UPI.com
July 27, 2008
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, July 27 (UPI) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's party will likely win Sunday's parliamentary elections despite widespread graft, local businesspeople and others say.
The country's economy has improved and is growing by more than 10 percent annually, but that hasn't helped -- and maybe even worsened -- the nation's endemic culture of public corruption, The Los Angeles Times reported.
"When things start to boom, people start to get a little more greedy," John Brinsden, vice chairman of locally owned Acleda Bank, told the newspaper. Even with a growing middle class, rising food and fuel prices are threatening to reverse some of the recent growth, he added.
Hun Sen and his Cambodian People's Party have been accused by foreign and domestic critics of running a patronage system and tolerating a culture of corruption. He and the country's 11 opposition parties maintain they support reform efforts, but there are no detailed plans or responses to requests government officials and military leaders disclose their assets, the Times reported.
July 27, 2008
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, July 27 (UPI) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's party will likely win Sunday's parliamentary elections despite widespread graft, local businesspeople and others say.
The country's economy has improved and is growing by more than 10 percent annually, but that hasn't helped -- and maybe even worsened -- the nation's endemic culture of public corruption, The Los Angeles Times reported.
"When things start to boom, people start to get a little more greedy," John Brinsden, vice chairman of locally owned Acleda Bank, told the newspaper. Even with a growing middle class, rising food and fuel prices are threatening to reverse some of the recent growth, he added.
Hun Sen and his Cambodian People's Party have been accused by foreign and domestic critics of running a patronage system and tolerating a culture of corruption. He and the country's 11 opposition parties maintain they support reform efforts, but there are no detailed plans or responses to requests government officials and military leaders disclose their assets, the Times reported.
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