Campuccino #97

Finally, Some Good News: We Made the Board of Peace

Sou Sdei and welcome to Campuccino, your bi-monthly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia with a dash of opinion.

To new subscribers, welcome! I’m Darathtey, a communication consultant, writer, and researcher. Learn more about my work here.

How was your January? Mine was surprisingly okay despite all that is going on in the world. I put extra hours into my writing project and painted a lot. Yes, my newly found hobby is watercolour. It is surprisingly relaxing to watch colours spread freely across paper. I also took comfort in knowing that there are others covering the news which allowed for a longer break for me.

- Darathtey

Photo by Kai Brennert

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The last time you heard from me I was in a dark place. It was hard not to be when living with armed conflict in one’s backyard. Fast forward to now, the ceasefire which was signed before the end of 2025 has been holding up despite a few incidents here and there. For that, I am grateful. That is not to say that all is well, and that there is nothing to worry about. The ceasefire is perceived as quite fragile among many analysts on both sides of the border and beyond. The upcoming election in Thailand this weekend will also play a significant role in determining where the relationship between the two countries is heading. I’m holding on to the quiet bliss of the current ceasefire as a way to cherish small wins, at least for now. Of course, questions remain about people who evacuated and can no longer return home because certain areas are now occupied by the Thai military. There are questions about what should be done to assist those who lost homes and those who cannot yet return to their homes in the disputed areas, but the Cambodian public has moved on, and donation drives have slowed down significantly.
If you want to catch up with this topic with more detailed coverage and more analysis, give Kouprey a read. I know some of you are already there.

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Now, on to the biggest headline in Cambodia in January that is the extradition of ‘alleged’ crime boss Chen Zi and one of the biggest online scam compound raiding campaigns in the country to date. The confusion between “Chen Z”i and “Gen Z” came up frequently in conversations with friends throughout January. It was rather amusing. I won’t go into the details of Chen’s arrest now, but you can always do some Googling to find suitable rabbit holes and satiate your curiosity. The news was widely covered. Needless to say, I’m glad he’s China’s problem now.

As for the online scam raid, it was quite a sight to see many people leaving dubious compounds only to end up queuing in front of their respective embassies in limbo, unable even to secure accommodation due to the absence of their passports. Of course, questions were raised on the topic of who is responsible to assist these people of questionable victimhood (because on the one hand they were those conducting the scam, and on the other, some had themselves been trafficked into these positions). Our Kouprey friend questioned the whereabouts of IOM amid all this, because based on my dusty textbooks on international law and the UN mandates, the IOM should be front and centre helping out these foreign workers right now. Instead, they have been rather inactive.

For more insight on the raid, read this piece by the one and only Mech Dara for Mekong Independent.

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Looks like Cambodia is joining the cool dictators club that is Trump’s Board of Peace. Ah, don’t you just love international relations and its countless theories, until none of them help you make sense of today’s world politics anymore? While I believe that a global governance institution such as the United Nations has run its course and needs a major update, like an entire OS overhaul, or even a competition in the form of a better UN-esque institution, I didn’t have the Board of Peace run by a bunch of dictators in mind, BUT I am not surprised. On the bright side of this new membership (I’m trying very hard here to look for the silver lining), Cambodia doesn’t need to pay the one-billion-dollar membership fee because we only participate as a founding member with a three-year mandate. Phew!

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Arts & Culture

🎨If you know me, you know I love a good exhibition every now and then. Queue in Into the Light, a five-month long temporary exhibition at Sosoro Museum, featuring long lost murals of the Silver Pagoda. I’ve learned many new fun facts at the exhibition starting with an interesting note on one of the texts that the pagoda is known among Cambodians as the Emerald Pagoda while it is known among foreigners as the Silver Pagoda. Another interesting one is learning that the wall of the pagoda is painted red. I was surprised because I’ve been there before but I didn’t notice! Obviously, the star of facts is knowing that underneath the red layer of paint, lay these amazing murals. The exhibition emphasises the immense significance of documentation, in this case, through the lens of photography. The highlight of the exhibition for me was getting to see some of the negatives on display. It was very beautiful. For those of you who can, I highly recommend you go see it while it is still on until March 2026.

📷 While many donation campaigns have slow down by a lot for those displaced by the border conflicts, I’m glad to see there are a few fundraising efforts that are still ongoing because as I mentioned above, the issue still persists and many still remains in precarious temporary shelters unable to return home. One of the fundraising projects that caught my attention is Their Name Is Piehsak “ភៀសសឹក” a photography series by John Vink documenting those displaced and their day-to-day experiences. I had the opportunity to spend an evening in conversation with the photographer, hosted by Raintree, to hear about his years of documententing refugees and displaced people around the world and the learn about his approaches to a project such as this one. The project focused on raising fund to support those currently experiencing displacement, with an emphasis on the elderly populations. The pop-up exhibition at Raintree will be up until February 20. You can also purchase the photobook at The Gallerist, Meta House, and Raintree.

🚽 Nothing beats waking up to a public debate on the architecture of a public toilet. I actually chuckled. That’s a sign that Cambodian lives, at least in Phnom Penh, have resumed its normalcy. So basically, the government recently built a big nice-looking public toilet on the riverside to accommodate the weekly foot traffic of Chaktomuk Walk Street. Nice right? As the builder was putting finishing touches, some netizens noticed decorative elements added on the roof to be similar to those found on the roofs of the Palace or pagodas across the country. Apparently, some people made their opinion known that such decorative elements should not be added to a lowly place such as a toilet. LOL. I see teams for and against the uproar debating this on Cambodian Facebook. Ahh how I love Cambodia where people voice their opinions when it doesn’t matter and stay silent when it does. To conclude this toilet story, I have you know that they took the element off the roof. Case closed. 😀

🕺🏽 My daily dose of doomscrolling has led me to Lord Penh, a relaunched Phnom Penh event guide by a long-term expat resident of the city Ramon Stoppelenburg. While my routine of a good evening involves staying in on my couch with a good book or a good Netflix show, I know some of you like to actually leave the house. So, hopefully, this is something useful.

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Campuccino is a bi-monthly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia, written by @DarathteyDin.

I’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback or content ideas, please write to me at hello@darathteydin.com