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Man-made Tsunami VS.
Natural Tsunami: a Tragic Difference
By Naranhkiri Tith, Ph.D.
(Former Adjunct Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies
of the Johns Hopkins University, and former Senior IMF official.)
The recent natural cataclysmic phenomenon known as Tsunami or tidal
wave that has recently swept away many innocent lives in South and Southeast Asia brought me to think about this natural disaster
of biblical proportion. I cannot help but to compare this natural disaster which is so overwhelmingly devastating that it
is almost unfathomable to a normal human mind with the kind of man-made disaster that is occurring in Cambodia.
And yet, despite all the terrible human tragedy that touched almost
all ages, races and creeds in that Asian region, some ray of hope has already started to show up. For instance, large amount
of assistance in physical, financial, and logistical terms is coming from the rest of the world as well as from the governments
and individuals of the affected regions.
In this context, the major western developed countries as well as Japan
began to not only giving large amount of aid and logistical support, but more importantly, they also start to look at the
long-term reconstruction of this region affected by this natural catastrophe. According to press releases, developed countries
already have decided to reschedule some debts of these affected countries, and to provide more long term aid to rebuild private
and government infrastructure.
In contrast, Cambodia has been hit by a man-made Tsunami since the
late 1960s without any hope for any reversal any time soon. Cambodia’s economy has been in a declining trend without
any hope of any improvement soon, despite an enormous amount of international financial and technical assistance averaging
about $ 600 million per year, since 1991. Today, according to several reports by major international financial assistance,
such as the World Bank and the IMF, Cambodia is one of the poorest countries on the planet. Where has this large amount of
international financial and technical assistance gone?
Under Hun Sen, Cambodia’s natural resources have been systematically
destroyed, its children have not been properly nourished, and systemic corruption has become a way of life. There is no justice,
no accountability. Human rights and democracy exist only on paper.
Recently, in an interview with a Japanese newspaper, Hun Sen, the Cambodian
dictator blamed the world for not doing enough for Cambodia that according to him has suffered much worse calamity than the
victims of the recent natural Tsunami in South and Southeast Asia. During a visit to a town near Phnom Penh the Cambodian
dictator said that:"If we compare the damage caused by the tsunami to that of the genocide under the Pol Pot regime, it is
still less than 10 percent of the extent of the damage and loss of life," Hun Sen said at an opening ceremony for a dam outside
Phnom Penh. (Kyodo News)"
As usual, Hun Sen is demonizing the demon (Khmer Rouge) to make himself
and his Vietnamese patrons look better.
But Hun Sen is part of that Cambodian man-made Tsunami. Hun Sen has
been Prime Minister of Cambodia since the mid 1980s. He and he is alone is at the command of the whole country with absolute
power, with no perceptible challenge from any other political parties and personalities like king Sihanouk. On the contrary,
King Sihanouk has been using his international prestige and personal popularity among the Cambodian peasants to give legitimacy
to Hun Sen and his CPP, since they met, for the first time in France, in 1987.
Hun Sen’s ability to accumulate so much wealth and power in Cambodia
was well illustrated by an exchange of view between two well-informed Cambodian-Americans vividly illustrates the tip of the
iceberg of Hun Sen’s grip on to power and devastating and disastrous impact on Cambodia and its people, as follows:"Very
well said Tom. Where does he get the money to build multiple multi-million dollar houses not only the beach front but also
his fort in Takhmao and Vimean Ekreach
and perhaps, a few more whereas the teacher get only $20 to $25 dollar
per month.
If the donors do not carefully monitor their wished money for the developmental
of Cambodia, all Khmer will be suffered. But it's too bad that many people are fooled by Hun Sen and his men.
He critisizes the teachers because he himself does not have education.
Highest respect
BadBoy
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In an article; "Hun Sen is building a multi million dollar home on
the beach in Kompong Som"
Where did he get this money? At the same time he has accused the UN
of fomenting the teacher's strike. It's about time that the international donor community starts doing its job, which is reflecting
the will of its donors.
The donor community plays with images of misery in Cambodia to garner
public support.
Then they must give this money to someone and make it look as though
it is money well spent - even if it isn't well spent. They are afraid to show a surplus because their jobs, their security
depend on attracting donor money the same way a company depends on investment capital.
A business however would never play the game of investing in a folly
such as the government of Cambodia, because unlike the donor community, the business will suffer if there is no return. The
donor community can just keep asking for money. Thus they can still insure their jobs as administrators.
But what individual donor or country would want to invest in a corrupt,
greedy government such as exists in Cambodia? They would not want this, so along with throwing this money at Cambodia, the
donor community then must make it appear that progress is being made - if only we stay the course - I guess Haiti would be
their example.
In effect, they are betraying the mandate of their donors as well as
betraying the people of Cambodia. The donor has tremendous leverage, but it squanders all the power given to it by succumbing
to corruption mouthpieces such as Hun Sen.
