social media and smartphones and Unicode and English, etc, to set it off, fueled by the energy of the youth coming of age.

2. Social media + smartphones + Khmer Unicode + rising English usage.

The previous elections did not have a public venue where Cambodians, particularly young people, could exchange information and be part of something larger than themselves.

This public venue is closely connected to the growing comfort level and increasing number of Cambodians proficient in English, not only to be on Facebook, but also to have access to a broader array of information (which are mainly in English).

Even if English is the still the dominant language of social media, the comfort level and increased quality of the Khmer Unicode also facilitated the growing use of social media. As recently as five years ago (the last national elections), Cambodians were mired in the pictorial typing system symbolised by the Limon font.

Typing Khmer was basically inhibited to drawing a letter in order to compose each word. For anyone to access a Khmer-language document on the internet meant that that document had been uploaded as a JPG or a PDF.

All to say, as recently as five years ago, Cambodians could not search the internet in the Khmer language, nor write posts or comments on Facebook in the Khmer language, as the pictorial Limon typing system could not facilitate such endeavours.

A few years ago, the posts and comments on Facebook were written in broken English by the Facebook users; now the majority of posts by Khmer users are in the Khmer language.

The ease of language capability in both Khmer and English is greatly inter-linked with smartphones, which allow for instant, engaging sharing of images along with a narrative in the Khmer Unicode with an exponential multiplying impact.

We are right to worry about the vulgar, violent, crude or empty content and posts on social media, particularly on Facebook – from soft to hard pornography, from foodstuff to graphic traffic deaths of mangled bodies and bloodied, cracked skulls – that were initially sent en masse and continue to exist to a horrifying extent, despite social media's attempts to curb such vulgarity, violence and lewdness.

And the fear of information overload is a real concern. However, in a place like Cambodia during this time, social media, as everyone has acknowledged, has been a major factor in ushering in the Cambodia Spring.

3. The Arab Spring and other mass protests around the world.
We are all copycats, particularly us Cambodians. We witnessed the mass protests elsewhere around the world and they capture our own imagination. It was only an issue of time; July 2013 gave us the opportunity to usher in our own Cambodia Spring.

4. Father-figure vacuum.
The massive outpouring during the passing of King Father Sihanouk Norodom took everyone by surprise, even if some of it was exaggerated high emotions. It brought to consciousness of both Cambodians and the Cambodia watchers of how much King Sihanouk's rhetoric and treatment of Cambodians over the years as his "children" have shaped our identity as exactly that, oftentimes to our peril in stunting our social and political developmental maturity.

Hun Sen tried excruciatingly hard in filling that void by giving himself grandiose, lengthy titles and naming educational institutions after himself – but basically to no avail, as reflected by the humiliating rejection by the people of him during this July 2013 election.

I've stated oftentimes that Cambodia is a land of orphans – literal and emotional ones. We do have a high rate of individuals who do not have a mother, father or both. But even ones who do have a parent, the parent is not parenting, as they themselves are adult infants unconsciously grieving the loss of any parenting figure in their own lives.

Then came Sam Rainsy back from four years of self-imposed exile. Here is a father figure orphaned Cambodians could be proud of to have as their ideal father – intelligent, courageous, dignified, non-violent, nationalist.

Sam Rainsy returned on the heels of the passing of the King Father, who had left a father-figure vacuum. He naturally, unconsciously filled this vacuum in the psychology of needy Cambodians.

5. Tourism and urbanisation of garment workers from the provinces.
The exchange between Cambodians and tourists as well as between the urbanised garment workers with their provincial relatives over the years chipped away at the remote village-urban centre divide of information. The 600,000-strong garment workers have acted as the powerful links between the provinces and the urban centers.

6. Accumulation of human rights abuses.
Cambodia is a sea of human rights abuses. Everyone is impacted by at least one abuse or another. The accumulation of these rights abuses found expression, assisted by the other mentioned factors.

Moreover, the pervasiveness and prevalence of land concessions resulting in violent evictions touched directly most Cambodians, having had 73 per cent of arable land leased to foreign companies by the end of 2012.

On the one rights abuse of land issues alone, the impact was no longer one of hearsay, but each Cambodian knows personally or of a family or close friend who fell victim to the eviction.

