Hun Sen Picks Up Eyeballs, State Silences More Critics, FDI Soars to $4.9 billion
Good morning, Cambodia. It's Friday, January 12, and this is your Weekly Dispatch.
CAPTAIN SPEAKING: The new Siem Reap airport is up and running, and so are the complaints — like poor wifi, little food, long lines and an expensive trip to town. Officials say they’re working on it.
BAD SEEDS: The Kingdom’s farmers can’t catch a break. Many planted early as global rice prices hit a 15-year high. Now, a brutal dry season is on tap, bringing potential losses to crops, profits and livelihoods.
SITE SEEING: The out-of-work Strongman toured Tokyo, where he had a few meetings and picked up five new prosthetic eyes, having lost one in a gunfight in 1975. Maybe life will be much clearer in retirement.
THE LEDE
Quiet Time
The government’s clampdown on free speech grows wider and weirder by the day, with no insult too small to escape the notice of the country’s hypervigilant Facebook monitors.
Authorities detained at least 20 individuals for running afoul of the Kingdom’s vague laws against defamation and culturally offensive behavior. They included usual suspects like Ny Nak, an outspoken government critic, and Mother Nature activists — but also a group of teachers accused of eating raw fish and five schoolgirls denounced for trampling on banknotes.
Hun Manet, perhaps highlighting the kookiness of it all, warned content creators against “eating shoes” — leaving observers baffled as to how far the new government will go to silence individual expression.
Mixed Signals
Call 2023 a better economic year – but still not a great one.
Foreign investment jumped 22% to $4.9 billion, with China, Singapore and Malaysia the top spenders. Exports improved by nearly 2%, with the U.S. remaining the Kingdom’s top buyer, purchasing $8.9 billion in goods, only a modest decline of 1.8%.
The bad news is that sales of garments, footwear and travel goods plunged more than 13%, prompting new calls for economic reform.
Experts urged the Kingdom to address a number of shortcomings — including unclear tax laws, underdeveloped infrastructure and political repression — to attract a wider net of trading partners.
Hot Times
Climate change is no distant threat for the Kingdom’s rice farmers.
Agricultural officials in Kampong Chhnang, Pursat and Svay Rieng provinces have suspended dry season rice cultivation due to a lack of water, with growers in Battambang facing similar conditions. It’s a harsh blow to farmers, many of whom have rushed into summer planting as global rice prices hit 15-year highs.
Forecasters predict a brutal summer, with temperatures near 42C and drought-like conditions through April. Authorities have warned of losses to crops, livestock and profits, and urged residents to conserve water and prepare for months of oppressive heat.
TALKING POINTS
Feedback Box
Tip-seeking staff and surly security guards top the list of customer complaints at the new Siem Reap Angkor International Airport, which opened in October. Other grievances include slow-moving lines, bad wifi, scant food options, refusing worn banknotes, and expensive taxi rides to town. Officials admitted to a learning curve and said they were working to improve.
Tight Spot
Seven Cambodian asylum seekers arrested in Bangkok in December are still being held by Thai immigration authorities. U.N. and Cambodian officials have declined to comment on their status, but supporters fear they will be deported to Cambodia in violation of international treaties, and jailed.
Bad Start
Traffic accidents killed 22 people in the first week of 2024, not including six hit-and-run deaths on New Year’s Eve. Roughly four people die each day on the Kingdom’s roads, making the new year’s tally pretty average. Road safety experts have pressed the government to significantly improve police efforts.
Smog Alert
Air quality has dropped to unhealthy, but not yet dangerous, levels, the Ministry of Environment said. Several measures have been launched to improve the situation, including a ban on the open burning of forests and waste.
Aging Abbot
Tep Vong, the Kingdom’s highest ranking Buddhist official, is being treated at Calmette Hospital for loss of appetite and energy. The 92-year-old Great Supreme Patriarch was among the first clergymen to be ordained after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and he is widely credited for helping rebuild Buddhism.
French Kick
The Kingdom’s newest football star is a 27-year-old midfielder from Paris, Antoine Lemarie, whose YouTube channel blew up after he signed with Boeung Ket FC, a middle-of-the-pack squad in the Cambodian Premier League. His followers in France have been captivated by his posts from Phnom Penh.
Five Eyes
The Strongman stocked up on prosthetic eyes during a visit to Japan. The five ocular globes are enough to last a decade, he said. The stay in Tokyo included routine health checks and a meeting with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. Hun Sen lost his left eye during an April 1975 gun battle. He has used Japanese prosthetics since 1990, and praised Tokyo eye doctors for their excellent products and care.
BACKPAGES: From The Cambodia Daily Vault
Police Frustrated by Obstacles to Enforcement
January 8, 2004
Last week’s reported beating of a Cambodian Bar Association member at the hands of eight young men—a beating that allegedly took place in full view of several police officers—highlights, once again, one of the several reasons that impunity and lawlessness continue to reign.
Lawyer Says Police Watched Gang Beat Him
January 6, 2004
Lawyer Pheng Sideth is filing a complaint against Chamkar Mon district police who he says did nothing as a group of eight known gangsters beat him early Friday morning.
Marriages Abound Among the Political Elite
January 6, 2004
Friday’s marriage of the son of Prime Minister Hun Sen to the daughter of a top-ranking government official was the latest between the children of ruling party members.
Court Resets Trial for Nephew of Hun Sen
January 12, 2004
The trial of a nephew of Prime Minister Hun Sen on charges of premeditated killing, relating to a car crash and the shooting of several bystanders, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, court officials said Sunday.
WEEKEND READING
Do carbon credits really help communities that keep forests standing?
Communities play a critical role in REDD+, a forest conservation strategy that aims to reduce emissions that can be sold as credits to raise money for forest protection. But reports that REDD+ communities have faced abuses and rights violations have emerged recently in connection with high-profile REDD+ projects.
Photos: Mother Nature, via Facebook. Siem Reap Angkor International Airport, Ministry of Tourism.
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