Buying on rumors

Time and the International Herald Tribune this weekend both rave about Cambodia as an investment opportunity. The lead in the IHT story sums it up neatly.

If private equity interest is the bellwether for the hot investments of the future, consider this: At least four new private equity funds, backed by brand-name investors, are aiming to bring $475 million of foreign investment into Cambodia.

That’s “if” with a capital “I.”

“Eventually, Vietnam worked out well,” Marc Faber, a fund manager and investment adviser known for his “Gloom, Boom, & Doom Report,” said by telephone from Switzerland. “I think the same may happen to Cambodia.” [...]

But as Han Kyung Tae, the chief Cambodia representative of Tong Yang Investment, part of the South Korean Tong Yang Group, points out, promise and pretty macroeconomics are one thing; closing good deals on the ground are quite another.

Han has been trying to start an Indochina investment fund for more than a year. He said he had reviewed 30 to 40 business plans, but had yet to close a single deal. [...]

His search, he said, was complicated by lack of transparency in a business culture built around sealed family empires. “It’s hard for us to get the information we need to invest,” Han said. “It’s totally new to them. Some feel offended if I ask for financial information.”

Cambodia and China

The Asia Times today tallies up the effects of big Chinese money in little Cambodia. Results are decidedly mixed.

China, hungry for strategic influence and natural resources, is asserting itself as a major investor in Cambodia, sparking concerns that a huge inflow of Chinese cash will fuel existing corruption and exploitation in one of the world’s poorest countries.  …

“China now plays a crucial role in our economy. It is both an important donor and an investor, and it’s also a big market for Cambodian products,” Khmer Economists’ Association president Chan Sophal said. “Our agricultural products are exported to China but through Thailand and Vietnam. We are also a market for Chinese products. China’s role in the Cambodian economy is growing,” he said. …

“The effect of lots of money coming in with few strings attached, going to a lot of people in the government, is generally exacerbating corruption,” Simon Taylor, director of the international anti-corruption group Global Witness, said.

The rest is pretty standard fare — worker’s rights, land-grabbing, illegal logging, environmental problems from mining, etc. — all made worse because of China’s disinterest in the welfare of Cambodia beyond its own resource-hungry desires. This should surprise no one, of course. The Chinese are famous for aggressively protecting their self-interest.

It’s the Cambodian government’s job to protect Cambodian interests. But instead of doing so, it’s selling out the country’s long-term prospects for personal, short-term financial gain. That’s the problem.

Cambodians think country is headed in the right direction

VIA KI: This must drive the opposition parties straight up the wall.

Most Cambodians are happy with the way Cambodia is being run, an International Republican Institute (IRI) survey has claimed, with 77 percent of those asked responding that Cambodia is moving in the right direction and 20 percent saying it was moving in the wrong direction.

The survey, taken Jan 27-Feb 26, asked 2,000 eligible voters from across the Kingdom the simple question: “Is Cambodia generally headed in the right direction or the wrong direction?” said IRI Director John Willis during a press conference yesterday.

[...]

Road building was the most popular reason for saying Cambodia is moving forward, with 77 percent of people seeing this as a major achievement. School construction came next, with 63 percent, 23 percent plumped for health clinic construction, 20 percent for pagoda construction, 17 percent for bridge building, 14 percent for irrigation and 10 percent for “other”.

Even when faced with the facts, Khem Sokha can’t believe it.

“Most Cambodians people do not like the [the present government’s] leadership because it is heading in the wrong direction in all sectors — politics, economy, and society,” he argued. “A more accurate figure would be around 20 percent saying [Cambodia is generally headed] in right direction and more than 70 percent saying the wrong way.”

Here’s something the current crop of opposition parties don’t seem to understand: people don’t vote on the issues, they vote with their guts. When rural people look at Hun Sen they see somebody just like them, a simple, hard-working farm boy. When they look at Sam Rainsy, they see the urban-elite stereotype personified: raised in France, speaks French, and looks like he’s never known a minute of hard work in his life. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter one bit. That’s the perception. City people might like Sam Rainsy, but rural people will never identify with him, not in a million years.

