Thursday, 30 December 20102010 has been a tumultuous year for Cambodia, filled both with surprises and long-standing developments.
If 2009 was a year for the consolidation of domestic power by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, 2010 saw them increasingly emboldened in dealings with the international community. Following the escalating legal campaign against government critics that marked 2009, opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who fled the Kingdom last year under the threat of criminal charges, was ultimately convicted in January of this year for incitement and destruction of public property in relation to a protest along the Vietnamese border, receiving a two-year prison term. In September he received an additional 10-year term in connection with his attempts from abroad to vindicate his claims of Vietnamese encroachment.
Donors offered a muted response to Sam Rainsy’s convictions, and in general, there were few apparent consequences for government behaviour that rights groups branded authoritarian. In April, the United States announced the suspension of a shipment of military trucks in retaliation for the Kingdom’s much-criticised deportation of 20 Uighur Chinese asylum seekers in December 2009, though China quickly stepped into the breach with a replacement shipment. In June, donors pledged a record US$1.1 billion for the subsequent 18-month period.
Despite this largesse, the government took an occasionally hostile tack with donor countries, calling on foreign diplomats to avoid attempts to “give lessons” to Cambodia. United Nations Resident Coordinator Douglas Broderick was threatened with expulsion in March after the UN urged a lengthier public debate of the Kingdom’s long-awaited Anticorruption Law, which was pushed through the National Assembly that month. In October, during a rare visit by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, Hun Sen spoiled the party by declaring the government’s intention to close the UN’s human rights office and stating that there would be no further prosecutions at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal following its second case.
Despite worries about delays and political interference, Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal succeeded in handing down its historic first verdict. Former Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was convicted in July of crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. Appeals in the case begin in 2011, as will the court’s second trial, which features the most senior surviving Khmer Rouge leaders. This case, which prosecutors have said will last at least two years, is considered central to the court’s success.
“Case 002 is the most political, the most important, and the most difficult,” said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia.
The Kingdom’s economy bounced back from a weak 2009, following on the Asia-led recovery from the global financial crisis. Last year, key sectors including garments, construction and tourism were battered by a plunge in external demand. However, groups such as the Asian Development Bank have projected that Cambodia’s GDP has grown by around 5 percent this year, with an additional 6 percent growth projected for next year.
“2010 would be the year of recovery,” said Peter Brimble, senior country economist for the ADB. “I think it reflects, to large extent, a relatively well-targeted and sensible response of the government to the global financial crisis.”
The recovery has been driven in large measure by the garment sector, which accounts for the majority of Cambodia’s exports. However, the high price of raw materials and the threat of labour disruptions leave this important industry vulnerable. In September, tensions in the sector came to a head when thousands of garment workers took to the streets to protest a July bump in their monthly minimum wage by US$5 to $61 that they said was inadequate.
The agriculture sector, meanwhile, remains the backbone of the economy and the key for the livelihoods of the 80 percent of the population who live outside of Phnom Penh. The government has announced ambitious plans to boost the Kingdom’s rice exports to 1 million tonnes annually by 2015, though experts agree that the Kingdom must develop its processing capability and reduce its transport costs for this policy to be successful.
A worrying backdrop to the agriculture sector’s development are the Kingdom’s innumerable land conflicts, which have continued to pit private companies against “the poor and the powerless”, said Thun Saray, president of the local rights group Adhoc. Thun Saray said over 300 Cambodians were prosecuted in connection with land disputes this year.
Foreign investment dropped for the second year in a row, according to the Council for the Development of Cambodia, which projected in October that $4.25 billion in projects would be approved for 2010, down from $5.86 billion last year.
China has accounted for the lion’s share of investment and economic assistance. Beijing has focused in particular on infrastructure projects such as roads and hydropower, signing a deal in November to invest $1.6 billion in such projects over the next five years.
As the Kingdom continued moving closer to China, it also reversed the trend of conflict with Thailand that characterised much of 2009. Fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra quietly resigned in August from his position as economic adviser to the Cambodian government, prompting Thailand and Cambodia to return ambassadors that had been withdrawn the previous year in the row over Thaksin’s appointment. Abhisit and Hun Sen have since held several one-on-one meetings and have touted the warming relations between the two countries. It remains to be seen how this week’s arrest of a Thai parliamentarian for trespassing at the border might affect the thaw in relations.
Looming large over the year’s events was the Diamond Island bridge disaster, which Hun Sen called the country’s worst tragedy since the Khmer Rouge regime. The stampede claimed the lives of 353 people during the final night of the Kingdom’s annual Water Festival in November, and the victims were overwhelmingly youthful festival goers. A government investigation of the incident later concluded that those on the bridge had panicked over reports that the structure was swaying back and forth, causing the crush; critics have called for a more extensive probe looking at the issues of preparation and crowd control and assessing responsibility for the tragedy.
“The problem is that the spirit of responsibility in Cambodian society is still not high, not like in other countries,” Thun Saray said.
Looking ahead, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said 2011 would be a chance for the government to build on achievements from this year including the passage of the Anticorruption Law, successful macroeconomic management and ongoing reform of the judiciary.
“To build a democratic society, we have to be partners together,” he said. “Everyone, together, to enhance democracy in Cambodia.” 17:26 Post Staff
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