The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Flash floods ahead: gov’t” plus 9 more

The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology has announced that a low-pressure system will lead to heavy rains in virtually every province in the coming days, as well as flash floods in a number of areas flanking bodies of water.

In a notice sent yesterday to local authorities, Minister Lim Keang Hor urges caution ahead of the rains.

"This will affect the Kingdom, with scattered rain almost throughout the country from September 6-11 and flooding in some provinces/municipalities, such as in the northeast, some provinces around the Tonle Sap lake, sea areas and along the National Road 4," the note reads.

The ministry's notice comes at a time when the Cambodia National Rescue Party is preparing for a large-scale non-violent demonstration to be held in Phnom Penh's Freedom Park on Saturday.

Party officials yesterday insisted they would not be deterred by bad weather and would disseminate the information to its supporters.

"They can bring their raincoats or umbrellas with them," said Ky Van Dara, the general director of finance at the CNRP.

[We] cannot increase taxes for tobacco and not other products in the markets, such as rice.

Entertainment and gaming company NagaWorld has joined forces with the Tennis Federation of Cambodia for the second year in succession to exclusively sponsor the Kingdom's Davis Cup team heading to Dubai for the Asia-Oceania Group III cycle beginning on September 11.

The eight contenders vying for two promotional tickets to Group II are Cambodia, Hong Kong, Iran, Malaysia, Oman, Pacific Oceania, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

Group III ties will be played mostly in the evenings in the UAE city (three hours behind Cambodian time) at the Aviation Tennis Club, home of the Dubai ATP 500.

The Cambodian squad, led by non-playing captain Tep Rithivit and including players Bun Kenny, Mam Phalkun, Mam Panhara and Long Samneang and national coach Braen Aneiros, will fly out of Phnom Penh this Sunday.

The eight competing teams will be split into two groups of four each. After the initial round-robin group stage, play-off matches will decide the final placings.

The top two teams move forward to Group II while the bottom two will be relegated to Group IV for the 2014 competition. An official draw to determine the groupings will be made a day prior to the opening round.

As the main sponsors of last year's Mission to Doha, which saw the Cambodian team, which earned acclaim by winning a promotional ticket in its debut year, NagaWorld played a vital part in that success every step of the way.

The NagaWorld-TFC partnership reached another milestone when they sponsored the first of the three 2012 ITF Men's Futures events in Phnom Penh during late November, strengthening an alliance that dates back to 2011.

"NagaWorld is proudly privileged to sponsor the Cambodian Davis Cup team again this year. We believe in continuity of support, which not only boosts the confidence of the team but also its performance. We are happy to share another great sporting moment for Cambodia," Jerome Lee, vice president of events and entertainment at NagaWorld, said at a news conference yesterday.

"As a company based in Cambodia, we are happy to create an opportunity for Cambodian players to do their country proud, just like they did in Doha. Our on-going support for the junior initiatives will ensure that the next generation of good players are groomed so that the achievements and efforts of the past generations do not go in vain," added the NagaWorld official.

Anti-smoking advocates called on the government yesterday to raise tariffs on cigarettes, touting the health and revenue-generating benefits of a sin tax widely applied in other countries.

In a conference at the Sunway Hotel in Phnom Penh, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance showed that Cambodia has one of the lowest tobacco tax rates in the region as a percentage of retail prices.

"We urge the Cambodian government to increase tobacco taxes to the same rate as other countries in Asia, because when the tax increases, the price of tobacco will increase too, so people will choose not to buy it and smoke," said Bungon Rithiphakdee, director of the tobacco control alliance.

According to the group's report, titled The Asean Tobacco Control Atlas, only Laos beats out Cambodia for the lowest rate of tax as a percentage of retail price. Cambodia's is at 20 to 25 per cent, while the rate in Laos stands at 16 to 19 per cent.

The report singled out Thailand, which has raised its rate 10 times between 1991 and 2012, with an almost fourfold increase in revenue. Smoking also went down in those years. Thailand bumped the rate up to 87 per cent in 2012 to combat a slight uptick in smoking, the report said.

Falling into the 40 to 70 per cent range are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.

Cigarettes are cheap in Cambodia, with the top five brands (ARA, Cambo, Luxury, Romdoh, Lapin) costing less than a $1.

Mom Kong, the executive director of the NGO Cambodia Movement for Health, said that raising the rate will throw up a cost barrier.

"When the price of cigarettes goes up, people will not buy them. They will save their money for other beneficial products," he said.

According to a 2011 World Health Organization report, nearly 10,000 people die each year from tobacco-related diseases in Cambodia.

Efforts to jack up the taxes on cigarettes aren't new, and the government is reluctant to make any major changes overnight.