UFO crashes in Phu Quoc

On the heals of yesterday’s mysterious “cannot be confirmed nor denied” plane crash in Kampot comes this story out of Vietnam today.

A large unidentified flying object has exploded over an island just off the coast of Cambodia, Vietnamese officials have said.

The officials said Wednesday that they suspected it could be either a military plane or a civilian plane but not a flying saucer.

According to Ngang Van Truyen, chairman of the commune, the explosion occurred on Tuesday morning above Cua Can commune on Phu Quoc, a large island belonging to Vietnam just off the coast of Cambodia.

Somebody should probably tell the military, lest their guys are still hunting around in the jungle for wreckage.

POSTSCRIPT: The Cambodia Daily today reported that all Cambodian aircraft were accounted for. Vietnamese media said ditto for Vietnamese and Thai aircraft, too. Whatever the plane was doing it was trying to do it on the down low. The question is what. Another cowboy Chinese mining operation like the plane crash discovered on Phnom Aural last year?

Reports of a plane crash

Reuters reported this morning that a “foreign” plane went down in Kampot.

An airplane has crashed in the remote province of Kampot in southeast Cambodia, a local military commander said on Tuesday.

“I can confirm there was a foreign plane that crashed in Cambodia in the province of Kampot this morning. We don’t have any details,” deputy Kampot military commander Kung Mony told Reuters.

Villagers in one district told Reuters they had heard a loud explosion. Soldiers and police were searching the area.

Then this afternoon, Reuters wasn’t so sure.

A senior Cambodian military official backed off earlier claims on Tuesday that a plane had crashed in the remote province of Kampot.

“I would like to make a clarification. I earlier received firm information from the airport that there was a plane crash,” Kung Mony, deputy commander of the southeast Asian nation’s Air Force, told Reuters.

“But now I cannot either confirm or deny that that was the case,” he said.

That sounds a wee bit suspicious, doncha think? The story at lunchtime was villagers heard a loud explosion and soldiers and police were searching the area. Come dinner time, however, and the only statement the coppers had was the all-American non-denial denial classic: I can neither confirm nor deny that that was the case. That sounds like a plane did crash, only someone would rather you didn’t know about it. Stay tuned.

The kids are all right

Khmeara says he just doesn’t understand. But he appears to understand just fine.

From the day I know how to think… God has cheated us all for over two milleniums. God cheats us coz we allows him to do so. I wonder:

• how my people throw rice on the ground while hungers are lying on the floor,
• how people offer food to those fat monks while hungers are lying on the floor,
• how people build those big temples while hungers are lying on the floor,
• how these fat monks get all these delicous food i’ve never tasted before,
• how these people coming to monkhood while their children and family are getting so poor
• How these people are fighting each other to death so that their God could live so pure

Irreverence is beautiful.

Lost antiquities of Preah Vihear

The Thais are alleged to have taken artifacts from Preah Vihear during their occupation of the temple from 1954 to 1963. In the world court ruling that decided that Preah Vihear was owned by Cambodia, the world court demanded that Thailand return those artifacts. Forty-five years later, Cambodia is still waiting.

A lobby group comprised of Cambodian business people, archeologists and lawyers Monday called on the Thai government to return artifacts they alleged had been removed from the border temple of Preah Vihear decades earlier. The newly-formed Khmer Civilization Foundation comprises heavy hitting lobbyists including prominent human rights lawyer Sok Sam Oeun, businessman Moeung Son and leading archeologist Vong Sotheara.

“We ask the Thai government to return artifacts … from the temple,” chairman Moeung Son told a press conference in the capital.

“If the Royal Cambodian Government asks for these artifacts back and Cambodia can identify them, under international law, Thailand should give them back,” Sok Sam Oeun said.

