Category: Government and Society

Much of Cambodia is flat as a pancake–and floods every year. That is why the traditional houses are built on stilts. Large areas of the country are boeungs (lakes) which collect excess water in rainy periods and prevent some of the flooding. The boeungs around Phnom Penh also serve as aquaculture sites, like the one above, where vegetables are grown in the shallow water. But now, under relentless pressure from developers and their friends in government, the boeungs are being filled in, mostly to build factories and residence compounds. Above you can see the brown embankment with a road on top that has resulted when this boeung was partially filled to develop the housing compounds in the background. The rest of the boeung will likely be gone in a few short years. The developers make millions of dollars; the poor people are dispossessed and pushed out; and Phnom Penh floods because there’s no place now for the excess water to go.

Today is a public holiday in Cambodia commemorating the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnamese troops to confront the Khmer Rouge and eventually to defeat them. The ruling Cambodia People’s Party hails this day as “Victory Day” but the opposition calls it “Occupation Day” because the Vietnamese, traditional enemies of Cambodia, stayed for ten years until the United Nations brokered their withdrawal and the erection of a new Cambodian government.

Look at the three headlines above in today’s Khmer Times. The rest of the world is mandating very strict measures to prevent the spread of the omicron variant and even going into lockdown. Cambodia, on the other hand, says “preventive measures are enough,” is “confident” facing the omicron tsunami, and says Covid-19 is “nipped for now.”

That all gives me a really bad feeling. We could be hit super hard while we’re singing Happy Days Are Here Again. I hope I’m wrong.

What do you call it when a ruling prime minister (Hun Sen) nominates his son, Hun Manet, to be his successor? Theoretically this week’s election was only the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) choosing Manet as the candidate for future election but note that the headline above (from the Khmer Times) has already declared him prime minister. And since it is basically a one-party state (there are NO opposition members in the legislature), he is fairly well assured the CPP will make him PM. Actually the election assured that.

What is interesting is that his father, Hun Sen, has said he himself wants to contest the next two elections–which will be in 2023 and 2028! If he does that and serves out his full five-year terms, Hun Manet can’t be elected until 2033, twelve years from now! A one-party system plays by different rules….

In his remarks to the Global Summit on Covid-19 this week, Prime Minister Hun Sen noted that Cambodia has achieved the vaccination of 79.1% of the total population of Cambodia. Around 80% is considered the threshold for herd immunity, but we’re still counting between 600 to 700 new infections per day. That’s a really bad figure for us and makes us wonder if we have herd immunity or not? Or is it just the presence of the Delta variant?

Phnom Penh is the most vaccinated capital city in the world. More injections were given here than the official population of the city, and it is estimated that 99% of the population has received their shots. Now, in addition to the people in the rural areas, the government is focusing on teenagers, those between 12 and 17. Here young people are going to a neighborhood health center which happens to be across the street from a large secondary school.