Today in a ceremony turning over new China-donated fire trucks to local fire stations, the Interior Minister asked the firemen (and women?) not to demand payments and bribes when they arrive at the scene of a fire. How novel!
But his plea could be counter-productive. Who the heck wants to be a fireman if you can’t rip off people and make money for yourself! Not to worry, though. Probably not much will change in the behavior of the fire department personnel (a division of the police in Cambodia) because my guess is a good percentage of the money they extort from fire victims gets passed up the line to superiors.