Hun Manet Scoffs at Legal Pot, Khieu Samphan Wants a Laptop, Chinese Movie Scares Off Tourists
Good morning, Cambodia. It's Friday, August 18, and this is your Weekly Dispatch.
SHORT BET: Cambodia gambled on the return of high-rolling Chinese travelers to revive the ailing tourism sector. Its reputation for kidnapping and cyber scams is keeping them away.
HISTORY CLASS: Hundreds of hand-grenades and anti-tanks mines were found in the garden of a rural high school, relics of a Khmer Rouge munitions depot. Classes were moved online.
NOT SORRY: The Kraol people of Kratie province have refused to apologize for burning down a government outpost, as a volatile stand-off intensifies over access to ancestral land and forests.
THE LEDE
New Wave
Not exactly democracy in action, but it's definitely different. Cambodia will usher in a new government Tuesday in the first peaceful transition of power in its modern history.
The responsibility of the Kingdom will be handed down mostly along family lines: The prime minister's post and several key portfolios, including the ministries of Interior and Defense, are expected to be given to the children of current office holders.
General Hun Manet, the Strongman’s son and incoming premier, is expected to govern much like his father, leaning heavily on China for economic growth and political stability.
The new boss makes his diplomatic debut at the East Asia Summit next month in Indonesia, then speaks to the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September, a performance one analyst predicted would be a “sensation.”
Danger Zone
Cambodia’s notorious reputation for pig-butchering scams is wrecking efforts to charm back big-spending Chinese tourists, once the cornerstone of the Kingdom’s $5 billion tourism industry.
Overseas cyber fraud is even the subject of China’s latest blockbuster, “No More Bets,” which has outsold “Barbie” by more than $200 million and contributed to Southeast Asia's plummeting image as a travel destination. The Kingdom is now viewed on par with Myanmar, and 97% of respondents in one online poll described both countries as off limits.
The government bet heavily on the return of Chinese visitors to revive the Kingdom’s pandemic-stricken tourism sector. It’s not clear if there is a Plan B.
Rate Hike
A tsunami of fraud allegations against four real estate tycoons is bringing long-needed scrutiny to the Kingdom’s troubled housing sector.
Authorities charged Oknha Hy Kimhong, director of Piphup Deimeas Investment Co., with aggravated fraud, alleging he cheated more than 1,000 families out of $21 million. It’s the second high-profile arrest since April — and two others, Oknha Leng Navatra and Oknha Nuon Ak, are dealing with a chorus of online complaints that may soon involve legal authorities.
Experts predict bigger trouble ahead, as interest rates hit all-time highs and builders and borrowers face a nasty cash crunch.
TALKING POINTS
Full Steam
China will provide more than $40 million for a network of high-speed rail lines connecting Cambodia to Thailand. Details and financial terms were not announced. The lack of transparency around Chinese-funded projects, critics argue, is an invitation to graft and corruption.
Bong Hit
Hun Manet voiced strong opposition to medical marijuana, vowing that cannabis would never be legal on his watch. Thailand legalized pot last year to mixed reviews and surging tax receipts — but the money, the new boss said, was not worth the possibility of social problems.
War Relics
A cache of 2,000 unexploded bombs was discovered by workers digging in the garden of a Kratie school. The site was a Khmer Rouge munitions dump in the 1970s, experts said, and was believed to have been cleared. Cambodia is on course to be mine-free by 2025.
Business License
Australian regulators seized $9.3 million in assets from Oz Minerals Ltd, a mining company with operations in Cambodia, saying local officials may have paid bribes to obtain extraction rights. The company self-reported the payments, which were made by employees of Oxiana (Cambodia) Limited.
Land Rights
Members of the Kraol indigenous community who burned down a Ministry of Environment outpost in Kratie have refused to apologize, prompting a tense standoff with local authorities. Indigenous groups fear new environmental laws will deprive them of access to traditional lands and community forests — and some are fighting back.
Power Down
Khieu Samphan, the last surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge, has requested a computer. The 92-year-old wants a laptop to finish his biography, his lawyer said. Prison officials have agreed, but on one condition: no internet access.
Bug Bites
Unknown insects should be eaten with caution, health officials urged, after four people died from ingesting jewel beetles. The brightly colored insects are highly toxic and cause irreversible kidney damage, disease experts said, capable of causing death in hours.
BACKPAGES: From The Cambodia Daily Vault
Ministry of Finance Urges Press Silence
August 14, 2003
The Ministry of Finance requested Wednesday that newspapers cease reporting corruption allegations against the ministry to allow its own officials to decide whether the awarding of a million-dollar government contract was in line with the ministry’s “norms and procedures.”
Global Witness Report Details Illegal Logging
August 12, 2003
Global Witness submitted forest crime reports to the government last week detailing illegal logging operations in Kratie and Mondolkiri provinces’ Snuol Wildlife Sanctuary and at timber concessions in Kratie and Kompong Thom provinces.
Plan to Protest Poll Results Draws Threat
August 12, 2003
A coalition of five lobby groups, all strong supporters of the Sam Rainsy Party, said on Monday it will hold a mass demonstration against the results of the July 27 general election, sparking threats of a crackdown from the CPP-backed Pagoda Boys.
WEEKEND READING
A Brutal Dictatorship Decimated Cambodia’s Culinary Heritage. This Self-Taught Chef Is Bringing It Back.
As one of the country's most in-demand celebrity cooks, Chef Nak is recreating long-lost traditional dishes.
Behind Cambodia’s big bet on REDD+ projects
Cambodia's leaders are anxious to prove to the world that the forest conservation mechanism can address climate change while providing opportunities for people to thrive in a “new Cambodia”. But there are concerns about greenwash, and observers point to how such projects can end up being a guise for illicit land grabbing by ruling elites.
On the Mekong, Sand Mining Threatens the River and a Way of Life
In “Lost Lands” — Second-Place Winner of the Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — Cambodia-based filmmaker Andy Ball focuses on two families who describe how unchecked mining of river sand for urban development has devastated their fisheries and food-producing wetlands.
Photos: Jin Bei Casino, WikiMedia. Khieu Samphan, WikiMedia.
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