KH KOMPONG CHAM

Sunday, January 23, 2011
Thai 2nd Army chief angered by "INVADER" label posted by Cambodia


FIGHTING WORDS: A stone tablet with a message in Khmer branding Thai troops ‘invaders’ at Wat Kaew Sikha Khiri Sawara Keo Sekha Kiri Svarak.



HOME AT LAST: Democrat MP Panich Vikitsreth (centre) and Samdin Lertbutr (left) arrive at Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday. They, with Narumol Chitwaratana, Tainae Mungmajon and Kojpollathorn Chusanasevi, returned to Thailand after the Phnom Penh Municipal Court gave them a suspended jail term for trespassing on Cambodian territory and illegal entry into a military area.

Invaders' jibe as Thais come home
SECOND ARMY CHIEF ANGERED AS TEMPLE SIGN ANTAGONISES TROOPS IN DISPUTED AREA

23/01/2011
Wassana Nanuam
Bangkok Post

The 2nd Army chief has demanded Cambodian troops remove a stone tablet in the disputed border area bearing a message lambasting Thai troops as "invaders".

The latest controversy in the Thai-Cambodian territorial dispute came as Bangkok yesterday welcomed back the five Thais allowed home by a Phnom Penh court after being found guilty of charges related to illegally crossing the border.

Lt Gen Thawatchai Samutsakhon said he had contacted Cambodian troops to remove the stone tablet, bearing the message "Thai troops _ the Invaders" written in Khmer, erected in front of Wat Kaew Sikha Khiri Sawara.

The temple, situated 300m away from Preah Vihear, is in the disputed 4.6-square-kilometre area claimed by both countries.


Lt Gen Thawatchai said the two countries have agreed not to build or erect anything that is indicative of ownership of the land.

"This stone tablet will have significant implications if it is used as evidence in cases involving territorial disputes in the International Court of Justice," Lt Gen Thawatchai said.

"We cannot accept this. I have told them to take it down.

"If they don't take it down, I may have a sign with a similar message erected."

Cambodia put the stone tablet up after Thai troops withdrew from Wat Kaew Sikha Khiri Sawara on Dec 1.

Army specialist Kanok Nettarakawesana is named on the tablet as one of the "invaders".

At the time, Lt Gen Kanok was commander of the Suranaree task force and led about 200 Thai soldiers to enter the wat to hold talks with Cambodian authorities regarding the release of three Thais detained in the disputed area on July 15, 2008.

The three were members of the ultra-nationalist Dharmayatra group, which camped out on the Thai border in Si Sa Ket's Kantharalak district to protest Thailand's support of Phnom Penh's listing of the temple as a Unesco World Heritage site. They were freed after four hours of negotiations.

Lt Gen Kanok said he decided to lead the soldiers into Wat Kaew Sikha Khiri Sawara to stop Cambodian soldiers from taking the three Thais to Ban Komui on the Cambodian side.

Lt Gen Kanok insisted that the wat is located in the overlapping area and Thai soldiers have the authority to enter the temple.

"It was the first time that we had reached there. In the past, Thai soldiers never entered the area but I stood by our 1:50000 map which indicates the area is ours," he said.

Lt Gen Kanok shrugged off the name-calling by Cambodian soldiers.

He said he led the troops to enter the temple to assert the country's sovereignty over the disputed area.

He declined to comment on whether Thailand was at a disadvantage after the country withdrew its troops from the temple.

"You need to ask the people responsible for the issue," he said.

Meanwhile, the five Thais released from Phnom Penh arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday evening. They appeared exhausted and declined to comment.

On Friday, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court found each of the five Thais - Panich Vikitsreth, Narumol Chitwaratana, Samdin Lertbutr, Tainae Mungmajon, and Kojpollathorn Chusanasevi - guilty of two counts of trespassing onto Cambodian territory and illegal entry into a military area.

The judges sentenced each of them to nine months in jail and a fine of 1 million riel (7,520 baht), but suspended the terms.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday called an urgent meeting of relevant authorities to discuss what action should be taken in the wake of the guilty verdicts.

He said the government has asked the Cambodian government to translate the verdict into Thai so it can determine whether the ruling has any impact on Thailand's territorial integrity.

He said he would explain all relevant issues to the public today.

The five Thais were among a group of seven arrested by Cambodian authorities on Dec 27.

The remaining two are Veera Somkwamkid, a Thai Patriots Network coordinator, and his secretary, Ratree Pipatanapaiboon, who both face additional charges of espionage.

