Raging bullies

Forty percent of Thais polled recently say Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva should have taken “harsher measures” against Cambodia for its overtures toward Thaksin. A majority 52 percent said Abhisit’s response was “appropriate.”

Hun Sen vs Abhisit Vejjajiva

Hun Sen rips Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva a new one.

If Abhisit is so sure of himself, then he should call an election. What are you afraid of? Is it that you are afraid you will no longer be the PM? Are you afraid that Puea Thai party will win the election?

I am Prime Minister of Cambodia who has received two-thirds of the vote in the Cambodian parliament. How many does Than Abhisit have? You’ve stolen somebody else’s chair to seat yourself in. You claim other people’s property as your own. How can we respect that?

[...]

Referring to the accusation that Cambodia does not respect the Thai court, I don’t see any value in the Thai justice system worthy of respect.

In the past, Khieu Samphan or Noun Chea [of the Khmer Rouge] were allowed to live [given refuge] in Thailand before they were arrested upon entering Cambodia. Thailand had signed a pact not to support the Khmer Rouge.

Thailand did more than violate international law. It had signed a peace pact. And it violated many things. Thai people should consider this. If Thailand does not respect international law, how can you expect us to respect Thai law?

Read the whole thing. There’s lots more.

POSTSCRIPT: The Nation has a slightly different transcript of this interview.

Hun Sen appoints Thaksin as an economic advisor

From Xinhua:

Former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was officially appointed as adviser of his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen and the Royal Government of Cambodia y King Norodom Sihamoni, a statement of the Royal Government announced on Wednesday.

The King signed the Royal Decree of the appointment of Thaksin Shinawatra on Oct. 27. The appointment was made in accordance with the country’s constitutions and at the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

… “Our concern is for humanitarian reasons, it is friends helping friends. The internal affairs of Thailand would be left for Thai people to resolve, I am not interfering,” said Hun Sen.

Thaksin previously turned down Hun Sen’s offer to take refuge in Cambodia, and Thaksin  will likely decline this offer as well. But that’s not the point. The point is that the offer will make the Thai junta seethe with madness. They have only themselves to blame. The junta prompted this whole mess when it sent Thai troops to the border at Preah Vihear. Prime Minister Hun Sen’s opportunistic stirring of the pot is just the natural law of unintended consequences at work.

Thaksin denies Cambodia rumor

Thaksin says he has no plans for visiting Cambodia.

Fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra early on Friday denied a media report that he will go to Cambodia to celebrate Loy Krathong and to thank Cambodian leader Hun Sen for his promise not to allow his extradition to Thailand.

“I will not go to Cambodia and will stay here in a Muslim country,” Thaksin said on his twitter@thaksinlive website.

Judging by the news from Google, the Abhisit government is on shaky ground. Hun Sen is but one of many critics.

UPDATE: Thaksin declines Cambodia’s offer of refuge.

Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyuth, chairman of the opposition Puea Thai Party, said fugitive former prime minister would not permanently reside in Cambodia as he did not want to create any problem to Thailand.

“I had asked him (Thaksin) why he did not stay in the neighbouring country as it is near to his hometown and family, but he said no”, Gen Chavalit on Saturday.

“Staying in Cambodia could lead to many problems to Thailand”, Thaksin was quoted as saying by Gen Chavalit.

Defamation verdict against Mu Sochua upheld

From AFP:

Cambodia’s Appeal Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of an outspoken opposition party lawmaker for defaming the country’s powerful Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Mu Sochua of the Sam Rainsy Party was convicted by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in August for defaming Hun Sen during an April press conference, in which she announced plans to sue the premier for allegedly insulting her.

The court also ordered her to pay more than 4,000 dollars in a fine and compensation to Hun Sen.

After a Wednesday appeal hearing, judge Seng Sivutha said the court decided to uphold the conviction, ruling that Mu Sochua did defame Hun Sen and “incited other women to hate” the premier.

