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. I believe some of you found your way here because of my being featured in @travelfish’s newsletter #425 and a recent mention in The Splice guide to some of Asia’s most useful newsletters. Thank you very much!
To my frequent readers, I’m aware that my timing has been slightly off due to a delay in the last issue. I’m sorting it out while trying to replace an old laptop that just went kaputt. Now, we’re back on the usual Thursday schedule. I hope you had a good break from all the mind-boggling news I skipped in #24 because this issue packs a punch of reality.
- Darathtey
In this issue: Zoombombing, bunches of land issues, the White Building, transnational crimes in Cambodia, and more.
How often do you get to tell people that the Prime Minister Zoom-bombed your call? Yes, this actually happened to one of the opposition party’s meetings last week (which technically was dissolved anyway). Totally normal. According to the government’s news source, the PM said that he had the right to attend the meeting to tell the opposition party members that “his men are everywhere”. He also lectured them on ethics and morality ;)
On different occasions, the PM also declared an arrest of Seng Sary, a social and political analyst who published his political analysis on the possibility of national unity government combined by six forces. Seng’s six forces includes opposition party supporters, the public, youth, internal power of the ruling party, military, and neighboring and international forces. However, days after declaring arrest, the PM changed his mind and took to his official Facebook account requesting the judiciary to stop pursuing Seng Sary, claiming that he found Seng’s explanation “reasonable and can be accepted.”.
After seeing this, in case you’re thinking that our democracy is backsliding, hold your thought because according to government spokesperson Phay Siphan, “Cambodia has yet to have democracy”. He said this in a radio interview with Radio Free Asia.
Now on to land-related news. I came to know the mere definition of land conflicts from my father when I was a teenager. It usually involves the haves and the have-nots. Those conflicts usually drag out for months and years and don’t normally end well for the have-nots.
In Kandal province, the new airport development continues to cause land disputes which resulted in violence and arrests last Sunday. Over the last few months, the airport project has met resistance from the locals due to disagreements in compensation. The villagers have insisted on getting a fair market value compensation instead of the offered $8 per square meter.
In Kampong Chhnang, 200 protesters held banners and blocked National Road 5 for more than two hours on Sunday. They are from Boribo district, Kampong Chhnang’s bordering district with Pursat province. They protested because they appear to have been prevented from accessing their farmlands in Pursat territory. These families claimed that they own these lands for decades, and now they are banned from entering it. The dispute appears to affect 572 families whose 1,661 hectares of lands had been confiscated from.
This next one is not technically land conflict but it would be one if nature could stage its own protest. The government granted 172 hectares of land and a bit over 1.2 hectares (3 acres) of forest land to real estate tycoon Leng Pheaktra, commonly known as Leng Navatra. According to Sub-decree No. 120 on the privatization of forest land signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on July 23, 2021, the land is located in Banteay Srei District, Siem Reap province.
Let’s do a Covid-19 quickfire round, shall we?
The last time I checked, we’re still living in a pandemic.
As of September 22, Cambodia has 105,981 total confirmed cases, 98,655 recoveries, and 2,154 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health. Regarding vaccination, I’ll let you enjoy this data compilation from David Beniam:
Somebody asked me how life is like in Cambodia these days? I can only answer for Phnom Penh because this is where I’m at. It is normal and it is not. On the one end of the spectrum, we have people who are very scared (for the right reasons), and try to stay in as much as they can. On the other end of the spectrum, we have people who go about their lives as usual, dine in restaurants, go to supermarkets, and host parties. In Phnom Penh, we’re still under alcohol ban which is inconsistently applied, a kind of selective prohibition. Community transmission is still there even with the Delta variants but I guess for some people, including myself, we can’t let Covid-19 put us in lockdown forever. Whether or not a balance between being safe and being complacent can be struck, that’s a conversation for another day. The one thing that stands out and that I really admire is the majority of people are wearing face masks.
For Siem Reap, another 14-day lockdown was reintroduced with some communes labeled as “red zones” to curb the spread of the virus.
Visually Pleasing
Arts & Culture
🎥 White Building “ប៊ូឌីញ ស”, a film directed by Kavich Neang, made a wave in national news last week because Chhun Piseth, a lead character, won the Orizzonti award for best actor at the Venice Film Festival. Cambodia also selected “While Building” for this year’s Oscar entry. The film is yet to be released publicly but I don’t expect any less from Kavich. The trailer alone already caused me goosebumps, so I can’t wait to get a chance to watch this. Despite being labelled fiction, it is not difficult to see where Kavich gets his inspiration from. For those of you who do not know, the white building is no more. It is now being replaced with a construction site of Naga 3.
🎵 Speaking of goosebump, this performance by Vanthan feat. Laura Mam at ASEAN Music Showcase 2021 was brilliant! This is what I call a balanced fusion of the old and the new, making traditional music relatable to listeners today. The man is crazily talented. He can play so many instruments and through this recent showcase, it seems he can sing as well! I’m excited to see what he’s creating next. I first heard about Vanthan through his appearance at Ethno Sweden 2017.
📰 Worthy Read
These two news articles are under this section because they are quite lengthy:
I’m sure many people knew about the booming online gaming industry which has transformed Preah Sihanouk province, aka Sihanoukville, into soulless concrete bare land. However, some might not be aware of the online scam industry that has made the city their home. I heard about this but I didn’t expect it to be that bad, not to a level in which people were enslaved. This Nikkei Asia published a few weeks ago, takes a deep dive into the underbelly of cyber slavery operated by online scam gangs in Cambodia. It is a transtrantional operation in which people are duped and coerced into these scam organisations for ransom or for finding more victims. This is a mind-boggling read, yet eye-opening.
Apart from being one of the hubs for online scam gangs, there are signs pointing that Cambodia might become a hub for drug trade in the Mekong region. The Globe article argues that organised crime, including illicit drug production, are known to migrate to places with deep governance problems. Furthermore, Asia’s organised crime groups are very strategic in shifting trafficking routes and leveraging creative connections to bypass law enforcement and regulations. Cambodia seems like a location that is stable and predictable compared to its Mekong region’s neighbours.
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