By Ken Silverstein
Harper's Magazine
While completing a master’s degree at the University of Michigan, John Scott-Railton helped develop “participatory mapping” projects aimed at protecting the fragile property rights of poor families living in Phnom Penh. While there he became an advocate of transparency in Cambodia’s natural resource management. Scott-Railton, now a doctoral student at the University of California-Los Angeles, has traveled extensively in Cambodia and throughout Southeast Asia. I recently asked him six questions about the political situation in Cambodia and the role there of the international community. (Note: For a look at the apparel industry in Cambodia, which is promoted by industry as the “anti-sweatshop country,” see my piece in the January issue of Harper’s.)
1. In theory, Cambodia has emerged as a multiparty democracy with political freedoms. What’s the general state of democracy in Cambodia?
Faltering. You can still find opposition members in the National Assembly, but the ruling party has overwhelming political, social, and military power. The stubborn few parliamentarians who refuse to play along have been stripped of immunity. Right now several face prosecution. The royalists were the last rival to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), but they split in 2007. Many suspect the CPP orchestrated the breakup. In the 2008 elections the party further consolidated its power, facing only a hodgepodge of smaller parties vying for a few seats.
Radio and television are tightly controlled in Cambodia. Public dissent can also be dangerous. Journalist Khem Sambo and his son were publicly gunned down in the run up to the 2008 elections. He’d been investigating high-level corruption. A local human rights group has documented at least 40 extrajudicial killings by police, soldiers and officials in 2008 alone. I’ve witnessed the fear of Cambodian colleagues who have received threats. It doesn’t really matter whether these acts were sanctioned by the regime or were committed by party loyalists for personal reasons: Cambodians can see that violence happens to dissidents. It doesn’t take many deaths to make many feel it is prudent to keep criticisms to themselves.
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