Mu Sochua said she will now take her case to the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court is unlikely to rule in her favor, either. Mu Sochua has said previously that she will not pay the fine — as a means of protesting the country’s badly corrupt court system — and that she is prepared to go to jail. The CPP seems certain to take her up on that offer. Jailing her, however, is likely to have far reaching and unpredictable political implications, and the CPP does so at its own peril.

Stillness at the Thai border

Thai military commanders say that despite political skirmishes in the capital, all is peaceful at the Preah Vihear border.

Military ties between Cambodia and Thailand remain tight, army chief Anupong Paojinda said on Tuesday. …

“I can assure you that the situation there will not lead to fighting, and we will not resort to the use of force,” Gen Anupong said.

Meanwhile, Kasit says Hun Sen is “misinformed,” and Cambodian troops are “stockpiling ammunitions.”

Tanks were seen being transported along National Road 5 last week in Battambang province, and an RCAF general, speaking on condition of anonymity, said missiles with a range of up to 60 kilometres had also arrived. In addition to 16 new tanks delivered to Military Region 5, he said, more than 700 RCAF officers have been issued K-54 pistols, marking the first time since 2000 that low-level commanders have been issued sidearms.

Thaksin has a friend in Cambodia

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday offered his kingdom as a place of refuge for deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has offered to host his “eternal friend,” fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, at any time, state television reported on Wednesday.

Hun Sen conveyed his message to Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a Thai political heavyweight and close Thaksin aide, in comments likely to rile a Thai government anxious to minimise the billionaire’s influence from exile.

Meanwhile, Thailand has allegedly killed another Cambodian caught crossing the border illegally, and Cambodia has arrested a Thai monk who is accused of the same.

UPDATE: Reuters has more.

LATER UPDATE: KK sets the record straight.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen did not offer fugitive ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra a home in Cambodia, Cambodia’s spokesman Khieu Kanharith.

“He didn’t say that,” Khieu Kanharith said. “Some people have said we would allow Thaksin to have a permanent home in Cambodia – it’s not true.”

Department of arrogant western neighbors

For some inexplicable reason, the brains of  Thai politicians seem to stop functioning when Cambodian politicians talk.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan on Wednesday said he did not believe that Cambodia will raise the border conflict with its neighbour Thailand at the upcoming summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the end of this month.

And the very next paragraph:

The ASEAN chief commented after French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) earlier quoted Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong as saying Prime Minister Hun Sen will raise the Thai border spat at an upcoming regional summit despite opposition from Thailand, which is hosting the meeting.

Is Surin Pitsuwan deaf? Or just stupid?

Why does Thailand hate outsiders

Last week, the Thai News Agency reported that Thailand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kasit Piromya, had proposed “establishing a mechanism to settle conflicts among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during the group’s upcoming summit”. He was referring to the ongoing drama over Preah Vihear.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong loved the idea — he had suggested the same thing more than a year ago, in fact — so he wrote a letter to Kasit reiterating his support for outside intervention. Thailand has since started backtracking.

Which begs the question: Why is Thailand so adamantly opposed to outside intervention?

The answer: Because Thailand is wrong and it knows it. The 1907 border treaty, which Thailand ratified, is the legal basis for the Cambodia-Thai border. No matter how you slice it, Thailand is trying to take what does not belong to it. Anyone not stoned on Thai nationalism will instantly see that fact, which is why Thailand doesn’t want anyone to look.

CPP government ‘paranoid,’ says Rainsy

Sam Rainsy has been uncharacteristically quiet in recent months. Speaking Tuesday to the Bangkok Press Club, he did his best to make up for missed opportunities.

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy says grassroots activists, politicians, and village leaders have been killed, jailed, and forced into hiding for disagreeing with the ruling party.

He says the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen is attempting to silence growing discontent over land confiscation and most Cambodians not benefiting from the growing economy.

Sam Rainsy says part of the problem is that many of Cambodia’s leaders like Hun Sen are former Khmer Rouge, the brutal communist government that ruled in the 1970s and was responsible for the deaths of up to two million Cambodians.