It would be better if the international donor community held this money
in surplus until certain conditions are met. That would probably also reflect the will of their donors more accurately. Hun
Sen should immediately justify where he gets millions of dollars for his beach front property - I would guess he gets it off
the backs of the Cambodian people,by trading away their assets to foreign interests. His people siphon off millions of dollars
as custom's agents, cabinet heads, government officials of all stripes who extort while producing nothing. What gives him
the right to criticize the teachers who actually produce something?
Tom Y"
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To this opulence in Hun Sen’s living style, one should also add
that he is able to maintain a well-equipped-private army of about 4000 men (a regiment) as his private army.
As we can see from the above exchange of views between these two Cambodian-Americans,
that Hun Sen is living like a multi-millionaire while the rest of Cambodia is still mired in abject poverty and despair. One
must ask the question as to how could Hun Sen who was born a poor peasant amass such an enormous amount of personal fortune,
in such a short time, while the majority of Cambodian people is getting poorer and more miserable every day? . The answer
can be found in the following document:
"Cambodia has gone backward (1)
13 December 2004As already suggested (KI, 06 January 2004: "Details
about mortality and illiteracy rates"), Cambodia is the only country in the world where all of the three most important human
indicators (poverty, mortally, and illiteracy) have worsened over the last ten years, meaning the country has gone backward.
Poverty (percentage of the population living on less than $0.75 a day):
- 1992: 38%.
- 1998: 36%.
- 2004: 43%.
- 2005 (est.): 45%.
(Sources: World Bank, UNDP).
Infant (under 5) mortality rate:
- 1990: 97 / 1,000.
- 2001: 138 / 1,000.
- 2003: 140 / 1,000 [compared to 23 / 1,000 for Vietnam, and 5 / 1,000
for Singapore].
(Sources: UNDP "Human Development Report" 2003; Unicef "Childhood Under
Threat: The State of the World's Children 2005" Report).
Adult (age 15 and above) illiteracy rate in 2003:
- Analphabetism (no knowledge of the alphabet): 36 %.
- Illiteracy (some knowledge of the alphabet but inability to read
and write properly): 27%.
- Total adult illiteracy rate: 63%, compared to less than 60% in 1990.
(Sources: UNDP, Cambodian Ministry of Education).
The plight of Cambodian children (1)
- 14 percent of Cambodian babies born today will die before reaching
the age of five.
- Almost one in every 10 babies born in Cambodia does not live to their
first birthday.
- 60,000 to 65,000 Cambodian babies (less than one-year old) die every
year of malnutrition or disease that can be prevented or cured.
- 45 percent of Cambodian children are malnourished.
- 54 percent of Cambodian children suffer from stunted growth.
- 66 percent of Cambodian children do not have access to safe water.
- 2.2 million children in Cambodia live in absolute poverty.(Sources:
UNDP, Unicef).
(See full interview in French at http://www.norodomsihanouk.info/mes%2004/humour/1112hum1.htm.)
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It is clear from the above report that Hun Sen and his CPP, not to
forget Ranariddh and Sihanouk’s entourage is getting richer, while the majority of the Cambodian people are mired in
abject poverty and misery.
That is why, the international community is getting tired of providing
generous financial and technical assistance to the Hun Sen controlled Cambodia. Therefore, the main cause of the man-made
Cambodian Tsunami must fall within Hun Sen/ Sihanouk/ Ranariddh’s responsibility. And as it can be easily seen from
the above analysis that it won’t be easy to repair this man-made Cambodian Tsunami, because the main responsible people
for that catastrophe are stills very much in power.
___________________________________________
Washington DC. January 10, 2005
- Do We Have a Government in Cambodia?
The tsunami disaster brought a new awareness of the destructive potential
of nature. Sometimes, such forces can be mitigated by preventive action. The National Committee of Disaster Management has
this goal. Its drought reports last season led the Council of Ministers to instruct all concerned institutions to prevent
illegal cross border rice sales, in order to avoid food shortages.
However, it is reported that every day trucks transport rice to the
borders, and the authorities do not seem to intervene. Surprisingly, one newspaper writes that it remains unknown why this
happens. Is not the explanation quite simple?
The small and poor producers need to sell their product to survive
- even if they sell their own stocks away. After that, it seems that all involved care not at all for the nation, ministerial
instructions, or laws, but only for the pursuit of money, collected by letting trucks pass, re-establishing illegal checkpoints,
and developing new permit procedures that yield more money.
This country unfortunately provides many impressive models for this.
The Minister of Finance and the Council for the Development of Cambodia report now that the strongest investment company in
the country makes $29 million a year, from which the company should pay 20% as taxes. It has never paid anything during 10
years: "I myself have sent a letter to the company ordering it to reimburse these outstanding taxes, but for over a year now
this company has refused to pay them and has not even sent a reply letter," the Minister is quoted.
Why then were some taxi-drivers immediately hit by police and arrested,
for requesting that newly introduced toll fees of $2.50 per trip be reduced?
