By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/19/2009
(CAAI News Media)
LONG BEACH - Carol Rodley didn't think the Long Beach community could come up with 90 minutes of questions about the country where she is stationed.
Obviously, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia didn't know Long Beach.
Even after the two-hour time slot had run out at the Town Hall meeting at Mark Twain Library, people were still lining up to quiz her.
"It was great to come here," Rodley said. "This is a lively and engaged community."
Rodley's appearance in Long Beach on Saturday was sponsored by the CambodiaTown community group. About 65 people crowded into the community room at the library to hear the ambassador speak and field questions.
A career officer with the Foreign Service, Rodley was sworn in as ambassador in October 2008, after being stationed in Afghanistan as a counselor for political military affairs. She had been stationed in Cambodia in the late 1990s.
She said the Cambodia of today is far different from the one she left about 10 years ago.
"Compared to a place like Afghanistan, Cambodia doesn't look so bad," Rodley said. "It has a lot of problems, to be sure, but they're the usual problems in a developing, poor country."
Rodley gave a mostly positive report on the state of Cambodia, citing improvements in infrastructure, private sector economic growth and what she saw as a newfound confidence in the Cambodian people in her short speech before taking questions.
For the next 90 minutes, the audience taxed Rodley's knowledge across an array of issues.
Rodley's harshest criticisms of the government in Cambodia related to the lack of democracy and freedom of expression, and the culture of corruption that seems to go to the core of the society.
Rodley said she received a lot of heat from the government when she cited a study that estimated that corruption cost Cambodia $500 million a year.
Among the positives Rodley saw were the recent conclusion of the first Khmer Rouge War Crimes Tribunal, and the arrest of others. She also said the inaugural group of Peace Corps volunteers to the country was an unqualified success and she was happy to find an arts community springing up in the country.
Greg Mellen 562-499-1291
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