7. The knowledge stored in the heart and mind now finds expression.
The other side of the coin of the accumulation of rights abuses is the accumulation of rights knowledge learned and stored over the years in the hearts and minds of the Cambodian people. The Cambodian people gave expression to this accumulated knowledge in this July 2013 elections.

8. The admixture of the above.
Each above-mentioned factor has its own importance, but is limited in pushing the point to tip. The tipping point occurs when these factors come together.

We are now experiencing the Cambodia Spring (preceded by discontent before flourishing) because of the admixture of the above factors.

Theary C Seng is the founding president of CIVICUS, the Center for Cambodian Civic Education.

We are the peacemakers. In contrast, it's the other side that has the army.

Relentless floodwater in Banteay Meanchey has killed at least seven people since late last month, when water began inundating the province, national disaster officials confirmed.

Fatalities from the deluge in Banteay Meanchey include four adults and three children, National Committee for Disaster Management chief Keo Vy said. Officials are continuing to monitor other flooded areas for deaths.

"Other provinces such as Preah Vihear, Kampong Thom and Kratie have no deaths so far, but we will follow up," Vy said.

More than 500 families already have been evacuated from their homes since heavy storms in Thailand began overwhelming the Mekong River, leaving several border towns submerged under chest-deep water. Deaths occurred in Poipet, Sisophon, Svay Chek and Thma Pouk districts, Banteay Meanchey Governor Ty Narin said yesterday.

Damaging property and farmland, rising water has impacted thousands of people, Narin said.

"The flood has affected 2,592 families throughout Banteay Meanchey province," Narin said. "The authorities are still ready to help residents, but we appeal to residents to be careful of deep water in order to avoid drowning."

During a visit to Banteay Meanchey this week, Nhim Vanda, vice president of the NCDM, suggested provincial officials erect four temporary bridges to enable vehicle travel.

The area can expect further flooding for at least another day, as a low-pressure front from storm Utor travels from the Philippines to the South China Sea, according to a flood bulletin from the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology. Low-pressure fronts are expected to further raise water levels in the Mekong, Bassac and Tonle Sap rivers.

A separate rainstorm heavily damaged more than 10 houses, injuring two people in neighbouring Oddar Meanchey's Trapaing Prasat district, officials there said.

One roof collapse left a 50-year-old woman with a broken hand and her 19-year-old son with a leg injury, deputy district police chief Dam Saray said.

"The woman and her two children were staying in the house during the heavy rain storm when the roof collapsed on them," Saray said. Injuries sustained were not considered serious, he added.

Provincial officials have distributed money, food and supplies to repair storm damage to those whose homes had sustained damage, Saray said.

Since the beginning of the year until August, 28 people were killed and 95 injured in rainstorms and floods, Vy said. Fatalities and injuries so far this year amount to double the amount recorded last year, he added.

Separately, 93 people were killed by lightning and another 72 injured, according to Vy.

Cambodian foreign affairs and border relations officials said yesterday they had no information about the fatal shootings of two Cambodian construction workers in Thailand.

The Bangkok Post reported yesterday that Huoch Nhoem, 33, and a 28-year-old identified only as La, were killed on Monday night.

The shootings came following an argument with a group of Thai concrete workers in Thailand's Chonburi province.

A witness told police that the two Cambodians had been playing loud music and drinking heavily after work, The Bangkok Post reported.

One of the men allegedly bumped into a passing Thai concrete worker, stoking an argument.

The Thai men left the area, but returned with more friends, according to the news report.

During the ensuing brawl, one of the Thai men pulled out a gun and opened fire on the Cambodian men, killing them both on the spot.

The pair were arrested.

When contacted about the incident, Koy Koung, spokesperson for Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Pich Vanna, chief of the Cambodian-Thai border relations office, both said they were unaware of the shootings. Both said they would look into it.

Cambodian Border Relations officers Heng You Leng, Yal Bun Pov and Sao Veasna also said they had not heard about the incident.

An Australian national remained in questioning yesterday after his arrest on Sunday for allegedly raping a 27-year-old masseuse in his rented house in Battambang province.

Robert Peter Rucioch, 61, was arrested in Ek Penh district and is set to face charges today at Battambang provincial court, said Lieutenant Colonel Cheth Vanny, deputy chief of the provincial police.

