#48 - When the Dust Settles Down
Post ASEAN Summit Observation
Sou Sdei and welcome to Campuccino, your fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia with a dash of opinion.
To new subscribers, welcome!
It’s been a busy and stressful November for me while I’m doing the final push for my manuscript, but I’m getting there! It has also been a month full of ideas buzzing in my head thanks to Splice Beta which motivated the creative bee inside of me. Hopefully, I will get to act on some of these ideas in the new year. At this time of the month, it should be a bit cooler here in Cambodia with the Northern breeze. Yet, it’s been raining almost daily for the past two weeks and I could not help but think frequently about climate change. Lastly, this will be the last issue for this year as I am going to take a break. I’ll see you in 2023 with the normal publishing schedule!
- Darathtey
In this issue: ASEAN Summit recap, union leader arrest, opposition leader’s property seized, stolen artwork debate, and more.
While the ASEAN Summit wrapped up three weeks ago, this one-per-month publishing schedule allows me to only tell you about the event now. I thought it would be interesting to share what it was like to live in the action center of the summit.
Traffic | Let just say I stocked up on food and did not leave the house for the entirety of the summit because it would be near impossible. Phnom Penh is a small city and that means you couldn’t really move with multiple roads blocked off to receive streams of incoming high-ranking foreign delegations, unless you don’t mind sitting in traffic for hours. What I found really odd was for the amount of helicopters circling the city center. It was like many giant bees buzzing in your ears all day. Oh, also, public and private ambulances were directed by the Ministry of Health to not turn on their emergency sirens on the street during the summit.
School Closure | To clear the way for all the important people coming in for the Summit, educational institutions were ordered to suspend operations, except their parents still have to go to work and, well, sit in traffic.
Streets | The less fortunate and street vendors got swept off the street, hidden away from the incoming guests. Those who live on houseboats along the Chaktomuk river banks were told to move. All of these relocations were ordered without providing any compensation. But hey, some of the roads got a selective facelift with holes filled and a new layer of asphalts added. For example, we have the Southern end of street 19 fixed up until the right turn to the Hyatt. So, too bad for the rest of the street ;)
The Summit | I am not going into the nitty-gritty of the summit because you can read it somewhere else. Also, my cynicism toward ASEAN prevent me from giving you any useful analysis. So, if you want to get the round up, read this piece from VOD by Fiona Kelliher and Danielle Keeton-Olsen.
Now, let me share the normal person’s observation of the summit. Well, to start it off, we all know that many heads of states were here. While I personally was excited about my female leader crush Jacinda being here, my people seem to express deep validation for the country by virtue of Biden being here, despite him mistakenly referring to Cambodia as Columbia, a few times. On Cambodia’s Facebook, people were obsessed with Prince Mateen of Brunei for his attractive appearance and that he’s bloody rich. The amount of public obsession over him on social media was an interesting phenomenon.
After the summit, the Prime Minister held a two-hour press conference on the summit and Cambodia’s ASEAN chairmanship experience. Apparently, despite calling it a press conference, reporters from VOD and VOA were not allowed in despite having a press pass. As usual, there was no straight explanation from the Ministry of Information for this ban, except for one of the officials hinting that they were not happy with how these reporters normally report about the government.
So what is life like in Cambodia after the glitz and the glam of the ASEAN summit? It is business as usual. Shitty situations become shittier. Here are a few of them:
NagaWorld union president Chhim Sithar was arrested (again) on November 26 after she returned from a trip abroad. She was accused of allegedly violating her bail conditions which she claimed not being aware of. Apparently, one of Sithar’s bail conditions restricted her from traveling abroad, which she already did twice prior to this arrest. Her lawyer was also not aware of the restriction.
Opposition leader Son Chhay saw temporary seizure of his two properties ordered by a Phnom Penh court because he did not pay compensation ordered as a result of his defamation case. In early October, the Candlelight Party vice president was ordered to pay the ruling CPP 3 billion riel ($750,000) in damages after convicting him for defamation, for comments he made about voting fraud during June’s commune elections.
Next up, let’s talk about monkey business, literally. I did not know that Cambodia is such a big exporter of monkeys until recently when the news about Cambodian officials arrested in New York for smuggling endangered monkeys. The irony of this is that Masphal Kry, the arrested forestry official, was on en route to Panama to attend a conference on protecting endangered species. For detailed reporting on this entire charade and on Cambodia’s long-tailed macaque, go read this comprehensive article by Anton L. Delgado for Southeast Asia Globe. I am appalled and angry after reading the article but I honestly cannot say I am surprised. This is far from the first case of authorities that are supposed to protect turn around and do the opposite for personal gain.
Remember the Phnom Tamao forest clearing saga that happened in early August? (See #43) The area was guarded by the Prime Minister’s bodyguard unit for about a month since then. Now, the cleared forest is accessible despite its surrounding fence, and it looks like they are turning it into “Phnom Tamao Arboretum”. According to the photos accompanying the news report by VOD, it looks very sad to me. Read the article here.
Visually Pleasing
Arts & Culture
💃 Did you know that Cambodian women can compete to become an angel? 😅 Okay, let me backtrack and explain this a bit. Every Khmer New Year, there is an angel ceremony live on TV (see #37 for more context). It is a thing you do on KNY, just like the Germans’ “Dinner for One” or the Brits’ “Love Actually” yearly spectatorship. You see, it never occurred to me to question where the angels were recruited from, assuming they were artists from MCFA’s Department of Performing Arts. If that was actually the case, it is not anymore. These days, angles are recruited through a highly commercialised and government-endorsed Thida Ek Sankranta competition. Apparently, it’s been running for four seasons now and I am late to the party. The winners will become the angels for the angel ceremony for the following year along with other prizes. So, I can be an angel, you can be an angel, everybody can be an angel (only if you are female and meet society’s beauty standard, of course).
🎨 Last weekend, a conversation erupted on Cambodia’s social media about creative property theft and artists’ rights to have their work paid and credited. It started at the Vattanac All In mega concert at which a part of a photograph was used as a performance background without the permission from or acknowledgement of the artist of the original artwork. The organisers, one of whom is also an artist, did not take responsibility for their mistake. They instead gaslighted the entire situation by indicating that the artist should be thankful for exposure that they received (from their stolen art) and that the organiser’s intention was to help promoting Cambodian culture. LOL. Public opinions are split as usual between those expecting free arts justifying the act of stealing and those who understood that credit should be given and artists should be paid. I think it goes without saying where I stand. The silver lining of this incident is the dialogue that it started. I am glad to see that the understanding of artists’ struggles and values of artwork have increased among the public although we still have a very long way to go. This reflection on a local creator FB page ខ្ចិលនិយាយ_Kjel Niyey sums up the entire situation very well.
Worth Reading
Indigenous Voices Are Missing From ASEAN is an opinion piece by Future Forum’s junior research fellow and a Bunong indigenous person Sochea Pheap. The piece lays out major challenges faced by indigenous communities across the region and advocates that their voices should be represented at regional-level policy discussions such as the ASEAN summit and meetings. The author also raises a few recommendations which include recgonising the communities and respecting their collective rights.
Overheard on Twitter
Campuccino is a fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia, written by @DarathteyDin.
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