Sam Rainsy Rides Again, Mech Dara Stands Down, Bushmeat Trade Endangers Wildlife
Good morning, Cambodia. It's Friday, November 8, and this is your Weekly Dispatch.
BLOCK TALK: Bangkok is under pressure to restart talks with Cambodia over a section of the Gulf of Thailand the two have bickered over since the 1970s. Sovereignty is nice. Some $300 billion in oil reserves is better.
SLOW DEBT: Microfinance has for years meant macrobusiness, with 132 lenders, 1.5 million clients and $5.2 billion in loans. This year is atypical: late paybacks and canceled loans are soaring, while total loans are up just 1%.
SCOOPED UP: The star-crossed saga of Mech Dara has ended in surrender. He started at The Daily as a teen, became an acclaimed reporter and retired with the respect of his peers. Sadly, the Kingdom has lost a truth-teller.
THE LEDE
Hard Turn
Sam Rainsy is at it again. The exiled dissident and former finance minister this week launched his fifth opposition group, the Khmer National Movement, with the hyper ambitious goal of chasing the Hun family from power in a Bangladesh-style uprising.
Such a result is improbable. The ruling CPP, which has held an iron grip on power since the 1980s, responded with a big yawn — and a low-key threat of prison time for potential collaborators.
Rainsy’s announcement appears to play to the CPP’s hand, giving it another excuse to crank the vice on freedom of expression and imprison anyone who strays from the party line.
Hot Wire
The ancient rivalry between China and Japan has a new frontline — the Kingdom’s digital communications network.
Days after two Japanese telecom giants announced plans to test advanced networks in Phnom Penh, China made a surprising move: A promise of 100% coverage of mobile and high-speed internet in urban areas and 70% in rural areas by next year.
The pledge ratchets up fears that, in addition to controlling a substantial part of the Kingdom’s digital infrastructure, China will complete Cambodia’s long-planned internet gateway, giving the government near total control over the information its citizens are allowed to see.
Silent Knight
Mech Dara, the award-winning reporter whose recent arrest drew global outrage, has called it a career. He has quit journalism, he said, and intends to farm vegetables at home in Kandal province.
It was a stunning turnaround for the 36-year-old newspaperman, who was detained Sept. 30 on incitement charges for social media posts relating to a CPP-linked tycoon. After three weeks in jail, he apologized. On Monday, he appeared on Hun Manet's Facebook page, embracing the prime minister.
His bombshell capitulation sends a chilling message to the nation’s would-be journalists. It's a dark time for free speech in Cambodia — and there's no telling when it will end.
TALKING POINTS
Slick Talk
An estimated $300 billion in offshore petroleum reserves is driving renewed efforts from Thailand to strike a deal with Cambodia on contested oil fields. Thai officials have vowed to focus on joint development, rather than fighting over sovereignty. The odds of a deal are better than ever, experts say, as both countries are squeezed by a rising reliance on expensive imported oil.
Young Gun
More trouble for Koet Saray, the prominent leader of the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association, who was given four years in prison for commenting on a forced eviction in Preah Vihear province. He was previously arrested in 2020, for marching in support of union leader Rong Chhun, and in April, for speaking out on a separate Preah Vihear land dispute.
Falling Star
Hard times are coming for the Kingdom’s microfinance sector. Total loans grew a mere 1% over the first nine months of the year, to $5.2 billion — a significant plunge from the record-breaking $9.4 billion recorded two years ago. The pull back, say insiders, was badly needed after decades of soaring and unsustainable growth.
Firm Hand
More than 250 private schools will freeze tuition fees for the coming year. The unusual price lock was set in motion by Hun Manet, who is taking an increasingly interventionist role in the Kingdom’s free market.
Cross Fire
The demand for bushmeat and traditional medicine is decimating the Kingdom’s endangered species. The problem, says the Ministry of Environment, is too big for the government alone, and for years it worked to shift responsibility onto local communities, who are perpetually underfunded and understaffed.
Long Ball
Cambodia will send two squads to compete in the Australian Football League Asia Cup in Vietnam next month. A coach said most players were from Steung Meanchey landfill villages. A fundraiser will be held to meet tourney costs.
Last Period
Dr. Ray Leos, vice-president of the American University of Phnom Penh and a pillar of Cambodian academics for more than two decades, passed away from unknown causes. Dr. Leos was well-known as a mentor to a generation of university students. He was 68.
BACKPAGES: From The Cambodia Daily Vault
Grenade Delivered to Senior Bank Official
November 5, 2004
A grenade hidden inside a bag of fruit was delivered to a Phnom Penh home on Tuesday in an apparent threat to the deputy administrator of a well-known Chinese bank, military police said Thursday.
Soldiers Suspected of Poaching in Kirirom Park
November 4, 2004
A land mine and a B40 rocket were rigged as booby traps in two separate locations inside the popular Kirirom National Park last month to keep law enforcement officers away from illegal animal traps, according police and witness reports.
Report for USAID Cites Rampant Graft
November 3, 2004
Cambodia is rife with institutionalized corruption that poses obstacles to socio-economic and political improvement, and despite international awareness of the problem, there has been little meaningful change, a new report commissioned by the US Agency for International Development said this week.
WEEKEND READING
Kak Channthy: The ‘barefoot diva’ who revived Cambodian culture
In Phnom Penh’s sweltering heat, the world is reduced to a manic kaleidoscope.
Photos: Sam Rainsy, The Cambodia Daily. Cambodian Eagles, Facebook.
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