Is it an encouraging story that, when new stricter regulations were
announced for the payment of taxes for imported cars, for some days 40 to 50 owners of smuggled cars paid taxes - and even
two deputy prime ministers sent their so far untaxed cars with their nephews to pay the taxes?
It is not reported whose son it was who, together with three girlfriends,
drove wildly around in a Toyota Lexus in a school compound scaring people. After the school guards had closed the gate and
called the police, the guards fled from the intruder, who had a handgun. The Lexus driver and passengers were eventually taken
to a police station - but then they were let go when five new luxury cars drove up, abusing the police.
"Nowadays, children of a number of senior officials are making trouble
in public, but police are scared when called for assistance because the children also have weapons."
Does Cambodia have a government?
THE MIRROR 2 16 January 2005 - 22 January 2005
________________________________________________________
- Malnutrition and Starvation in Cambodia
Malnutrition is the insufficiency of one of the more nutritional elements
necessary for health and well-being.
Primarily, malnutrition is caused by the lack of essential foodstuffs
- usually vitamins, minerals, or proteins - in the diet. In some area of the world, a poor economy as drought, flooding, or
overpopulation cause a scarcity of certain foodstuffs, and certain portion of the population is malnourished because essential
nutrients are not available. However even when food is plentiful, malnutrition can result from poor eating habits.
Starvation is a form of malnutrition where some rural Cambodian people
have not enough food to eat. Secondary malnutrition is coursed by failure of absorption or utilization of nutrients because
of some diseases (gastrointestinal tract, thyroid, kidney, liver, or pancreas), by increase nutritional requirements, (growth,
injuries, burns, surgical procedures, pregnancy, lactation, fever), or by excessive excretion (diarrhea). Not just Cambodia,
malnutrition worldwide continues to be a significant problem, especially among children. Poverty, natural disasters, political
problems, war, and many others have demonstrated
that hunger and malnutrition are not stranger to this world. If not
treated, malnutrition can lead to mental or physical disability, illness, and possibly death.
According to the finding of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys
(MICS), malnutrition in children 6-59 months old continue to be a major problem in Cambodia base on the three common indicators:
(1) the prevalence of underweight was 52%
(2) that of stunting was 56%, and
(3) 13% of children of children were wasted.
Women also seemed to be affected by malnutrition. According by the
UNFPA/ WFP survey, the prevalence of women 15 to 49 years old with Body Mass Index (BMI) <18.5kg/m was 28.5%. Noted that
BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to both adult men and women.
Four categories of BMI:
underweight = 18.5,
normal weight = 18.5-24.9,
overweight = 25 – 29.9, and
(4) obesity = or >30
_______________________________________
- My Testimony at the Senate Foreign Relations
Subcommittee on Asia and Pacific Affairs Hearing on Post-Election Situation in Cambodia and US Policy Options(October 2, 1998,
at 10:00 a.m); Room 419 Dirksen
"A Longterm and Integrated Look at the Cambodian Crisis: Some Suggestions
for A Possible Solution"By Naranhkiri Tith, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor
(International Economics and Southeast Asian Studies SAIS, the Johns
Hopkins University, Washington, DC)
According to both independent international observers such as the International
Crisis Group (ICG), International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, and the Asian Network for Free
and Fair Elections as well as international human right groups such as Amnesty International, and Human Right Watch, the July
26, 1998 election in Cambodia was neither free nor fair.
Looking at the results of the 1998 rigged election, the democratic
group of Prince Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy together still gathered 58.5 percent of total popular votes and only 41.5 percent
for Hun Sen’s CPP. However, because of the illegal manipulation of the formula for allocating seats to the National
Assembly, the CPP obtained 64 seats or about 52 percent against 58 seats or 48 percent for the combined parties of Prince
Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy. This situation has led to a constitutional crisis because Hun Sen cannot form a cabinet without
a two thirds majority.
Eager to legitimize Hun Sen and the CPP, the opposition parties are
being heavily pressured by the international community, - especially by the European Union, Japan, and ASEAN - and the King,
to join a coalition government dominated by Hun Sen and the CPP. The opposition parties have argued that before considering
joining any coalition government they want that the National Election Commission (NEC) and the Constitutional Council (CC)
to look seriously into their complaints of election frauds and irregularities. But the NEC and the CC which are dominated
by Hun Sen appointees, have steadfastly rejected without seriously looking into the complaints. In turn, the opposition parties
have had no choice but to lead a peaceful demonstration in front of the National Assembly. These demonstrators are now being
brutally dispersed by Hun Sen’s security force, leaving many injuries and deaths.
Hun Sen’s decision to use force to suppress these demonstrations
resulted from both the king’s decision to side with Hun Sen and from the international community’s, (including
the State Department, and especially the European Union, Japan, and ASEAN) decision to rush to declare the election as reasonably
free and fair and "broadly representative of the will of the Cambodian people." This is contrary to the independently
observed conditions prior to, during, and after the election and the arithmetics of the results of the popular vote as discussed
earlier.
