The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Wish Hun Sen” plus 9 more

I want to wish Hun Sen to have a Merry Christmas and step down.

Life is a short, sharp endurance test, and then you die; but solace can come by recollecting past pleasures when, for a brief interlude, the senses are vitalised and the daily quotidian becomes tolerable.

The French writer, Marcel Proust, wrote a seven-volume novel, In Search of Lost Time, based on such past joys, which were famously stimulated by the taste of a madeleine cake dipped in warm tea.

Freshly brewed coffee with a little cream does the job for me, as it did last week when a rare news item about Brunei popped up – and my mind took off.

To paraphrase Proust, the vicissitudes of life became indifferent, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory; for I was no longer at my desk, I was on the African Queen.

Or more precisely, Brunei's African Queen, which putters down the café-au-lait Limbang River from the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, to Limbang town in Malaysia's Sarawak State.

And oddly, it was a rather dull report about the opening of a new bridge from Limbang to Brunei's eastern enclave of Temburong that sparked this reverie.

Temburong, while largely empty – it hosts only two per cent of Brunei's 380,000 population, is geographically big and makes up a quarter of the sultanate's land mass.

It also plays host to the Singapore Armed Forces, whose troops train there and act as a deterrent against any potentially hostile action by Malaysia.

Now, thanks to the new bridge, which closes an infamous gap in the Pan Borneo Highway, Temburong assumes even greater importance.

Previously, it was possible to drive from Sarawak's capital Kuching to Limbang via Miri and Bandar, but then the road abruptly ended at the Pandaruan River.

There, drivers had to wait, often for hours, for a creaky old ferry to take them across to Temburong; now they can drive straight over in minutes and continue on to Sabah's capital, Kota Kinabalu, and even to Tawau.

It is a big deal, which is why the December 8 bridge opening was attended by the Sultan of Brunei, the Malaysian Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers of both Sabah and Sarawak.

Said Malaysia's PM Najib Razak: "With the completion of this bridge, we move closer to realising the ASEAN Community in 2015 because this was the last point along the Pan Borneo Highway that had to be linked."

The bridge not only closes the "missing link" in the 2,000km highway, but it also marks the symbolic closure of a long-festering territorial dispute between the two countries over the district of Limbang.

The trouble began back in 1890, when Britain's colonial ruler, Charles Brooke, the so-called second Rajah of Sarawak, took Limbang from Brunei and made it part of Sarawak, thereby splitting Brunei in two.
The move infuriated the tiny sultanate, which became even more anxious about its borders with Malaysia, especially after huge oil and gas reserves were discovered off its coastline.

Its robust stance was certainly justified, given that Brunei is now Southeast Asia's third-largest oil producer and the world's fourth-largest producer of liquefied natural gas.

Not unnaturally, fearing more loss of sovereignty, Brunei declined to follow Sabah and Sarawak in joining the Malaysian Federation in 1963.

Instead, the sultanate went its own way, while continuing to complain about the unfair Limbang annexation and other alleged border encroachments by Malaysia.

But time and reality assuage such disputes and now the "Friendship Bridge" has brought both sides together and obviated the need for the Temburong ferry crossing.

Those like myself, however, who fondly recall Brunei's African Queen, can still live out their madeleine-like reverie by taking the half-hour trip between Limbang and Bandar.

Just clamber aboard and sit among the beer cases and the sequined good-time girls, for they are among its abiding joys as it transports you between dry, staid Bandar and decadent, frolicsome Limbang.

I'd love to go back. Just to see the new bridge, you understand.

Security guards from a Chinese development firm in Koh Kong province have allegedly prevented civil society groups from gathering data they planned to use for a petition asking for compensation for evictees.

Tianjin Union Development Group security guards blocked representatives from rights group Adhoc and the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee over the weekend when they tried to enter the firm's property to see how it is using an economic land concession (ELC), Neang Boratino, a provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said yesterday.

