Beating-up on Cambodia over corruption and human rights violations has become something of a regional sport. In its latest survey, Transparency Internationalranked Cambodia below Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar on perceptions of corruption despite its citizens enjoying a democracy and free press that the one-party governments in neighboring states can’t come close to matching.
Human Rights Watch has had Cambodia in its sights for more than a decade over human rights abuses, while Western donors that raise this country’s notorious culture of impunity are normally rebuffed and accused of bias by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Hun Sen, understandably, dislikes being told what to do. His reaction is to cite Chinese generosity, which he insists comes with no strings attached. He also insisted that the billions of dollars Beijing has sent to its tiny neighbor on its southern flank had nothing to do with his government’s siding with China and against other members of ASEAN over the maritime dispute in the South China Sea.
That may change. Xinhua, the mouthpiece of the Chinese government, has done the unthinkable and joined Cambodia’s many critics over the government’s handling of issues ranging from land-grabbing and corruption to protests following the July 28 elections.
It chastises the government for failing to react to the result, which did deliver the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) another term in office, but with a substantially reduced majority, after traditional rural voters deserted the party for the opposition.
Protests over allegations of cheating at the poll continue and were held again on Tuesday. They passed peacefully, but Beijing has expressed fear, through numerous analysts, that Cambodia could descend into the kind of chaos that is plaguing Thailand.
Importantly the Xinhua report stands is in stark contrast to another report it filed on bilateral relations between Cambodia and China shortly before the election and Beijing’s expectations of a country it has given so much to – about $12 billion through investments and soft loans over the last two decades.
The problem for Hun Sen is that he already has his hands full. He deliberately engineered a kleptocracy which has ensured successive CPP governments since the wars ended in the late 1990s based upon him remaining at the helm for decades to come.
The time for a radical rethink on how his government will manage and do business in the future has arrived. Western donors, NGOs, human rights groups, opposition politicians and the Cambodian community at large are all watching – as are Hun Sen’s most trusted ally, the Chinese.
Luke Hunt can be followed on Twitter at @lukeanthonyhunt.
5 comments:
China should spank the evil Vietnamese bastards in Hanoi who have been ordering, manipulating, misleading his Vietnamese puppet Hun Sen to screw up, mess up, and beyond.
First of all, evil Vietnamese masterminded bastards (leaders) in Hanoi have used Hun Sen as a robot, programming Hun Sen's brains and then they (Hanoi masterminded assholes) have made Hun Sen to be a leader of Cambodia so that Vietnamese leaders and illegal business men to rob everything from Cambodia such as billions of dollars that China poured in Hun Sen's hands until the Vietnamese thieves in Hanoi (leaders) have taken advantages of Hun Sen's begging....How about the Cambodian forests and natural resources? Vietnamese masterminded assholes in Hanoi have taken, too, by destroying and cutting the millions of beautiful tress and brought to Vietnamese via illegal Business with evil Vietnamese as seen in Sam Rainsy's Facebook.
Since Vietnamese masterminded assholes or nation owed billions of dollars to China, Vietnamese thieves in Hanoi stole the expensive woods where they cut down millions of trees in Cambodia (esp., Prey Lang, etc) and expensive natural resources, money from Tourists who visited Angkor Wat (7 World Wonder), and beyond.
What the f**k, the Vietnamese masterminded thieves in Hanoi (leaders) who are the Hun Sen's bosses have murderously and terribly done to Cambodia and Cambodian people, by killing and robbing innocent Cambodian people who are the owners.
Vietnamese masterminded thieves in Hanoi have been using Hun Sen for almost 30 years now after the Killing Fields (1975-1979).
Vietnam will be in deep trouble in the world and China will do something against Vietnamese bastards in Hanoi. Also, UN or International Community will do something against Vietnam as well.
Vietnam and Vietnamese leaders (thieves) in Hanoi will be face the punishments and this Vietnamese country look like a suicidal themselves. Let's the Vietnam hang themselves and kill themselves because they are very evil and have no moral code of conduct.
Also, Vietnamese leaders have robbed Laos as well.
China will go after Vietnam eventually and the International Community will do the same.
Khmer Yeurng
China should not spank Hun Sen. China has to kill Hun Sen, that sound better. Many high ranks in CPP wanted Hun Sen to be 6 feet under ground since the last election. Now, Hun Sen faces two obstacles one from the CPP insiders and another is of course from the people uprising everywhere in Cambodia. What we are going to do now, he is a dog in the room and the door is also close shut; are we going to strike his head over and over until death is a sure thing to all of us.
It shows that China is tired of Hun Sen and wants to look for another Khmer leader whom it can work with. Hun Sen had upset Vietnam when it supported China about the island dispute between China and Vietnam. Now China is tired of Hun Sen's corrupt rule, so where and who Hun Sen can turn to now? Hun Sen is in trouble now.
GOD will purnish the bad people like hun sen his hand full of blood he will get paid with what he and his group had done to cambodian people. justic at the end
In this high technological era ,the Chinese can't secretly hided any illegal actions toward individual or country , those they want to do business under the table for their own colossal profit anymore.
They afraid they might loose all their investment when other Party come to power.
The protestor should protest in front of Chinese Embassy everywhere in the world to put pressure on them to stop support HUN SEN regime.
Post a Comment