Feature
CAMBODIA: Questions over legality of evictions in name of development
PHNOM PENH, 18 August 2008 (IRIN) - Vanndy Sambath had lived next to Phnom Penh’s lush Boeng Kak lake for years, peacefully growing vegetables and accommodating tourists to support his family.
That all changed in 2006, when a contractor arrived and announced government-sponsored plans to fill in the lake, forcing his neighbourhood to relocate in the [...]
Oil trumps pressure for fair elections in Cambodia
Unlike most other countries holding elections in transition to democracy, including our own Guyana, Cambodia in East Asia held imperfect elections on July 27 to choose a National Assembly of 123 seats. Like Guyana, Cambodia has a PR electoral system but with a bicameral parliament that has 61 Senators in the Upper House appointed [...]
In Cambodia, a rock ‘n roll revival
PHNOM PENH - Grainy black and white newsreel footage of B-52 bombing raids and fierce fighting are the images most frequently associated with Cambodia in the 1960 and early 1970s - not rock and roll, hot pants and wild dancing.
But when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, emptying the cities and [...]
Hun Sen enters 34th year in power in Cambodia
With yet another election victory in the bag, Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, is now entering his thirty-fourth year in power.
Hun Sen draws his inspiration not from south-east Asia’s more democratic leaders, but from Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, who used dictatorial methods to build a modern, prosperous but tightly-controlled island city-state. Still only 57, [...]
Aggression Rights and Wrongs: Vietnam in Cambodia; the United States in Iraq
A recent book by Michael Vickery, Cambodia: A Political Survey, dramatizes once again the fantastic double standard that operates in cases of cross-border attacks by the weak, and U.S. targets, and the strong, especially the United States. Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December 1978, quickly defeating the Khmer Rouge and pushing its remnant forces into Thailand. [...]
Cambodia’s transforming tycoon
About an hour into our meeting, Kith Meng, Cambodia’s leading entrepreneur, dips a finger into an intriguing little flask on his coffee table and applies a fragrant yellow ointment to his neck and temples. “It’s Chinese,” he says. “When you have a muscle cramp, it helps take the pain away.”
The massage brings a smile to [...]
Opinion: Election results signal bright future for Cambodia’s economy
he landslide victory of the Cambodian People’s Party at the July 27 elections, in which it is expected once official results are released to have won 90 seats out of 123, a gain of 17 seats from the 2003 election, bodes well for the future of Cambodia and it will bolster the 23-year rule of [...]
Cambodia’s 2008 election: the end of opposition?
The consolidation of the ruling party’s power and the disunity of the opposition entrench a form of controlled democracy in Cambodia. The cost of short-term stability could be high, says Kheang Un.
On 27 July 2008, Cambodia held its fourth parliamentary elections since the 1993 United Nations imposed democracy; eleven political parties contested the elections, but [...]
Cambodian Nationalism Unleashed
Cambodia went to the polls on July 27 and secured a fourth consecutive landslide victory for the incumbent Cambodian People’s Party, which currently projects a sweeping 90 or more seats out of the National Assembly’s 123 total.
The CPP has successfully dwarfed its opposition—more than ever—since the first U.N.-brokered election of 1993. The liberal Sam Rainsy [...]
Fanning the poisonous airs of nationalism
THERE IS nothing like a disputed place to bring incendiary nationalism to the boil. The mother of all examples is Jerusalem. Much of the energy of Europe was taken up in trying to wrest it from Muslims from the 11th to the 14th centuries. Today we are told there will be no progress in settling [...]
