Opportunists and Conspiracy theorists

My staff members at the Bloom guesthouse told me banana sellers in Phnom Penh took advantage of the tragedy in Phnom Penh and raised the prices of bananas in the city. Cambodians offer bananas and light incense (3 or 5 sticks, different from the 2 sticks that the Chinese offer) and candles to pray for the dead. Everyone bought bananas, even in Siem Reap, to pray that those who died in the stampede will go to heaven.

So these banana sellers in Phnom Penh were selling a bunch of bananas for 15,000riels or even 30,000riels (US$7.50). The normal price is 1500riels ($0.40) or 2500riels. Even in Siem Reap, the price went up, to 5,000 (US$1.25) or 7,000 riels per bunch.

Kagna's sister-in-law, who is a fruit seller in Psar Leu market here in Siem Reap said, "Why these people like this?" She believes "do good, get good" so will not raise her prices from the usual 2500 riels. Everyone is disgusted with the opportunistic merchants. But even at those prices, the bananas were sold out in the city.

Cambodians are finding it hard to understand how so many people can die in such a short time. In just 6 hours, more than 300 people died (latest reports put the figure closer to 400). Kagna says even in Pol Pot's time, not so many people died in such a short time (I don't know if this is true). She said Prime Minister Hun Sen "cry and cry" on TV and that during the six hours, he was exhorting the people on the bridge "don't run, don't run." She said he was beamed live on TV and they broadcast his message on loudhailers around the bridge.

Some theories have emerged. Some say it is because it is the year of the Tiger and tigers like meat and blood, so it is a year for disaster (err...not a very good theory if you ask me).

Others say it was caused by agents who are opposed to the government so that the Cambodian people will blame the government for its ineptitude (err...also not a very good theory, in my view, because the people who shouted must have been amongst the crowd, so risked their lives as well. Unless people think these "secret agents" had a way of escaping after causing the panic). But the government has said it will find and punish those responsible for shouting that the bridge was about to collapse.

Another theory is the panic was caused by Cambodian "hooligans" who like to play a game. The game involves linking arms and moving the human chain altogether forwards and then backwards. People will then fall, causing laughter and cries. Usually the youth do this on the streets during the Water Festival.
 
But maybe the simplest explanation is the right one. Occam's Razor is a principle that recommends selecting the competing hypothesis that makes the fewest new assumptions.

Cambodians are not the only ones to have experienced a stampede. This study found a total of 215 human stampede events were reported from 1980 to 2007, resulting in 7069 deaths and at least 14,078 injuries.

There are many things that can cause a stampede. When the Brooklyn Bridge just opened, a woman tripped, which contributed to fears that the bridge would collapse. "As she lost her footing another woman screamed, and the throng behind crowded forward so rapidly that those at the top of the steps were pushed over and fell in a heap." (abstract found in the New York Times.)

In 2005, 1000 people died in the Baghdad Bridge Stampede . There were rumours of a suicide bomber. Interior Minister Bayan Baqir Solagh said that one person "pointed a finger at another person saying that he was carrying explosives...and that led to the panic".

In 1989, 96 people --all fans of Liverpool F.C.-- died in the Hillsborough disaster. In 2007, 3 people died and 30 were injured in Chongqing, China, when a supermarket offered 20% discount on cooking oil. And in 1896, 1389 people were killed in a crush as people tried to get presents during the Coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II. (All these records can be found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stampede).

So I don't think the stampede was caused by enemies of the state. We still do not know what caused it, but it could be as simple as a one person suggesting the bridge could collapse. If enough people hear and believe him, that would be enough to cause a panic.

For me, the important thing is that the authorities learn from this tragedy. Stampede can be prevented by more organised crowd control, barriers and preventing extreme density of people.

This interesting Slate article, on "How not to get trampled at [Obama's] Inauguration" tells you the warning signs of an imminent crowd crush and what to do in such a situation. Here are some pointers:

1. There needs to be communication - with barriers, signs, or loudhailers. "Crowds are rarely belligerent, but they can become deadly if, for example, there's no way to announce that someone has fallen down and everyone must take a step back."

2. You also need space around you, and the article suggests no more than four people per square meter. "Otherwise, if someone jostles you, you won't have room to stick a foot out to stabilize yourself. If you fall, other people may trip over you, creating a pileup. Meanwhile, the rest of the crowd will continue to surge forward, unaware of your situation, and the pressure will build."

3. If you do feel like you are being touched on all four sides, you need to move to the margins. Try to move sideways. "After that, the last opportunity to escape may be when you feel shock waves travel through the crowd. This happens when people at the back push forward, but the people at the front have no where to go. If you feel the crowd sway like this, you are in serious danger. Wait until the crowd stops moving and then inch your way sideways and backward, zigzagging to safety. Just as you might swim back to shore in the ocean, try to navigate during the pause between waves."

Failed state No. 40 - Cambodia

Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace's 5th Annual Failed State Index ranks Cambodia at number 40. It shares the dubious distinction with Laos and Rwanda.

40. CAMBODIA
Score: 88.7
This young Cambodian mother is turning her infant over to the care of a safe house built for families of persons living with HIV/AIDS and run by a Canadian NGO. About 170,000 Cambodians are HIV positive. [See photo on Foreign Policy linked below] 

Good news though - Cambodia moved up 9 spots from last year's index (Laos moved up 4 places and Rwanda, 5).

Number 1 is Somalia, which has topped the ranking for the last 3 years. "After two decades of chaos, the country is today largely under the control of Islamist militant groups, the most notorious and powerful of which is al-Shabab. A second faction, Hizbul Islam, rivals the former in brutality -- it recently executed two Somalis for the crime of watching the World Cup."

The Philippines is at #51 (up 2 spots from last year) and the last country on the list (hardly a failed state, but in the "sustainable category"), is Norway, at #177.

Read "Postcards from Hell" on Foreign Policy.com. Full list of countries by Failed States Index on Wikipedia.

US jails Cambodia coup plotter Chhun Yasith for life

"A Cambodian-born accountant has been jailed for life in the US for plotting a failed coup attempt against the Cambodian government 10 years ago.

Chhun Yasith, 53, was found guilty by a court in Los Angeles in 2008 of four charges relating to the failed attack.

Dozens of armed men attacked government buildings in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, in a bid to overthrow Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Chhun is a naturalised US citizen who fled Cambodia as a refugee in 1982.

He grew frustrated with the lack of free elections under Hun Sen, a former member of the Khmer Rouge under dictator Pol Pot, said Chhun's lawyer Richard Callahan.

"He saw Hun Sen as on an even par with Pol Pot," Mr Callahan said.

Chhun also wanted to avenge the death of his father, whom he witnessed being beheaded by Khmer Rouge soldiers, Mr Callahan added."

Full story on the BBC.

Death penalty in Singapore; not in Cambodia

I was so sad to read this Story of a Boy, about Yong Vui Kong, a young Malaysian man who was just 18 and a half year old when he was caught making a drug delivery in Singapore. In a story that could be set in Cambodia, Vui Kong came from a poor family and ran away from home when he was just 12. He washed cars to survive, making about RM$3 (US$0.90) a day. Eventually he met a "Big Brother", who fed and clothed him, and took him to fancy restaurants. Vui Kong felt compelled to do anything “Big Brother” said. More importantly, he needed the money to pay for his mother's medical treatment.

The police found 47.27 grammes of heroin on him. A judge eventually handed him the mandatory death sentence for drug trafficking.

I remember watching French TV with English subtitles sometime in February. It was an episode of L'Editoriale and on the death penalty. The host said Singapore has the highest number of executions per capita, while the country with the most number of executions is China. I remember how horrified and disgusted I was when later I told my French friend about it over dinner. She could hardly believe it, since Singapore is supposedly a "first world" country.

[From wikipedia: Singapore had the highest per-capita execution rate in the world between 1994 and 1999, estimated by the United Nations to be 13.57 executions per one million population during that period. And out of 174 executions recorded by Amnesty International from press reports between 1993 and 2003, the number of foreign nationals totals 93, which is more than half. Many of them are believed to have been migrant workers. No wonder science fiction author William Gibson wrote a travel piece on Singapore sarcastically titled "Disneyland with the Death Penalty".]

I am glad to see the city-state has made progress. According to the Guardian: "Singapore has seen a big decline in its use of the death penalty since having the highest execution rate in the world in the 1990s, but the government is resisting any change to the law. Singapore's attorney general, Walter Woon, has argued that parliament has the power to show mercy in individual cases."

Cambodia has no death penalty, since abolishing it in 1989. (For a list of abolitionist countries, visit Amnesty.org).

In this, Cambodia bucks the trend among Southeast Asian countries.

"The only region that goes against this trend [away from the death penalty] is Southeast Asia. At the last meeting of ASEAN, the leaders of Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines said they were in favor of the death penalty and especially for sentencing drug traffickers to death. But that is the only region in the world that goes against this trend."

"There is a very interesting exception in Southeast Asia: Cambodia. Cambodia abolished the death penalty and the president of the parliament of Cambodia was in Strasbourg for the World Congress against the Death Penalty last year. He explained that like Europe, Cambodia had experienced genocide, and this was the main reason the Cambodians had decided to abolish the death penalty.

In fact, in Europe, it was easier to abolish the death penalty because we had two genocides, two world wars on our continent. It was after these debaucheries of violence that Europe abolished it."

From a 2001 Carnegie Council interview with staff from Together Against the Death Penalty. (The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006 - Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore still have not).

You can see the leaflets of a campaign by Singaporeans who argue against the mandatory death penalty for drug traffickers.

As for Vui Kong, only a Presidential pardon will save him. Unfortunately, President Nathan, who has been in power since 1999, is not known to have granted clemency to any condemned prisoner.

In Cambodia, Democracy Should Be...

A Khmer friend has won a competition organised by the US Embassy in Phnom Penh (which also bought a bunch of bags from Bloom for Earth Day - thanks US Embassy!). Kounila Keo is a student at the Department of Media and Communication, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Read more including an interview with KK here.

Siem Reap government buildings swapped with private company

This just in:

Phnom Penh - The local government in Cambodia's tourist hub of Siem Reap is to relocate outside the city next month in an opaque property swap that is to see a private company take over government buildings, many on prime riverfront land, national media reported Thursday. The news followed a number of similar reports about swaps of government land in central Phnom Penh, which has rocketed in value in recent years, for cheaper land outside the capital. Details of the deals are seldom made public.

Siem Reap Deputy Governor Bun Tharith told the Cambodia Daily newspaper that every provincial government department would move to the new site except one, the meteorology office, whose specialized equipment means it has to stay in the city.

"It is a special plan, and it is good for providing efficient services," he said. "The old buildings will be handed over to the company for investment. This happens in every developed country."

However, neither he nor the Ministry of Interior, which has authority over the deal, would be drawn on the details of the land swap or the cost of the new 42-hectare site, which is located 16 kilometres from the city centre.

Siem Reap is home to the Angkor Wat temple complex, which draws millions of local and foreign tourists each year.

Via www.earthtimes.org

Guns, ammunition and uniforms for sale in Phnom Penh market

What a great story from CambodiaMirror.wordpress.com, translated from the Khmer language daily Kampuchea Thmey. To me it is just like everything else in this country - the inferiors always end up paying for their superiors' corruption.

Hundreds of military personnel raided a market in Phnom Penh (Psar Terk Thla) last week.

“What the authorities confiscated most were military uniforms, and it is said that those uniforms had been sold by military generals to the traders; in some cases, the names of those who had provided them were still attached to the supplies of uniforms, which actually were to be distributed to soldiers at the Preah Vihear Temple."

These military bosses do not give out equipment to their soldiers. Hats, hammocks and guns have to be bought by the soldiers at Psar Terk Thla, since their higher ups sell everything to the markets for extra cash.

“In addition to uniforms, hammocks, and hats, about 90% of police and military police have to buy also their pistols themselves, because their leaders do not release them to them, as they are expensive, and the leaders can benefit by selling them secretly. They order their closest subordinates to contact traders, doing it as a secret business."

The paper reports the authorities not only confiscated the contraband from ten stalls, but also arrested some sellers "to educate them".

Film about Cambodia int'l premiere at Sundance

Enemies of the People
Rob Lemkin, Thet Sambath 2009
Categories: World Cinema Documentary Competition, First Feature, Political

A young journalist whose family was killed by the Khmer Rouge befriends the perpetrators of the Killing Fields genocide, evoking shocking revelations. International Premiere

Link to sundance site and photos here. About the film:

Run time: 93 min. | Cambodia, United Kingdom | Language: Khmer with English subtitles | color
The Khmer Rouge slaughtered nearly two million people in the late 1970s. Yet the Killing Fields of Cambodia remain unexplained. Until now. Enter Thet Sambath, an unassuming, yet cunning, investigative journalist who spends a decade of his life gaining the trust of the men and women who perpetrated the massacres. From the foot soldiers who slit throats to Pol Pot's right-hand man, the notorious Brother Number Two, Sambath records shocking testimony never before seen or heard. Having neglected his own family for years, Sambath's work comes at a price. But his is a personal mission. He lost his parents and his siblings in the Killing Fields. Amidst his journey to discover why his family died, we come to understand for the first time the real story of Cambodia's tragedy.

Codirectors Rob Lemkin and Sambath create a watershed account of Cambodian history and a heartfelt quest for closure on one of the world’s darkest episodes.
Film Contact
Rob Lemkin
Phone: +44 7889 441378
Email: rob@oldstreetfilms.com

Meanwhile, forced evictions continue in Phnom Penh

From cambodiamirror.wordpress.com which provides a valuable service translating news from Cambodian language dailies. This one is a translation from the Cambodian newspaper Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.8, #2138, 31.12.2009. Excerpt:

“In the morning of 30 December 2009, some armed forces were found deployed since 3:00 a.m. until 12:00 o’clock in the compound of the Sereypheap Market, when the enforcement of warrant began, while all vendors were shouting to protest, raising banners and photos of Samdech Dekchor Hun Sen and of Her Excellency [his wife]. Finally, the protest could just make them cry, as the authorities implemented the warrant by deploying security forces around the area of the market, locked the gates of the market, and totally demolished the market."

NGO told to leave town

I first noticed Senhoa on my way to our Vet. Senhoa Nail and Spa was set up by Voice (Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment) as a social enterprise for vulnerable women (I believe the focus is on ethnic Vietnamese women, as many of these women end up in the sex trade due to crushing poverty). The women were trained to provide manicures and pedicures. It was a lovely shop, nicely decorated and just a couple of doors away from the Vet.

I noticed it's been shut for more than a month now and this was what I found. Apparently they were given 24 hours to leave the country:

From the Phnom Penh Post NGO GETS THE BOOT:

"Siem Reap NGO, Voice (Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment) was given 24 hours to quit the Kingdom early this month. They got their departure notice on a Monday afternoon and were gone by Tuesday evening.

Voice’s dramatic exit has caused shockwaves among Siem Reaps’ NGOs, who feared this was part of a purge prompted by the prospective NGO law.

But Voice personnel told 7Days the official reason they had been ordered to leave was because they were not registered.

The Washington-based NGO recently opened the Senhoa Nail Spa Centre in Siem Reap to provide alternative employment for young woman who might otherwise enter the sex trade. The NGO was very active in the Viet-expat arena locally and certainly probed some delicate issues."

I had met a couple of the founders of the NGO, two young women from the US who were ethnic Vietnamese. They had popped in the shop and asked a lot of questions about setting up a social enterprise and I even told them to bring around the jewellery made by the women in their programme (they also taught jewellery making) as I can put them in the shop for them to test the market.

They seemed very sincere, very idealistic and like most Americans I meet, a little brash. I wonder what's the real story behind their sudden departure. I've heard rumours that they had a blog and were critical of the Cambodian government.

Since I also blog, I'd quite like to know what are the limits, or as we say in Singapore, the OB ("out-of-bound") markers. ("The term is adopted from golf, where an out of bounds marker denotes the area beyond which playing is not allowed. However, unlike golf, the OB markers of Singaporean political discourse are not visible. The term "OB markers" was first used in 1991 by the then-Minister for Information and the Arts George Yeo to describe the boundaries of acceptable political discourse." From wikipedia)

Not that I expect a clear answer from the Cambodian authorities. I am constantly amazed how similar the government in Cambodia is to that in Singapore - I suspect they've taken more than one leaf out of the Singapore government's management handbook.

Anyway, I sent Senhoa an email a few days ago, partly because I am still keen on carrying their jewellery especially since now I have a shop at the new night market, but also to find out the truth. Maybe now that they are out of the country, they'll be able to speak more openly. I hope they reply.

Exit the Khmer Rouge; enter the Khmer Riche

It's enough to make you puke. Sorry in advance Andrew Marshall and the Sydney Morning Herald for posting the entire article. I'm doing this because everyone should read this, as well as the Guardian's April 2008 article Country for Sale

THE HUGE PHNOM PENH MANSION OWNED BY VICTOR'S PARENTS, GENERAL MEAS SOPHEA. (GOOD WEEKEND MAGAZINE)

“KHMER RICHE”
Written by Andrew Marshall
Good Weekend Magazine for the Sydney Morning Herald
Sunday 12/12/09

They live in one of the poorest countries on earth, yet they drive flash cars, dwell in mansions and scorn their impoverished brethren. Andrew Marshall meets the rich sons and daughters of Cambodia elite.

“I’m going to drive a little fast now. Is that Okay?” There is one place in Cambodia where you can hold a cold beer in one hand and a warm Kalashnikov in the other, and Victor is driving me there. We’re powering along Phnom Penh’s airport road with Oasis on his Merc’s sound system and enough guns in the boot to sink a Somali pirate boat. Victor is rich and life is sweet. His father is commander of the Cambodian infantry. He has a place reserved for him at L’Ecole Speciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, France’s answer to Duntroon. And, in his passenger seat, there is a thin, silent man with a Chinese handgun: his bodyguard.

“His name is Klar,” says Victor. “It means tiger.”

Victor is only 21, but when reach our destination—a firing range run by the Cambodian special forces—the soldier at the gate salutes.

Devastated by decades of civil war, Cambodia remains one of the world’s poorest nations. A third of its 13 million people live on less than a dollar a day and about 8 out of every 100 children die before the age of five. But Victor—real name Meas Sophearith—was raised in a different Cambodia, where power and billions of dollars in wealth are concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite. This elite prefers to conceal the size and sources of their money—illegal logging, smuggling, land-grabbing—but their children just like to spend it. The Khmer Rouge are dead; the Khmer Riche now rule Cambodia.

I first met Victor at a fancy Phnom Penh restaurant called Café Metro. Outside, Porsches, Bentleys and Humvees fight for parking spaces. The son of a powerful general, Victor has his future mapped out for him. He went to school in Versailles, speaks French and English, and now studies politics at the University of Oklahoma. “My mother wanted us to get a foreign education so we could come back and control the country,” he says. The shooting range is where Victor and his friends go to relax. “I’ve grown up with guns and soldiers all around me,” he says, laying out a private arsenal on a table: two automatic assault rifles, two Glock pistols, one sniper’s rifle, one iPhone.

Victor and his generation are Cambodia’s future. Will they use their education and wealth to lift their less fortunate compatriots out of poverty? Or will they simply continue their parents’ fevered pursuit of money and power? Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID), which gave almost $US30 million of its taxpayers’ money to the country in the last fiscal year, offered one answer in June, when it announced the closure of its Cambodia office by 2011. The official reason? “It was felt UK aid could have a larger impact … where there are greater numbers of poor people and fewer international donors,” said a DFID statement. But the development agency might also have tired of throwing money at a nation where so much poverty can be blamed on a grasping political elite—and their luxury-loving children. (Australia clearly has not: it has allocated $61.4 million in development assistance to Cambodia for 2009-10.)

Depressingly, the Khmer Riche Kids sometimes seem indistinguishable from the old colonial ruling class. They were educated overseas—partly because their families’ wealth made them targets for kidnapping gangs—and often speak better English than Khmer. They carry US dollars – only poor people pay with Cambodian riel – and live in newly built neoclassical mansions so large that the city’s old French architecture looks like Lego by comparison. And their connection to the Cambodian masses is almost non-existent.

Sophy, 22, is the daughter of a Deputy Prime Minister. Rich, doll-like and self-obsessed, she could be the Paris Hilton of Cambodia. She imports party shoes from Singapore, brands them “Sophy & Sina” (Sina is her sister-in-law), hen displays them in her own multistory boutique. It has six staff, no customers and a slogan: “It’s all aboutme.” Sophy’s name is spelled out in sparkling stones on the back of her car, a Merc so pimped up that I have to ask her what make it is. “It’s a Sophy!” she replies.

We meet at her hair salon, where she is prepping a model for a fashion shoot for a magazine she is starting up with her brother Sopheary, 28, and their cousin Noh Sar, 26,. All three were educated abroad and prefer to speak English together. Sopheary, who studied in New York state, seems both amused and slightly embarrassed by his wealth and privilege. “What can you do?” he asks. “Your parents give you all these things. You can’t say no. If someone gives you cake, you eat it.”

Talk to Sopheary and his friends, and Cambodia’s tragic history seems very far away. The genocidal Khmer Rouge blew up banks and outlawed money before being driven from power in 1979. Later came the 1991 Paris Accords, and the plunder of Cambodia’s rich natural resources—forests, fisheries, land –began in earnest. Cambodia’s official economy largely depend on garment, exports, but there is a much larger shadow economy in which only the ruthless and the well-connected survived and prosper. “If you’re doing business, you have to know someone high up, so he has your back,” says Victor.

The closer you get to Hun Sen, Cambodia’s autocratic Prime Minister, the better connected you are. Hun Sen staged a bloody coup d’etat in 1997 and has kept an iron grip on power ever since. Opponents have been silenced while loyalists have grown rich. This includes ministers, a handful of tycoons and generals. Cambodians are often driven from their land by soldiers or military police. Formerly a French possession, Cambodia has been colonized all over again, this time by its own greedy elite.

But the Khmer Riche have a problem. “None of them can answer a simple question: where does all your money come from?” says a Western journalist in Phnom Penh. Ask Cambodian ministers how they got so rich on a meager government salary, and they will reply, “My wife is good at business.”

When I ask Noh Sar, whose father is a senior customs official, why he is so wealthy, he gives me a slight variation: “My mother works a lot.”

Victor’s mother is also good at business, according to “Country for Sale,” an investigation into the elite published by the London-based corruption watchdog Global Witness in February 2009. “She is a key player in RCAF [Royal Cambodian Armed Forces] patronage politics, holding a fearsome reputation among her husband’s subordinates on account of her frequent demands for money,” says the report. “RCAF sources have told Global Witness that military officers sometimes bribe [her] in order to increase the chances of her “close connections” to a major timber smuggler.

It is only in the past few years that the children of Cambodian’s elite have grown confident enough to show off their family’s wealth. “If you want people to respect you in Cambodia, you must have a good car, good diamonds, a good cell phone,” explains Ouch Vichet, 28, better known as Richard. “It’s an I’m-richer-than-you competition.” Richard is quite a competitor: he drives a $US150,000 Cadillac Escalade and wears a $US2,500 Hermes watch and a $US13,000 2.5-carat diamond ring. He doesn’t have a bodyguard, although some friends keep them as status symbols.

Richard was sent to New Zealand to be educated after a gang tired to abduct his brother. He is a short, affable man with an impish grin. In a city where the elite have a tribal suspicion of outsiders, he is refreshingly candid about his wealth. “My money is from my parents,” he says, and then breaks it down. They gave him a villa, half a million US dollars, and a 400-hectar rubber plantation that will generate income for the rest of Richard’s life. His parents-in-law gave him $US100,000 in cash and another villa, worth $200,000, which he sold and invested in real estate. Richard also runs a busy Phnom Penh nightclub called Emerald – his parents made their first fortune in gems – which provides him with “pocket money”. A party of rich kids can spend $US2,000 on drinks in a single night, more than an average Cambodian earns in 3 years.

His parents’ second, much larger, fortune comes from real estate. A few years ago they bought about five hectares of land just outside Phnom Penh for $US14 a square metre, then sold it for $US120 a square metre two years later, making more than $US5 million in profit. “Where else can you make profits like that?” grins Richard. “It’s crazy money.” He has a daughter called Emerald and a son called Benz. (His other Benz is a GL450.) They all live with his parents in a newly built mansion.

Yet Richard’s house is modest by the operatic standards of Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kuok precinct, part of which was once a notorious red-light district. A taxi driver shows me the neighborhood – it’s like a “homes of the stars” tour in Beverly Hills, except that Tuol Kuok’s backstreets are piled with rubbish. My driver points out giant mansion after mansion, and tells me who lives there. Hun Sen’s son, Hun Sen’s daughter, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Labour. A Deputy PM—Sophy and Sopheary’s dad. A four-mansion compound with lots of razor wire, and a gate guarded by special forces soldiers – Victor’s family.

Tuol Kuok’s houses are well-guarded for a reason: until there was real estate to invest in, many wealthy Cambodians kept their money at home in bricks of cash. “We don’t trust banks,” says Richard. “The old generation kept their money under the bed. The new generation keep it in safes in their houses.” Victor says his family also stays away from banks, but for a slightly different reason. “If you put your money in a bank, everyone will know how much you have,” he explains.

I had also heard that rich Cambodians had repatriated hundreds of millions of dirty dollars from Singapore banks after a post-September 11 shake up of global banking, and that his money had helped fuel the land speculation.

For the children, the wealth comes with one big condition: they must do what Mum and Dad tell them. “I wanted to go to art school but my parents wouldn’t let me,” says Sopheary. Most kids dutifully join the family business—Richard translated for his father during overseas gem-buying trips. For some, that business is politics. Concept like nepotism and conflict of interest don’t count for much in Cambodia. Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh—whose giant house resembles an airport departure hall, one with its own jet-ski lake – gave a ministry position to his wife and made his daughter his chief of cabinet. Cambodia’s ambassadors to Britain and Japan are brothers, and their boss is also their father: Foreign Minister Hor Namhong. He says he hired his sons on merit. “It’s not nepotism,” he insists.

Their parents also expect them to marry young—men in their 20’s, women in their teens—and strategically, meaning to someone from a rich and influential family. These marriages are often arranged. “It’s like medieval times in France,” complains Victor, still a bachelor. This means that many high-society Cambodians soon find themselves trapped in loveless unions; affairs are common. Sophy was married off at 17 to the son of the rich and powerful Interior Minister.

The web of marriages binds together Cambodia’s political and business elite and ensures the ruling Cambodian People’s Party’s stranglehold on power. At the centre of the web sits Prime Minister Hun Sen. His three sons and two daughters are all married to the children of senior ruling party politicians or, in the case of his son Hun Manit, to the daughter of the late national police chief. Now in his 30’s, Hun Manit is being groomed to succeed his father. He graduated from West Point, the US military academy, in 1999, amid protests by members of the US Congress over his father’s human rights record. In July, Global Witness urged the British Government to revoke the visa of the Cambodian Prime Minister, who visited Bristol University to watch Hun Manit receive a doctorate in economics.

Senior Khmer Rouge figures such as Comrade Duch, the mass-murdering commandant of Tuol Sleng prison, are currently on trial at a United Nations-based tribunal in Phnom Penh. The Khmer Riche, on the other hand, remain above the law. Victor displays a military VIP sticker on the front dash of his Mercedes. “It means the police cannot touch me,” he says. Richard is an advisor to a military police commander, which also effectively grants him legal immunity.

Many of his generations abuse such privileges. Last August Hun Chea, a nephew of the Prime Minister, hit a motorcyclist with his Cadillac, ripping off the man’s leg and arm. Hun Chea tried to drive off but couldn’t because the accident had shredded a tyre. Military police arrived, removed the car’s license plates and, according to “The Phnom Penh Post”, told Hun Chea: “Don’t worry. It wasn’t your mistake.” Hun Chea walked away. The motorcyclist bled to death on the road.

Hun Sen has yet another bad-boy nephew, the widely feared and mega-wealthy Hun To (“Little Hun”). In 2006 a newspaper editor filed a lawsuit against Hun To for alleged death threats, then fled overseas to seek asylum with the United Nations’ help. Hun To was also once spotted sitting in his luxury speedboat, its sound system cranked up high, being towed around Phnom Penh by a Humvee. A few weeks before, Victor had been in Los Angeles, where he test-drove Hun To’s latest acquisition before it was put in a Cambodia-bound shipping container: a $US500,000 Mercedes McLaren SLR supercar.” He has already built a special garage for it,” says Victor.

Victor will not – dare not—criticize Hun To. But he is critical of Cambodian society. “From top to bottom, everyone is corrupt,” he says. He hopes to one day set up a foundation to help poor Cambodians send their children to study overseas. “We want to change things, but we’ll have to wait until our parents retire,” he says.

But older generation shows no sign of retiring – not when there’s so much cake left to eat. In January, foreign donors pledged $US1 billion to Cambodia, its biggest aid package yet. The Government relies on foreign aid for almost half its budget. It could break this reliance by exploiting its reserves of oil, gas and minerals: the International Monetary Fund estimates Cambodia’s annual oil revenues alone could reach $US1.7 billion by 2021. Could, but probably won’t. Why? Because the same elite who cut down the trees and sold off the land are now poised to extract the oil and minerals, with the help of their children.

Some Hun Sen loyalists have already been allocated exploratory mining licences. One of them is General Meas Sophea, the army chief. He recently hired a temp to act as his foreign liaison officer. The temp is his son. His son’s name is Victor.

Via Camnews.org. Click on link to see all the photos, including Sophy, Cambodia's Paris Hilton.

Our Cambodian landlord

is one of the kindest, nicest people I've met. A good landlord is actually one of our criteria for renting houses because of all the horror stories we've heard. These range from landlords who make up stuff to keep your deposit to counting the number of mangoes on the tree to make sure you have not stolen any (this was told to us by the former tenants of a house in BKK1 in Phnom Penh we were thinking of renting).

Mr C is super nice and when we first moved into his house in Siem Reap, spent over USD200 to add an aluminium fence above the concrete wall to save us from the ugliness of our neighbour's backyard. (The backyard's just a tip, it's not particularly ugly). He also invited us to his house for dinner, and his wife and relatives made a scrumptious feast of BBQ meat and the best amok we've eaten in this country.

Mr C is around my age (late 30s) but looks older because of his hard life. His faced is creased and he is thin and tanned and very muscular.

He had told us during the family BBQ he was a soldier during the civil war, fighting against the Khmer Rouge (he was vague about which side he was on; there were a few parties jostling for power). I wondered after that if he'd killed anyone, but I did not dare ask. Or maybe I did not dare find out. To be honest, I think the probability of killing someone in a civil war is quite high.

We did not talk much about the war as is my experience with Khmers who suffered through it. I've always had to pursue the topic until you can see my Khmer host has had enough and then I feel sorry for asking. In my defence, I seldom ask. And when I do, it is because I want to learn. I guess I want to know the truth from the people who know.

I worry sometimes my Khmer friends think I'm just a voyeur, wanting to hear horror stories. But honestly, the worst stories you can get in books (And they're not limited to wars. Have you read anything about slavery - in the US and elsewhere? Absolutely disgusting. Whenever people tell me the Japanese, the Germans, the Cambodians are extremely cruel in war, I point out you get evil people everywhere, just take slave owners. And this is in times of peace, when their hands are not forced, so to speak. They do it for personal profit, or pleasure. And at least war conduct is regulated by the Geneva Convention; slaves were regulated by legally authorised violence. And if you think scale makes the difference, think again: 12 million Africans were shipped to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries. This is not to excuse the atrocities committed by the Japanese, Germans, Cambodians and what have you; it's merely to point out atrocious behaviour is not limited to these few peoples.)

Back to Cambodia. My landlord in Phnom Penh was the first to talk to me about the war, about the forced marriages (they're still married and have 3 kids, that landlord and his wife), the starvation, the sickness and the false medicine, the death of family members. He admitted his kids do not believe him when he tries to tell them their history. Because the older generation tries not to think and talk about the war, the younger generation knows little about what their parents and grandparents went through. That plus the stories their parents tell must seem so surreal. I mean, I can hardly believe these stories even though I know them to be true.

Many of the women who work at Bloom are middle-aged, so they were children during the war. They smile when they tell me about their childhood, about being hungry and eating whatever they could find, about losing their parents and siblings to murder and illness.

It is hard for foreigners to understand how the Khmers can be so smiley about something so serious. I am always puzzled when Cambodians smile while relating bad news. But maybe it is a sad smile, like, "It's a sad story, but don't be sad." Maybe they are trying to spare our feelings?

For me, it's one of the many mysteries of this culture.

Anyway, the other day Mr C came over to cut the huge jackfruit (many of them) and showed us how to cut the jackfruit. We ended up talking about the war.

I learnt his whole family perished under the Khmer Rouge: his parents, two older brothers and two younger ones. He survived because his mother sent him to hide with a monk when she knew the KR were coming. He started living on his own since he was nine.

As city folk in Siem Reap, my landlord's family were considered enemies, "new people" who were "leeches", as Mr C told it, because they had no idea how to make things, grow things. By contrast, "old people" were the people who worked on the land, who had helped the Khmer Rouge when they were in the jungles fighting a guerilla war against Lon Nol's corrupt government. (Very quickly, Lon Nol was the Cambodian puppet general installed by the US government who wanted an ally in the US's fight against the communist Viet Cong in North Vietnam).

Anyway, Mr C says to the Khmer Rouge, all that the townies knew was to work in offices, pushing pencils, serving foreign masters. The KR thought these "new people" were more than useless; they were parasites, so eliminating them was actually a good thing.

His brothers were killed as they were accused of being spies. And here Mr C said "You know the KGB? Like in James Bond?" I could not believe even children (his brothers) were killed for being thought of as spies. He said yes, of course. If your mother is a spy then you must be a spy too. He said later on, the KR could not understand why their programmes failed and concluded it must be sabotage, by their own people, which is why the party turned against its own and started killing KR soldiers as well.

I think Mr C was using the word "spy" loosely, to mean "dissenter", anyone who was not sympathetic to the KR's cause. Educated people, i.e., those in the towns, were murdered because they were likely to be dissenters, which means trouble-makers.

It's a common tactic among governments. If you dissent, it must be you are a spy. In Singapore, groups critical of the ruling party are often challenged to reveal where they get their funding from. The insinuation being you must be an agent provocateur, a "spy", for some foreign government.

We had given Mr C a can of Angkor beer while chatting and at this point, while talking about his family, he quickly gulped to finish the beer and stood up to leave. The conversation was over.

Cambodia sends Uygur refugees back to China

Potentially sending them off to their death.

"Twenty Uygur asylum seekers who fled to Cambodia after July's deadly ethnic riots in China's city of Urumqi, were deported back to China, BBC said.

The riots began in Urumqi, in China's northwest Xinjiang region, when a group of protesters demanded an investigation into the death of two ethnic Uighurs in Guangdong during a fight with Han Chinese workers. At least 197 people died and 1,600 were wounded as the result of China's worst ethnic violence in a decade.

The United Nations refugee agency condemned Cambodia authorities' decision driven by China's intense pressure, BBC said. The organization described the deportation as a grave breach of international refugee law.

The decision was taken ahead of Chinese Vice-President Xi Jingping's visit to Cambodia due on Sunday.

The Chinese and Cambodian authorities have so far provided no comment."
MOSCOW, December 20 (RIA Novosti)

Thanks to Khmerbird for the tip.

Labour Start: where trade unionists start their day on the Net

Photo from The Hankyoreh showing a Korean woman holding a copy of a 1,000 Won note to campaign for an 1,000 Won (80 cents US) increase in the minimum wage in Seoul.

I am one of 60,000 email subscribers of LabourStart.org because I support trade unions, also known as labour unions, in principle. (There are practical issues with unions of course and I will go into that later).

LabourStart.org is a great resource for people interested in workers' rights. Below are some of the articles for Cambodia 2009:

- Retrial in unionist's killing set for Aug 17 2009-08-11 [The Phnom Penh Post]
- Angry Workers: Drawn-out fight over Naga hotel layoffs 2009-07-29 [The Post]
- Garment employees back on the job as protests end 2009-07-19 [The Phonm Penh Post]
- Xing Tai garment workers protest factory conditions 2009-07-16 [The Phnom Penh Post]
- Govt rejects union data on jobless workers 2009-07-14 [Phnom Penh Post]
- Parliament OKs deal to send migrant labourers to Kuwait 2009-07-14 [Phnom Penh Post]
- 600 workers at Camko City protest over pay 2009-05-14 [The Post]
- Did the ILO really help Cambodia's garment industry? 2009-03-30 [CSR Asia]
- Union critical of Gov't silence on payouts to gambling industry 2009-03-26 [The Phnom Penh Post]
- Teachers Union says PM's claims about pay increases dubious 2009-03-24 [Phnom Penh Post]

A trade union is simply an organization of workers who group together to achieve common goals, usually better pay and working conditions. The union representatives negotiate terms with company owners which are binding on members. You can see how trade unions have an important role to play especially in countries with weak labour laws to protect citizens. If you think about it, if the law is not on their side, strength in numbers and collective action is often the only way many workers can demand fair treatment from their factory owners, if these owners are exploitative, as many are.

But this is also why corporations have always sought to limit the existence of labour unions (and tolerate them if they can't get rid of them). This is also why many governments have sought to eradicate labour unions, in the pursuit of making their country's labour cheaper and thus more competitive.

History is full of examples of brave men and women who try to demand justice, in the form of fairer pay and working conditions, for their fellow workers. Cambodian trade union leader Chea Vichea who was murdered in 2004 in broad daylight is the most famous of these brave Cambodians.

I remember watching a documentary a long time ago on the incredibly brave and tenacious South Korean women labour activists who were beaten, had feaces thrown at them etc.

In one incident

"In August 1979, 200 young women employees of the Y.H. Textile and Wig factory staged a peaceful vigil and fast to protest the company's closure of their plant. On the fifth day of the vigil, more than 1,000 riot police, armed with clubs and steel shields, broke into the building and forcibly dragged the women out. One 21-year-old worker was killed during the incident. It was her death that touched off widespread rioting throughout South Korea and crystallized the opposition that eventually forced President Park Chung Hee out."

Source: "Women in the Fray"

The struggles of the women activist have been documented as facilitating (1) the rise of the opposition consciousness, (2) the growth of radical ideology, (3) the mobilization and consolidation of opposition groups, and (4) the expansion of the concept of human rights and democracy.

These mainly blue-collared women protestors transformed how labour issues are viewed in South Korea: now as political problems to be taken seriously by the government. Some of these women also became labour full-time activists. They laid the foundation for the waves of protests in June 1987 in South Korea, when white-collared workers such as journalists and teachers demanded democracy. The nationwide protests put an end to the tyrannical rule of Chun Du-hwan's regime and opened a new chapter in South Korea's contemporary history.

So you can see, if true to its cause or raison d'être (reason for being), trade unions can be a very powerful tool for democracy.

But trade unions can also be subverted for personal gain. I had the opportunity to speak with a senior member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Phnom Penh who explained to me that things are not always what they seem. In garment factories in Cambodia, for example, there are fake labour unions that are really mafia gangs who try to extort money from company owners.

Some men (it's always the men; i think because women don't have the courage. I think this is one of the reasons why many factories choose not to employ men, seeing them as potential trouble-makers) see a trade union achieve small wins in the factory and decide to form their own gang. Of course this undermines the real trade union and now, there is internal fighting as well as the fight with the company owners. At stake is money.

There is much to say about trade unions, and I'll have to pick up on the topic another day.

I had only wanted to tell readers about Labour Start and the contest for the Labour Photo of the Year but as usual I get distracted. So far, 97 photos have been submitted. (You can see them on Flickr) and the deadline is 1 Oct. You can send any questions about this competition to Derek Blackadder - canada@labourstart.org

Afghanistan: more votes than voters

Photo of Britney Spears being used to register a voting card in Afghanistan. "One Afghan man in a village not far from Kabul had a sackful of cards buried by a stream at the back of his house, for sale to anyone who asked — but he’d prefer if they were used to vote for President Hamid Karzai". Reuters via dawn.com.

And I just read this from The Economist:

"Across Kabul, turnout was sluggish. But at Haji Janat Gul the lack of voters had not dented the tally of votes. Only an hour after voting began, 6,000 had been cast. Yet not a voter was in sight. Staff insisted that the 6,000 had all come at 7am, when polls opened: “The Taliban said that they would cut off the fingers of people voting so they came early.”

This was impossible. Typically it takes four minutes to vote. For 6,000 to have voted in an hour at the 12 ballot boxes, they would have had an average of seven seconds each. The Electoral Complaints Commission later received allegations that the ballot boxes had been stuffed for President Hamid Karzai before polls opened, at the instigation of a local MP and tribal leader." ... Some Western officials reckon 20% of votes nationally may be fraudulent.

It makes you wonder about the first elections in Cambodia after many years of war. It was held in 1993 under the auspices of UNTAC (UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia).

Some people claim more than 90% of the people registered to vote. Here is one which says "The process was launched in October 1992 and concluded in March 1993 [so in 5 months] when 4,764,430 Cambodians, or over 96% of the eligible population, had registered to vote." Inter-parliamentary Union.

People say it is testament to the courage of the Cambodian people who want to have a say in restoring peace and democracy in their country. I don't want to take anything away from the Khmers who actually turned up to vote, but 96% registered voting just seems to me to be incredibly high. It is more than likely if Cambodia's 1993 elections was like Afghanistan, where one person could, and did, register numerous voting cards on behalf of his favoured party.

Anyway, I found this interesting organisation: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) which produced the following infographics. It says Cambodia's last three parliamentary elections since 1993 were "Not Free". 1993's was "Partly Free", presumably because there were UN observers.


But take heart Cambodians, Singapore's elections are not any better. Out of the 10 elections analysed, only 3 were rated "Partly Free by IDEA. This is the "lek mui" ("number one") Asian country you always refer to.

Ministry of Interior's website hacked by Ukrainians

I was trying to find Cambodia's land traffic laws which took me to the Ministry of Interior's website.

I was on the welcome page reading the welcome address by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sak Kheng, who suggested I visit the "Q & A" page, "which is one of the active and objective pages to engage the public in a useful discussion about issues of mutual concern."

Click on Q&A and you will find this:

We are providing a Q & A page where you can post any question that other users might want to know about. Our information department will reply to questions posted here.

You agreed, through the use of Q & A page, that you will not use to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any law. Advertising of other commercial website(s) or chat server(s), pyramid schemes, and solicitations are strictly prohibited.

Then read the posts: CheapAirJordans, MPEG Converter, Wholesale Jewelry, Designer Handbags etc. Give it a minute and the site will be transferred to a Ukrainian website ukr.net.

It is hilarious. Obviously nobody is paying attention. The Ministry must have stuck it up because it looks good to have a Q&A section and then promptly forgot about it. They don't even know the site's been hacked (I wonder how long ago?)

Siem Reap motorists protest police actions

Motorists and tuk tuk drivers staged a protest against the traffic police this morning. The protest took place on the road to Psar Leu here in Siem Reap.

I was told this is in response to the police confiscating motorcycles and demanding to be paid USD250-USD300 to release the bikes. If true, it is an outrage, as the fine (see below) for driving a vehicle without a licence plate is stated to be between 25,000 and 200,000 riels (USD6-48). Furthermore, new bikes cost less than USD2000 and second-hand ones as little as USD400 and a license ordinarily costs only USD30 for motos and USD60 for cars.

[Update 26 July: Another reason for the protest, it was reported in yesterday's Khmer newspapers is the exorbitant vehicle taxes. Thyda's sister's new motobike for instance, costs USD950 but she is expected to pay USD600 in taxes because hers is a newer model (2007). She had bought the bike imported from Thailand for USD950 but if you buy from a retailer in Cambodia, the retailer will include the taxes and the motobike will cost at least USD1600. The people are upset because the police do not care even if you had paid USD300 for your second-hand motorcycle. As long as it is a 2005 model or newer, the tax is USD600. The people say if they had this kind of money, they would have bought a better bike in the first place. They are asking for taxes to be reduced: USD50 for bikes older than 2003 and USD100 for those newer than that.

The protests were more organised than I had realised - they took place in other provinces in Cambodia, not just in Siem Reap. The other towns were at the border with Thailand and Vietnam and one more I could not confirm.]

Since Aug 1, traffic police all over Cambodia have been aggressive in their efforts to enforce the land traffic law. I have noticed the policemen all over town now, even standing guard at the entrance of the dirt road leading to my house. All in the hopes of pulling over recalcitrant drivers.

"We are not just imposing this law out of nowhere," Interior Minister Sar Kheng told the Phnom Penh Post (Vehicles to be confiscated, July 31). He noted that the law had been approved by the National Assembly in 2007 and that his ministry had issued a directive in June stating that it would step up enforcement of the law on August 1. "The people should know. We informed them one month ago to be cautious."

Quoted from the Post:

Motorbike drivers caught riding without helmets will be given the option of purchasing a helmet on the spot or having their bikes confiscated.

Any vehicle being driven without a licence plate or side mirrors will be confiscated, and drivers will be required to pay fines for infractions as well as a fee of 20,000 riels (US$4.75) for vehicle storage. The vehicle will only be released when it is fully equipped with a license plate and mirrors.

Under Article 79 of the Land Traffic Law, driving a vehicle without a licence plate incurs a fine of between 25,000 and 200,000 riels ($6-$48).

Under Article 88, driving a motorbike without a helmet incurs a fine of 3,000 riels."

Sar Kheng had anticipated many infractions and asked then for 1-2 hectares of land to store confiscated vehicles.

Apparently he was not wrong. Traffic law nets 60000 vehicles (out of which 300 are cars), reports the Post on the 17 Aug.

Of course it is a good thing trying to initiate some order on Cambodia's roads. Road deaths in Cambodia average 4 a day. If you stop to think about it, in general, accidents happen because people don't follow rules. If people followed rules, we'd be able to anticipate their actions and respond accordingly.

But some are in denial. Hem Ya, deputy chief of the Phnom Penh Police Commissariat, tells the Post in the 17th Aug interview: "I think that so far, 80 percent of Cambodian people respect the traffic law" '. 80% - surely you jest, sir. Don't they say admission of the problem is the first step to a solution?

But I was glad to see some are paying attention:

[Mayor of Phnom Penh] Kep Chuktema said he believed City Hall needed to implement additional measures to make the roads safer, including relocating businesses set up on city sidewalks.

"The people running their businesses on the sidewalks park their cars on the roads next to them, which makes the roads in Phnom Penh become narrow," he said. "This is a problem we have to solve in order to avoid traffic congestion."

It's time something was done to these inconsiderate drivers who park their cars and motorcycles on sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to step off the curb and into traffic. The worst are those that park their precious cars under the shade on sidewalks, so pedestrians have to walk in the rain. You get these idiots everywhere, including Singapore.

The tuktuk drivers tell me today's protest did not produce desired results so another one is planned. I'll go with Phoen when that happens.

Military spending: Singapore, Cambodia etc

The world's biggest military spenders by population

Chart and story from The Economist:

GLOBAL military expenditure rose by 4% in 2008 to a record USD$1.46 trillion, according to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Israel spends most on defence relative to its population, shelling out over $2,300 a person, over $300 more than America. Small and rich countries, and notably Gulf states, feature prominently by this measure. Saudi Arabia ranks ninth in absolute spending, but sixth by population. China has increased spending by 10% to $85 billion to become the world's second largest spender. But it is still dwarfed by America, whose outlay of $607 billion is higher than that of the next 14 biggest spenders combined.

Singapore is the fourth largest military spender by population. China spends more in absolute terms (it is the number 2 biggest spender and accounts for 5.8% of the global expenditure on defense. The USA accounts for almost half, at 41.5% - larger than the next 14 countries combined. (These figures are also in the chart - click to enlarge)

Singapore has consistently spent over 4% of GDP on its defence budget and the global economic downturn has implications, but not what you think. Instead of spending less, the nation-state will spend 6% in 2009 on defense, or US$11.4bn.

Singapore was the first Asian economy to slip into recession in the current global downturn, and is expected to slip even more in 2009. But defense is not something the government will sacrifice. "Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean stressed the importance of maintaining military spending, noting that threats do not diminish but, rather, often emerge during testing economic times, owing to increased social and political frictions."

Military expenditure in absolute numbers
Cambodia is ranked 114 out of 171 countries on wikipedia, which lists its military expenditure as USD 112 million. Reuters puts Cambodia's 2008 defense spending at USD108, but this does not change Cambodia's rank on wiki's list. Singapore is #23 (spending USD786 million), Thailand #32 (spending USD500 million) and Vietnam is #44 (spending USD320 million). (Curiously Taiwan does not feature on this list. Could it have been subsumed under "China"? If so, that would be stupid, since Taiwan equips itself militarily primarily against a threat from China.)

Cambodia's military spending will increase in 2009. In Oct last year, the government said it would spend USD500 million (matching Thailand) because of the fight with Thailand over Preah Vihear:

"Cheam Yeap, head of the finance commission of the national Cambodian assembly, says that next week voting will be held on the new state budget, with military spending at 25% [!] of the total. "This incident has awoken us to the need for our soldiers to be better equipped. We cannot sit and watch Thai troops encroach on our border," Yeap says. "Our army needs to be more organised, better trained, with newer bases and well-fed troops."

However, the Cambodian government changed its mind and by December, proposed military spending of just $160 million for next year, way below the $500 million it had earmarked earlier.

"Before, we planned to divert resources to defence and security, but once we announced the plan, there was some criticism from donors," said Cheam Yeap, head of the National Assembly's finance commission. "We don't want donors to get nervous about spending in the field so we decided to reduce it," Yeap told Reuters.

Total number of troops
Cambodia has an estimated 191,000 troops (which means 14.12 Cambodians in 1000 are in the military). This is about a third of Thailand's 620,300 (or 9.84 Thais per 1000), but more than Malaysia, which has 171,000 soldiers (6.17 out of 1000).

The runway champ in Southeast Asia is Singapore, with 469,300 troops in total, which means 117.33 Singaporeans per 1000 can be called to duty. To put things in perspective, the US has 3,385,400 troops out of a population of more than 300 million. Which means 11.07 Americans out of 1000 is in the armed forces. So, just in terms of headcount, Singapore has more soldiers per capita - more than 10 times that of the US, in fact. [The figures are an estimate. If you take current population the figures change slightly].

If these figures, found on wikipedia are correct, then Singapore is only second in the world in total troops per capita, after, ta-da! North Korea. North Korea has almost 6 million troops in total, meaning 259.37 North Koreans per 1000 is in the military. [I did not count "Transnistria" which has 185.04 per 1000, since Transnistria is a region, not a state].

Compulsory military service
Like Israel and Taiwan, Singapore has compulsory military service, better known as National Service or NS. All able-bodied young Singaporean men have to serve 2 years in the army, full-time, once they reach 18 years of age. The men get a stipend of a few hundred dollars during these 2 years. Some Singaporean men I know enjoy the experience, which they say allows them to mix with other Singaporeans of different race, social class etc. More intellectual types find the time spent in the military soul-destroying.

Upon release from the army, some enter university. When they graduate, the men earn have higher starting pays in the workplace, the arguments being they are older, have more experience, or have served the country (not sure if those arguments make sense, but it didn't bother me.) The men can also defer NS until completing university, but cannot escape it.

Every year, there is a small number who refuse to enlist so get 3 years jail time. Most are Jehovah's Witnesses. (Since 1972, Jehovah's Witnesses as a religious group have been banned from Singapore but that has not stopped some Singaporeans from being JWs).

Even after the 2 years, Singaporean men have to go through military refresher courses until they are 40 or 50 years old. This annual training can be 7 days or longer. This is called "Reservist" training.

By 2015, Taiwanese men will no longer be drafted into the military for compulsory military service. They only have to go for four months of training and stand by as reservists for eventual recalls. "By the end of 2014, we will reach 100 percent voluntary military service," Defense Minister Chen Chao-min said. This information can be found on ns-singapore.blogspot a blog by an ex-National Service man "who thinks NS is a waste of time".

Khmer rouge trial a "novel approach to international justice"

Just read this interesting article on how victims of the Khmer Rouge want money and the precedent this sets for international justice. But you can hardly fault the Khmers for demanding money - they learn from their leaders, from their police, the people who are supposed to uphold the law. Besides, what meaningful alternative is there since most of the KR leaders are dead? There's no justice left to extract.

From the article by the Christian Science Monitor :

"It's a novel approach in the field of international justice," Clint Williamson, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, said at a recent press conference in Phnom Penh. "We think victim participation in the process is a positive thing, but it should not be taking place because people are seeking some type of monetary remuneration at the end of the process."

One of these people is Chum. "I want money," he told CSM. "I lost five family members – my wife and four children – and some property under the Khmer Rouge. The court needs to calculate what this equals with money."

"Some of the victims are even jealous of the defendants – they have a nice place to live, a car that brings them to the court," says Mr. Kong Pisey, a Cambodian attorney representing Chum.

"[Duch and the other defendants] don't have to sleep with small containers filled with their own urine and [excrement]," Chum scoffs, describing his life while inside Duch's prison. "If S-21 was hell, they live in heaven."

One German lawyer, Silke Studzinsky has requested the creation of a trust fund into which third parties might donate money for reparations. Awarding individual financial reparations, she tells CSM, "is part of the justice process. It is not complete if you miss this very important part" even though the court has twice declined her requests.

Mu Sochua in the USA

Yesterday I met a family from Orgeon in the USA. They came in to buy a bag and while chatting with them I found out they are good friends with Mu Sochua, Cambodia's former Minister of Women's Affairs and her husband, who is a US citizen. Mu Sochua and her husband met while they were volunteering at the refugee camp in Aranyaprathet. The family actually stayed with Ms Sochua (pronounced "So-Ku-a", not "So-Ch-ua", as I always thought) in her home in...well, I won't disclose where, just that it's not in Phnom Penh.

The family told me Mu Sochua is now in the USA where she is among the guests of honour at a performance of the play "Seven", which depicts the lives of 7 amazing women, including Mu Sochua's. The women are all members of the Vital Voices network, a non-governmental organization which offers disadvantaged women training and the opportunity to become leaders. You can read here for CNN's coverage. There is also a Facebook group on "Seven" and it has updates on Ms Sochua current defamation suit against Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The family told me the Cambodian government lifted her immunity on Monday the 22nd, on the very day she was to fly to the US for the play. (Mu Sochua has a US passport as well as a Cambodian one as Cambodia (unlike Singapore) allows dual citizenship.) For the whole day she was kept in suspense as to whether she would be arrested on the way, or at, the airport. Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened.

The Phnom Penh Post reported last week that "The president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, Rong Chhun, said parliamentary immunity would be worthless if it could be lifted so easily, and threatened mass protests if the Assembly went ahead with the move. "If Mu Sochua is arrested, we will lead mass demonstrations throughout the country with teachers and workers." Read the full report on ki-media.

I told the family Mu Sochua to me is Cambodia's Aung San Suu Kyi, a brave woman standing up for her people and the father said "I think she will like that you said that". I also told them to let Ms Sochua know she has supporters even among Singaporeans.