On 4 March 2013 Prime Minister Hun Sen proudly took another step to reveal the hardship encountered by the leadership of the CPP-led government of Cambodia in rebuilding the Nation as well as the life and death situation facing the new generation of Cambodian leaders who had just liberated the country and the people from the yoke of the infamous Pol Pot Khmer Rouge genocidal regime, on 7 January 1979. He said: “we started from nothing, with our bleeding hands,” referring to an almost complete annihilation by the Khmer Rouge of intellectuals, professionals and even those who are known to be educated and literate. Human resources needed to rebuild the Nation right after the CPP-led government victory were almost entirely decimated far worse than in Japan and Germany at the end of World War II where only a fraction of human resources had been destroyed even though those countries had suffered enormously in infrastructure destruction. However the western powers had helped Germany’s reconstruction under the Marshal Plan, and the American occupation team under McArthur established the policies that continued, rather than dismantled the zaibatsu (business conglomerates) that had long dominated Japan economy, while Cambodia had been ill-treated with economic embargo by some western powers.
Slightly more than 30 years later Cambodia’s socio-economic and political life has evolved and grew to a level more or less at par with the other 9 countries of ASEAN and Cambodia embraces and prepares for the integration into the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 with vigor and confidence. Foreign tourists, over 3.5 million in number in 2012 take advantages of the warm hospitality and the wonders of the kingdom. Media people, only when looking through thick or regular books and magazines of and simply being intellectually sensitive to the history of a nation would have appreciated the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC)’s successes in bringing down the poverty rate to 20% in 2012 among a population of more than 14.5 million people from 22.9% in 2009 and in pushing for a sustainable growth rate between 6% and 7.5% while major developed countries have the worst recession and the worst financial crisis in recent time since 2008.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Therefore it is unfair to expect that Cambodia should be and must be perfect in every aspect of her national life after only about 35 years of rebuilding the nation by “our own bleeding hands”. It does not mean that the Cambodian leaders begin to sit on their hands, savoring on recent successes and dream of the glory. They continue to rebuild their nation. Things that they missed or put off or gave lesser importance in priority would be tackled wisely so that internal security and stability, social harmony, peace and good relations with neighboring countries would contribute to further economic growth, development and the well-being of the population that is becoming more educated, more active, and more willing to work harder for their personal success.
Few years after the liberation, and soon after Cambodia stabilizes the internal security, NGOs came in drove with their mantra of “capacity building” with their laptops, cell phones and First World salaries. Human-rights expert Michael Ignatieff memorably put it, whereas the mantra of the international community is "capacity building," the reality is often "capacity sucking-out". In Cambodia, many leaders of the first international NGOs behaved and lived as “kings”. Some local NGOs followed the footsteps of the departing international NGOs, behaving and living like “untouchable lords”. When the government becomes pro-active and does almost all the works, NGOs becomes irrelevant and they join the rank of the opposition to the government and advocates of human rights in order to remain relevant, at least in the eyes of the international financiers. Of course, there are local non-political NGOs that help the people at grass-root level in the countryside and in urban-poor area. When The Straits Times/Asia News Networks published an article on 26 February, titled: “Cambodian poor pushed out of their homes by developers” by concluding with quotes saying: “In Cambodia, the 80 per cent who are poor, own 20 per cent of the land,” and “the 20 per cent who are rich, control 80 per cent of the land,” the quotes are illogical, untrue, derogatory and politically inflammatory. