Category: Government and Society

This is No. 9 of the nine examples of incompetence and corruption that appeared in the headlines of The Cambodia Daily in just two days.  People trying to preserve their houses and lands in the face of sand-dredging are visited by government thugs.

Wednesday, 9 August 2017  Hun Sen’s Violent Rhetoric: Will Words Become Deeds in 2018?  Government Rights Chief Calls Beating Threats ‘Education’ Seized Tractors, Used by Police Officers, to Be Returned to HQ Thursday, 10 August 2017 Ministry Vows to Stop Illegal Thai Border Crossings Authorities, Village Residents Set for Clash in Angkor Park Court Upholds ‘Espionage’ Charge for Australian Filmmaker Cambodia Urges Patience in Making ASEAN, N Korea Statements Indigenous Groups Call for Respect, Land Titles on UN Day Gov’t Officials, Plainclothes Police Crash Village Protest Meeting

 

This is No. 8 of the nine examples of incompetence and corruption that appeared in the headlines of The Cambodia Daily in just two days.  In this article the Cambodian government continues to abuse indigenous peoples and separate them from their ancestral lands.

Wednesday, 9 August 2017  Hun Sen’s Violent Rhetoric: Will Words Become Deeds in 2018?  Government Rights Chief Calls Beating Threats ‘Education’ Seized Tractors, Used by Police Officers, to Be Returned to HQ Thursday, 10 August 2017 Ministry Vows to Stop Illegal Thai Border Crossings Authorities, Village Residents Set for Clash in Angkor Park Court Upholds ‘Espionage’ Charge for Australian Filmmaker Cambodia Urges Patience in Making ASEAN, N Korea Statements Indigenous Groups Call for Respect, Land Titles on UN Day Gov’t Officials, Plainclothes Police Crash Village Protest Meeting

 

It’s all changed!  Earlier I noted that it has intrigued me through the years that the Cambodian government has tolerated the Cambodia Daily‘s reporting about corruption and incompetence in the government here.  That’s all stopped. 

The government has now closed down the Cambodia Daily as of 4 September 2017, supposedly for unpaid taxes.  The government is after the non-government press, foreign radio sources (e.g., VOA and RFA), foreign governments (especially the USA and the EU), and any critical NGOs.  The present government is really running scared and so now, even ten months before the national elections in July, 2018, they are criticizing, harassing, and prosecuting any opposition voices.  That is particularly true of opposition politicians who are being arrested and imprisoned on what many consider political charges rather than real offenses.

This is No. 7 of the nine examples of incompetence and corruption that appeared in the headlines of The Cambodia Daily in just two days.  In this article the Cambodian government once again prevents any ASEAN criticism of China in ASEAN statements.

---

Wednesday, 9 August 2017  Hun Sen’s Violent Rhetoric: Will Words Become Deeds in 2018?  Government Rights Chief Calls Beating Threats ‘Education’ Seized Tractors, Used by Police Officers, to Be Returned to HQ Thursday, 10 August 2017 Ministry Vows to Stop Illegal Thai Border Crossings Authorities, Village Residents Set for Clash in Angkor Park Court Upholds ‘Espionage’ Charge for Australian Filmmaker Cambodia Urges Patience in Making ASEAN, N Korea Statements Indigenous Groups Call for Respect, Land Titles on UN Day Gov’t Officials, Plainclothes Police Crash Village Protest Meeting

 

This is No. 6 of the nine examples of incompetence and corruption that appeared in the headlines of The Cambodia Daily in just two days.  In this article they use law (or rather, made up law) to go after political opponents.

---

Wednesday, 9 August 2017  Hun Sen’s Violent Rhetoric: Will Words Become Deeds in 2018?  Government Rights Chief Calls Beating Threats ‘Education’ Seized Tractors, Used by Police Officers, to Be Returned to HQ Thursday, 10 August 2017 Ministry Vows to Stop Illegal Thai Border Crossings Authorities, Village Residents Set for Clash in Angkor Park Court Upholds ‘Espionage’ Charge for Australian Filmmaker Cambodia Urges Patience in Making ASEAN, N Korea Statements Indigenous Groups Call for Respect, Land Titles on UN Day Gov’t Officials, Plainclothes Police Crash Village Protest Meeting

 

This is No. 5 of the nine examples of incompetence and corruption that appeared in the headlines of The Cambodia Daily in just two days.  Try to picture how callous these officials are to so abuse their own people, people they live with.

---

Wednesday, 9 August 2017  Hun Sen’s Violent Rhetoric: Will Words Become Deeds in 2018?  Government Rights Chief Calls Beating Threats ‘Education’ Seized Tractors, Used by Police Officers, to Be Returned to HQ Thursday, 10 August 2017 Ministry Vows to Stop Illegal Thai Border Crossings Authorities, Village Residents Set for Clash in Angkor Park Court Upholds ‘Espionage’ Charge for Australian Filmmaker Cambodia Urges Patience in Making ASEAN, N Korea Statements Indigenous Groups Call for Respect, Land Titles on UN Day Gov’t Officials, Plainclothes Police Crash Village Protest Meeting

 

This is No. 4 of the nine examples of incompetence and corruption that appeared in the headlines of The Cambodia Daily in just two days.  Try to follow the logic of the Interior Ministry official in this piece.

---

Wednesday, 9 August 2017  Hun Sen’s Violent Rhetoric: Will Words Become Deeds in 2018?  Government Rights Chief Calls Beating Threats ‘Education’ Seized Tractors, Used by Police Officers, to Be Returned to HQ Thursday, 10 August 2017 Ministry Vows to Stop Illegal Thai Border Crossings Authorities, Village Residents Set for Clash in Angkor Park Court Upholds ‘Espionage’ Charge for Australian Filmmaker Cambodia Urges Patience in Making ASEAN, N Korea Statements Indigenous Groups Call for Respect, Land Titles on UN Day Gov’t Officials, Plainclothes Police Crash Village Protest Meeting

 

The scale and pervasiveness of corruption and incompetence in the Cambodian government is really staggering.  The Kingdom of Wonder indeed.  Today’s article focuses on the police–just as corrupt as the rest of officialdom.

---

Wednesday, 9 August 2017  Hun Sen’s Violent Rhetoric: Will Words Become Deeds in 2018?  Government Rights Chief Calls Beating Threats ‘Education’ Seized Tractors, Used by Police Officers, to Be Returned to HQ Thursday, 10 August 2017 Ministry Vows to Stop Illegal Thai Border Crossings Authorities, Village Residents Set for Clash in Angkor Park Court Upholds ‘Espionage’ Charge for Australian Filmmaker Cambodia Urges Patience in Making ASEAN, N Korea Statements Indigenous Groups Call for Respect, Land Titles on UN Day Gov’t Officials, Plainclothes Police Crash Village Protest Meeting

 

The scale and pervasiveness of corruption and incompetence in the Cambodian government is really staggering.  The Kingdom of Wonder indeed.  An outsider would have a hard time understanding how bad things are.  To help such an outsider grasp the enormity of the situation here, look at these selections from articles in two editions of The Cambodia Daily this week.  To me it is really interesting that the government seems to ignore what the Daily prints.  The government regularly intimidates, threatens, imprisons, beats, shoots, kills critics and opposition people and yet the English newspapers seem to get away printing some really strong—truthful–articles that paint the government in a most obvious bad light.

---

Wednesday, 9 August 2017  Hun Sen’s Violent Rhetoric: Will Words Become Deeds in 2018?  Government Rights Chief Calls Beating Threats ‘Education’ Thursday, 10 August 2017 Ministry Vows to Stop Illegal Thai Border Crossings Authorities, Village Residents Set for Clash in Angkor Park Court Upholds ‘Espionage’ Charge for Australian Filmmaker Cambodia Urges Patience in Making ASEAN, N Korea Statements Indigenous Groups Call for Respect, Land Titles on UN Day Gov’t Officials, Plainclothes Police Crash Village Protest Meeting

 

The scale and pervasiveness of corruption and incompetence in the Cambodian government is really staggering.  The Kingdom of Wonder indeed.  An outsider would have a hard time understanding how bad things are.  To help such an outsider grasp the enormity of the situation here, look at these selections from articles in two editions of The Cambodia Daily this week.  To me it is really interesting that the government seems to ignore what the Daily prints.  The government regularly intimidates, threatens, imprisons, beats, shoots, kills critics and opposition people and yet the English newspapers seem to get away printing some really strong—truthful–articles that paint the government in a most obvious bad light.

---

Wednesday, 9 August 2017  Hun Sen’s Violent Rhetoric: Will Words Become Deeds in 2018?  Government Rights Chief Calls Beating Threats ‘Education’ Thursday, 10 August 2017 Ministry Vows to Stop Illegal Thai Border Crossings Authorities, Village Residents Set for Clash in Angkor Park Court Upholds ‘Espionage’ Charge for Australian Filmmaker Cambodia Urges Patience in Making ASEAN, N Korea Statements Indigenous Groups Call for Respect, Land Titles on UN Day Gov’t Officials, Plainclothes Police Crash Village Protest Meeting

 

We are in the middle of a three-day holiday for the birthday of King Norodom Sihamoni seen here visiting a family in the provinces.  The king is a really nice person–the only smiling, human face in the government—but why three days for a birthday?  That is why Cambodia has twenty-five public government holidays.  The US has eleven.  How do you rebuild a country when no one works?