Phnom Penh Post, Thursday, 24 May 2012
Meas Sokchea and Stuart White
Eighty-two per cent of 1,200 people surveyed feel that
Cambodia’s democracy works, despite 50 per cent calling corruption a major
issue in the national government, according to figures released by the Center
for Advanced Study yesterday.
The CAS, a non-partisan research NGO, disseminated the
results of its Asian Barometer Survey, which asked Cambodians throughout the
country about political values, democracy and governance.
Dr Hean Sokhom, executive director of the CAS, said the aim
of the survey is to take feedback from people and give it directly to the
government.
“We think that these results can help the government to
offer better services than before,” Hean Sokhom said.
The survey identifies the 10 most important issues in the
eyes of Cambodians, with “management of the economy”, specifically controlling
high food and gas prices, topping the list with roughly 18 per cent of the
vote.
Land issues, unemployment, border disputes with Thailand and
poverty rounded out the top five.
The survey also showed that more than 70 per cent of
respondents thought it was either “likely”, or “very likely” that “the
government will solve the most important problem [they] identified within the
next five years”.
Only five per cent of Cambodians ranked corruption the most
important issue facing the country, despite about half of respondents agreeing
with the statements “most officials are corrupt”, or “almost everyone is
corrupt”.
However, more than 60 per cent think the government is
taking action to combat corruption.
According to Transparency International, Cambodia is one of
the most corrupt countries in the world, ranking 164th among 183 countries, and
12th out of 12 Asian peers.
Hang Puthea, executive director of election monitoring NGO
NICFEC, attended the event where the findings were presented, and said that the
survey matched the findings of similar NIFEC surveys.
Ek Tha, spokesman of the Press and Quick Reaction Unit,
declined to comment.
To contact the reporters on this story: Meas Sokchea at
meas.sokchea@phnompenhpost.com
Stuart White at stuart.white@phnompenhpost.com
2 comments:
Don't believe in elections that conducted by Hun Sen's NEC. Hun Sen has 101 tricks to extort the results.
Ah Chum Kosal said the "next election Samdech Decho could win 120 seats. But Samdech will take only 100 and give to Kem Sokha 10, Sam Rainsy 10and Funcinpec 3". They can get what they want for election result because they have all tools at their disposal.
Fair and free elections a' la Hun Sen !
He already won, even before the election starts.
Jungle man is, jungle man does.
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