“They still have the Khmer Rouge mentality,” he said. “They do not tolerate critics and they are paranoid. They see enemies everywhere around them and they take preemptive moves to eliminate their enemies or potential enemies by killing them, by silencing them.”

Trying to saddle Hun Sen with the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge is fundamentally dishonest. Faced with an impossibly corrupt, U.S.-installed Lon Nol regime, a majority of Cambodians supported the Khmer Rouge at the time. Rainsy wouldn’t know that, though. He moved to France in 1965 at age 16.

Looking in the mirror

KJE is offended that Mu Sochua would act like a politician. His outrage comes from a recent VOA story.

Mu Sochua, an opposition lawmaker who testified before US Congress Thursday, said her trip to the US had meant more attention to Cambodia’s rights issues and more monitoring of the situation by the US.

The US will work to end injustice in the court and other crackdowns, she said, as a guest on “Hello VOA” Monday, following talks with senior US officials.

“First, they will send a team of high-level delegates to clearly assess the situation in Cambodia. And second, they said aid must be attached to the respect of human rights. Third, they will pay close attention and they will monitor and take action to end the use of injustice in the courts to crack down on opposition members of parliament.”

“Liar,” shouts KJE from the peanut gallery.

If she, in fact, made those statements, and there is no reason to doubt the VOA, then she is either too full of herself, overestimating her influence, delusional, or she is just plainly misrepresenting the truth for political, and her party’s material, gain.

Read the VOA passage again. It’s hard to imagine a less boilerplate response from Mu Sochua.

The United States, alarmed by a rash of government lawsuits against journalists and opposition party members, wanted to speak with some of those caught up in the CPP dragnet. It invited Mu Sochua to speak with the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Rehashing the outcome of her commission appearance, Mu Sochua, an elected NA member from Kampot, said that the United States plans to keep a watchful eye on the situation and work toward strengthening the rule of law and human rights in Cambodia. Blah, blah, blah. In the eyes of KJE, Mu Sochua’s crime appears to be taking some credit for the increased American scrutiny, and for, ostensibly, using that credit to raise money for her party.

Or, in other words, Mu Sochua is just another greedy foreigner bagging on Cambodia in order to get donor money and fuel her own 5-star lifestyle. You’d think KJE was auditioning for a comedy skit at Bayon TV.

Death threats from the PM

The Season of Ghosts has arrived.

PRIME Minister Hun Sen launched an attack against his political opponents Wednesday, saying “ghosts” out for the Pchum Ben festival would come to threaten their lives.

“The ghost are around them and will take them along,” Hun Sen told a few hundred supporters during the inauguration of a pagoda in the Kirivong district of Takeo province.

Viva freedom of speech.

Embracing the democratic process

The government of Cambodia applauds the Burmese junta on its bold steps toward democracy.

GOVERNMENT officials have hailed the outcome of the trial of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, claiming the reduction of her sentence was a “good sign” the country was moving in a democratic direction.

On Tuesday, a court at Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison found Suu Kyi guilty of breaching her house arrest and sentenced her to three years in prison and hard labour, a punishment the head of the ruling junta commuted to 18 months’ house arrest.

Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the commuting of the sentence by Myanmar head of state Than Shwe showed the country’s military government was keen to enact democratic reforms.

Elsewhere, Cambodia reaffirms its own commitment to the rule of law.

Cambodia is more than ever committed to human rights promotion and protection approach with its organic laws, said a government statement released on Tuesday by the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman.

George Orwell would be impressed.

Government forbids private “Landmine Pageant” party

Landmine pageant contestants blocked from gathering in Phnom Penh, says organizer.

THE organiser of the ill-fated Miss Landmine pageant still wants to show his appreciation to the contestants, despite being told by government officials that a meeting with the women would be “absolutely out of the question”.

The Ministry of Social Affairs issued a decree on Sunday banning organiser Morten Traavik from staging the event, which had been intended to celebrate land mine survivors.

Traavik said the ministry has since instructed its provincial offices not to assist any of the women in travelling to Phnom Penh to meet with him, where he was planning to host a dinner and give each of them a gift of US$200.

