Commentary: Elizabeth Becker and the Campaign to Put NGOs above the Law
AKP Phnom Penh, August 24, 2011
Nobody seems entirely sure of the number, but it is generally believed that more than 2000 non-governmental organisations operate in Cambodia. One of the reasons for the uncertainty about the number is that Cambodia is one of the few countries that has not established laws and procedures for the formation and operation of NGOs.
The Royal Government has been working for several years to rectify this situation by adopting a law that defines NGOs and sets a few broad parameters for their operation. Under this law, NGOs will have to register with the government and submit annual reports on their activities, income and expenditures.
Unfortunately, a minority of NGOs have objected to the very idea that NGOs should be required to register or be subject to any rules established by the elected government. To a certain extent, this is understandable: nobody enjoys being subjected to rules, as you can see by observing the behaviour around traffic lights when no police are present. But most people realise that some rules and regulations are a necessary part of social existence. NGOs that aim to promote democratic principles ought to be particularly aware of this, rather than claiming to be above the law. (more…)
Silencing Cambodia’s Honest Brokers
By ELIZABETH BECKER, The International Herald Tribune, Published: August 17, 2011
WASHINGTON — This year is the 20th anniversary of the Paris peace accords that ended the Cambodian war and any further threat from the murderous Khmer Rouge. It required all the major powers — the United States, leading European countries, the former Soviet Union and China — as well as most Asian nations to come up with an accord, a rare achievement. In a speech last week, Gareth Evans said that during his eight years as the Australian foreign minister “nothing has given me more pleasure and pride than the Paris peace agreement concluded in 1991.”
I reported from Paris on the negotiations, which took several years of convoluted diplomacy since few countries or political parties had clean hands in the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge. When the deal was finally signed in October of 1991 there were self-congratulations all around, champagne and a huge sigh of relief that Cambodia could move on to peace and democracy.
It didn’t turn out that way. Cambodia today is essentially ruled by a single political party with little room for an opposition, has a weak and corrupt judiciary, and the country’s most effective union leaders have been murdered. (more…)
Filed under: Regional Press
Mongolian Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Journalist
(Globe International/IFEX) – On 23 August 2011, judge Ch. Khosbayar of the Sukhbaatar District Court dismissed the charges in a criminal lawsuit against journalist Bolormaa Damdinsuren of “Zuunii Medee” (Century News) newspaper.
Damdinsuren published an article in the paper’s #267 issue, on 8 November 2010, headlined “The director of the ‘Mon Uran’ Company B. Narankhuu is under investigation by the police for sexually abusing teenage girls.”
After the article was published, Narankhuu filed criminal charges against the journalist accusing her of publicly defaming his business and individual reputation.
Narankhuu did not attend the trial himself, but sent a representative on his behalf. The state prosecutor revealed that another individual named G. Narankhuu had been involved in the criminal activities and found the journalist guilty of slander. The prosecutor demanded a four-month sentence. However, the judge noted the journalist did not purposefully defame the company director and therefore the case could no longer be considered a criminal lawsuit. (more…)
Filed under: Commentary
Be grateful our native tongue has survived
- Moeun Chhean Nariddh’s Letter to The Phnom Penh Post, Friday, 19 August 2011
First, I agree there are many impolite words in the Khmer language, especially when people want to express their anger or contempt, but this is no different from any other language.
We should, however, recognise that Khmer words are used according to the hierarchy of society and social status. Words vary, depending on whether one is addressing monks, the king, parents, friends or younger people.
Educated city-dwellers tend to use more polite words than poor, less educated people do, but the Khmer Rouge killed most of the knowledgeable urban Cambodians.
The Khmer language itself also fell victim to the Khmer Rouge regime, which targeted people who used polite words they considered the language of feudalists and capitalists. (more…)
Filed under: Commentary
In time, our language will correct itself
- Kok-Thay Eng’s Letter to The Phnom Penh Post, Friday, 19 August 2011
Dear Editor,
Theary Seng’s opinion piece (“A language in crisis”, August 16) was interesting and contributive, but I think there are some aberrations in her observations on the use and development of the
Khmer language.
To begin, I honestly believe Theary Seng should improve her Khmer-language skills.
