CPP Power Shift Speeds Ahead, Kidney Traffickers Nabbed, Ream Naval Base Nearly Ready
Good morning, Cambodia. It's Friday, July 28, and this is your Weekly Dispatch.
JUNGLE SNARE: More than 6,000 hectares of Botum Sakor National Park are now in the hands of a notorious logging kingpin. Wildlife officials and locals fear the worst.
PROFIT GROWTH: Rice farmers are hitting pay dirt. Climate change, war and export controls in India have pushed grain prices to near-record highs — while production costs have plummeted.
GAME DAY: Two of the Kingdom’s best football clubs meet on Sunday in the Cambodian Super Cup at Olympic Stadium. It’s a warm-up for the Premier League season, which opens next Saturday.
THE LEDE
New Blood
Cambodia is days away from having its first new prime minister in nearly 40 years. Most Cambodians, who have a median age of 27, have only known one leader in their lifetime.
Things will move fast from here: The National Election Committee said it will post final results of the July 23 poll by Aug. 5. King Norodom Sihamoni is expected to appoint the new premier the day after results are announced. The new government will be formed on Aug. 22.
Hun Manet is expected to govern much like his father. Cambodia will remain tight with China, and cool with the U.S. — although some optimists argue that a more youthful government, one less distrustful of the West, could open the door to improved ties.
Side Hustle
The Strongman isn’t going anywhere.
Following a landslide victory in Sunday’s election, Hun Sen announced he would step down and appoint Hun Manet as the new prime minister — but don’t expect the iron-fisted ruler to simply fade away.
Hun Sen will soon lead the Royal Supreme Advisory Council and Royal Council of the Throne, the bodies responsible for selecting kings. He will assume the presidency of the Senate in February and remain leader of the CPP, a role that allows him to sack any party member, including the prime minister, at any time.
The rarefied appointments, together with his eldest son serving as the head of state, mean Hun Sen will retain much of his old political power, if not more.
Family Trees
The government awarded more than 6,200 hectares of Botum Sakor National Park to a company run by the son of Ly Yong Phat, the controversial tycoon known as the “King of Koh Kong.”
The tract represents the park’s largest remaining stand of old-growth forest. Wildlife officials say unchecked development has led to the disappearance of tigers, sun bears and other wildlife. Once-abundant Asian Elephants now number less than 25 and residents fear they may be the next species to vanish.
More than 80% of the park has been privatized since 1998, with more than 20% going to Ly Yong Phat and his family — and more deals are on the way.
TALKING POINTS
Ballot Bomb
The U.S. threw nothing but shade on Hun Sen’s one-sided election victory. Washington declared the vote “neither free nor fair” and said it would suspend some aid programs and impose travel restrictions on leaders who “undermined democracy.” The ruling CPP won 120 of 125 parliamentary seats in a poll widely criticized by Western democracies.
Protest Votes
A nationwide manhunt is underway for more than 40 members of a Telegram chat group. The authorities have identified group leaders as “outsiders” living overseas who urged supporters to protest the election by invalidating ballots with an “X.” Police have arrested at least seven suspects, including three Candlelight Party leaders, for seemingly minor infractions.
Water Fight
China-funded upgrades to Ream Naval Base are nearly complete. The U.S. has accused the Chinese military of building a secret outpost capable of docking aircraft carriers, allegations strongly denied by Beijing and Phnom Penh. Defense experts say the base is “too small and crude” to support a 5,000-man carrier.
Deep Cuts
Police in Indonesia busted an organ trafficking ring that sent more than 120 victims to Preah Ket Mealea Hospital for illegal kidney transplants. The hospital denied the accusations, but it’s not the first time the military-run institution has been implicated in black-market operations. Police are investigating.
Fashion Police
Nike is under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Labor activists have demanded the American sportswear giant intervene in a yearslong labor dispute to help local workers, who are owed an estimated $1.4 million in severance pay and unpaid benefits.
Capital Grains
Prices on export-quality rice varieties are nearing three-year highs and could go higher as climate change, the war in Ukraine and export restrictions in India limit global supply. The Kingdom’s rice farmers couldn’t be happier: Fertilizer and pesticide costs have dropped, extending profits and providing extra cash.
Footie Season
Two of Cambodia’s top football clubs — Phnom Penh Crown and Visakha — face off Sunday at Olympic Stadium in the Cambodian Super Cup, an annual pre-season curtain raiser. The 10-team Cambodian Premier League begins Aug 5.
BACKPAGES: From The Cambodia Daily Vault
Feeling Left out of the Electoral Process, Many of Cambodia’s Sex Workers Will Stay Away From The Polls on Sunday
July 26, 2003
Soon the day laborers on Sihanoukville’s docks will be getting off work. And the hired hands who work for wealthier boat owners are waking up from a day’s sleep and will have a few hours to kill before they shove off for a night of fishing.
Observer Groups: 31 People Killed in Pre-Election Period Say
July 26, 2003
In the nearly eight months leading up to Sunday’s national elections, 31 political activists were killed in 28 incidents, the Committee for Free and Fair Elections and the Neutral, Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections said in a pre-election joint statement released Friday.
CIA Interrogates Jailed Muslim Teachers
July 25, 2003
Officials with the US Central Intelligence Agency visited Cambodia recently to interrogate three Muslim teachers who are being held on suspicion of terrorism links, General Sok Phal, director of the Interior Ministry’s Information Department, said Thursday.
Church Protests Continue Despite Shower
July 22, 2003
Hundreds of superstitious villagers in Svay Rieng province who recently thrashed a Christian church they blamed for a three-year drought were back out in force on Saturday demanding the building be dismantled.
WEEKEND READING
When Meta suspends influential political accounts, who loses?
Meta must decide whether to suspend Hun Sen’s Facebook page and the archive of recent Cambodian political history it contains.
Cambodia awards swath of national park forest to tycoon Ly Yong Phat’s son
A Cambodian tycoon notorious for his association with illegal logging has expanded his grip over the country’s largest national park, with a swath of forest awarded to his son’s rubber company.
After 38 years, Cambodia PM Hun Sen to hand office to son
On Wednesday, the prime minister officially announced that his eldest son, military commander Hun Manet would take his position on 22 August. In this editorial, Globe editor-in-chief Andrew Haffner looks back at the long arc of Hun Sen's political legacy.
Photos: Hun Manet, Telegram. Ream Naval Base, Blacksky.
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