The Phnom Penh court is scheduled to hand down its ruling on the two on Tuesday.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Soul Food
Eyes are the window to the soul. I find its origin in the Bible 58 to 68 A.D. Matthew 6 22-23 (NIV):

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"

EYES ARE THE MIRROR OF THE SOUL: "A person's thoughts can be ascertained by looking in his or her eyes.” The proverb has been traced back in English to Regiment of Life. But the proverb was known much earlier. Cicero (106-43 B.C.) is quoted as saying, “Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi” (The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter). The Latin proverbs, “Vultus est index animi” or “Oculus animi index,” are usually translated as The face is the index of the mind. The French say, “Les yeux sont le miroir de l'ame” (The eyes are the mirror of the soul). “The eyes are the window of the soul” is a variant form of the proverb.

Excerpt from: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/41/messages/1097.html

Sunday, January 23, 2011
30th ASEAN Tourism Forum ends in Cambodia
January 22, 2011
PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) - The 30th Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Tourism Forum concluded on Friday evening with a closer cooperation among ASEAN countries and its dialogue partners, said Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon at the closing ceremony.

"Our great achievement made in the forum this year is the adoption of the ASEAN tourism strategic plan 2011-2015 aimed to turn the ASEAN into a world class tourist destination by 2015," he told about 400 participants.

"Besides this, I hope that buyers and sellers have met their business partners for future cooperation," he said, adding that the forum also created a closer environment of cooperation among ASEAN countries and ASEAN with dialogue partners including China, Japan, South Korea, India and Russia.


The 30th ASEAN Tourism Forum kicked off on Jan. 15.

During the event, there had been a series of meetings of ASEAN tourism ministers, ASEAN tourism ministers+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) and ASEAN tourism ministers+ India and Russia.

Also, there was the ASEAN Travel Exchange with the participation of up to 1,500 sellers with 512 booths from hotels, airline companies, tour operators and travel agencies in ASEAN countries and 466 buyers from the ASEAN, Asia, Europe and the United States of America.

The 31st ATF will be held in Indonesia in 2012.

The ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Bangladesh to take Cambodian lands on lease to produce rice [-More forced evictions on the way?]
Dhaka, Sunday January 23 2011
Nazmul Ahsan
Financial Express-Bangladesh
Bangladesh will take Cambodian lands on lease to produce rice over there and import it to meet the local demands for the same.

Besides, Bangladeshi businessmen will establish rice husking mills in different cities of Cambodia.

A recent inter-ministerial meeting, held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), took the decision. Foreign Secretary Mijarul Kayes presided over the meeting, sources said.

Representatives from ministries of agriculture, commerce, food and foreign affairs attended the meeting.


The decision came following the visit of foreign minister Dipu Moni, to Cambodia in late December, 2010, a high official in the foreign ministry said.

The meeting decided to form an expert team comprising representatives from different ministries concerned and private sector. The proposed team, likely to be headed by foreign secretary, will shortly visit Cambodia to complete necessary formalities with Cambodian government, sources said.

"The team to visit Cambodia will explore all potentials in taking lease of their lands to produce food grains, particularly rice and import the same to Bangladesh," a top official in the foreign ministry said.

"A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bangladesh and Cambodia will be signed following the visit," he added.

The foreign ministry officials said the government of Cambodia responded positively to a request for leasing out their lands to Bangladesh for agricultural purpose during the visit of Dipu Moni.

The terms of condition, particularly the lease-period and annual fees for the leased land, will be finalised by expert teams of contracting countries, sources said.

Asked, a high official in the foreign ministry, however, said no government ministry or agency conducted any feasibility study on the issue so far.

Bangladesh annually imports 3.0-3.2 million tonnes of food grains to meet the local demand.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Cambodia: mobile-phone silliness


A Cambodian gambler talks on several mobile phones during a boxing match at a television station in Phnom Penh, May 15, 2010. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images)
The sight of someone talking on two phones at the same time isn't uncommon.

January 22, 2011
Global Post
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Lim Sivhuy owns four mobile phones and has five different phone numbers but it’s nearly impossible to get her on the line.

Meanwhile, an entire day can go by trying. Upon first attempt, you’re told Lim’s number is busy. A different number you’re told doesn’t exist. Later, when you try again with yet a different number, you only get ringing. Then an automated voice encourages you to try again — but you don’t.

In this small Southeast Asian country wedged between Thailand and Vietnam, the experience calling 20-year-old Lim in western Cambodia's Pursat town is not in any way unusual.


