The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Street packed as CNRP, unions face court” plus 9 more

The Cambodian Eagles will kick off their 2014 Aussie Rules Football campaign when they head to Ho Chi Minh City in just under two weeks for the annual Australia Day clash against arch rivals the Vietnam Swans.

The Eagles finished last season with a runner-up berth in November's Indochine Cup only to go down to the Swans. The loss came after having beaten the Vietnamese at the start of the year in Phnom Penh in the all-important January 26 match.

The Eagles are bracing themselves for a far tougher season this year as the team is in rebuilding mode following the exit of much of last year's starting line-up.

"We lost a lot of players in the offseason but we welcome some fresh blood into the side who will shore up the team and keep the club running smoothly," Eagles coach Grant Fitzgerald told the Post yesterday.

"Cambodia and Vietnam have a fantastic rivalry which has seen close, hard-fought matches over the past few years and we are expecting another tough game ahead of us," added Fitzgerald, a native of Perth who is currently working for local investment company Devenco.

The Eagles-Swans clash is expected to attract a huge crowd and will be the focal point for the Australia Day weekend in Ho Chi Minh City, with food, drinks and Australia-themed activities running alongside the match.

The star attraction of the day, however, will be the presence of Tony Morwood, who is a Sydney Swans Team of the Century member, Hall of Fame inductee and the club's general manager for business development.

"It is a rare privilege for players and spectators alike to have someone of the stature of Tony Morwood in our midst," Fitzgerald said.

Dear Editor,

When workers took to the streets and protested for an immediate 100 per cent wage increase of up to $160 within a year, in hindsight I keep asking myself what should be the options for civil servants and university graduates who earn less than $100?

With 300,000 youth entering the job market each year, work is increasingly difficult to find, even for many university graduates, prompting some of them to take jobs with meager salaries in order to gain experience and to build skills to compete in the increasingly fierce job market.

For these people, should they also take to the streets or should they change their jobs to work at factories?

If we make such a comparison, then is the workers' demand for $160 a luxury? Absolutely not.

However, in terms of income, factory workers are better off compared to being traditional farmers or seasonal construction workers.

Looking back at 10 or 20 years ago, it was widely accepted that the more than 400 garment factories, which employ about 600,000 workers and account for 35 per cent of the country's GDP, have contributed significantly to the country's economy as well as poverty reduction.

The fact is those 600,000 workers rely on their jobs to support not only themselves, but also their families in their hometowns. Generally, garment workers can earn more than $100 each month and many of them go home during festivities and the holiday season.

It is generally observed that people would not go for holidays if they don't have extra money to bring home or cannot afford the transport fees.

On the other hand, from an employer's point of view, if one is to run a company, doubling the wages in a single year is an unrealistic option, and it is especially true for a labour-intensive industry.

Compared to the region, it is understandable that workers demand a wage increase of 10-20 per cent each time, but 100 per cent is out of the question.

This raises the level of unpredictability of Cambodia's investment climate, posing a serious blow to the management of the current investors and prompting potential investors to re-consider even harder before making their investment decision in Cambodia.

Being in a profession whose role is to promote investment, experience tells us that building investment confidence is something that is time-consuming and hard to earn, but it can fade away in the blink of an eye.

It is an inherent duty of every government to make their best efforts to attract foreign investment so as to boost the economy, create jobs and reduce poverty.

When Cambodia's physical infrastructure and logistics are handicapped and the energy costs are high, foreign companies tend to look for low cost labour, which is Cambodia's competitive advantage compared to the rest of the region, to off-set their total investment cost.

However, the demonstrations did show that the times are changing and that Cambodia is no longer a sanctuary for low-cost labour.

This should be clearly understood by every stakeholder. To balance the increasing labour cost, Cambodia has two major options, which is to improve its hard and soft infrastructure, so that companies can reduce their investment costs, and to build higher skilled labour, so that companies find it comfortable to pay higher wages.

These two options have to go hand-in-hand, but we have to be mindful that both options are not something that can be achieved in a single night.

An economy develops from non-skilled low wages to higher-skilled higher wages and Cambodia is in this transition period, so we need to be cautious and not to jump too fast before we are sure that we have better skilled labour and better infrastructure at a level of competitiveness on par with the region.

It is thus better for us to go step by step to maintain investment confidence, to ensure that this transition period goes smoothly and is acceptable to every stakeholder for the sake of, above all else, the wellbeing of the nation-wide economy.

Sim Vireak,
Diplomat
Tokyo

The new year has brought with it a mixed outlook for the vehicle market, as dealers post both positive and negative sales figures for 2013.

Pily Wong, chief executive of Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen distributor Hung Hiep (Cambodia), said sales had been seriously affected by the Kingdom's political turmoil following national elections in July.