Deal made on Preah Vihear

The Bangkok Post on Sunday reported that Cambodia and Thailand have struck a deal on Preah Vihear.

Thailand and Cambodia have broken a deadlock in their dispute over Preah Vihear after Phnom Penh agreed to only nominate the famous Hindu-style temple, and not territory around it, to Unesco as a world heritage candidate.

The decision, reached during a Unesco-brokered meeting in Paris on Thursday, puts an end to a dispute involving the 4.6-square-kilometre border area near the temple over which sovereignty has not been settled.

Cambodia’s previous proposal submitted to Unesco included disputed land between Si Sa Ket’s Kantharalak district and Preah Vihear province as areas to be listed as a World Heritage Site.

Thailand protested because it was worried that if Unesco approved the proposal, the entire area on which sovereignty was not yet settled would be implicitly recognised as Cambodian soil.

[...]

Cambodia agreed to the changes in exchange for Thailand’s backing of the new proposal, said Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama, who led the Thai delegation in talks with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and his team.

The Bangkok Post published similar claims in March and February. In those stories too the Post made it sound as though Cambodia dishonestly tried to include disputed territory in their Preah Vihear Unesco proposal. Without seeing the proposal it’s hard to know if that’s true. But even if it is, for Thailand to now pretend as if that was the only problem all along is just more of the same pedantic Thai mendacity that has plagued Preah Vihear negotiations for the last 60 years.

As The Bangkok Post rather conveniently forgets, the latest chapter of the Preah Vihear saga started not because Thailand disagreed with border demarcations in Cambodia’s Unseco proposal. It started because Thailand wanted the Preah Vihear application submitted jointly. Thailand at first lied and then  threatened Cambodia in order to get its way. When neither of those tricks worked Thailand capitulated, only to backtrack in the ensuing weeks, which gives little reason to think that Sunday’s announcement will hold up any longer than the previous two.

Hor Namhong speaks

VIA CAMBOVIEW: Hor Namhong recently spoke to Rasmey Kampuchea about his lawsuit against Sam Rainsy.

Like a number of other people, Mr. Sam Ransi was happily abroad, while the Khmer Rouge were slaughtering Khmer people and subjected them to unspeakable agony; I endured great pain for 3 years, 8 months and 20 days in the Khmer Rouge Regime; I and my family were immensely tormented, not like Sam Rainsi.

Read the whole thing.

Internet Party 2008, the aftermath

The city’s Internet geeks got together over the weekend to discuss the state of the country’s technological affairs. Jinja live-blogged the event. Lux Mean got the T-shirt (and a lot of photos).

Khieu Samphan rushed to hospital

Tick tock, tick tock.

Jailed Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan was taken to the hospital Wednesday, as another former minister of the regime was appealing her detention.

Khieu Samphan was received at Calmette Hospital for high blood pressure, Khmer Rouge tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said, as former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith attended a bail hearing.

It was Khieu Samphan’s first trip to the hospital, which has so far been visited by fellow former leaders Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary.

So that makes three out of five. Only Duch and Ieng Thirith have yet to make an emergency Calmette visit, although at Wednesday’s hearing Ieng Thirith complained of being unwell.

The diminutive, bespectacled 76-year-old appeared confused at times, failing once to remember how many children she had and refusing to make a final statement following the nearly nine hour hearing, telling the court that she was “unwell.”

“I have high blood pressure and when I get angry it rises rapidly,” said Thirith, who was seized by authorities from her Phnom Penh home in November.

Day of Hate

In some sort of tormented Cambodian spiritual cleansing, people celebrated the Day of Hate with re-enactments of Khmer Rouge murders at the Killing Fields. Ten years ago, say, such a thing would have been unthinkable. Today it’s almost seems a novelty.

Stealing elections

The New York Times, on the eve of the 1993 elections, took a look back at the halcyon days of the Sangkum Reastr Niyum.

