East Asia




Cambodian Update

by Dr. John C. Walsh



Cambodia is a country from which little news seems to reach the west. 
People are familiar with the Killing Fields and perhaps with Pol Pot’s 
death and the decline of the Khmer Rouge, but perhaps little more than 
that. Even here in neighbouring Thailand we get very little information 
about what is happening. Despite 700 years of history and 800 km of 
(largely unmapped) border, there is very little official interaction between 
the two countries. It is good to see that a new initiative is helping to bring 
people together to some extent.


The need for this improved level of communications was made evident early 
in 2004, when violent rioting broke out almost overnight after some 
Cambodian people mistakenly thought that a famous Thai actress had 
claimed that ancient temples created by the Khmer people were in fact 
actually Thai in origin. Numerous Thai businesses were attacked and burned 
down and the Thai Embassy itself was damaged. The misunderstanding 
was soon cleared up and the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was 
obliged to offer compensation. This little flurry of activity highlighted the 
poverty of information and of understanding that the Cambodians face and 
the low level irritations and grievances that continue to characterise daily 
life. It seems very difficult for the Cambodian people to rise above this low-
level of concern with the trivialities of the mundane world and engage with 
the realm of ideas. The elimination of a whole generation of teachers, doctors, 
mental health practitioners, scientists, journalists and professionals of all 
sorts has left a terrible legacy not just of loss and misery for those directly 
affected but of mental and spiritual deprivation for those left behind. Yet,
there is little apparent interest in organising legal proceedings to bring 
justice to the perpetrators of the past.




Unofficial Contacts


Although official contacts with bordering countries are still at a very low-
level, unofficial contacts still continue as they have done for hundreds of 
years. Border markets and trading posts help in the import and export of 
goods, which is a healthy phenomenon, together with human trafficking 
and migrant smuggling, which is less healthy. People also come together 
to enjoy gambling at the five-star casino hotels that exist in the border 
region, including the massive complex at Poipet in Cambodia. In between 
the primitive tribal villages of rural Cambodia, amidst the mud and the poultry 
and the ignorance and poverty, casino hotel complexes attract high-roller 
gamblers from across the region, where their every whim may be satisfied 
so long as they continue playing.


Inevitably, where so much money is at stake, there are many concerns 
that attendant criminal activities such as extortion, prostitution, money-
laundering and drug smuggling are also involved. Yet the Poipet complex, 
like others of its ilk on other Thai borders, seem to operate more or less 
as independent fiefs of those with the money to control them. Although 
there are occasional media reports of disputes and disturbances from 
these areas, it seems highly likely that most news is suppressed for 
one reason or another.




The Royal Family


As in some other Southeast Asian nations, the royal family is held in 
very high regard in Cambodia. Previous kings were revered as godlike 
creatures who were directly responsible for the wellbeing of the Khmer 
Empire and its many people. While few Cambodians seem to believe 
in the literal truth of an immortal monarch these days, they nevertheless,
have a feeling for the spiritual link between land, people and the king 
that is perhaps visceral rather than intellectual. It would certainly be 
difficult to observe the extreme changes of course and policy executed 
by former King Norodom Sihanouk during his lengthy career and imagine 
that this corresponds with a coherent set of principles. This is not to 
denigrate the former King in any way but simply to observe that the often 
bizarre and Byzantine course of Cambodian politics required Norodom 
and his n to take a variety of often seeminglycontradictory positions in 
order to try to maintain peace for his Kingdom.


Now Norodom Sihanouk has reportedly yielded his position to one of 
his many sons, Sihamoni, who was a son of the noted Eurasian beauty 
Monique Izzi who, nevertheless, was not accorded a high-ranking Khmer 
title. Norodom Sihamoni has been best known for his involvement in ballet 
dancing in France and may have been considered a suitable candidate 
for accession because of his distance from previous political manoeuvrings. 
In any case, his elder half-brother, Ranariddh, whose previous work in the 
public eye would appear to have made him a more likely candidate, has 
stood aside. While the previous king was receiving extensive medical 
treatment in Beijing, Sihamoni attended on him and presumably was able 
to obtain a considerable political education at the same time. It is to be 
hoped that he will prove to have been a good student, since the fleeing 
of opposition leader Sam Rainsy seems to betoken a strengthening grip 
on the political process by PM Hun Sen, a leader for whom the term 
‘strong man’ would seem to have been coined. Hun Sen has had Sam 
Rainsy and other leading opposition politicians’ parliamentary immunity 
stripped, which makes them vulnerable to arrest for real or imagined 
arrests – consequently, they have fled the country. Yet in the month
since this happened, it is not clear what if anything may have changed. 
The streets of Phnom Penh are calm – well, as calm as the streets of 
Phnom Penh can ever be calm in the midst of raging storms of motor-
cycles, street hawkers and beggars.






References & Readings


Cambodia’s New King Returns Home, BBC News Online (October 20th,
2004).

Sam Rainsy Appeal on Cambodia, BBC News Online (February 4th, 
2005).

Anchalee Kongkrut, Shared Culture Theme of Bid to Mend Fences, 
Bangkok Post (March 8th, 2005).

Mehta, Harish C., Hun Sen: Strongman of Cambodia (Graham 
Brash: 1999).

Osborne, Milton, Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness 
(Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1994).

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