Urban Cambodia is so over-saturated with mobiles and telephone numbers that it’s often impossible to get anyone, anywhere on the line.

Rice farmers own two mobile phones for no apparent reason. Markets teem with dozens of mobile phone shops all hawking the same ware.

There are way too many service providers. In 2006, Cambodia was host to three mobile-phone service providers, but by the end of 2010, there were nine — a shocking occurrence given that Cambodia has a population of 15 million people and many countries with far more people manage with fewer providers. Thailand, for instance, with a population of 61 million, has four providers, and Vietnam's 90 million citizens are serviced by seven.

Recognizing that competition had become too crowded, two mobile phone service providers — Smart Mobile and Star-Cell — announced a merger in early January, a move that may spark additional consolidations, some analysts contend.

“It’s one of the most competitive environments in the world,” said Smart Mobile Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hundt. “To have eight cell phone providers for a country of 15 million people, I don’t know of another country where the ratio is like Cambodia’s.”

The spoils of competitive mobile-phone provider warfare have been good to the kingdom. Deals abound as providers pivot for more customers, and mobiles are always on the cheap, some going for only $5.

Between 2009 and 2010, the number of mobile-phone connections in Cambodia more than doubled, leaping from 4.2 million telephone numbers to 8.5 million, according to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. Six years ago, when far fewer network providers did business, there were only 690,000 numbers.

Things, as a result, have gotten a little silly. The sight of someone talking on two phones at the same time isn’t uncommon.

People pester business card designer Souk Srey Mom into cramming all five or six of their telephone numbers onto a single card, despite her admonishments that “it won’t be beautiful — a mess!”

Others vie for “lucky” telephone numbers, designated as such based on complicated calculations or seemingly arbitrary distinctions. The estimated price of the number “017999999”? Three grand.

“Yes, I have a lot of cell phones,” related Lim Sihvuy, remarkably enough, over the phone. “This is so because it is very easy and very convenient with so many phones and they are so modern and so beautiful.”

That’s just the thing, said a spokesman at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, who asked to remain nameless. They’re easy. They’re convenient. They’re modern. In a country rushing to develop, the mere act of owning mobile phones says more about your stature than whether you have money left over to actually pay for service. Thus a country of inoperative telephone numbers and unreturned calls. Too many mobiles; not enough money to use them. Countless numbers hang in ether.

Statistics are vague at best. No one knows the exact percentage of Cambodians using mobile phones, though governmental estimates usually hover around 50 percent. Yet, every available statistic and anecdote suggests there will soon be more mobile-phone shops, more telephone numbers, more confusion.

In rural Kampong Thom province, Lim Vuthy, a slight monk who smokes thin cigars, owns eight — count 'em — eight mobile phones.

On a recent Monday afternoon at his pagoda he reclined on wooden furniture, his full arsenal before him. Virtually every mobile brand and service provider present and accounted for.

Each telephone is absolutely necessary, he said, referring to situations when he receives three urgent calls at the same time and conducts the conversations simultaneously. Ah, the social responsibilities of today’s monkhood.

“It’s difficult to talk on three cell phones at the same time,” Lim began to explain, before he was interrupted by a phone call. Looking abashed, Lim answered, telling the caller he couldn’t talk, and placed the phone back among the collection.

“Having so many cell phones is complicated and it becomes more complicated,” Lim continued and then paused for a moment. “I don’t know if I’ll have more cell phones later. There’s nothing difficult about having so many cell phones.”
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Democracy Square: The physical anchor point for political dramatization and communication
Perspective


By: MEERKAT, the Barn Raider








“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” ― George Orwell
Democracy Square:
The physical anchor point for political dramatization and communication

On March 30, 1997, supporters of Sam Rainsy coming mainly from impoverished countryside and garment factory worker communities surrounding the Capital City of Phnom Penh, converged on the northwest corner of Wat Botum Wadei Park south of Sothearos Boulevard, east of the Royal Palace and across the street from the old National Assembly Building, to voice their discontent over the heavily-tainted Hun Sen government’s judicial system. Shortly after the crowd began to gather to hear the speech four fragment grenades were tossed into the peaceful demonstrators killing 16 citizens and maimed at least 150 of them including an American political observer. Mr. Rainsy himself narrowly escaped this murder and mayhem.

