Khmer Proverbs (23)

You want others to become petrified from fear of your power, to be apprehensive of and praise your courage; but your status will not be as you assume, what you will have is only self-destruction. 

~http://www.khmerinstitute.org

Banned! Radio Broadcasts! Banned! Foreigners Expressing an Opinion!

This Blackout brought to you by the Royal Cambodian Government.

The Cambodian government has banned FM radio stations from broadcasting foreign-produced programmes during the election lead-up.

As a result 10 Khmer Radio stations will not be airing the U.S. funded Radio Free Asia programmes that they once did.

A spokesman from Radio Free Asia claimed the move was:

“the most sweeping and stunning frontal assault on media freedom in Cambodia in recent memory.”

The directive, released late Friday, also barred "foreigners in Cambodia from campaigning in favour or against any political party" 

That's disgraceful.

The U.S. government shares the concern with State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell saying that such restrictions call into question whether the July 28 vote will be free and fair.

That won't bother Hun Sen and his cronies one bit; they'll happily wear the criticism knowing the banning of an often critical foreign media will improve their poll results while, after a pause for a little squealing from U.S. politicians, American cash will again roll into the Cambodian government's coffers.

Hun Sen Quotes (19) Pedophile Allegation

“I tell you what. Your political life could have been over…at the end of 2011. 

That day I got an urgent phone call to immediately arrest a lawmaker and president of an opposition party. 

He was taking a 15 year old girl and had already paid $500 and was taking her to Micasa hotel near the riverside. I did not authorize his arrest, If I had, he might accuse us of intervening in his personal life.”

Hun Sen, Thursday 13, 2013, Phnom Penh

The man Hun Sen is referring to is clearly Kem Sokha the leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party. 

Hun Sen failed to offer any evidence at all for his allegation. Nothing.

Nor does he offer a reasonable excuse for why, if his allegations are indeed true, he chose to shield the lowest-of-the-low, a pedophile. 

Media Remain Silent as Opposition Party Expelled

Imagine if the Brits, or the Americans, or the Germans, woke one morning and found that all members of their main opposition party had been expelled from parliament and their salaries suspended?

It would be some news story, wouldn't it?  Television and radio would be all over it. And it would cover the front page of every newspaper for weeks.

But not in Cambodia.

For when all the members of the main opposition, the Cambodian National Rescue Party, were expelled for spurious reasons and their salaries stripped, much of Cambodia's media remained mute.

In fact, of the eight biggest Khmer language newspapers, six papers didn't report the event at all. The other two gave just a brief account.

So with the thin veneer of democracy finally stripped away, Cambodia sits (at least until the next election) as an all-but one-party state.

 And Hun Sen and his CPP party, who have most of the media in a strangling grip, are doing their level best to keep the significance of that decision from their people.

Hun Sen Quotes (16) Terrorists in Opposition Party

May 16, 2013

"Entire groups have been hiding in the opposition party, and I would like to send a message to the opposition, that when these people are arrested, don't say they are just members of the opposition- they are terrorists."

Hun Sen Quotes (15) My Son the Ghost

He's made the outlandish claim that the opposition would bulldoze public buildings should they win the upcoming election. 

And he's made the outrageous claim that civil war would break out should he lose the popular vote.

But that is not enough for Prime Minister Samdach Akaek Moha Sena Padei Decho Hun Sen.

 

In a recently nationally televised speech Prime Minister sought to appeal to the superstitious nature of some of his countrymen with possibly his stupidest claim; Manet, his favoured son, was, he said, the child of a 'Neak ta,' a powerful local spirit.

 “When he [Manet] was born , there was a bright light flying around the cottage’s roof,” Hun Sen said, before turning to his son. “You should go visit that banyan tree, because you come from that tree.”

Hun Sen Quotes (13) Civil War

“For sure, [civil] war will erupt if they [the opposition party] win the election,” Hun Sen, 62, said in a speech broadcast on national radio.

“He [Rainsy] has not won power, yet he announced that the members of the ruling government will be brought to trial. Problems will happen like during Pol Pot’s regime,” he warned, adding that “nobody will be waiting to be arrested”.