The King needs Hun Sen’s support to change the constitution in
order to make his consort queen a reigning queen upon his death or incapacitation. Therefore, the King can no longer be considered
as a neutral party in any deal regarding the resolution of the current constitutional crisis. A new proof of the King’s
partiality is revealed by his threatening to deprive the opposition parties members of their constitutional rights of immunity,
if they don’t stop their public protest. While the international community’s politics of expediency toward Hun
Sen has emboldened him not to make any concession and to remain entrenched in his dictatorial behavior.
The United States policy in Cambodia was a failure because it was based
on two erroneous premises: (1) Hun Sen is the only person who has an organization which can give stability and promote prosperity
in Cambodia, and (2) Hun Sen is the only person who can subdue the remnants of the Khmer Rouge forces.
The kind of stability that Hun Sen is said to be able to provide has
been achieved by suppressing all opposition through the exiling or killing of those who dare to oppose him. Cambodia where
corruption is systemic making it one of the most thriving centers in Southeast Asia for all kinds of criminal activities such
as drug trafficking, money laundering, child prostitution, and illegal immigrant transit. Because of the uncontrolled and
illegal deforestation by senior military officers and business tycoons supporters of Hun Sen corrupt regime, forest resources
in Cambodia will be depleted within three years. This depletion, in turn, will have a devastating consequence on the environment
and will soon turn Cambodia into a wasteland. Since the majority of Cambodians depend on land resource as the most important
asset for their subsistence, the ecological problems resulting from deforestation will make Cambodia a beggar nation in the
near future. These are definitely not the signs of an efficient and capable governance.
A closer look at how Hun Sen went about solving the Khmer Rouge problem
showed that Hun Sen chose the most expedient approaches. He provided a blanket pardon to all Khmer Rouge leaders regardless
of whether or not they are responsible for implementation or design of strategies and policies resulting in the slaughter
of about two million Cambodians. This immoral approach completely disregarded the minimum of respect for the rule of law and
human rights. As an example is the fact that ironically most of the notorious Khmer Rouge responsible for the Cambodian genocide,
who were condemned by the international community at the 1991 Paris conference in as criminals against humanity, are now all
in Phnom Penh under Hun Sen’s protection while the Cambodian democratic and freedom fighters are being persecuted. Is
this a just and equitable way to solve the Khmer Rouge problem?
The rigging of the July 26 election by Hun Sen is only one of the phases
in the CPP long term strategy to deliberately and often with violence undermine the democratic process put into place by UNTAC
in 1993 . This deadly and well planned strategy was revealed at a hearing in the Australian Foreign Affairs Sub-committee
in a recent testimony by Lieutenant- General John Sanderson, former Commander of UNTAC Force in Cambodia. He went on to add
that the deficiencies of the recent elections were in no sense
unavoidable or attributable to difficulties of conducting elections in a developing country. Rather they flowed from a series
of conscious political acts by the ruling clique, reflecting a lack of genuine commitment to the process and the rights of
individual Cambodians.
The solution of the Cambodian problem must start with the recognition
that Hun Sen is the problem because he can neither bring prosperity nor stability to Cambodia. He is a war criminal for having
summarily executed political prisoners while in his custody during the July 5, 1997 coup.
The Clinton Administration must disengage itself from defending Hun
Sen and from making Hun Sen the sole person capable of maintaining stability Cambodia for fear that he can create more troubles
because he has more guns at his disposal. In order to achieve this goal, the Clinton administration must consider taking the
following measures to signal more openly to Hun Sen that he cannot get away with his inept mismanagement of the economy and
environment, and his criminal conduct toward the opposition and the Cambodian people including Buddhist monks;
1. continue to deny Hun Sen the seat at the United Nations because
of the illegitimacy of his regime and gross violation of basic human rights and the rule of law.
2. continue to cut off the economic and financial assistance, except
humanitarian aid and not to put pressure on the World Bank and the IMF to resume their financial assistance because of Hun
Sen’s bad governance and destruction of the environment.
3. recall the current Ambassador as soon as possible, and not appoint
a new one until Hun Sen makes substantial and verifiable efforts to respect democratic principles, human rights and the rule
of law by not oppressing the opposition and by arresting all those who had committed murders during the July 5 1997 coup as
well as during the grenade attacks of KNP of Sam Rainsy and BLDP of Son Sann.
4 review the GSP granted to Cambodia because of the fact that the labor
movement in Cambodia is not free and is under the control of Hun Sen and the CPP.
5. instruct the State Department not to put pressure on the opposition
parties to enter any coalition government that is dominated by Hun Sen, even if King Sihanouk favors such an idea.
6. intensify the initiatives for an early establishment of an international
war crime tribunal similar to those in Bosnia and Rwanda to bring to trial those notorious Khmer Rouge senior officials responsible
for the Cambodian genocide such as Ieng Sary (former Pol Pot minister of foreign affairs) and Ke Pauk (director of Toul Sleng
interrogation and torturing center) who are now under Hun Sen’s protection.
