Australia Adores Fish Amok Pie, Strongman Nixes Boycott Plots, Union Roars for Puma Support
Good morning, Cambodia. It's Friday, June 16, and this is your Weekly Dispatch.
COMIC TIMING: Just as Hun Sen was toasting the launch of a new association of tycoons, one of its members was accused of stealing millions from local families. The shade couldn’t have come at a worse time.
REPO MAN: The Strongman sided with the little guys for a change, ordering local developers to cease evictions and find better refinancing solutions — unless the buyers were opposition supporters. In that case: no deal.
DEAD DIVA: A South Korean influencer was found killed and badly beaten on the back streets of Phnom Penh. Police charged a Chinese couple with "murder accompanied by torture" in connection with her death.
THE LEDE
Mission Creep
Hun Sen threatened prison time for anyone caught promoting plans for an election boycott, just as he rammed through last-minute legislation to ban anyone who hasn't voted from running for public office.
Was the prime minister spooked by recent opposition calls to skip the polls or spoil ballots? Maybe. But low voter turnout could be viewed as street-level dissatisfaction with the Strongman and his son and anointed successor, Hun Manet.
The blows are the latest in a string of heavy-handed moves meant to shore up support for the July 23 elections — but it’s backfired so far. The CPP rank-and-file are miffed about plum positions going to defecting opposition members, while moderates and Western allies are repulsed by the deepening of the Hun Sen clan’s autocratic rule.
Robber Barons
It’s been a tough first week for the Cambodian Oknha Association, the Kingdom’s new 1,300-strong union of local tycoons, kingpins and business titans.
To kick it off, a member of the gilded group was accused of scamming hundreds of families out of millions of dollars just as the prime minister, the COA’s honorary president, was calling on members to act with “honor and dignity” during his speech at the organization’s opening gala.
The COA was formed by Hun Sen and a clique of old-guard oknhas to reboot the tarnished image of Cambodia’s elites, essentially to rebrand the badly tarnished reputations of its well-heeled members. Over the years, wealthy members and their families have been accused of forestry crimes, rights abuses, wage theft, and worse.
Good luck with that. There’s clearly much work ahead.
Pastry Kings
Cambodia has conquered Australia — or at least its foodies — with a Khmer-style fish amok pie winning first place at the annual pies and pastries contest.
The winning recipe was crafted by Ryan and Chan Khun, the Cambodian owners of Country Cob Bakery in Kyneton, north of Melbourne. The brothers clobbered the competition, beating out 348 bakeries and more than 1,500 pies — and they didn’t stop there.
The fish amok pie also won best seafood pie category, while their black forest pie won the best mushroom pie, and their pepper beef pie won in the best flavored beef category.
"We have just won the title of the 2023 Australia's Best Pie," said the brothers on Instagram.
TALKING POINTS
Murder Mystery
A Chinese couple was charged in the death of a South Korean influencer, BJ Ahyeong, whose body was found badly beaten on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. The couple said the social media star died during treatment at their clinic, but prosecutors accused them of "murder accompanied by torture." The couple faces life in prison if convicted.
Home Alone
The Strongman ordered local developers to return homes seized from delinquent payers. Companies must offer better refinancing, he said, to save buyers from foreclosure — although that seems not to apply to opposition supporters, in which case, seize away.
Hot Wheels
Ford will start assembling the Territory S.U.V. model at a plant in Pursat province, where the U.S. auto giant produces Rangers and Everest pickups. The company cited strong local demand for the expansion. In the coming weeks, Japanese car maker Toyota will open a $40 million factory in Phnom Penh.
Triple Stitch
Labor organizers at a supplier for Puma, the German fashion brand, accused factory owners of union busting after a wave of allegedly targeted layoffs. Many workers had been dismissed twice before but were rehired after Puma’s management intervened. The union has again appealed to Puma for help.
Fashion Retread
Pol Pot sandals are making a comeback. The flip-flops, made from recycled car tires, were once worn by high-ranking Khmer Rouge cadres — everyone else went barefoot — and a Phnom Penh entrepreneur is doing brisk business selling replicas to survivors.
Slow Roll
Moody's downgraded NagaCorp's corporate rating, citing a failure to refinance a $472 million bond due next July. The agency also lowered the company’s outlook to negative, underscoring the uncertainty of its earnings.
New Neighbors
Wild Asian elephants were discovered in a Mondulkiri province wildlife park for the first time in a decade. Rangers identified the family of four by footprints and droppings and said wildlife officials would set up cameras to study the animals.
BACKPAGES: From The Cambodia Daily Vault
Gov’t Defends Small-Scale Drug Arrests
June 13, 2003
As anti-drug police continue to bust small-time methamphetamine dealers, officials still are unable or unwilling to arrest the suppliers of large-scale dealers of the speed pills, a crime prevention official said this week.
Legal Group Urges Gov’t to Lift Protest Ban
June 11, 2003
The government must lift its ban on peaceful protests and end the use of police violence against demonstrators and strikers who exercise their constitutional right to assemble peacefully, the Cambodian Defenders Project said Tuesday.
Monitor: ‘Serious Flaws’ in Election Run-Up
June 6, 2003
The run-up to the July 27 general elections has exhibited “critical flaws,” including media domination by the ruling party and political violence and intimidation, according to a report issued Thursday by a US-based election-monitoring group.
WEEKEND READING
Swimming with ‘monsters’: Behind the search for the world’s largest freshwater fish
National Geographic Explorer Zeb Hogan’s work in freshwater conservation in Cambodia spans decades. In this Q&A, he talks about bearing witness to the decline and trying to save the Mekong River’s most iconic species.
How dams in China are destroying livelihoods downstream in Cambodia
The demise of a flooded forest in the Mekong River, blamed on high-volume dams in China, and to a lesser extent Laos, is robbing Cambodians of vital income.
Photos: Country Cob Bakery, Facebook. BJ Ahyeong, Instagram.
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