 Coldly calculated words to engender fear in Cambodians, many of who know full well the terrors of war and the Pol Pot regime.

What a disgraceful threat.

Hun Sen Quotes (12): An Independent Judiciary?

She had acted “violently and unjustly in the eyes of the government”.

~Hun Sen, March, 2013

Prime Minister, Samdach Akaek Moha Sena Padei Decho, Hun Sen made this comment just over a week before jailed activist Yorm Bopha appeared before the supreme court to seek her release from jail, today.
This, in a country, where the courts are little more than a tool of the government, is simply a directive to the court to find against Bopha.

Which it did.

Bopha has now spent 204 days imprisoned despite not a single testimony or witness ever claiming she had acted violently.

Hun Sen Helps Mali

Hun Sen has donated half-a-million dollars towards the building of a school, which will be named after him, in Mali.

Yep, Mali. Quite why Prime Minister, Samdach Akaek Moha Sena Padei Decho, Hun Sen would do such a thing when many of his own people live in squalor and are educated in woefully resourced schools is something of a mystery. 

Perhaps, he wants to be seen as an international philanthropist and a statesman. Or perhaps he wants to take his scheme to the world. The scheme where he asks wealthy Cambodians to build schools and them name them after himself. Naturally no favours are asked or given for such undertakings.

It is of course churlish to question such a generous personal donation but one wonders how the PM on a salary of just a few thousand a month is able to afford such a largesse.

Hun Sen Quotes (11) Human Rights

In yet another woe-is-me whine Cambodian Prime Minister, Samdach Akaek Moha Sena Padei Decho, Hun Sen wondered aloud why people had the temerity to target poor little Cambodia and his government over its human rights record while Thailand was left alone.

"The military coup [in Thailand] ousted Thaksin [Shinawatra] and blocked him from returning to the country, destroyed political parties, cut political rights- and no one criticizes them," the P.M bleated.

Well, the coup did oust Thaksin it's true. But it was widely condemned. 

And Thaksin is not blocked from returning to Thailand, as Hun Sen knows. Rather, Thaksin is on the run after being convicted for being the thieving, corrupt scumbag that he is, while his sister and proxy, runs the country.

None of which matters in the least; abusers of human rights should be named and shamed whoever and where ever they are. What goes on elsewhere excuses nothing. 

Hun Sen Quotes (9) Threat if not re-elected

"I am sure that if people no longer need me... I have no reason to help you in the future..."

~Hun Sen, March 5th, 2013

With the July general election looming Hun Sen is bringing out the threats to ensure he stays in power. In this speech at a ground-breaking road-widening ceremony, Samdach Akaek Moha Sena Padei Decho Hun Sen made it plain that should he not be re-elected he would ensure that infrastructure projects already slated to go ahead would be canceled.

That would be a classic and highly-damaging 'take my ball and go home' sulk if there every was one.

Hun Sen Quotes (7) Gay Rights

"There are gays and lesbians in every country, so there should be no discrimination against them just because of their destiny."

~ Hun Sen, December, 2012

That's good news.

And it would be brilliant news if it were not for the fact that this recent quote is at odds with how the Cambodian Prime Minister actually acts; Hun Sen publicly disowned his adopted lesbian daughter a number of years ago.

Hun Sen Backtracks

A Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Prime Minister Hun Sen speech cock-up?

"...It is my fault because I did not explain everything."

Or, did Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Prime Minister Hun Sen realize, belatedly, that he had gone too far, and the Cambodian people and civil society weren't yet ready to rollover and cede full control of the country to Hun Sen and his CPP party?

Whatever the reason, (and I favour the later) there's a measure of good news in Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Prime Minister Hun Sen's flip-flop on his previous claim that he would not intervene in disputes if opposition political parties or NGOs were involved in helping land-grab victims.

See here for earlier story.

Hun Sen continued to say that he understood some NGOs played a valuable part in helping people when government authorities were unable to do do.

At least then Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Prime Minister Hun Sen sees a need to pay lip-service to the validity of a civil society in Cambodia. 

