Dear All,
The following very interesting piece of comments was written and sent to Khmerization by Mr. Colin Pratt, an Australian ex-diplomat to Cambodia and a long term close confidant of ex-King Sihanouk, who knew Prince Sihanouk personally very well since the 1960s and who acted as an advisor to the Khmer Resistance Movement in the 1980s and, like Mr. Julio Jeldres, he was very active in the Paris Peace Accords. He is man who should know to the bones about the mores of all Khmer leaders. He had written a book about Khmer recent events titled "Killing The Khmer 1997".
His comments below are very interesting indeed.
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By Mr. Colin Pratt
As the city of Phnom Penh is seized by a land sales price bubble, with black money poured in by gulled foreign investors, the rural outlands are suffering a fate exceeded only under Khmer Rouge rule.
For over 1,000 years the Khmer peasant has had a hard but survivable and satisfying life in a land of plenty.
Now,there is widespread distress and even starvation in outlying regions.While the few sycophants of Phnom Penh live off the riches allotted them by the King of Corruption the majority of the Khmer live in conditions that are truly appalling.
The schools and medical centres that were opened in the Sihanouk years and destroyed by the Khmer Rouge have not been restored by the CPP government. Showtime openings of schools by the King of Corruption are shams as the “new” school closes as soon as he departs.
The recent election was run on a doctored voters role and continues the corrupt election practices of the past. The cowed people fall into line for fear of repercussions for opposing the corrupt authorities.
Basically the causes of this tragedy are twofold. First the evil presence of Hun Sen who was trained by the Khmer Rouge and attended finishing school in Communist Vietnam. This imitation of a man thrives on duplicity and terror, never hesitating to “erase” opposition and reward support with bribes and favours.
The second contributor to the Khmer degradation has been the incredibly dishonest and gutless yet monumentally puerile behaviour of some of the potential opposition figures headed by that absolute travesty of humanity, Ranariddh. This poor excuse for a man has betrayed every principle of Khmer decency and national aspiration. He has been a basic cause in the tragedy that is Cambodia today.
The coming economic decline will further devastate the poor Khmer but Hun Sen and his family and cohorts will rest easy in their swollen foreign bank accounts. Hun Sen will continue his grand plan, that of having his son succeed him as Cambodian strongman. The only,continuing irritant to this dictator is the fact of the one man who is more popular and who has more respect, King Father Norodom Sihanouk who is unassailable.
1. Read Mr. Pratt's previous comments about Prince Ranariddh here.
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