Covert political violence during the 1993 election aside, this act of savagery reaffirms Cambodia’s long-established “political culture” of the past such as that of Sihanouk’s and Lon Nol’s, which subscribes to the notion that government power is a zero-sum (all or nothing) game. Hun Sen and the CPP understand power only in absolutist terms ― power is not shared, it is accumulated and protected. In addition, his approach to government was more reflective of the political culture of the communist single-party state which was forged into his psyche in his earlier career with the Khmer Rouge and later under the tutelage of Hanoi, which subscribes to the radical view that the power of a government is derived not from political transformation but secured by a revolution or a coup, any sign of challenge, no matter how insignificant is always seen as reactionary, and must be stamped out at the earliest opportune.

Hun Sen and the CPP was first installed and later institutionalized to power through crafty electoral and political maneuvering masterminded by a legion of shadowy communist Vietnamese apparatchik accompanied by a robust paramilitary security arm that are responsible for the planning and execution of a well established modus operandi down to the letter. Together they have successfully utilized the legal framework of the new constitution to align the distribution of government power with the de facto distribution of their bureaucratic and military power. Not a single branch or agency of this proxy government has been able to operate outside of the grip of the Hun Sen/Heng Samrin/Chea Sim triumvirate party-line and Hanoi’s political hegemony.


Cambodia under Hun Sen and the CPP is a hollow polity. The National Assembly is nothing more than a rubber stamp which is being used to ratify the government’s decisions. The judiciary is derivative of the administration rather than being independent. Khmer citizens know that they cannot rely on the court system for redress or remedy, especially against the willful abuse of the well-connected, local corrupted authority and police. The bureaucracy has never been capable of establishing its sense of professional responsibility and it only helps to oppress citizens. Most political observers and a number of foreign diplomats have concluded that in order for Cambodia to prosper its “political culture” would have to change.

The principal goal and the mission of SRP have never changed from the early days of Khmer National Party to the present Sam Rainsy Party ― to mobilize Cambodian society to participate in the political process in order to bring about orderly and progressive change to our archaic and brutal political culture, and to help free our nation from the influence and encroachment of Hanoi.

However in the chaos and cloud of dust resulting from our resistance against ”violent assaults from above” and the party’s apparent lacking in interplay, SRP mission priorities have not always been clearly communicated throughout its constituency. SRP has periodically been alleged by skeptics and opponents of waging subversive counterculture campaign to implant foreign values and ideas, and to undermine Hun Sen’s and CPP efforts in establishing order and stability mandated by donor countries and investors to keep the much needed aids flowing. Sam Rainsy himself has been frequently unfairly labeled by critics as a royalist, communist, and an imperialist agent simultaneously. The party has never been prompt or vigorous in counteracting the opponents’ mudslinging.

The task of introducing democratic change to a nation which has never seen or experienced genuine freedom and democracy, is indeed a tall order and an impossible dream. However, as autocracy begins to ratchet up, people will naturally long for the alternatives to life under tyranny. This is when SRP can begin to fully deploy its unlimited intellectual capacity, and its liberal democratic ideals against the outdated “politics as usual” that has been riddled with familism, cupidity, narrow horizon, and reluctance to tolerate opposing points of view, prevalent in the Sihanouk and Lon Nol’s periods.

As for containing and mitigating the encroachment and intervention of Hanoi in our national affairs, oversea-based SRP has dedicated the highest level of efforts and resources it could afford lobbying peace and freedom advocates around the world to influence Vietnam to abandon her futile efforts in forcing Cambodia into the de facto Indochina communist orbit. However to achieve success outside of our borders, our nation will have to gain a very substantial ground at home in establishing a strong foundation necessary for a democratic system of government to take hold. In other words the domestic front will have to reach critical mass before the international front begins to yield. At some point in the near future, Vietnam, like her old patron the USSR will inevitably be facing the menace of globalization, regional geopolitics, global warming and climate change, environmental degradation, and last but not least the growing social unrest (citizens’ demand for changes) which will eventually alter the geopolitical landscape in favor of Cambodia.

The March 30, 1997 grenade attack did not permanently cripple the will of the ordinary Khmer to come out to the street and protest in one form or another. In fact many more mass rallies and demonstrations were organized by SRP and other opposition parties during the 1998 elections ballot count. The attempt to restrict access and denial of public space using the threat of violence, and arrest can only foster deeper resentment and help galvanize citizens’ determination to hold the ground and fight back.