I understand she was brought up in the US, but she has livied in Cambodia for quite a long time. I have met Khmer Americans who speak fluent Khmer, and Cham Americans who speak Cham very well.
I also understand that acquiring a second language is not something that can be done easily; people differ in their linguistic intelligence. But judging from Theary Seng’s English-language fluency, she doesn’t lack that intelligence. (more…)
Filed under: Commentary
Our language is evolving, not dying
by Lim Sovannarith, Letter to Th Phnom Penh Post, Thursday, 18 August 2011
Dear Editor,
I am responding to Theary C Seng’s article “A language in crisis”, published in the opinion page of The Phnom Penh Post on August 16.
With great interest and curiosity, I read Ms Seng’s analysis of the Khmer language and her observat-ions on how the language is used.
For one thing, I come from a language-education background, and for another I have come to realise I am not the only one who is concerned about the future of the Khmer language and its
‘‘complicated’’ usage.
(more…)
Filed under: Commentary
A LANGUAGE IN CRISIS
by Theary C. SENG, The Phnom Penh Post, August 16, 2011
The Cambodian language is dying: the spoken language is either crude and earthy (to the point of offensiveness) or highly stylized (to the point of incomprehension); the written language is in crisis from carelessness and lack of development, mummified from antiquity, rattled by modernity. And no one is doing anything about it.
Here, I am not speaking as a linguist, which I am not; nor am I speaking as a lawyer, which I am. (Both professions parse language for clarity.)
I am not even speaking as someone who is fluent, but only proficient, in speaking her native tongue.
However, I am speaking as someone who has been acutely observing communication in the Khmer language for at least the past seven years, both spoken and written, and who is aghast at the state of affairs.
Here are some general observations which should cause great concern for Cambodian educators and leaders: (more…)
Filed under: Commentary
Slipshod Journalist Puts One Over on Australian Radio
By Allen Myers (Freelance editor), Agence Kampuchea Presse, July 20, 2011
Pity the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Someone in the ABC programming department must have been asleep a few weeks ago, when Joel Brinkley’s book Cambodia’s Curse was being widely reviewed. The ABC evidently was unaware that most reviewers who knew much at all about Cambodia were convinced by his book that Brinkley himself knew very little.
For example, Kok-Thay Eng of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia in his review criticised Brinkley’s view of “the Cambodian people’s supposed lack of intelligence, laziness, indolence, ignorance, torpidity, and historically-rooted corruption”. He summarised: (more…)
Filed under: International Press
Cambodia’s leaders are murderous kleptocrats: author
ABC’s Stephen Long Reports, July 14, 2011
STEPHEN LONG: Cambodia is one of the world’s poorest nations. At least 30 per cent of the population live on less than a dollar a day.
The Australian Government gives over $64 million in aid to Cambodia every year – the world, more than a billion. But how much of that actually gets to the Cambodian people?
Joel Brinkley is the author of a new book called Cambodia’s Curse. He says Cambodia’s leaders are murderous kleptocrats who pocket most foreign aid, while selling the nation’s rice crop for the own gain, and leaving their people to starve, as the world turns a blind eye.
(more…)
Filed under: Commentary, Democracy
Response To Anonymous Critique by Elizabeth Becker
Letter to The Cambodia Daily, August 27, 2011
I have had numerous requests for my response to an anonymous article published in the Cambodian government’s official press –Agence Kampuchea Press or AKP on August 24, 2011. The article was intended as a critique of my opinion piece that ran in the International Herald Tribune on August 17, 2011.
The problem was: Who do I send it to? Normally if an official takes issue with an article, he or she writes a signed letter to the news organization that ran the piece. Instead, the Cambodian government chose to publish a mean-spirited attack written by an anonymous writer who cannot be held accountable for the articles’ many inaccuracies and distortions. Here is my answer:
The Paris Peace Accords made peace possible in large part by depriving the Cambodian factions of their foreign sponsors. Critical was China dropping the Khmer Rouge. Without the Chinese, Pol Pot and his army were incapable of returning to power. Indeed the only major battles in Phnom Penh after the peace accords were between the forces of Prince Ranariddh and those loyal to Hun Sen. (These were the two ‘co-prime ministers’ at the head of the government following the elections held under the auspices of the U.N.) (more…)