"He was arrested by our police based on a complaint from a massage girl who accused him of bringing her from the massage shop to do a massage for him at his house, but then forcibly raped her," he said Monday.

A search of Rucioch's home, Vanny added, revealed a large quantity of pornographic images of Cambodian women on his laptop and smartphone.

"He is now facing preliminary charges related to rape and producing pornographic photos. And he is still being questioned by our expert police at provincial headquarters," he continued.

Police are still going through the images, but "no pornographic photos of the victim" have been located, Vanny said.

Rucioch could face at least five years in prison if found guilty.

An elderly French man went on trial at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday for charges related to the alleged sexual abuse of three young Cambodian boys committed throughout 2011 and 2012.

French national Jacques Philippe Albertini, 74, who has been retired and living in Cambodia for several years, allegedly lured the three boys, all garbage collectors, into his rental home and forced them to perform oral sex on him, according to Judge Heng Sok Na.

"[Albertini] called to the victims who were garbage collectors to come to his rental house in Daun Penh district to empty his trash cans with the promise of payment. Once in his home, he captured the victims, forced them to perform oral sex on him and vice versa," he said.

The judge noted that this is not the first time Albertini has been arrested for child prostitution. He was charged with sexually abusing several boys in France in the late 1970s, in Thailand in the early 1980s, Preah Sihanouk in 2004 and Phnom Penh in 2008.

One victim, 13, who testified, said Albertini paid him $10 for intercourse twice last year.

The three victims' parents have asked for $17,000 in total as compensation.

Albertini denied all accusations yesterday, saying that between his diabetes and erectile dysfunction, he could not possibly have committed the crimes.

"I have been sexually inept for 20 years, and I am also a diabetic. I could not commit these sexual activities as accused. I would like to ask the court to drop the charges and release me," he said.

Vice-prosecutor Top Chhunlong concluded the trial saying that there was enough evidence to prove Albertini committed the offences as accused and asked the court to maintain the charges against him.

The verdict will be announced on August 27.

About 300,000 women of reproductive age will receive higher-quality emergency obstetric and newborn-care services thanks to a sizeable handover of medical equipment and supplies to government health centres and hospitals in Kampong Thom, Kampot and Kep provinces.

Through a partnership seeking to improve the social healthcare sector in Cambodia, the Cambodian-German "Muskoka" project, German Development Cooperation and Unicef have procured equipment valued at more than $500,000.

"This project is just one segment of our larger objective in strengthening the social health protection system [in Cambodia] long term," said Birgit Strube, first secretary for the German Embassy in Phnom Penh.

About eight per cent of the 36,000 annual pregnancies in all three provinces are identified as high-risk.

Nationally, three out of four newborn deaths occur in the first week of life, especially during the first day.

Lauding the project's equipment disbursement, Chan Thery, executive director of the Reproductive and Child Health Alliance, said "transportation to health facilities, ensuring clean facilities and access to water and postpartum care are important interventions" in reducing neonatal and maternal deaths.

Medical supplies like ultrasound scanners, fetal heart detectors, sterilising apparatus, surgical sterilising instruments and resuscitators will keep Cambodia on track to achieving its Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality, proponents maintain.

"These critical, quality, value-for-money supplies from reliable manufacturers, will support the government to deliver and scale up essential services for mothers and newborns," Unicef communications officer Angelique Reid wrote in an email.

Confirmed positive for human H5N1 avian influenza, a five-year-old girl from Kandal Province is now in critical condition, the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation announced.

"The girl was treated with Tamiflu on 10th August and is currently in a critical condition," a statement released yesterday notes.

The child was admitted to Kantha Bopha Hospital on Friday, and tested positive for H5N1 the next day.

A boy, aged 4, from Battambang province who was also tested positive for H5N1 and was last week admitted to the Jayavarman V11 Hospital in Siem Reap, remains stable.

The two mark the 15th and 16th human cases of H5N1 influenza in Cambodia this year.

Rapid response teams have been deployed in Battambang and Kandal, Ministry of Health official Dr Sok Touch said yesterday.

What happened to Cambodia's electric car? The short answer is, the wait continues.