"People said they have not been compensated for their rice fields yet," Boratino said.

Some 50 families in Ta Noun commune have received farming land in exchange for property they lost from the granting of the ELC in 2008, but have not seen payment for their rice paddies, said Than Eng, 56.

Botum Sakor district governor Orn Phearak said the land is private property and all payment for it has been settled.

Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong on Saturday presented awards to four foreign legal experts in recognition of their help in the presentation of Cambodia's case on Preah Vihear before the International Court of Justice earlier this year.

The honorary award, called the Moha Serey Waddh of the Kingdom of Cambodia, was given to Gilbert Guillaume, an ad hoc judge at The Hague court, Professor Jean-Marc Sorel of France, Franklin Nerman of the UK and Rodman Bundy of the US, though only Sorel was present at the ceremony.

Last month, the court ruled that Cambodia's ownership of the 11th-century temple also extended to the promontory upon which it sits, and ordered Thailand to withdraw troops from that area.

"It was a difficult task in legal terms, but the result we ended up with was positive," Sorel told journalists after accepting the award. "I hope that it will give Cambodia and Thailand peace, and will give Cambodia its territory [that it has claimed] since 1962."

A pilot cashew-peeling factory in Kampong Thom province aims to make business easier for farmers who have traditionally relied upon sending their raw harvest elsewhere for processing.

With $130,000 from the Asia Development Bank, the building went up in May on 3,600 square metres in Kampong Svay district. Nearly 400 members of the Prasat Sambor Cashew
Association operate it.

Um Uon, president of the association, said that a lack of production capabilities has forced local farmers to sell their raw goods at a low price to traders, who then export the unpeeled cashews to Vietnam.

"Now the traders cannot do the price fluctuation as they did before," Uon said. "We don't have to worry about the market anymore."

Farmers were previously selling the cashews to traders at $1.5 per kilo. Now, after the nuts are peeled at the facility they can fetch up to $12 per kilo from local buyers.

Chan Ry, a member of the association, sells her cashews to the peeling venture, and also earns extra money by working there.

"In the past, I have much free time, but now I am busier," Ry said.

But the new venture can't accommodate everyone, and the main drawback is its limited size, according to Seng Ann, the head of tourism in Kampong Thom.

Not all cashew nut farmers in the province can sell crops to the new enterprise. Instead, only farmers in nine villages of two districts in Kampong Thom are taking part.

Ann called the cashew peeling facility a first step, and said its existence would encourage farmers to boost production. "When the production gets bigger, we will buy more fresh cashews to peel and process," he said.

"So, we will expand to help more farmers."

According to statistics from the provincial agriculture department in Kampong Thom province, cashews were planted on 23,400 hectares in 2013, generating about 16,380 tonnes of nuts. Cambodia's cashews are usually shipped to Vietnam or India for processing, where they are mixed with cashews from other countries, according to a 2010 report about prospects for the sector from the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank.

Cambodia releases to the market an estimated 60,000 tonnes of in-shell cashew nuts, making it the 10th largest producer in the world.

It outpaces the Philippines (5,000 tonnes) and Sri Lanka (5,500 tonnes), which both have shelling industries.

James Fitzpatrick, the author of the IFC report, wrote that based on the number of hectares planted, Cambodian cashew nut production could be as high as 85,000 tonnes, large enough to support a processing industry.

To capitalise on a rising demand for pork, a state-owned Chinese company is pouring $200 million into ruling party senator and tycoon Mong Reththy's pig farm in Preah Sihanouk province.

"We signed since Thursday for a joint venture on expansion of pig raising in Cambodia. They will invest $200 million with us but they will give the money step by step. Our project will start in early 2014," Reththy said yesterday.

He would not disclose the name of the investor, but said it was "a state-owned company" in China from Guangdong province.

