Democracy in Cambodia

[taabarang]

Sebastian Strangio, author of HE’s Cambodia , viewed the current aggressive push as HE’s final reckoning with the civil society set up following the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) mission in the early 1990s, which his government sees as impinging on its sovereignty, and as a channel for foreign meddling in domestic affairs.
“The ‘UNTAC era’, in which Cambodia became an international nation-building ‘project’ and was opened up to myriad foreign interactions, is quickly coming to an end. Put differently, the country seems to be reverting to its authoritarian historical mean,” he said.

For the full story go to:
http://m.phnompenhpost.com/node/96927

[Bitte_Kein_Lexus]

That's what I've told so many Cambodians before. This is part of their culture. You can't eradicate what we view as nepotism, corruption and authoritarianism overnight. If they do eventually want to change, it'll take two generations. They've been operating this way since before the days of Angkor. Kind for funny when westerners show up with their human rights and expect giving villagers the right to vote will make everything dandy...

[taabarang]

BKL I believe we are on the same page. Why UNTAC had the optimism to think that democracy would work in a country that never had one much less philosophical groundwork for one is beyond me.

As a foreign guest I have opinions, but never offer advice. Let the Khmer solve what they perceive to be Khmer problems.

[AlonzoPartriz]

The people overwhelmingly want democracy, as shown by the high turn out at both the last general and commune elections. 92% turnout at the last ones. The government, HE, and the other cronies of corruption don't. The only thng it would​ take is a revolution within the last grouping. Everyone else is well onboard, but maybe just wishes there were better people to vote for.

[CEOCambodiaNews]

Cambodia calls US democracy 'bloody and brutal' as charity row escalates
24 August 2017
Cambodia has hit back at criticism over its decision to expel a US-funded pro-democracy group, accusing Washington of political interference and describing American democracy as “bloody and brutal”.

Prime minister HE, the strongman who has ruled Cambodia for more than three decades, has taken a strident anti-American line in the increasingly tense run up to a 2018 election.

The US state department criticised Cambodia’s decision to expel the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Wednesday and a statement from the US embassy in Phnom Penh questioned whether Cambodia was a democracy.

In an open letter on Thursday, the Cambodian government asked whether the United States was “coming to Cambodia to help or hinder the Khmer people” and blamed it for contributing to the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge in the 1970s...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... -escalates

[AlonzoPartriz]

Well he does have a point. The republicans and USAID are involved in the NDI, both of whom have been known to have had CIA connections, at least in other countries. I wouldn't have chosen democracy as the key word though. More like free market expansionism in tie with the military industrial complex under a democratic guise.

[mauser765]

They want to help them..like they helped Iraqis, like they helped Afghanistan, like they helped...the list is too long

[MikeMike58]

Yep, The US of A will help you 'till it kills you. Just spreadin' that good ole 'Murican democracy. Whether you want it or not.

[AlonzoPartriz]

“If the Minister really is at a loss for who is leaking, perhaps he could ask his own mouthpiece,” she said in an email, adding the tax bill was a thinly veiled attempt to “seize a foreign investor’s assets”.

If that woman doesn't watch out, they'll have her arrested for being a pedo and clearing government land. Doesn't she know she's just a foreigner woman! Watch Freshnews for updates. Oh, and the government have blamed the Phnom Penh Post - who it says has paid its tax - for the CD's tax leak.

CD: You're smelly.
Gov: You're smelly too times a million.


Government closes 15 radio stations

25 Aug, 2017 - Mech Dara and Ananth Baliga

The Ministry of Information yesterday claimed its shuttering of 15 radio stations across the country was not targeted at independent broadcasters, and took aim at the Cambodia Daily for failing to pay a huge tax bill, hours after the US State Department labelled the tax measure exorbitant and biased.

On August 21, Phnom Penh-based Moha Nokor – a radio station airing shows produced by Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and the Cambodia National Rescue Party – and its three provincial affiliates were asked to stop broadcasting and to shut down operations for allegedly violating their contract with the ministry.