“If they refuse to let me meet with Cambodian citizens … as a private person, that is an even more blatant example of an authoritarian system,” Traavik said.

For a government that claims it “rules according to the constitutional monarchy and the principle of liberal democracy and pluralism,” the CPP sure has a funny way of spreading the blessings of liberty.

Challenging the Strongman

Opposition parliamentarian Son Chhay gives some perspective to Mu Sochua’s fight with Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Son Chhay, another outspoken opposition parliamentarian, says the recent crackdown is a symptom of a government that is trying to address the issues facing the country, such as corruption, land seizures and economic stagnation.

“Like many dictatorial regimes in the region, because they are unable to solve the problems, they resort to measures to control the people and shut them up,” he said.

“If he allowed Mu Sochua to challenge him, other people might go down the same path,” said Son Chhay.

Yep.

Strange victories

Everyday steals the latest news on the Mu Sochua saga.

Mr. Sam Rainsy, president of the eponymous Sam Rainsy Party, said his party will pay the fines for Ms. Mu Sochua if she is found guilty of defaming Mr. Hun Sen by the court in a hearing today (Friday 24th).

Mr. Sam Rainsy added that he can predict the outcome of the court hearing today and that is Ms. Mu Sochua will be found guilty. Mr. Sam Rainsyy told the Cambodia Daily that his party will pay the fines for Ms. Mu Sochua because it does not want to engage in a lengthy legal war because it is a waste of time. Mr. Sam Rainsy also said that his party will not appeal the court’s verdict if Mu Sochua is found guilty.

The likelihood that Sam Rainsy caved all by himself seems remote. Surely the ruling party leaned on him. It’s hard to count that as anything but a massive victory for Mu Sochua.

For all his efforts, The “Strongman” Hun Sen could not make the member from Kampot knuckle under. He stripped Mu Sochua of her parliamentary immunity, sued her and threatened her with prison, then coerced her lawyer into resigning. Still, Mu Sochua refused to cower.

So Hun Sen did about the only thing he could do. He went to Mu Sochua’s boss Sam Rainsy, who collapsed like a cheese soufflé.

Prime Minister Buttinsky

In France, Hun Sen allegedly told the French president that five is enough.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is trying to prevent the United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal from expanding prosecutions of former regime officials and undermining its independence, Human Rights Watch said.

Hun Sen told French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week the court’s efforts to prosecute more Khmer Rouge officials than the five in custody threaten stability, the New York-based group said, citing a senior Cambodian aide who attended the meeting.

“The UN and international donors need to put their foot down,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement e-mailed today. “Hun Sen has no role in this court” yet keeps trying to interfere.

Angry Brad is hardly an impartial source of information. A lot more than his word should be required before printing criminal allegations against a sitting head of state. What were Bloomberg editors thinking?

Protesting Thai idiocy

The Post reports on the latest cross-border diplomatic snafu.

THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to send a diplomatic note to Thai officials this week voicing its disapproval of a Web site launched by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva that claims parts of Cambodia as “lost” Thai territory.

Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Sunday that officials had decided to “reject” the Web site, which launched July 4, and would send the note “early this week”.

The site, www.ilovethailand.org, features a video that includes a green map of the Siamese Empire at its most expansive. As images of Thai kings appear on the screen, sections of the empire turn dark red before they are removed from the map.

Sections lost to Cambodia include parts of Siem Reap and Battambang provinces as well as the land on which Preah Vihear temple sits.

It’s worth pointing out that this web site is not the work of some rabid lunatic fringe. The web site was created under the direction of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Fortunately for Thailand, someone with an appropriate sense of decency has intervened. The web site has been removed.

Winning friends

Mu Sochua, the CPP’s favorite opposition politician, is in the United States this month meeting with the new clan in Washington. She remains unrelenting in her criticisms of the ruling “dictatorship.”

“I needed to see the people in the new administration to urge them to re-assess U.S. foreign policy,” says Sochua in an interview with The Daily Beast. “Cambodia is a democracy on paper but in reality a dictatorship. Our party activists are murdered because they fight for justice-life is still cheap in Cambodia. Human trafficking, drug trafficking, land grabbing, and forced evictions are all carried out under the nose of the government.”