7. consider, in the near future, the possibility of establishing a
caretaker government in Cambodia to provide a suitable and neutral political environment for genuine administrative, military,
economic, financial, social, and institutional reforms to take place, without which no real progress and stability can be
secured on a sustainable basis.
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Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Asia and Pacific AffairsHearing
on Post-Election Situation in Cambodia and US Policy Options
(October 2, 1998, at 10:00 a.m)
Room 419 Dirksen
"A Longterm and Integrated Look at the Cambodian Crisis: Some Suggestions
for A Possible Solution"
By Naranhkiri Tith, Ph.D.
SAIS, the Johns Hopkins University
I am very grateful to you Mr. Chairman for convening this hearing at
this critical time in the post election situation in Cambodia. I am fully aware that you are all busy with the many critical
problems in the world today such as the Asian financial crisis and the Russian economic and political crisis which are having
a contagious and negative impact on the US economy and that of the world. This hearing shows once again that the US Congress
continues to be sincerely concerned about the plight of all oppressed people in the world, including the Cambodian people.
This hearing is only one of the many that this committee under your chairmanship has frequently been holding on the situation
in Cambodia during the past few years. I thank you.
I am deeply thankful to you and your colleagues for having made possible
to have an independent Cambodian voice to discuss and analyze as honestly and straightforwardly as I can , the quickly deteriorating
economic, political, and social situation in Cambodia, especially since the bloody coup which was planned and executed by
Second Prime Minister Hun Sen against the duly elected First Prime Minister of Cambodia, Prince Ranariddh.
To fully understand the depth of this ongoing Cambodian crisis and,
more specifically, the obviously Hun Sen staged and rigged July 26, 1998 election and its aftermath, one needs to briefly
assess the role and the motivation of different interest groups involved. The proposed period of analysis starts just before
the presence of United Nations Transitional Authorities in Cambodia (UNTAC) in Cambodia (1992-93) and continues until the
present day. For analytical purposes, one can divide these interest groups into two broad categories; 1) the domestic factors
such as the Cambodian political factions, the King, the Cambodian NGOs and the local media, 2) the international community
encompassing the United Nations system, the major powers and regional powers as well as the international NGOs and media.
I. Domestic Aspect of the Cambodian Crisis
A. Cambodian People’s Party (CPP): origin, organization, ideology,
strategies, and policiesThe CPP is a splinter group from the deadly and monstrous Khmer Rouge Movement under the leadership
of Pol Pot. All current senior CPP members were senior Khmer Rouge cadre including Hun Sen, Chea Sim, Heng Samrin, Sar Kheng,
Tea Banh. The split came after Pol Pot started his periodical purges against party members. The current CPP group fled to
Vietnam to save themselves from the Pol Pot purge and not because they wanted to liberate Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge as
Hun Sen and his apologists have often stated. On December 25, 1978, the armed forces of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
invaded Cambodia and drove the Khmer Rouge back along the border with Thailand. In January 1979, Vietnam installed a new government,
headed by Heng Samrin, a former Khmer rouge general, and the regime was renamed the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK).
Gradually, the PRK had no choice but to release its firm grip on the
economic organization of Cambodia. However, it kept firm control on the economic, political, and social organizations of Cambodia.
Essentially, the PRK remained a communist organization with a centrally controlled and hierarchical economic and political
command system. This centrally controlled command system is still in place today in Cambodia. However, it now wears the mask
of a market system. As all typical communist organizations, the CPP remains a secretive organization and a one party state-controlled
system. It does not tolerate any decent or political opposition however mild this may be.
Only with the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the subsequent
halt of all Soviet financial and economic assistance to its satellites did Vietnam officially announce its withdraw from Cambodia.
Without support from the socialist block the PRK was forced to start opening up and negotiating with the United Nations which
was backed up by the major and regional powers for an election to set up a democratic system and a market economy in Cambodia.
The successful conclusion of the second Paris Conference in October,
1991 led to the establishment of UNTAC, under whose mandate an election was organized and carried out in May, 1993. The result
of the election gave a clear majority to the non-communist parties which garnered a total of 69 seats. These parties included
FUNCINPEC (Front Uni National pour un Cambodge Independent Neutre Pacific et Cooperatif) led by Prince Norodom Ranariddh,
Buddhist Liberal Democratic (BLD) led by former Prime Minister Son Sann, and Moulinaka (Movement de Liberalization National
du Kampuchea) led by Ros Roeun. Despite the advantage of the incumbency and a deliberated, and vicious campaign of intimidation
and political killings of the members of the opposition parties, the CPP (formerly PRK), led by former senior Khmer Rouge
officials, Chea Sim, and Hun Sen managed to grab 51 seats.