IN 1955, there was an election in Cambodia. The ruling party used intimidation, violence, even murder to guarantee its victory in the polls. And the tactics worked. Voters who might have supported the opposition stayed home rather than vote. And the ruling party held onto power.

Four decades later, the leader of that ruling party, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, is back in Cambodia, this time in the role of beloved senior statesman — the only hope, many Cambodians believe, for a peaceful Cambodia after a generation of civil war and genocide.

Cambodia’s modern history is built on paradoxes, few more striking than that of the mercurial 70-year-old prince rushing home to Phnom Penh this weekend to try to hold together his shattered homeland in the midst of an election that United Nations officials predict will be marred by intimidation and violence.

This is a common refrain, not just last century but this century too — Cambodian elections marred by violence and intimidation. It makes it sounds as if, with the elections on the line, the ruling party moves into “violence and intimidation” mode. But that’s true only in a very small sense.

That fact is, Cambodia is marred by violence and intimidation every minute of every day. Teachers extort money from students. Police routinely use torture. Violent crime occurs daily. Almost nothing, in fact, is free from violence and intimidation. Yet it’s only around election time that outsiders seem to take notice. After the polls close and Western agencies take their victory lap, such violence effects only people, nothing nearly as important as the West’s democratic experiment, apparently.

Beauty is immoral

For a government that cannot even enforce the most basic traffic rules, the idea that it might somehow legislate the nation into a populace of fine asexual citizens is beyond ridiculous.

Ministry of Information sent letter dated May 16 to all numerous local magazines and tourist guidebook to put a halt to advertisement that show the men and women wearing the skimp attire.

The letter said that “the Ministry of information has notice that magazines and tourist guidebooks have printed out the advertisement of bars and karaoke parlors that show images of men and women in skimpy dresses to all tourists.”

“The showing of sexy images will be able to confuse the tourists into thinking that Cambodia is a target for sex tourism and affect women’s morality and honor,” the letter said.

You cannot legislate morality. For the love of Buddha please quit trying.

Ieng Thirith gets her day

Ieng Thirith appeared for the first time at the ECCC today.

A former Khmer Rouge government minister, known as the “first lady,” appeared for the first time Wednesday before Cambodia’s UN-backed genocide tribunal.

Ieng Thirith, the former social affairs minister, was arrested last November along with her husband, Ieng Sary, the ex-foreign minister in the murderous regime that unleashed widespread horror in Cambodia.

Her lawyers are expected to appeal for her release, arguing that the 76-year-old is mentally ill. Court officials, however, have said doctors have deemed Ieng Thirith fit to stand trial.

She has rejected the charges against her as “100 percent false,” claiming she was helping to repair hospitals and produce medicines during the Khmer Rouge’s 1975-79 rule.

(Repairing hospitals? He he he.)

Day of Hate

In some sort of tormented Cambodian spiritual cleansing, people yesterday celebrated the Day of Hate with re-enactments of Khmer Rouge murders at the Killing Fields. Men in black pants and olive drab Mao caps beat women and children while hundreds of monks looked on and the media took photographs. Ten years ago, such a thing would never have even been dreamed. Today, it almost seems a novelty.

77 more SRP members defect

Preah Vihear province just lost another 77 SRP members.

At least 77 opposition members and activists from one commune in Preah Vihear province have requested to move to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, officials said Monday.

“This is true information because the list is in my hands,” said Yan Ran, governor of Preah Vihear’s Kulen district, where Sam Rainsy Party members of Tbeng Pi commune have requested the switch.

[...]

Long Ry, an SRP official in charge of Preah Vihear affairs, said the defections, if true, could have been coerced.

“If there is such a defection, I think that it would have been a threat against those SRP people, such as threatening them to vote for [the CPP],” he said.

Getting beat up at the Heart of Darkness

Over the years the Heart of Darkness has been many things to many people — a place to get beat up among them.

Dancing in the Heart on a Friday night. Guy follows our group from the door to the bar to the dance floor. He grabbed my friend and twisted her wrist until she screamed. Then he let go. She went over to security and they laughed at her.