Wong said in an interview earlier this month that the number of vehicles sold decreased by 60 per cent in 2013 from the previous year.

"At the beginning of the year, business was OK. But during the second half, while people began to prepare for the election and even after the election, business has been poor due to the mass demonstrations," he said, referring to the opposition party's rallies and marches to contest the results of the poll.

The luxury car dealer also said that lax government regulation on imports has posed unfair threats to legitimate business.

"Competition is not so dangerous for us when everybody plays by the same rules. We call it fair competition. What I worry about is an unfair one," he said.

Sales for Toyota and Ford, meanwhile, are looking up. They expect another year of positive figures from Cambodia's growing family vehicle market.

Kong Noun, chairman of Toyota Cambodia, said the carmaker saw a slight increase in sales over the past 12 months, reaching a total of 1,000 units sold. He estimates that figure to rise by 40 per cent to 1,400 units by next year. "Ninety per cent of the cars driven in Cambodia are used cars, but families are now tending to invest in new cars," Noun said.

He did not specify which new models would enter the local market in the next 12 months.

Toyota's promising Cambodian figures were not mirrored throughout Asia, however. The company posted a unit decrease of more than 60,000 across the region to hit 779,586 sales, according to the latest financial statements. Seng Voeung, motor vehicle division manager for RMA Cambodia, the country's importer of Ford vehicles, shared Noun's optimism for 2014, but said short supply hindered the company's unit sales for last year. Voeung said RMA's dealership sales increased by 30 per cent in 2013 compared to 2012.

"Demand for the Ford Ranger peaked last year," he said. "So there was a shortage of supply for a short time; all the while the demand from Cambodia continued to increase. We do not have enough cars to sell to the customers," he said.

Driven by Ranger and Focus model sales, Ford posted a seven per cent increase in sales across the ASEAN region for 2013, with an all-time record of 95,906 units sold.

ASEAN unit sales of the Thai-built Ranger jumped by 65 per cent to 45,508, while Focus sales rose by 21 per cent to 9,690 units.

More than 50 villagers who collect bamboo and rattan in the forests of Kampot's Teuk Chhou district called on Kampot provincial hall for intervention yesterday after their trucks were banned from the area.

"Before, it was easy for us to enter the forest to find [the products] in order to support our daily life," said Sat Chanta, a Teuk Chhou villager.

"But recently, they have banned us – especially the trucks and cars we use for transport. We ask them to make it easy for us, as it was before, because we are poor. We just depend on this small job finding rattan for our living."

Sen Chhay, Mak Brang commune chief, said that residents who live near the resort area have been allowed to enter the forest to collect rattan because it is in the catchment area of a dam currently in construction.

"This is the dam project area, so they are allowed to clear the rattan around there, but we are afraid some residents do not clear the rattan but they log the forest, especially those who have trucks. We are afraid of them hiding luxury timber in the trucks," he said.

Kampot deputy governor Ung Meng Hour said the ban was put in place to prevent this, and residents had only been blocked from using trucks.

"They still are permitted to find rattan as usual, but we ban the truck transport."

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy and Prime Minister Hun Sen discussed the possibility of offering amnesty to senior government officials in order to allow for "an honourable exit of the leaders", Rainsy was quoted as saying to the French newspaper La Libération last week.

Rainsy reportedly said in the article published Friday that the discussion of the proposed amnesty law – which took place on September 16, during negotiations between the parties – had been initiated by Hun Sen, who said he would support such a measure if the opposition put it forward, but did not explicitly agree to leave office.

"It [the amnesty] would have to give guarantees in order to avoid a witch hunt, in order to not threaten [leaders'] fortune, their dignity," and might include honorary posts, Rainsy was quoted as saying.

The Libération article went on to cite Rainsy as saying he had been asked to prepare an amnesty law for the three senior-most leaders of the government, and that the ruling Cambodian People's Party would support the amnesty initiative, but would not step down under pressure.

Yesterday, Rainsy declined to comment on the piece, saying the revelations were not meant to be made public, and that while he "might" have made the remarks, it "would not be appropriate at this point" to elaborate on them.

Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker-elect Son Chhay, who was at the September meeting, said yesterday that while he didn't remember the precise details, he seemed to recall that the idea came from CNRP deputy president Kem Sokha, who made the suggestion "to ensure a kind of trust" to foster compromise.

Though Hun Sen had appeared receptive, Chhay added, the idea soon fell by the wayside.

"On the second day of discussions, we could not reach an agreement … and it was never mentioned again on the second day," he said.

CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap, who did not attend the September negotiations, said yesterday that he had heard about the idea, but couldn't remember its provenance.

"If it's created, it's a good law, because it's to protect the most senior leaders," he said. "As we know, being a leader means doing [things that are] right and wrong."

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHHAY CHANNYDA

In his first public remarks of the year, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday took pains to recount his experience under the Khmer Rouge and thanked Vietnam for overthrowing the brutal communist regime.

Speaking at the inauguration of a Vietnamese hospital, in the presence of visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Hun Sen said he considers January 7, 1979, as "the second birthday" of the Cambodian people.

"Thanks for the party, the people and the government especially – Vietnamese volunteer soldiers – who joined to liberate Cambodians from the Pol Pot genocidal regime and helped to settle problems allowing Cambodians to survive," he said.

Had the Vietnamese not entered Cambodia and overthrown the regime, he said, millions more would have been killed.

"Those who forget January 7, that's their matter," he said. But the day ensured that Phnom Penh could progress from a "deserted place into the most populous city".

Hun Sen said yesterday had special meaning to him as it was the anniversary of the day in 1976 when he and his wife were separated by the regime. His wife, he claimed, was ultimately taken away to dig a channel at a worksite – a fate he would not discover until they were reunited in February 1979.

"At this time and this hour [in 1976], I did not know whether my wife was dead or alive," he said.

The hospital inauguration was followed later in the day by a closed-door meeting between the two premiers.

Speaking yesterday evening, Hun Sen's spokesman, Eang Sophalleth, said the pair agreed to boost transit connections, tourism, telecommunications and banking, as well as agriculture.

Additionally, Nguyen Tan Dung agreed to help renovate National Road 78 in Ratanakkiri – where Vietnamese companies boast vast holdings – and sell 200 megawatts of power to Cambodia.

Also yesterday, representatives of the embattled Khmer Kampuchea Krom community sent a letter to Hun Sen urging him to raise the issue of mistreatment of Khmers living in Vietnam's lower Mekong Delta region.

In the letter, they raise the case of two monks and six civilians who are now in prison after holding protests calling for the construction of a Khmer school.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MEAS SOKCHEA AND CHEANG SOKHA

Civil society groups yesterday urged the international community to put more pressure on the government to ensure the safety of prisoners arrested in recent crackdowns and to prevent further police and military violence against civilians.

At a press conference yesterday morning, images of soldiers beating and arresting protesters at Yakjin (Cambodia) Inc on January 2 played on a loop beside panellists, who criticised the government's use of excessive force – including opening fire with live ammunition, killing at least four – at demonstrations this month.

"Those who abuse their power, especially the military and soldiers, cannot go unpunished," Yeng Virak, executive director of the Community Legal Education Center, told journalists and NGO workers in attendance. "The armed forces and military police beat everyone – young, old, men, women and even children."

The forum followed a statement calling for the release of 23 people arrested during demonstrations on January 2 and 3, an end to inhumane treatment of protesters and an investigation into the crackdowns – including the fatal Veng Sreng Boulevard shootings.

The use of military force against citizens is inappropriate in a democratic country, Cambodian Defenders Project director Sok Sam Oeun said. In any case, he added, the January 3 shooting must be investigated.

"The army should stay neutral if it wants the country to remain a democracy," Sam Oeun said. "In all these incidents, whether the soldiers or military police are right or wrong, civilians are being killed, so there needs to be an urgent independent investigation."

Inaction by the International Labour Organization and brands would equate to complicity, independent political analyst Kem Ley said. "If no action is taken by buyers or ILO, it means they are involved."

Jill Tucker, chief technical adviser for the ILO's Better Factories Cambodia, yesterday said that the organisation has issued many statements and letters to high-ranking government officials and is currently coordinating with international brands, as they decide what their next steps should be.

Secret negotiations between the ruling Cambodian People's Party and the opposition are close to reaching a solution to the political stalemate that has gripped Cambodia since July's general election, according to sources privy to the discussions.

Officials from both parties yesterday denied that talks had occurred, but two independent analysts said they had been briefed in depth by the senior government official acting as a go-between in the negotiations.

Political analyst Kem Ley and Heang Rithy, president of the Cambodian National Research Organization, an NGO promoting human rights and democracy, said yesterday they participated in lengthy discussions with the mediator over the proposed demands.

According to the pair, a high-ranking government official met with the opposition following the crackdown on striking garment workers and the clear-out of Freedom Park on January 3 and 4 as an envoy of Prime Minister Hun Sen to lay the ground for negotiations between the two parties to be presided over by the King.

Of the key demands relayed back to the premier from the opposition, 80 per cent have been agreed to, according to Ley and Rithy.

A snap election and Hun Sen stepping down – key demands of the opposition-led street protests and mass demonstrations that rounded out 2013 – are not on the agenda, they said.

The list, however, includes amending the constitution through the National Assembly, establishing another parliamentary commission, dividing the 10 commission chairmanships equally between the two parties, giving the CNRP the deputy chair of the assembly, allowing the CNRP to have a TV license, and establishing a joint committee on electoral reform.

"[The mediator] said when the CPP and CNRP agreed completely on all the points, they will organise a meeting with the highest-ranking leaders of the party to meet in front of the King and sign [an agreement with] each other in front of the King," Ley said.

According to Rithy, the opposition leaders met with the negotiator on January 5, a day after the violent evacuation of Freedom Park.

"He showed me one letter that Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha were requesting Prime Minister Hun Sen to negotiate and compromise, and he [Rainsy] wants to get the rank in the National Assembly; he wants to be vice-president," he said.

The revelations come after Rainsy hinted on January 5, the day opposition leaders apparently met with the government envoy, that the government would eventually work with the opposition despite the crackdown.

"They use hard power for a while, to crack down first," he told reporters at the time.

"But they are also responsible people to some extent. They have to ensure that after cracking down on the worker movement, they have to deal with the opposition, the political democratic opposition. They cannot arrest us, because they need a path, they need other political force."

Yesterday, with no explanation, state news agency Agence Kampuchea-Presse placed a prominent slideshow of photos on its official website showing past meetings and handshakes between Hun Sen and Rainsy with the text "Remember Always". The slideshow was not linked to a story and the caption text was missing.

Council of Ministers spokesman Ek Tha yesterday called the slideshow a "good sign".

"It means that Cambodia should solve problems through peaceful means. I support [what AKP is doing] but I don't really understand it. It's good to share old memories, even if they are not always good ones. It's a good sign and could be that they can resolve their differences," he said.

The opposition yesterday denied that they had met with the government official in charge of setting the agenda for talks.

"It's not substantial. It does not have any substance. This talk is only speculation," Rainsy said.

CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann, meanwhile, said the CNRP was willing to negotiate but that any negotiations should "focus" on election reform and a new election.

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith also denied the negotiations were taking place.

The revelations come as Rainsy and Sokha are set to face court this morning for questioning over allegations they incited striking garment workers to commit crimes and create social unrest.

Legal and political analysts yesterday dismissed the idea that the court would arrest or charge the leaders in order to avoid galvanising opposition anti-government protesters.

Ley, meanwhile, dismissed the court questioning as nothing more than a political sideshow.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHEANG SOKHA

The Cambodian Court of Appeal yesterday suspended a Russian extradition request for former real estate tycoon Sergei Polonsky and ordered his immediate release from detention, his defence attorney said yesterday.

According to defender Benson Samay, Polonsky – who is wanted on charges of "large-scale fraud" in his native Russia – must first face charges of intentional violence in a Cambodian court for allegedly threatening six boatmen with a knife off the coast of Sihanoukville.

It is unclear whether Polonsky may still face extradition in the future, and both presiding judge Seng Sivutha and prosecutor Heang Rith declined to comment on yesterday's hearing, saying it was confidential.

Though his client would still have to face charges in Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court, Samay reiterated both Polonsky's innocence and the amount of money he planned to invest in the country.

"He cannot be extradited to Russia at this time, so he will stay in Cambodia. He brings millions of dollars for investment in Cambodia. He never committed a crime anywhere in the world," Samay told reporters.

"He is a generous man; he is not a criminal. And I will find a [Cambodian] wife for him," he added.

Forbes magazine pegged Polonsky's wealth at $1.2 billion in 2008, but he was reported to have lost the lion's share of that during the global financial crisis.

Polonsky himself smiled as he strode into the courtroom yesterday and, after the brief hearing, echoed his lawyer's claims about his Cambodian investment plans.

"I would like to start a project in Cambodia with a development of millions of dollars on islands, big projects," he said. "I'm staying in Cambodia."

Samay brushed aside concerns about his client's Cambodian charges, saying the punishment would be light.

"He's still awaiting trial at the Preah Sihanouk provincial court, but it is a minor crime, not a serious crime," Samay said.

In Russia, Polonsky has been charged with embezzling $176 million and could reportedly face up to 10 years in prison there. Polonsky's Cambodian charge of intentional violence, on the other hand, could draw a sentence of two to five years in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

Progress on the case, however, has been stalled for months. He was first arrested on January 3, 2013, after he and two others allegedly forced six boatmen overboard with a knife off the coast of Sihanoukville, where Polonsky owns an island.

The boatmen ultimately accepted a combined $20,000, and withdrew their complaints, but Polonsky remained in jail until he was released in April on bail. Despite being forbidden from leaving the country, he travelled to Israel, where he reportedly sought citizenship before returning to Cambodia in August ahead of a Russian extradition request.

He was arrested in Cambodia again over the extradition request in November, and despite still technically being out on bail after his release yesterday for the year-old intentional violence charges, Preah Sihanouk provincial judge Svay Tonh, who will hear the case, said that he has not yet set a date for the trial.

Russian embassy officials were not available for comment.