Reththy owns M's Pig ACMC (Cambodia) Co Ltd, which started as a joint venture in 2009 between Mong Reththy Group and Britain-based ACMC Limited. Under the deal, ACMC invested $5 million, took nine per cent of the venture, and helped Reththy import pigs from the UK.

The government has set a daily import ceiling of 800 pigs, but many are brought in illegally.

"If they have a lot of money on the investment, that's good for our pig industry because we normally import from our neighbours to meet demand," said Srun Pov, president of the Cambodia Pig Association.

Cambodian-French director Rithy Panh's film The Missing Picture has moved a step closer to an Academy Award after being named as one of the final nine foreign language films in the competition.

The films announced on Friday were whittled down from a list of 76 revealed in October by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organises Hollywood's biggest annual awards ceremony.

They will be reduced to five nominees next month, before nods in all Oscar categories are announced on January 16. The 86th Academy Awards will be held on March 2.

Panh told The Phnom Penh Post that being among the final nine was a significant achievement.

"If it can go on to be nominated, if we are lucky enough to be nominated, it's better – but at this stage it's already very, very good," Panh said.

He said the film's success had already thrown a spotlight on the Cambodian industry and shown it was capable of cooperating with international production companies.

"It's important to open the country like this and cooperate with other production [companies]," he said. "Cambodia is a small country. It's not really a big market. If you want to move [to the next level] you have to cooperate with other countries."

The Missing Picture, which explores Panh's experiences and memories of the Khmer Rouge period using miniature clay figures against stylised backdrops and archive footage, has already received one of film's highest plaudits, winning the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this year.

Panh is set to begin work with French director Regis Wargnier on the French-Cambodian co-production of The Gate next year after the two countries signed an agreement on cooperation. The film will be a dramatisation of the memoirs of French ethnologist Francois Bizot, who spent three months in a Khmer Rouge prison camp.

Cedric Eloy, chief executive at the Cambodian Film Commission, said the shortlisting of a Cambodian film for an Oscar showed recognition of the country's capacity to produce films universal and accessible enough to be received positively worldwide.

"It's very encouraging for future projects," Eloy said.

He added that the Cambodian industry was developing positively "step by step" with more films being made, more questions asked about Cambodia and more contact with foreign producers.

"I'm sure if The Missing Picture gets the Oscar it will give [the local industry] a big push," he said. "So of course we cross the fingers … but there are a lot of good films that are competing."

The shortlist announced on Friday offered some unexpected snubs. Left out were highly-touted films such as Saudi Arabia's first candidate ever, Wadjda by Haifaa al-Mansour, and Pakistan's first entry in five decades, Zinda Bhaag.

Only two other Cambodian films have ever been submitted to the Academy Awards for consideration. Chhay Bora's 2010 film Lost Loves, a love story set during the time of the Khmer Rouge, was submitted in 2012 but did not make the final shortlist. Panh's 1994 drama The Rice People was also submitted.

The other films on this year's shortlist are: The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium), An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (Bosnia and Herzegovina), The Hunt (Denmark), Two Lives (Germany), The Grandmaster (Hong Kong), The Notebook (Hungary), The Great Beauty (Italy) and Omar (Palestine).

Cambodia sent the biggest ever contingent, 285 members strong, to the SEA Games since its inception in 1959 and returned with an all-time best medal count of eight golds, 11 silver and 28 bronze medals as the curtain came down at a spectacular closing ceremony of the 27th edition in Myanmar's capital Naypidaw yesterday.

The Kingdom's wrestlers led the gold hunt by scooping four from the mat in the first week and vovinam warriors added two to the tally in the final days of the competition. The bullion haul was boosted by one each from petanque and taekwondo to help Cambodia double its four-gold intake from the 2011 Games in Indonesia.

While Cambodia held on to 11 silver medals won two years ago, the country saw the bronze total go up by four this time to 28, pushing the overall medals tally to 47 compared to the previous best of 39.