For most expats the Heart of Darkness has been off the map for the better part of a decade now. It’s a wonder anybody still goes there.

The Burma Daily is dead

The censors have won.

A standoff between the Cambodian government and a US newspaper publisher appeared to be over Tuesday after the government seized copies for the second day of The Burma Daily, a supplement inside the English-language Cambodia Daily.

‘The Burma Daily will not appear in The Cambodia Daily again,’ Bernard Krisher, publisher of both newspapers, said while adding that the supplement would now publish in earnest toward its intended market in Myanmar and be available on the web and by mail.

Bernie’s Burma paper is going to get a web site before his Cambodian one? That’s too much.

Campaign 2008: Death Toll

There is a new page over in the right-hand column, Campaign 2008: Death Toll.

It’s a running tally of election-related homicides with links to the accompanying news stories. So far, thankfully, there are only two links. It would be wonderful if it stayed that way.

The page also includes brief statistics from previous elections. In 1993, for instance, the UN cited more than 100 election-related murders. In 2003 that number plummeted to 13, the lowest on record. It seems likely that this year’s toll could remain in the single digits.

That’s still too many, obviously. But at least the number is going down with each election and not up. By 2013 or 2018, there just might be zero election-related murders. Who would argue against that?

Name that year

The country is Cambodia. About which election year is the author referring?

The ruling party used intimidation, violence, even murder to guarantee its victory in the polls. And the tactics worked. Voters who might have supported the opposition stayed home rather than vote. And the ruling party held onto power.

Multiple choice answer

• 1955
• 1966
• 1993
• 1998

Answer below the fold.

Hor Namhong vs Khmerization

VIA KI: Hor Namhong is on the war path, via his lawyer. He has threatened to sue Khmerization for defamation too. But really, Khmerization should probably not gloat to proudly. This is likely just the lawyer padding his fees. If Hor Namhong and his lawyer had half a case, they would be serving a lawsuit, not cease-and-desist orders.

UPDATE: Vanak has more.

I have no respect for  Mr. David Meas . It seems he truly is an unscrupulous type of attorney.

As if there were any other kind.

Cambodia Daily banned

Burma supplement strikes fear in government.

The Cambodian government on Monday confiscated the Cambodia Daily newspaper from newsstands over a supplement called The Burma Daily, the Information Ministry and the newspaper’s publisher said.

The official ministry explanation was that the confiscation was ordered because The Burma Daily, which had appeared since last week as a four-page insert with an identical masthead as its sister publication, was not licensed.

But publisher Bernard Krisher argued that the paper did not need a license because it was a supplement and the decision to confiscate the English- and Khmer-language daily, which has a circulation of about 5,000, reflected badly on the government.

He vowed to continue to print The Burma Daily for several more days as planned even if it were confiscated. After its printing is finished, it is to become an online and mail publication for distribution in Myanmar.

“The Burma Daily has no political agenda,” he said by telephone. “It is designed to introduce to the Myanmarese people what a free and responsible newspaper looks like.”

The speculation is that the government is worried that the Cambodia Daily will, if it hasn’t already, print embarrassing revelations about the Burmese government, thus causing a fast ally to lose face.

It’s hard to imagine a more wickedly craven betrayal of the Burmese people. Tens of thousands are dying needlessly in Burma. The ruling junta is stealing emergency aid meant for their dying citizens. And Hun Sen is afraid to let somebody say something about it? That’s reprehensible.

For Cambodians who sometimes wonder how the world could sit by and do nothing as Pot Pol killed millions, you now have an answer.

UPDATE: Watching the Media has more.

In a high-minded ‘Letter from the Publisher’ Krishner said he hopes the paper will be circulated in Myanmar, “as are other international media, like the International Herald Tribune and news weeklies.” [...]