Meanwhile, near-identical documents on the Information Ministry’s website showed that seven other media owners were asked to stop broadcasting from the 11 radio stations they owned across 10 provinces, in line with ministry spokesman Ouk Kimseng’s claim on Wednesday that more than 10 stations would be closed.

Pa Nguon Teang, director of independent news outlet Voice of Democracy, said broadcaster Sarika FM had cited “administrative and technical” reasons for taking its content off the air.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith yesterday maintained that the closures were not linked to the station’s programming – a claim keenly contested on Wednesday by CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann – but because they had failed to report how much airtime they were selling, and to whom.

“So some radios have not asked for permission from the ministry. The ministry has to shut them down in order to uphold the law on media,” he said, adding that VOA and RFA broadcasts were still available on other stations.

Kanharith said the directive was in line with Prime Minister HE’s call for authorities to ensure there wasn’t a repeat of the 2013 post-election protests, saying media reports questioning the soundness of ink used for voting, accusations of voter fraud and false reports on votes being cast by “Yuon”, a derogatory term for ethnic Vietnamese, fuelled the demonstrations.

Kanharith said the radio station run by the Women’s Media Centre of Cambodia (WMC) had similarly erred by giving more airtime to RFA and VOA, but had been granted leeway in light of its social work.

The closures come as part of a government clampdown on NGOs and media organisations, which have found themselves answering to the Tax Department.

The Cambodia Daily has been singled out with a $6.3 million tax bill that was leaked to the media, with Prime Minister HE and Tax Department Director Kong Vibol asking the English-language paper to pay up or face closure.

Shifting his focus to the Daily, Kanharith made two new claims yesterday – that the Daily’s staffers had leaked a document showing their own $6.3 million tax bill, and that a foreign-owned news outlet in Cambodia had reported the Daily’s alleged tax fraud.

“If the tax man had leaked it, he would leak all the details. Therefore the one who leaked it was from the taxpayer,” he said.

“I cannot talk about it since I do not want the problem to happen, but they [the foreign-owned newspaper] have paid the tax. So they have demanded for two years already to tell Cambodia Daily [to] pay the tax so that they can compete fairly,” he said.

Kanharith’s comments come shortly after US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert pulled up the government for targeting the Daily and other independent news organisations, saying US Ambassador William Heidt had taken up the issue with the Tax Department.

“So our ambassador has had conversations with the head of what I’ll just refer to as the tax agency there to try to get them to regard taxes or impose taxes in a fair and neutral fashion,” she said on Wednesday.

Referring to Cambodian government officials’ frequent use of US President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media as a justification for similar assails in Cambodia, a reporter questioned Nauert if Trump’s remarks undermined the State Department’s push for free speech across the world.

“Our conversations between the ambassador and his counterparts and also the prime minister of Cambodia – I do not anticipate that changing,” she said. “We care about freedom of the press; that’s not going to change.”

Reacting to Kanharith’s allegations, Daily Deputy Publisher Deborah Krisher-Steele once again placed the blame at the feet of “government mouthpiece” Fresh News for leaking the tax assessment.

“If the Minister really is at a loss for who is leaking, perhaps he could ask his own mouthpiece,” she said in an email, adding the tax bill was a thinly veiled attempt to “seize a foreign investor’s assets”.

The Tax Department and Krisher-Steele have tussled for the past three weeks on the fairness of the purported $6.3 million in back taxes and penalties. Krisher-Steele has said she was unaware of the “debt” she took over when buying the newspaper from her father and founder Bernard Krisher and asked that his charitable donations – in the tens of millions of dollars – be accounted for in the assessment.

Tax authorities have refused both those claims and, in a detailed rebuttal, said the acquisition of a company was never exclusive of its financial liabilities and that Krisher’s charitable activities were never reported.

Douglas-Steele, the newspaper’s general manager, said he will meet with the tax authorities today and would be accompanied by the outlet’s operations manager and an accountant.

“I’ll take the meeting, take notes and request information on how they arrived at the $6.3 million figure and why a process that should take many months in accordance with the law is being done in days,” he said.
http://m.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov ... o-stations

[mauser765]

I doubt it has much to do with assets.

The motive is not financial, to pretend it is is silly.