More than seven months after its owners unveiled the new and improved Angkor EV 2013 to great fanfare, they are chronically short of funding and assembly is taking place in piecemeal fashion.

Seang Chan Heng, general director of Heng Development, the company producing the Angkor EV model, said yesterday that backing to get the country's first personal-use electric car out on the road is not what it could be. Chan Heng said the project needs an additional $100 million, and she is on the hunt for business partners.

"We really have the intention to make this happen, and we are considering to take a loan from the bank to operate this project," Chan Heng said. "It is good to have better support from a governmental body or rich people."

In March 2011, Chan Heng signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chou Leang Alliance Group and car designer Nhean Phalloek in a $20 million deal that included a manufacturing factory in Kandal province and foresaw a workforce of 300.

While Chan Heng did not comment on the state of the factory, she said that assembly lines have suffered from the lack of ongoing funding.

"It is like semi-technology processing," she said. "We have not assembled the car by the machine yet because we do not have sufficient capital."

Chan Heng said only "a few" units have come off the line.

She added that she was preparing a video detailing production challenges facing the factory.

Phalloek, the designer, declined to comment on the car, and referred questions to Heng Development.

In 2010, Phalloek, an inventor with no formal training who's been tinkering with cars for years, told the Post that the vehicles would cost about $10,000 each.

"We'll be making many different models, ranging from two seats to 12 seats, to satisfy local consumers and foreign investors," he said at the time.

In January, Phalloek said the battery-powered Angkor EV 2013 could travel 300 kilometres between charges and reach speeds of up to 60 kilometres an hour.

At the unveiling earlier this year, Chan Heng blamed production delays on a break with a former business partner who dropped out of the deal.

The prototype unveiled in January is still on display at the company's showroom on Monivong Boulevard.

If it comes out, the Angkor EV 2013 will enter a growing car industry, though it remains to be seen whether an electric vehicle can gain market share in a country where consumers can spend the same amount of money for second-hand cars, which account for the majority of purchases.

Sales of new cars in Cambodia have risen over the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2012, but the figures pale in comparison to the country's thriving second-hand market.

Kong Nuon, chairman of Toyota Cambodia, the largest car dealer in terms of market share, said last month that Toyota has sold slightly more than 600 units from January through to June, a 50 per cent increase from the same period last year.

Sales are on track to beat the 800 units that rolled out of dealerships in all of 2012.

More than a decade ago, when Hay Ly Eang started working on his long-term idea of processing palm juice, people told him he was crazy. Palm juice, they said, is not a profitable, luxurious product, and that's what he should focus on instead.

Today, Eang is the president of Confirel, a successful, 50-employee-strong enterprise that processes palm juice into palm sugar, palm wine and palm vinegar. With the products, he said he wants to contribute to Cambodia's import-driven economy. Making a profit won't hurt either.

The idea came in 1992, but it wasn't until 2001 that it first came to fruition. He said he waited so long because he had to take the palm sugar to a laboratory in France, where he could monitor the quality and potential of the palm products. He also wanted to train up his local staff and invest in more personnel.

"We buy goods from other [countries]; we provide wages to them. We see several billions in figures, how much do they take back?" he said. "If Cambodians still sell sweat for others, our nation cannot become rich and our nation will face permanent instability due to a lack of a robust economy."

"My items will become long-term products of Cambodia because the raw material, palm juice, will always be available."

So far, Confirel, has produced over 30 kinds of products from palm juice, including palm wines, organic palm sugar and Chocopalm, candy made from fruits and palm sugar.

His company's products not only serve the domestic market. Confirel has been exporting to France, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The most potential market, however, is tourism.

Confirel works with over 100 families in Kampong Speu province who provide the raw material. But Eang said he hopes that this number will increase once the products prove themselves in other markets.

Eang started the business on a budget of $60,000. Travelling to France to examine samples in the laboratory has pushed the total investment beyond $2 million.

But according to Eang, the palm juice creations make a contribution to the national economy, as a country shouldn't depend on importing goods.

"We want to see these products bring value-added for our country. If we want our economy to become rich, we need our products to have more basic cost and value-added," he said.

"For now, we have [produced] enough brands of the end product, so in 2014, we need to focus on marketing [to sell it]," he said.