It appears that Krishner perhaps doesn’t have a full grasp of the realities of distributing anything in Myanmar, and the international papers he refers to are often withheld if they contain contentious material about the pariah nation, or sometimes offending pages are simply torn out. Krishner reacted strongly to the emergence of the new Phnom Penh Post, and news of its intention to go head-to-head with the Cambodia daily by becoming daily itself in early July. [...]

Speculation n Phnom Penh is that part of the motivation behind The Burma Daily is simply revenge, a get-back at Ross Dunkley who is publisher of both the Phnom Penh Post and the Myanmar Times, by bating him to the punch to start up a daily on his own patch.

Oh, brother.

Clogger Party 2008

Kalyan has the dish.

Internet Party is an annual event celebrates once a year on every MAY to help promote IT awareness, link Businessman, IT Managers and IT Professional together also promote the use of Technology by encourage student to focused on it.
Event Detail (www.ipcambodia.com):
Date – 23 and 24 May 2008
Time – 9:00am to 7:00pm
Place – Sovanna Shopping Center (behind Inter-Con Hotel, next to Russia Hospital)

It’s the perfect excuse to check out the new mall, or to check out the Internet Party and say your checking out the new mall, depending on your level of geekdom.

Sam Rainsy has lost the plot

Speaking to Moneakseka Khmer, Sam Rainsy gives some insight into how he plans to defend against the defamation case filed against him by Hor Namhong. It’s a simple strategy, and posits that Sam Rainsy never mentioned Hor Namhong by name nor cited any specific crimes. Legal experts say it is unlikely to work. Mostly because of this:

Sam Rainsy said, “Frankly speaking, Hor Namhong was the Butcher of Boeng Trabek Prison responsible for arranging the killings and among those who died because of such arrangements were Prince Sisowath Methani and Princess Nanique, who was the elder sister of Samdech Princess Norodom Monineath Shanouk. …”

With Plan A now out the window, Sam Rainsy has created Plan B. In this scenario Sam Rainsy will file a case with the ECCC against Hor Namhong for the murder of two, possibly more, people.

As evidence against Hor Namhong, Sam Rainsy said he will use National Assembly testimony given by now-deceased FUNCINPEC parliamentarian Kev Bunthok, who said Hor Namhong held an “important position.” In addition to Kev Bunthok’s devastating remark, Sam Rainsy said he also plans to introduce as evidence the confession of Hor Namhong’s predecessor, Van Pinay, who informed interrogators at Tuol Sleng of extensive crimes committed by his peers.

Spokespeople at the ECCC were too busy laughing hysterically to comment.

The pursuit of justice

A delegation from the Ministry of Justice recently visited Vietnam for a round of glad-handing and other ceremonial pursuits.

[Vietnamese] PM Dung commended the outcomes of the talks, which were aimed at boosting cooperation between the two ministries in matters related to citizenship, legal representation, delegation exchanges, expertise, legal documents and training. … While in Viet Nam , the Cambodian delegation met leaders of the People’s Supreme Court and the People’s Supreme Procuracy in a move to foster law and judicial co-operation between the two countries.

This is pretty terrible news. While Vietnam probably has things to teach Cambodia, and Cambodia probably has  things to learn from Vietnam, the effective administration of justice is surely not one of them. As the U.S. State Department puts it:

The [Vietnamese] Constitution provides for the independence of judges and jurors; however, in practice the [Communist] Party controls the courts closely at all levels, selecting judges primarily for their political reliability. Constitutional safeguards are significantly lacking. Credible reports indicate that party officials, including top leaders, instruct courts how to rule on politically important cases. CPV and government officials may exert influence over court decisions by pressuring both the lay assessors and the judges who sit on a panel together to decide cases. The CPV has strong influence over high-profile cases, or in cases where a person is charged with challenging or harming the CPV or the State. … The system of appointing judges and lay assessors also reflects the lack of judicial independence.

There’s another 1,000 words where that came from, none of it good.

Khmer Legacies

Socheata Poeuv, producer and director of the award-winning movie New Year Baby, writes about her newest project.