Chour Se, an official from the general department of taxation at the Ministry of Finance and Economics, said that the government is willing to increase the tax at some point, but going from 20 to 70 per cent is drastic.

"If we increase it in a hurry to 70 or 80 per cent of taxation, the tobacco industries will close, so the tax benefits will never happen. We need a long time to do this job. And we cannot increase taxes for tobacco and not other products in the markets, such as rice," he said.

Cambodia's tobacco industry also takes hits from illegal trade in the product, which generates about $16 million a year in an industry worth about $30 million to $40 million, according to British American Tobacco (Cambodia).

Representatives of BAT, which produces brands Ara and 555, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on how a tax could impact the industry.

The Chinese government yesterday pledged 200 million yuan ($32.7 million) to Cambodia on top of what it has already provided in loans this year.

According to state-owned TVK, the offer was made during a meeting between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the 10th ASEAN-China Expo in the southern Chinese city of Nanning.

The loan agreement came nearly a month after a $100.6 million deal was inked between Cambodian Finance Minister Keat Chhon and the Chinese ambassador to Cambodia, Pan Guangxue, on August 9 in Phnom Penh.

In addition to the loans, Hun Sen and Li agreed to further boost cooperation in economic and diplomatic relations, according to TVK. During the visit, Hun Sen also held bilateral talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

In early August, Chhon said during the loan-signing ceremony that China was a significant bilateral partner that provided large loans in order to finance necessary development projects.

"The financing from China particularly has been contributing to integrate Cambodia to ASEAN and the region via the connection of telecom gateway, telecom network and electricity transmission lines," Chhon said.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, China has provided a total of $2.85 billion in development aid to Cambodia between 1992 and July this year. Of the total, $235 million was grants, $163 million was non-interest loans, and the rest are concessional loans.

China is the largest foreign direct investor in Cambodia, investing $8.9 billion between 1994 and 2011. Most of the investments go into the agricultural sector, mining, infrastructure, port, hydroelectricity, telecom and garment manufacturing, according to the data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

Last year, bilateral trade was valued at $2.9 billion and is expected to reach $5 billion in 2017.

Rice cultivation during the 2013 wet season reached about 95 per cent of the government's annual goal, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries this week.

At the end of August, around two months before harvest season kicks off in November, 2.3 million of the targeted 2.4 million hectares of land had rice growing on it.

Despite falling just short of government targets, Khem Chenda, administration director at the ministry, said he was happy about the results, much of which he attributed to solid rainfall throughout the wet season.

"I think that although we did not achieve 100 per cent, it is not a problem for our rice yield targets this year," he said.

"We have noticed that farmers have changed from growing rice seeds bringing a low yield to rice seeds that increase the output."

The ministry recently introduced 10 varieties of rice seeds for farmers to grow to obtain high yields, as part of a strategy to enhance Cambodian rice exports.

Chenda also welcomed recent advancement in farming technologies and techniques in the agricultural sector.

About 8,000 hectares of rice fields have been damaged by drought in Kampong Speu, Kampot and Svay Rieng provinces.

Flooding was less of a concern except for Banteay Meanchey province, where fields were damaged.

Yang Saing Koma, president of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), anticipated that farmers would reach around 90 per cent of government targets.

He said this year, rice yields will be between five to 10 per cent higher than last year, and farmers still had time until mid-September to restore the land damaged by flood or drought.

Cambodia looks to export one million tonnes of rice by 2015.

Nearly 40 people, predominantly women and girls, gathered outside the Council of Ministers to sing and dance for peace.

'We are literally exercising our right to assemble peacefully and ask our politicians to honour our rights protected by Cambodia's constitution to gather in a non-violent way,' said Seng Reasey, 25, a co-organiser also involved in a 60-person silent 'read-in' of the constitution held at the riverside on Monday night.

Nearly 100 armed police officers manned Russian Boulevard during the pacifists' performance, a necessary number according to a municipal police officer.

'Citizens can't protest this close to a ministry building,' he said.

But according to a 45-year-old woman who asked not to be named for fear of inciting tensions at her workplace, the large police turnout was meant to intimidate citizens.

'All these police here are crazy; we are unarmed Cambodians dancing for peace,' she said, laughing as she began to dance.

Faulty electrical wiring has been blamed for razing four Polanka Market stores and damaging at least a hundred others along Siem Reap town's riverside on Monday night.

Flames erupted from the roof of a kitchen-equipment shop and spread rapidly, requiring nine fire engines to quell the blaze, according to Nea Sang, director of the provincial fire department. No injuries occurred.

"The fire occurred about 9:30pm, so people [home from work] reported it to the police quickly, allowing firefighters to arrive in time to control the fire from spreading further," Sang said.

This is Siem Reap town's second fire in less than two weeks in which local officials have held shoddy wiring culpable for instigating the blazes.

