Sou Sdei and welcome to Campuccino, your fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia with a dash of opinion.
A warm welcome to new subscribers, thank you for allowing me into your inbox. It’s nice to have you here.
It was a good decision to postpone this issue last week because honestly, I was on the verge of a burn-out and spent the entire weekend not touching my computer. In less than a month's time, I will be on a plane back to Phnom Penh. I’m excited, yet slightly terrified because of all the complications that come with traveling during a pandemic. Speaking of the pandemic, I recently came across this thought-provoking article: “Searching for sanity in a world hell-bent on destruction”. It helps me reconcile with guilt that I normally have when there is madness all around me, when I cannot make peace with this madness, when I look at climate change, consumerism and our society working toward its own self-destruction and know that it is not normal. It is depressing and I think it would be wrong to turn another way and pretend that everything is okay and that it is going to sort itself out because we all know that it won’t. We live in a “society that is casually practising ecocide, celebrating narcissism, institutionalising racism and assessing the value of all things according to the cold logic of profit maximisation”, and there is nothing normal about that. Or maybe I’m just insane.
- Darathtey
In this issue: international relations debacle, pandemic and vaccination, exiled activist abduction, and more.
Let’s start with Covid-19 updates this week. If the lockdown in Phnom Penh and Takhmao did any good to contain the “February 20 incident”, its easing and the lifting of travel restrictions just undid all that. While the capital is slowly opening up, other provinces see a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases. City people move across the country as if they have no care in the world thinking that their vaccinated status is a shiny bulletproof vest against the virus, forgetting that they could still spread the virus to those people that haven’t been vaccinated yet. That’s not the only reason, however. Most cases are linked to factory workers who are connected to Phnom Penh and then find themselves in outbreaks. As of two weeks ago, four provinces reported more than 100 daily Covid-19 cases each. As numbers of cases continue to rise, some of the provincial administrations have stopped publishing daily counts altogether. Meanwhile, Siem Reap is back under a 2200hr-to-0400hr curfew, not-wearing-mask fines and targeted areas lockdown. Despite the continuing rise of infections, the vaccination campaign is steadily progressing. The Ministry of Health announced that 3 million people have received their first dose. The government set a target to have 10 million people vaccinated nationwide.
Land conflict is one among those long standing issues in Cambodia that don’t seem to ever end. On June 3 in Ang Snuol district, Kandal province, soldiers opened fire at the feet of dozens of farmers who were accused of taking over state land. One farmer was injured in the shooting. As a result, the farmers staged a protest to block National Road 51. So basically, ministries of defense and environment are reclaiming state land on which those villagers have farmed for years without offering any compensation. Then, the military was sent to guard the land. The sad part about all of this is that this kind of incident is common. It’s not hard to n make a guess of how this conflict is going to end.
I love a good international relations drama. It’s like watching a movie, but better because the power play is hilarious sometimes. In early June, Cambodia welcomed the visit of the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman while she was on the regional Southeast Asia tour of three countries: Indonesia, Cambodia, and Thailand. She was the most senior U.S official of the Biden administration to visit the region for the reason most of us know: balancing China’s engagement. What else, right? The visit was a bit of a drama because there were different news reports of what actually happened during the day. Do I care? Not really. I think the train to balance out China’s interaction with Cambodia has left the station a long time ago, but I don’t think we matter much either in the grand scheme of things. Also, I’m all for diverse engagement with various powers when it comes to diplomacy but like many others, I wish the relationships go beyond the “balancing China” act. If you’re interested in additional reading on the matter, see below articles:
The Diplomat – US Engagement with Cambodia Needs to Move Beyond the ‘China Factor’
Reuters – US concerned by China presence in Cambodia, urges 'balanced' policy
Nikkei – Asia US flags 'serious concerns' over Cambodia's China-backed navy base
Now, another issue arose after DSS Sherman left. The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh published a press release accusing Cambodia's Ministry of Defense of not keeping their word and barring the U.S. Embassy Defense Attaché, Colonel Marcus M. Ferrara from accessing the Ream Naval Base. Yes, that one naval base that the U.S. has been obsessing over for the past few years because the base is allegedly hosting Chinese military. Obviously, Cambodia’s Ministry of Defense responded to the press release with its own press release saying that the visit lasted for over 3 hours according to pre-negotiated itinerary and the refusal was done based on the ground that the request was made promptly on-site and was not pre-discussed. Who do I believe, you might ask, I don’t know and I don’t care. However, I’m going to express an unpopular opinion here: Cambodia is indeed a sovereign nation and if we, sometimes, refuse guests from visiting part of our house, that is totally legit. It is too bad for the snooping guest but sucks it up and stops being a crying baby. As entertaining as the whole saga is, I’m tired of hearing about Ream Naval base.
Visually Pleasing
Arts & Culture
🎭 I make a point by giving an entire section to the arts and culture because the sector is usually overlooked in Cambodia. They are being taken for granted, to say the least. As Cambodia is slowly working on its post-pandemic recovery plan, the Ministry of Tourism is taking the lead on tourist attraction strategies through various stakeholders discussions which include representatives from businesses affected by the pandemic. However, the arts and culture sector was not included. As a result, the sector leaders spoke up pointing out that it isn’t right while also forming their own association. An association would represent arts organizations and individual artists when interacting with the government and the private sector. Read more…
🎙️ While it is too easy to feel cynical about the future of my country based on evidence presented at hands, the resilience and optimism of many Cambodians youths illustrated through various creative projects keep my hope afloat. They are working to fill societal and cultural gaps that the older generation didn’t even know existed. A platform such as Wapatoa gives young people a voice. They recently stepped into the podcast limelight with their new podcast titled Tok Toch (Small Table) where three hosts, literally sitting around a tiny table, casually discuss various topics from habits to mental health. The Podcast is in Khmer.
🎭 This week, Cambodia bids farewell to Em Theay, one of Cambodia’s Khmer classical dance legends. She passed away on June 15 at the age of 89. Personally, I only came to know who she was about three years ago when I went to see a contemporary dance performed by her granddaughter Nam Narim. The piece was dedicated to her and saw her appearing at the end. The performance buried a hole in my memory because it emphasised cross-generational dedication and perseverance to preserve Khmer classical dance.
📚 Worthy Read
Soundbite is a quarterly newsletter by The Sound Initiative (TSI), a vocational program for aspiring young Cambodian musicians. The newsletter updates you on TSI’s activities and what’s going on in Cambodia's art and music scene.
‘What Do Cambodians Think?’ is a survey, recently published by KAS Cambodia, on social and political attitudes in Cambodia. The survey addresses questions such as perspective of lives in Cambodia in 2020, level of civic engagement and what would make Cambodia stronger in terms of relationships with international partners as well as solving prioritised social issues.
‘What Happened to Wanchalearm?’ is a joint investigative piece by New Naratif, Prachatai and VOD examining the disappearance of Wanchalearm Satsaksit, a dissident who escaped from Thailand to live in exile in Cambodia. He was abducted a year ago but authorities say there is no proof. This one is a must-read if you want to get an in-depth look at how easy it is to disappear in my neck of the woods without anything being done about it.
Overheard on Twitter
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