"Wrestling traditions go back hundreds of years in Cambodia. Somehow we were unable to make much headway all these years. I think our wrestlers showed what they are really capable of and finally delivered the gold medals that have been eluding us," said National Olympic Committee of Cambodia Secretary General Vath Chamroeun, himself a reputed wrestler who had represented the Kingdom at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

"With a little bit of luck on our side we could have won at least another gold, but I am happy with the result.

"I feel that our preparation this time was the key. Our wrestlers had never trained harder and I think the two sessions the wrestlers had under Stephen Kazarian a few months before this event helped them a lot.

"We set out with 10 golds in mind, though our prime target was to double the gold medals we won in Indonesia. I am proud that we met that expectation."

Cambodian Wrestling Federation general secretary and national team coach Thin Vichet said: "Our results show that we have clearly improved a lot as a team compared to the previous Games. We had the services of two skillful Korean coaches thanks to the NOCC and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. My special thanks to our benefactor Casey Barnett, who has been very helpful.

"The future looks bright for wrestling. Some medalists here may soon retire, so we need to find young replacements. Our focus will be on the ensuing Asian Games in Incheon,' he added.

"There were a couple of narrow misses, like that of Sorn Davin in taekwondo, but for which we possibly would have won a few more. But if you consider an overall view we had never done better than this."

Cambodia's growing influence on vovinam, a Vietnamese martial art, was well borne out by the 10 medals that the country managed to grab. The two gold medals came in mixed team events, one in the category of self defence for a woman against male attackers and the other in the more complex version with a weapon.

Ly Boramy, who had caused a flutter in Indonesia two years ago with a gold and team silver, was again at his fiery best as he went down gamely to Ngu Mon Quyen of Vietnam in the Five Gates form final on Saturday. With that individual silver medal behind him, Ly Boramy went on to inspire Prak Sovanny, San Socheat and Pal Chhorraksmy to team gold in the self defence weapon section.

[img]

The second vovinam gold had been the result of a splendid co-ordination between Chin Piseth, Kat Sopheak, Soeng Visal and Soeur Chanleakhena in the mixed Da Luyen Tar Khong Nu on Thursday.

Fighting in the women's 67-73kg class on Saturday, Sorn Sivmey landed a taekwondo gold even as her more illustrious sister Sorn

Davin had to settle for the silver medal after seemingly well in control of her over-73kg final against Kirstie Elaine Alora of the Philippines. There were a few critical decisions which rather dubiously went against the Cambodian star.

In the men's 80-87kg class title decider, Mao Sophal held his own in the initial stages before being overpowered by Vietnam's Trong Cuong Nguyen to settle for a silver.

Ke Leng restored a modicum of Cambodia's petanque pride last Tuesday when she landed the women's shooting gold. That was the only top-notch performance, though the Kingdom ultimately took home four silver and three bronze medals from the boules alley.

It was the Cambodian wrestlers who gave the country a flying start with Dorn Sov setting the medals trend. He was outpinned in the men's Greco Roman under-120kg final on December 9, but undeterred, he went on to win a gold four days later in the men's 120kg freestyle.

A gold medal winner at the 2009 Games in Laos, Chov Sotheara could not compete at her preferred weight class in Indonesia, but this time around the plucky grappler would not be denied her due. She won the under-44kg freestyle gold in taking style.

Kov Chheang Hong proved too strong in the men's Greco Roman 84kg class while Ni Samnang showed her mettle in the women's 63kg freestyle.

There is a bounty awaiting the eight gold-medalists to the tune of US$24,000 each, if all the offers and bonuses on the table are put together. An individual gold medalist will receive 40 million riel ($10,058) as part of the government's sub-decree to reward international sporting success. Apart from this, Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised $3,000, NagaWorld under their Go For Gold program will add $3,000 and Angkor Beer will chip in $6,000.

With Naga only endorsing golds, the drop in cash for silver medalists is substantial at $13,500, while bronze medals are expected to earn $7,000. Team medals are also set for a big increase in prize fund, while coaches will get the same.

Wrestler Dorn Sov will have the distinction of getting the highest bounty among medalists at $37,500 for his individual gold-silver combination.

Team disciplines disappointing
While individual brilliance kept Cambodia's medal chase going, national teams in various disciplines put up a doleful show yet again. After a modest showing in the BIDC Cup, the Cambodian football team went through another humiliating Games experience with several off-field infractions only adding to the misery.

[img]

With seven overseas imports, the Cambodian Basketball team sported a stronger look this time. But it simply did not translate into good results. There were some individual performances worthy of note but as a team, Cambodia distinctly lacked the punch to trouble some of the big names.

Overall, the team finished sixth, a marginal improvement from its seventh place in Indonesia but still a long way behind in the medal race.

Cambodian boat racers failed to rise up to the expectations while badminton, volleyball, table tennis brought no cheer at all.

Chinlone presented Cambodia with a couple of surprise silver gifts solely because other than Myanmar, not many countries are familiar with the sport.

The Cambodian horse riders are counting on this experience to shape better in the future. Among the six who took part in equestrian events, only Sim Narith managed to finish as close as fifth in the first round of show jumping. The team was simply not "ready" for dressage, though they handled this difficult event with great enthusiasm and courage.

"It was a great learning experience for our riders who were on borrowed horses. We have a few more young riders in the wings and I am confident we can move forward from here," Cambodian Equestrian Federation Secretary General Mona Tep told the Post.

Thailand reclaimed the regional sports supremacy by heading the final medals tally with 281 including 107 golds, bringing down Indonesia from its 2011 perch.

It was a great triumph for the hosts Myanmar, who finished second behind Thailand and achieved their best tally besides scoring important points on the international stage as a country fast transitioning to democratic way of life after decades of military rule.

Despite winning four golds and four bronze medals more than in Indonesia, Cambodia's standing in the medals table remained at ninth only ahead of East Timor and Brunei, which clearly shows that the Kingdom has a lot of catching up to do as it prepares to host the biennial Games for the first time in 2023.

So far Cambodia is the only founder member not to have staged the Games since its creation in 1959 after the 1963 edition slated for Phnom Penh had to be abandoned due to a volatile political situation at the time.

A two-day men's doubles badminton tournament marking the 35th anniversary of the foundation of the Khmer United Front for National Salvation (on December 2, 1978] wrapped up yesterday at Sihanoukville's City Hall with a closing ceremony presided over by Sihanoukville governor Sboung Sarath and Ministry of Interior Badminton Club official Chea Bunheng.

Tev Vanak and Ngun Kanura of Kampong Cham's Tropeang Thlong Club triumphed in the U30 division, while Vietnamese players only identified as Yon and Tam won the 30-39 year olds age class.

Chu Yen and Hu Yen from Vietnam picked up the 50-59 title and Khan Sovan and Lem Thavy of Sihanoukville Club were over-60s champions.

About 1,000 workers at a Kandal province garment factory walked off the job on Saturday after management there fired eight employees who attempted to start a new union.

Management at Sixplus Industry Co, Ltd originally sacked 13 union activists on Friday afternoon, but later that evening said they would allow five of them back to work, said Mai Bun Hai, president of the new Independent Union for Worker Solidarity.

"They told me that they will allow us to create the union inside the company if we obey their wishes, but I declined and they sacked us immediately," Bun Hai said yesterday.

Sixplus' is now home to two unions: the Free Trade Union and the Labour of Khmer Children Union. Nearly 800 employees there have thumb-printed a petition demanding the reinstatement of the eight fired unionists, Bun Hai said.

The dismissals are a clear violation of Cambodia's labour law, said Moeun Tola, head of the labour program at the Community Legal Education Center.

Officials from Sixplus could not be reached for comment.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SEAN TEEHAN