Kang Sok Lin, the owner of a shop that sells steel at the market, expressed dismay and shock upon hearing the news of Monday's fire, having lost her first shop to a fire also started by electrical wiring and responsible for destroying 27 stores at Riverside Market in November 2011. Riverside Market was subsequently replaced by Polanka Market.

"It's hard for me to hear about this bad news," she said, "I don't want to lose any more. Fortunately, my shop is fine, thanks to firefighters," Kang told the Post, noting that several other stores and residential buildings nearby were also saved by firefighters.

The owner of Polanka Market could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Dear Editor,

I was utterly surprised and distressed by the extent to which some foreign nationals residing or working in Cambodia criticised or even condemned the usage of the word "yuon" as pejorative during last month's legislative elections. Such unmerited condemnation clearly showed the lack of understanding toward the host country and its people.

During my childhood, I heard my grandparents, parents and neighbours alike routinely referred to Vietnamese ethnic living in my district as "yuon". Was that word abrasive, offensive or disrespectful? Absolutely not.

The word "yuon" has always been an integral part of the rich Khmer vocabulary as it can be found everywhere, whether in common spoken language or ancient textbooks and literature.

We have been using that word without passion or prejudice for centuries, just as we have been using the words "barang", "chen", "cham", "kloeng", "leav" and "siam", to refer to the French, Chinese, Muslim, Indian, Laotian and Thai nationals respectively.

After the Vietnamese army took over Cambodia in 1979, people in my village were pointedly told by the authority not to call Vietnamese soldiers "yuon". For the few who dared to ask why, they never got straight answers. For many home-grown nationalists, however, there was little doubt or secret about the real motives behind prohibiting the usage of the word "yuon" then.

In the history of Cambodia and Vietnam's often-complicated relations, Cambodia was for most of the time an occupied country. Some scholars and historians even assert that had France not placed the Kingdom under its colonial empire between 1887 and 1953, Cambodia would have disappeared from the world map for good.

Regrettably, when it comes to judging Cambodians' attitude toward fellow Vietnamese, certain outsiders and media harshly accuse Cambodians of excessive Vietnamophobia – unjustly perceiving Cambodians as an agitator or troublemaker while conveniently downplaying or ignoring altogether relevant history and the repeated misfortunes to which Cambodians had been constantly subjected to.

Many Cambodians, myself included, are totally at a loss with such uncharacteristic perceptions that defy all logic. It is one-sided justice that Cambodians – who are outnumbered by almost ten to one, economically and population-wise, and who have seen the size of their country shrinking to the verge of extinction – be singled out as a troublemaker.

This selective form of justice does not help to heal the bitter wounds of the past. Instead, it only serves to encourage some cunning political leaders to continue pushing forward their hidden expansionist agenda.

Cambodia definitely has an incredibly tough job ahead for balancing its "reasonable accommodation" policy toward foreign settlers and its badly needed "self-preservation" policy to safeguard its future.

In the meantime, to suggest, let alone condemn, the customary usage of the word "yuon" as pejorative or anything of that nature is to overstretch the limit of political correctness at best, and to live in a state of invincible ignorance at worst.

Davan Long
Montreal, Canada

A high-ranking provincial official at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Battambang was arrested and charged by the provincial court yesterday with breach of trust after allegedly pilfering 800 million riel, about $200,000, in state funds last year, senior police officials said.

The official is accused of pocketing money raised from the sale of 500 tonnes of farming fertiliser donated by the Japanese government, meant to be sold to farmers at low prices, with the revenue returning to state coffers.

Lieutenant Colonel Mean Lay, chief of the provincial penal crime office in Battambang, said yesterday that Seng Ratnak, 39, a deputy director at the office of legislation at the provincial agricultural ministry, is now awaiting trial at the provincial prison.

"He received fertiliser from the Ministry of Agriculture, which was purchased using generous Japanese donations given to Cambodia.… He has sold the fertiliser [to farmers] for a total of [one billion riel]," he said.

"[However] he only transferred 200 million riel to the ministry but kept 800 million riel for his own use. He was arrested based on the Ministry of Agriculture's complaint."

During police questioning, Ratnak is said to have confessed to keeping 700 million riel, which he promised would be returned to the ministry.

According to the penal code, if found guilty he faces up to five years in prison, along with a fine of up to 10 million riel.

Yukiko Kitazawa, head of public relations at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), confirmed yesterday that her office was aware of the case.

"We, the JICA Cambodia office, have inquired the Ministry of Agriculture about this matter and confirmed the fact," Yukiko said in an email.

"We will work with [the government] and our higher authority to grasp the detailed situation and take necessary steps to prevent any misconduct from happening."

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KEVIN PONNIAH