In the subsequent years following the grenade attack, Hun Sen’s “praetorian guard” has wasted no time in devising new strategies to prevent, disrupt and neutralize citizen’s protests. The National Assembly building has now been relocated further east, to where there is no available public space for any sizeable crowd to rally and have a meaningful demonstration. The so-called Freedom Park has been constructed at the west end of the City, miles away from principal governmental seats as to enable the accountable office of the public representatives/officials to extricate themselves out of their relevant duty and claim ignorance of the people’s demands, and to conveniently dismiss any responsibility in any eventual heavy-handed treatment of demonstrators by security police in case a violent confrontation breaks out. The regulations concerning the use of the new Freedom Park as a rallying point, is ANYTHING but FREE.

The rights of citizens to enter the city and subsequently to congregate in the public squares have just been curtailed to almost nothing. With neither debate nor protest allowed, the rights of the people to representations have been unceremoniously pulled right out from underneath them. Why should the National Assembly where elective representatives of the people conduct business on behalf of the constituents be tucked away out of view from a public square, and sealed off by iron fence and gates like a fortress? Why the so-called Freedom Park is located so far apart from where citizens are supposed to be congregating and effectively exercising their rights to complaint within view and earshot of their elective representatives? And why the park rules and regulations are heavily loaded with restrictions that turn a public forum park into a virtual FORBIDEN PARK instead? The answer should be very obvious to anyone ― Hun Sen and CPP’s bastion of dictatorship in Cambodia is being fast and furiously erected as the world watch.

The Hun Sen and CPP’s autocratic engine has been racing ahead of the Khmer civil society to find more ways to block access to democracy, while Sam Rainsy and SRP are making a sustained effort to gear up, mobilize, and lead the grassroots political movement to reclaim “the rights to the City and the rights to stand in Democracy Square”. At the present there is no physical public space in the City of Phnom Penh where our citizens can call theirs. Physical and virtual barriers to a free, safe and secure public forum have just been erected around all potential gathering spaces. The critical and urgent task for SRP is to prepare to lead the efforts in the struggle to gradually dismantle all barriers until Khmer citizens gain full access to the middle of the ideal and symbolic square. While attempting to control the voice of dissent, the enemies of democracy are fully aware of the risk they will have to face. Each collective foothold the grassroots gain toward the imaginary square, the balance of power is tilting the way of democracy. Each aggression on the part of the government (which is most likely to occur in every confrontation) will cost them their hard-to-come-by credibility and legitimacy needed for securing international support of their policies and actions. The government has more reasons to be worried each time a clash with demonstrators takes place.

The advance or the setback resulting from the battle for democracy square is neither instantaneous nor obvious, but very likely to be subtle and gradual. Consider the first memorial monument erected soon after the grenade attack, almost immediately after it went up, it was taken down, then dumped into the sewage effluent at the river’s edge one block away, while no authority bothered to address this sacrilegious act.
The concrete replacement monument, a chedei, larger and heavier than the previous, went up in the presence of various diplomatic corps and members of the media. It is still standing as a testimony to the incremental victory of the people. In some small measures it is also a token victory for Sam Rainsy and the SRP to be cherished. Like the Chinese students’ demonstration in Tiananmen Square in 1989, those who gave their life in the quest for liberty shall forever live in the conscience of those who are still alive, and that the ground where their blood was shed should be sacred and belong to the living, and should stand as a reminder that “freedom is not free”.

The latest and most dramatic act of defiance came on 25 October 2009, during a Buddhist Kathen celebration in Svay Rieng province, when Sam Rainsy led local villagers and officials from SRP in uprooting six wooden temporary posts (border post # 185) marking the country’s border with Vietnam, which has been in a demarcation process for some time; villagers said that the Vietnamese had illegally shifted the posts onto Cambodian soil in their rice fields and that their complaints to the local authorities in this respect had remained unavailing. The incident and the setting fit the concept of the “Democracy Square” as a place where people assemble to dramatize and communicate their disagreement with the government. It did well to expose Hun Sen’s government and his patron/accomplice in Hanoi, nonetheless the ultimate windfall effect of this symbolic display of will was primarily intended to fall squarely on the collective conscience of the Khmer nation at home and elsewhere, which it did.

Cambodians have displayed their unmitigated resilience, and are not hesitant to take to the street whenever they felt that their collective voice needs to be heard. Wherever they make a stand such ground is their “Democracy Square”. SRP representatives have always availed themselves to be present and to lead marches and demonstrations when and where they are needed.

Going forward SRP friends and foes should have no misgiving about where, when and how Sam Rainsy and his SRP grassroots movement will wage the campaign to build the foundation of democracy and freedom, and for our nation’s rights to self-determination. Hun Sen and the CPP may step up their efforts in erecting more physical barriers to keep us out of democracy squares, but they will never be able to prevent us from constructing democracy squares in our minds.