The elected representatives established a Provisional National Assembly
which succeeded in promulgating a new constitution. After a threat of secession of seven eastern provinces by the CPP with
a tacit approval of the King. a new coalition government coalition was imposed on the victorious non-communist parties. In
coalition Hun Sen and his CPP not only obtained the crucial post of Second Prime Minister, but also the important post of
Chairman of the National Assembly. To lock in their minority position in any decision making in the National Assembly, the
CPP succeeded in imposing the rule of two thirds majority in any vote in the national Assembly. FUNCINPEC was given the post
of First Prime Minister. They co-managed major ministries such as Defense, Interior. The economic ministries were split between
CPP and FUNCINPEC. The army, the police, and civil administration remained totally in the hands of the CPP.
The Royal Coalition Government of Cambodia (RGC) was a tenuous coalition.
Political infighting continued, both within and among the parties in the government. Corruption was and continues to be widespread.
This combined with the extremely low capacity of government to manage, was increasing the threat of destabilization, which
culminated in the July 5, 1997 bloody coup organized and executed by Hun Sen against Prince Ranariddh.
Last year’s coup was only a phase in a long term plan by Hun
Sen and his CPP to completely take economic, and political control of Cambodia. Despite the claims by Hun Sen apologists,
it was not a reaction to preempt a so-called coup by Prince Ranariddh in collusion with the Khmer Rouge. The CPP’s longterm
plan to derail and undermine the democratic process which was established by UNTAC which was agreed upon and paid for by the
international community. This conspiracy was clearly enunciated by two former senior UNTAC officials, Lieutenant-General John
Sanderson, Commander of UNTAC force, and Michael Maley, Senior Deputy Chief Electoral Officer during a recent hearing at the
Australian parliament Foreign Affairs sub-committee in Canberra during which they commented that the CPP has been deliberately,
and often violently, undermining the democratic process begun in 1993 by UNTAC. They went on to say that the deficiencies
of the recent elections in Cambodia;
" were in no sense unavoidable or attributable to the difficulties
of conducting elections in a developing country. Rather they flowed from conscious political acts by the ruling clique, reflecting
a lack of genuine commitment to the process and to the rights of individual Cambodians" (1)
There were several bloody incidents which preceded the July 5 coup,
such as grenade attacks against the opposition parties of Mr. Son Sann in 1995 and a worse one against Sam Rainsy in March,
1997. These were not isolated incidents. They were carefully planned and well executed for specific purposes; first to silence
the opposition, and second to test the degree of commitment to the defense of democracy and the rule of law in Cambodia by
the international community.
After having rigged the July 26, 1998, election, Hun Sen started to
implement the last phase of his grand plan to gain complete control of Cambodia’s destiny. On September 7, he ordered
the arrest of one of his most outspoken critics, Mr. Sam Rainsy, (Under international pressure, that order of arrest was subsequently
withdrawn). Some of Hun Sen’s false accusations against Sam Rainsy include 1) plotting his own death during the bloody
incident in March, 1997 in which several peaceful and lawful demonstrators were killed and over 100 other demonstrators were
injured including a US citizen, and 2) for having incited riots against the government after the election. Regarding the grenade
attack, several eyewitnesses reported that they saw Hun Sen’s personal security guards prevent those who committed this
crime from being caught by the demonstrators. Up to today, nobody has ever been arrested for that incident.
At first one is struck by the fact that unlike the other two major
totalitarian Asian countries, China and Vietnam, there are no political prisoners in Hun Sen’s Cambodia. The main reason
for this anomaly is the fact that Hun Sen does not take prisoners. He just has his opponents murdered in the most savage way.
If they are lucky, they are sent into exile, despite the fact that the current constitution does not permit such an action
against any Cambodian citizen. B. King Sihanouk’s Role and His Influence in the Current Cambodian Political Crisis
It is no simple matter for anybody, and especially for a Cambodian,
to criticize a national icon like King Sihanouk and to analyze his role in the political life in the current Cambodian crisis.
However, it would also be irresponsible and imprudent to leave Sihanouk’s role out of any assessment of the contemporary
political situation in Cambodia. Right or wrong, and although being only a constitutional monarch, he still can command a
lot of influence both in Cambodia and internationally.