My parents never talked about their story of survival until one Christmas day five years ago when they made a confession to me. They told me that even though they had raised me, my brother and sisters as one nuclear family, we were not nuclear at all. In fact, we are a patchwork quilt of survivors. In effect, my family was formed during the Cambodian genocide.

I decided to make a documentary film about their story, called New Year Baby. I also wanted to create a forum so that stories of the Cambodian genocide could be passed from one generation to the next.

I’m starting a new organization called Khmer Legacies. The mission of Khmer Legacies is to document the Cambodian genocide through personal videotaped testimonies. The idea is to have the younger generation interview their parents about their story of survival. These videotapes will be used as an educational tool – an opportunity to tell the larger story of the Cambodian genocide.

For now the project is focused on 50 stories in the Bronx, New York, with plans to expand to Lowell, Massachusetts. The interviews will become the centerpiece of a public exhibition and education campaign. The goal is to contribute to the nation’s healing and to help bridge the enormous generational gap between those who survived the holocaust and their children, who grew up in relative peace. The younger generation still knows very little about what happened to their country and their parents.

It’s an ambitious project, with long-term plans of interviewing thousands. Ms Poeuv admits it won’t be easy. Most Cambodians would prefer to forget the past, not relive it with their children. Yet it cannot be understated how badly those stories need telling. As the Khmer Legacies web site says, “some in the younger generation grow up believing that the genocide did not happen at all.”

It’s time the parents tell the children the truth.

The Preah Vihear saga

Thailand continues to act like a petulant teenager over Preah Vihear.

Thailand may ask Unesco to again postpone its decision on the registration of the ancient ruins at Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site this year if it is unable to convince Cambodia to settle the land dispute through joint management, Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said yesterday.

[...]

Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh criticised the move by Thailand to link the Preah Vihear issue to the overlapping areas for offshore oil exploration.

”If we solve the Preah Vihear case, then we also solve the overlapping zone offshore. They’re completely different things, the minister told the Cambodia Daily newspaper.

There’s really no other way to put it: linking Preah Vihear negotiations to overlapping oilfield claims is blackmail. That Unesco is playing along in such pedantic Thai games is shameful. Preah Vihear temple belongs unquestionably to Cambodia. The listing of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site, too, belongs unquestionably to Cambodia. Thailand has zero to do with it.

But Cambodia need not wait at the mercy of an irrational and arrogant Thailand. If there’s anything that Hun Sen’s CPP-lead government does well, it’s play the game of global politics like an Ouk Chaktrung board: the Japanese and their bloodlust for killing whales, the Americans and their murderous War on Terror, the Chinese and their One China policy, those insane monsters in Myanmar — Cambodia unflinchingly supported them all.

It’s time to call in the markers. With an A-list of heavy political hitters behind it, Cambodia should easily be able to quash Thai opposition to the listing of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site. Without the listing, Preah Vihear is likely to remain an obscure destination. With it, Preah Vihear would skyrocket in importance as a tourist destination, rivaling Angkor Wat virtually overnight.

That’s why Thailand wants so badly to be at the table. There’s a ton of money at stake, and the odds that Thailand will see a dime of it grow slimmer every day. Their continued interference in Cambodia’s Unesco request all but guarantees it.

‘Guards’ deploying to Preah Vihear

Thailand is going to love this.

The recently-established Preah Vihear National Authority (PVNA) has announced plans to deploy 22 uniformed guards to protect Preah Vihear temple from looters, local media reported Tuesday.

“The guards will consist of 11 men and 11 women. They will be assigned to the temple next month to prevent the theft of temple stones,” PVNA General Director Hang Soth was quoted by the Mekong Times, a local newspaper, as saying.

Kong Sophearak, director of the Tourism Ministry’s Statistics and Information Department, expressed support for the PVNA’s plan, claiming that the guards will not only protect the temples, but also give tourists more confidence to visit the remote site.

Happy 56th Birthday King Norodom Sihamoni