She doesn’t stop there.

“It is now common practice for powerful corporations and government officials to utilize armed forces to push citizens off their rightfully and legally held land,” says Sochua. “These evictions are often violent, with soldiers wielding guns, tear gas and Tasers and burning houses to the ground, while citizens are beaten, maimed and arrested.”

Don’t tell Nguon Nhel.

Degrees of benevolence

The Post has the latest in the unfolding Mu Sochua saga. It’s not pretty.

PRIME Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that he had withdrawn his legal complaints against Kong Sam Onn, a lawyer representing Sam Rainsy Party lawmakers Mu Sochua and Ho Vann, after the attorney resigned his post and defected to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

When SRP politicians jump ship in the run up to elections, their motives are, if not admirable, at least understandable. When SRP lawyers defect under legal threat, however, that’s much more than a guy just trying to get by. That’s the ruling party trying to make a point. While no one would argue that such jack-booted political tactics aren’t better than murdering your adversaries outright, the political effect is, for all intents and purposes, the same.

CPP to Funcinpec: drop dead

Prime Minister tells royalists to kiss off.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that he had decided to terminate power sharing to his coalition partner Royalist FUNCINPEC party, at the public function level.

…The premier said he had made the decision on the matter beginning May 29, a move that he said a part of administration reform.

FUNCINPEC party is the only coalition partner with Hun Sen of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party after the CPP had won landslide victory over the general election in 2008.

Knowing your enemy

Khmerization contemplates the Kingdom’s latest political dogfight.

Mr Hun Sen’s legal action and his threat of lifting of Mrs. Mu Sochua’s parliamentary immunity, if anything at all, is a case of political intimidation and political oppression but worst, a political terrorism, as his pre-emptive lawsuit and the threat of the lifting of parliamentary immunity was aimed at terrorising his political critics, in this case Mrs. Mu Sochua, into submission and silence.

[...]

I do not wish to pre-judge the Phnom Penh Court here as the case is still hanging in the balance.

Um, yeah, not to pre-judge or anything.

Mu Sochua v Hun Sen, part ii

Mu Sochua refuses to be bullied by The Strongman.

GOVERNMENT officials have warned that Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Mu Sochua could face legal action and a possible suspension of her parliamentary immunity following last week’s announcement she would sue Prime Minister Hun Sen for defamation.

Om Yentieng, one of Hun Sen’s advisers and president of the Cambodian Human Rights Committee, told Cambodian  media Friday that government lawyers would countersue Mu Sochua and that ruling party MPs would meet to suspend her immunity if the court found she was at fault.

[...]

“I am not scared about Hun Sen countersuing me, but I would like the courts to remain independent in this case. I have enough proof about what Hun Sen said about me,” she said.

Wouldn’t it be something to see Mu Sochua stand with the courage of her convictions and go to jail before the fleet-footed leader of her party? It’s the kind of thing from which movements are born.

Remembering March 30, 1997

Human Rights Watch plays “Where Are They Now?” with the principals of the infamous grenade attack.

Twelve years after a grenade attack on an opposition party rally that killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 100, the Cambodian government has still taken no steps to bring the perpetrators to justice, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch criticized the recent promotions of officials suspected of involvement in that attack.

[...]

On the day of the grenade attack, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s personal bodyguard unit, Brigade 70, was, for the first time, deployed at a demonstration.

[...]

The commander of Brigade 70 at the time, Huy Piseth, who ordered the deployment of Brigade 70 forces to the scene that day, is now undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Defense. Hing Bunheang, who was deputy commander of Brigade 70 at the time and who threatened to kill journalists investigating the case, was promoted to deputy military commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) in January 2009.

And so it goes.

The felon who would be king

Ranariddh has a new job.

IN a characteristic reversal of fate, the mercurial Prince Norodom Ranariddh has been appointed King Norodom Sihamoni’s top adviser, said Royal Palace Cabinet member Oum Daravuth.