On the bright side, he is a tremendously charismatic, charming, shrewd,
and talented person. However, on the dark side and from past behavior, he was also known to be very unpredictable and mercurial,
and not very committed to moral or democratic principles. By birth, he is an autocrat and behaves like one. Judging from his
preferred places of residence outside Cambodia (Beijing and Pyongyang) and the leaders he admired and befriended with (Kim
Il Sung, Mao Tse Tung, Ceaucescu, Hodja, Sukarno, to mention only the obvious ones)(2) he is no friend of democracy. The dark
and machiavellian side of Sihanouk was recently revealed and well captured in an article in the Phnom Penh Post - a
well respected English language local newspaper - describing the role of Sihanouk’s role as a power broker in the current
constitution crisis resulting from the charge of frauds during the July 26, 1998 election, when it wrote that;
"The King is ‘smiling his Bayon face’, as one Khmer politician
described it - the Bayon being the four faced god statue of Angkor. Under this premise, Sihanouk selectively makes his thoughts
and advice known to all actors, much of it probably contradictory - all the while muddying the waters further even as many
look to him for a solution"(3)
He has always allied himself with those with strong preference for
power, more specifically raw power. For instance, during the 1970’s and 1980s, he worked very closely with the Khmer
Rouge leaders such as Pol Pot, Son Sen, Ieng Sary, and Khieu Samphan and has often proclaimed publicly that they were the
most patriotic people dedicated and the best equipped to defend Cambodia’s sovereignty. Recently, he appears to have
decided to switch his allegiance to Hun Sen even though he knows that Hun Sen is no royalist. Why then did the King decide
to choose Hun Sen as his ally and to go against his own son, Prince Ranariddh and his own brother, Prince Sirivudh in the
current crisis? He refused to pardon Prince Sirivudh who was framed by Hun Sen to have plotted his assassination, while he
has pardoned some of the most notorious Khmer Rouge responsible for the Cambodian genocide, such as Ieng Sary (former Khmer
rouge foreign minister) and Ke Pauk (the executioner of the Toul Sleng interrogation center). More recently, he reluctantly
pardoned his own son, Prince Ranariddh, only after a great deal of international pressure.
To better understand this apparent contradiction, It is important to
analyze the King’s motivation. It is a well-known fact in Phnom Penh political circles that one of the King’s
main goals is to make his beloved consort queen Monineath (formerly Monique Izzi) a reigning queen after his death or incapacitation.
To achieve his royal wish, King Sihanouk needs the support of Hun Sen and the CPP. For that reason Sihanouk has recently struck
a deal with Hun Sen to have the constitution changed (4) to make possible a female to become a reigning queen, which the present
constitution does not allow for. Queen Monineath, in turn, would groom her son, Prince Norodom Sihamoni to become king of
Cambodia after her retirement or death. Therefore, King Sihanouk can no longer be considered to be a neutral party in this
current constitutional crisis and any future search for its solution.
It is also important to point out that under Hun Sen there is no credible
legal or justice system. Hun Sen is the law. The members of the National Election Commission (NEC) as well as the Constitutional
Court (CC), the highest institutions in which to settle constitutional disputes are all stacked with Hun Sen appointees. That
is why these two influential institutions which have enormous power to determine the outcome of any election have been consistently
refusing to listen to the complaints of the two major opposition parties regarding the electoral frauds and intimidations
before, during , and after the election.
One of UNTAC’s legacies was the establishment of a vibrant and
sometime unruly written media. However, this press freedom is quickly dwindling under Hun Sen’s unrelenting assault
which has included assassinations of editors and reporters in broad daylight and threatening grave consequences if they don’t
stop criticizing him and his regime. Now most editors and reporters who opposed Hun Sen and the CPP have either gone underground
or are in hiding.
Another organization which came under Hun Sen’s attack was the
free Cambodian labor movement which is now practically under total state control. This in turn, raises the question whether
the granting of GSP to Cambodia is still legal under current US law. A representative of the AFL-CIO in Bangkok has recently
filed a petition to the Congress on this issue calling into question the legality of the granting of GSP to Cambodia.
The opposition parties are being literally torn into pieces. Immediately
after the 1993 elections the two main opposition parties, FUNCINPEC and the BLD were subjected to systematic assaults through
bogus accusations against prominent politicians such as Prince Norodom Sirivudh, former Deputy Prime Minister, by assassination
during the July 5, 1997 coup, and through corrupt practices such as buying the allegiance of those opposition politicians
who were ready to leave their parties. In this latter case, the most favored tactic was to create a splinter group and then
allow the pro-CPP splinter group to use the old party name while refusing to allow the original members to do so. This method
was devised to confuse the international Community and the Cambodian electorate. That is why the BLD became the Son Sann party,
and the old Khmer Nation Party is now the Sam Rainsy party. II. The International Aspect of the Cambodian Crisis
A. The Ambivalent role of the international community in the current
Cambodian crisisDespite the CPP’s maneuvering, and intimidations before and during the July 26 election the majority
of the Cambodian people came out en mass (90 percent) and courageously voted in favor of the opposition. As a matter of fact,
together FUNCINPEC and Sam Rainsy parties received about 59 percent, while the CPP received only 41 percent of the total popular
votes. In other words, the opposition won the election. However, because of the secret change in the seat distribution formula
by the NEC, the CPP received 52 percent of the seats in the new National Assembly while the two major opposition parties together
received only 48 percent of the total. These numbers do not add up to make the July 26 anywhere near the "miracle on the Mekong"
as suggested by former Congressman Steve Solarz. Additionally, the European Union and ASEAN observers have prematurely declared
that the election was free and fair and "broadly representative of the wish of the Cambodian people" without even bothering
to wait for the electoral process to be completed.
It is important to point out that the preconditions for a free and
fair election were never there to allow the election to move as scheduled. Almost all of the independent organizations such
as the International Crisis group (ICG), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute (NDI),
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and numerous local NGOs have indicated that the opposition parties were not allowed
sufficient access the electronic media, and that the NEC and the CC were not neutral. I would like to also point out that
some influential members of the US Congress such as Congressmen Benjamin Gilman, Dan Burton, Tom Campbell, Dana Rohrabacher,
Chris Smith, and Gerald Solomon, have recently written a letter to Secretary of State Albright to draw the attention of the
Secretary of State to the post- election intimidations and irregularities and to ask her to have
"the State Department immediately deliver a firm statement to Hun Sen
informing him that all acts of violence and ballots manipulation will not be tolerated." (5)
There were also the issues of the politically-motivated killings of
opposition parties members prior to the election and continued impunity for the perpetrators of politically motivated violence.
B. Wrong and damaging premises and double standard of judgment for the support of Hun Sen by the international community
Why then was the international community including the Clinton Administration
so eager to push for the election to take place despite all the major problems which were mentioned previously? The answer
to that is the fact that 1.) there is a general compassion fatigue and 2.) the politics of expediency have been adopted by
the major and regional powers. The rationale for such realpolitik approach is based on two wrong premises. The first
premise is that the CPP is the only efficient political organization which can maintain stability and promote prosperity in
Cambodia. The second premise is based on the perception that the CPP is the only organization capable of defeating the remnant
Khmer Rouge force.
1. On the first premise that Hun Sen and his CPP can maintain stability
and promote growth is untrue, in fact Cambodia under Hun Sen has wasted a lot of economic and financial assistance to maintain
an army whose main objective is to eliminate all opposition and to maintain an atmosphere of permanent fear in which to subdue
and to control the majority of the population. In that sense, the CPP is a very efficient organization in the tradition of
communist countries which destroy rather than builds the society.
One can cite many examples to illustrate the fiasco of the Hun Sen’s
management of the Cambodian economy and society. For instance, Cambodia is on the US list of narco-states. The other distinctive
failures of the Hun Sen regime include the pervasive presence of money laundering, the exploitation of children for prostitution
and labor, the use of Cambodia as a staging area for illegal immigration to third countries, the pervasive corruption and
banditry and, last but not least, a dismal record in human rights, and the mismanagement of the environment, especially of
forestry resources .
It is estimated by two independent and professional organizations,
Global Witness and the World Bank that at current rate of exploitation there will be no more forest left in Cambodia within
three years. This, in turn, will deprive the majority of the Cambodian people the necessary means to grow food and to raise
animals for field works. The impact of deforestation on the Cambodian society is well captured by Kirk Talbot, Senior Director
for Asia-Pacific at Conservation International.
"The Plunder of Cambodia’s forest is viewed by many as close
to spiraling out of control. The resulting damage to the country’s natural resource base is huge, as the loss of revenue
to its government. And less tangible, but also important, is the concomitant loss of the government’s credibility as
the protector of the common good. As a result how Cambodia deals with logging is vital to the country’s economic and
political future." (6)
For these reasons, Cambodia may soon become a beggar nation waiting
for the international community to provide the basic food to survive. Because of the more pronounced cycles of droughts and
floods Cambodia is already confronted with a growing and prolonged food shortage. This problem will become more acute within
two to three years. Are these signs that the Hun Sen administration is efficient and capable of promoting growth and stability?
2. On the second premise that only Hun Sen and the CPP are capable
of solving the Khmer Rouge problem, one should ask the following questions. How did Hun Sen go about solving this problem?
Where are those Khmer Rouge now?
Hun Sen’s immoral method of solving the Khmer Rouge problem was
to offer a general pardon to all Khmer Rouge except Pol Pot (who was already dead), Khieu Samphan, Noun Chea, and Ta Mok.
The rest of the Khmer Rouge including the most notorious executioners of the two million innocent Cambodians are all now integrated
into the Hun Sen government or army. In other words, Hun Sen has disregarded all the basic principles of a modern society
like justice, the rule of law, and human rights.
The main reason why Hun Sen has been able to continue to oppress and
impose his tyranny on the Cambodian people, is the fact that the international community has been too expedient and indifferent
in dealing with him. They lowered their standards in judging his behavior in the and the management of Cambodian society.
This point was eloquently expressed by Martin Collacott, a former Canadian Ambassador to Cambodia and chief Canadian observer
during the July 26 election when he wrote that;
"The argument has been made that Cambodia has suffered exceptional
trauma and dislocation in recent decades and that it is therefore not reasonable to apply the same standards we expect of
more settled and economically developed countries.
This approach makes sense up to a point. The fact is, however, that,
after an impressive start following the United Nations-sponsored elections in 1998, there has for the most part been more
erosion than consolidation of democratic value"
Only by comparing Hun Sen’s management style and behavior to
those of the Khmer Rouge can there be any sign of progress. In contrast, the Cambodian democratic movement has been judged
according to the international standard of value in terms of justice, the rule of law and human rights.
This double standard way which the international community including
the State Department has been adopting to judge Cambodian politicians has allowed Hun Sen to continue to destroy the Cambodian
