#01 - Free Falling
Human rights and freedom of expression in the Kingdom continue to deteriorate.
Sou Sdei and welcome to the first issue of Campuccino – a fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia.
Thank you for being my first group of subscribers. It’s nice to have you here.
In this issue: Continuing decline in freedom of expression, a new development of Koh Norea, land dispute, Cambodian children decreased ability to speak Khmer, cultural season and Colony exhibition.
I describe the state of Cambodia’s human rights and freedom of expression as “free falling”. From time to time, I have allowed myself to indulge in hope, thinking that it couldn’t get any worse, it would only get better from here. News headlines have proven me otherwise. Chak Sopheap has shared similar sentiment in her opinion piece in Southeast Asian Globe. She said peace will remain elusive as long as citizens’ well-being and interests are limited to the privileged few.
I’ve realised that I’ve become a lot more self-censored in the past few years thanks to the government’s clamp down on freedom of expression in its pursuit of “peace and stability”. It is a kind of semi-subconscious censorship that makes me think twice before I would like to publicly point out flaws in policies or social issues. Speaking of social issues, RFA reported another arrest of a rapper based on incitement charge. OHCHR had documented the arrest of 24 human rights campaigners since the custody of Rong Chhun in late July, including eight in September alone. Also, if sketchy arrests are not enough to make people keeping opinion to themselves, sketchy trials will (if there is one). VOD’s Mech Dara and Michael Dickison recently reports on the mysterious sentencing of former CNRP member Kong Sam An to seven years imprisonment by Tbong Khmum court. The defendant lawyer was not there, families, journalists, right defenders were not allowed in. I’m going to leave it at that.
Additional covering on squashing dissents by the government can be found in Nikkei Asian Review’s report by Shaun Turton and Bopha Phorn and the Diplomat’s report by Sebastian Strangio.
Meanwhile, the glory of Facebook being a free space for political discussion and dissent seems to be fading. Tran Techseng, Ouch Sony and Michael Dickison did an excellent piece on this for VOD. Apparently, small actions such as “Like” and “Share” on Facebook space are perceived as a form of political engagement and, therefore, have become too risky in Cambodia’s narrow civic space.
While Koh Pich has taken years to serve its purpose (I’m struggling to find its purpose still other than standing as an empty concrete fake island with ugly buildings), Phnom Penh is getting ready to welcome its twin on the other side of the Mekong.
Another huge reclamation project on the Mekong River, Koh Norea, has quietly taken form, reports Southeast Asia Globe’s Andrew Haffner. Apparently, the project started in 2018 and began to ramp up in 2020. The company behind this is OCIC, the very same one that did Koh Pich.
Meanwhile, lives haven’t been easy for fishermen whose livelihoods have been threatened by increasingly low water levels in the Mekong. VOD’s Mech Dara and Michael Dickison report that the population of fishing Cham families living on the Chroy Changva side of Phnom Penh fear that they will have to leave the city due to record low water levels. This is the same group of Phnom Penh dwellers that have, over decades, repeatedly been pushed away from their old settlements in the name of development.
On another note, land dispute remains rampant in the Kingdom. I understood the essence of land dispute when I was in my early teens. I thought it was cruel how the underprivileged always seemed to lose this battle but hoped that it would change. Well, it has only gotten worse. Khuon Narim reports for Cambojanews that the Land Management Ministry declined to accept a petition from almost 1,000 protesters - representing over 7,000 families involved in a dispute over 12 thousand hectares of land.
Arts & Culture
I love when when I come across a platform where young Cambodians come to discuss issues that matter - I believe Cambodia needs more of this. One of these platforms is Cambodianess’s Coffee Talk, a column of coversation between two friends Samnang and Sothie. Their last dialogue was about young Cambodian children not being able to speak Khmer properly. Their argument boiled down to dishonor to the nation and damaging fame of the country. I think the argument was insufficient but was made for the right reasons. There are other significant factors that should be analysed for this topic such as representation, identity, the rual and urban divide and so on. Also, the irony of this is that Coffee Talk is only available in English version.
Cambodian Living Arts is hosting a Cultural Season under the theme of “Expressing Identity: Them and/or Us” for the whole month of October. The programme looks well-curated and diverse, including traditional performances, panel discussions, contemporary dances, spoken theatre etc.
Do you hate termites? I do but who doesn’t? Now, imagine seeing them making massive nests in an exhibition space. Termites is used in new work byartist Eng Rithchandaneth titled Colony. Daneth molds and architects a seeming network of organism colony that pervades and takes over Sa Sa Art Projects’ whole exhibition space. Exhibition runs from 5 September – 31 October.
Tweets We Live For
Remember when the Phnom Penh Post used to be good? Back in those days, I enjoyed their little tweet section published on their weekend edition. Thanks to the nostalgia, I’m bringing it back.
Campuccino is a fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia, written by @DarathteyDin from Word & Visual.
I’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback or content ideas, please reach out via tey@wordandvisualmedia.com
Special thanks to Maryam Jillani for being my editor.
Hi, good luck and stay in touch @lukeanthonyhunt
hey! how are you? I like what you have done here. I am trying to do something similar for KZ/New Silk Road and I know how much time and effort it takes. I love what you have done here. I might steal the twitter/tweets we live for idea at the end!
I would love to email and pick your brains on the process for how you do this. Let me know if this is OK. Here is my attempt:
https://www.kazakhstanandthenewsilkroad.com/