The King  appointed his half-brother Ranariddh as Chief of High Advisers to the King, a post equivalent to prime minister, in a royal decree signed on November 1 that was delivered to the Prince on December 6, according to Oum Daravuth, who recently received a copy.

Even before former monarch Norodom Sihanouk abdicated in 2004 there had been talk of a Ranariddh ascendancy. In the wake of Sihanouk’s retirement, rumors spread of an elaborate conspiracy masterminded by Hun Sen whereby the obscure Norodom Sihamoni would be chosen to replace Sihanouk, allowing Ranariddh to go on and crap out in the 2008 elections, renounce politics forever, and then replace his half-brother Sihamoni — who never wanted to be king anyway — on the throne.

It was a crafty little deal. Hun Sen could rid himself of the royals, and Ranariddh could keep his place at the center of the universe.

Sources close to the cosmopolitan King Sihamoni say he has increasingly expressed frustration with the restrictions on his life as monarch.

One recent visitor to the Palace said the King leaned over in a private moment and told him, “Je suis prisonnier” (I am a prisoner).

Hun Sen vs Somchai Wongsawat

VS.

WordPress recently introduced Polldaddy, which allows bloggers to create nifty little polls, such as the one above. It seems like little more than a frivolous diversion. But since it’s the weekend, a little frivolous diversion seems okay. And these techno trinkets hold some strange allure, even if their usefulness isn’t exactly clear. So vote your conscious on these important political matters.

UPDATE NOV 2: After a week the totals look like this:

• Hun Sen: 89% (92 votes)
• Somchai Wongsawat 6% (6 votes)
• Draw 5% (5 votes)

There doesn’t seem to be anyway to close the poll and just show the results. But consider the vote over.

Apologizing for the error

MetaHouse apologizes for the error (via email):

We apologize for a mistake in today’s program announcement. The controversial lawyer Jacques Vergès, who has defended Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, will not defend Noun Chea, but Khieu Kannarith at the Khmer Rouge trial.

Whoops.

If you can’t beat ‘em

With no credible parties left to defect to, Keo Remy, a life-long opposition politician, has joined the ruling clique.

Keo Ramy, vice president of Cambodia’s second largest opposition party, here Tuesday defected to major ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

“I decide to join CPP after I have opposed it for over 20 years,” said the 45-year-old former leader of the Human Right Party (HRP). “We have opposed CPP for our whole lives, but we will not win CPP.”

Until yesterday, Keo Remy was the vice president of the Human Rights Party. Before that he was a member of the Sam Rainsy Party, and before that he was a member of the Funcinpec party. Surely that’s a record.

Rumors swirl around Ranariddh’s return

Royal sources say the fugitive prince will abandoned politics.

PRINCE Norodom Ranariddh is expected to resign as head of his self-named party and quit politics, a fellow royal, Prince Sisowath Thomico, told the Post on Sunday, suggesting that the move could be part of a plan for his return from exile.

[...]

“I heard of his intentions two weeks ago,” Sisowath Thomico said, adding that he did not know if the resignation would be permanent or temporary.

[...]

Ranariddh could become chief adviser to King Norodom Sihamoni, something that high-ranking CPP members have frequently suggested was available to him if he gave up politics, Sisowath Thomico said.

NRP spokesman Muth Chantha said Sunday that the party has heard nothing about Ranariddh’s intention to leave politics.

UPDATE: The NRP calls Tico a liar.

The power of greenbacks

In an official Voice of America editorial, Uncle Sam applauds Cambodia for its pro-business leanings.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Intergovernmental Affairs for the United States Trade Representative Dr. Christina Sevilla visited Phnom Penh, August 13th, and took part in a forum with Cambodia’s Senior Minister of Commerce, H.E. Cham Prasidh. Dr. Sevilla congratulated the Cambodian government on the impressive strides it has made in increasing transparency and dialogue with the private sector. She signaled the United States commitment to deepening and expanding the trade relationship between the two countries.

Impressive strides in increasing transparency? Huh?