For now.

Hun Sen Quotes (6)

"I will not resolve a land dispute if civil groups or politicians are involved in the land disputes."

~Hun Sen
23 November 2012
Preah Vihear Province

Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Prime Minister Hun Sen is clear, he's blunt, and he's authoritarian; should you seek the help of opposition political parties or those pesky human rights' NGOs, I will make sure you remain screwed, is his message.

Cambodia Center for Human Rights' executive director, Ou Virak, got it right when he claimed that the government are seeking to "squeeze out and restrict completely," any and all forms of Cambodian civil society. He might add that they are seeking to squeeze out all political party opposition, too.

Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Prime Minister Hun Sen, it seems, is picking up the pace of his attempt to take total control of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Listen and Learn Cambodian Spokesman tells Obama

Phay Siphan: not much going on upstairs

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said he did not think that Mr. Obama would talk to Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, about human rights in Phnom Penh, this week.

"Obama will not talk about it (human rights)," said Phay.

Just hours later Obama met Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Prime Minister Hun Sen, in what was described by American officials as a 'tense' meeting primarily about human rights.

The deluded spokesperson, Mr. Siphan however, thought that it would be Obama seeking and Hun Sen giving advice on how to protect and develop human rights.

"When Obama raises that issue, I feel Obama is going to learn, especially from Cambodia...Obama will learn real experience in the field about democracy and human rights developing in this country," he said, presuming working hard at saying so whilst maintaining a straight face.

It can be expected that Obama doesn't take home Cambodia's ruling elite's idea of human rights: the concept that the rich and powerful have the right to exploit and steal from the poor and powerless.

Hun Sen Quotes (1) Reprised

Here for ASEAN, let's hope world leaders and the press are clear as to what type of man Hun Sen really is. 

Or if they are in doubt, let the man speak for himself...

“I not only weaken the opposition, I’m going to make them dead ... and if anyone is strong enough to try to hold a demonstration, I will beat all those dogs and put them in a cage.”

~Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Hun Sen Quotes (5)

"I don't care whatever you are...political party, NGO, military, police, or military police general, when you are wrong, you receive the same punishment."

Free Mam Sonando

Independent radio station owner and rights activist Mam Sonando is one of just a few Cambodians to speak out against the Hun Sen government.

Yesterday, for his bravery the 71-year-old Sonando was sentenced to a term of 20 years imprisonment on the spurious charges of attempting to overthrow the government and inciting villagers to riot. The court found that Sonando tried to create a state-within-a-state in the poor rural area of Pro Ma, Kratie. The idea that this could be contemplated is nothing more than a sick joke.

"During the rainy season, the jungle trails leading to the village become a series of quagmires, barely navigable by motorcycle and on foot. The village is little more than farmhouses, people and chickens.

"The soldiers came and told us they were here to rescue us from the secessionists," one villager says, speaking in her home built on stilts. "They took our farmland, and now they won't allow us to go back to tend to our crops."

Much more likely however, is that Hun Sen is afraid of Sonando's popularity among Cambodia's rural poor.

"Critics of Hun Sen say that Mam Sonando, who runs the activist group Association of Democrats, came into the government's cross hairs for trying to help farmers in the village of Pro Ma in Kratie province organize to protect their land. The land was granted to a Russian-owned agribusiness, and some villagers refused to leave."

~http://www.npr.org

Hun Sen Quotes (4)

'It is not easy if the prime minister dies, and Cambodia's constitution says clearly on that point, when the prime minister's position is open, all ministers have to be reappointed. So it means that if I die, all of you will lose your  positions as ministers and deputy prime minister."

A clear directive to stay in-line if there ever was one.

Hun Sen Quotes (3)

“In settling to divide land or land ownership to villagers, there is no other means to resolution than authorities to tackle [the problem]...”

~ Hun Sen, May, 2012

Hun Sen is referring to villagers protesting loudly and bitterly at the loss of their homes and lands.

Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Prime Minister Hun Sen doesn't explain however, why those affected should lay their trust in 'authorities' to solve the problem when as often as not it is those in authority that have taken the land in the first place.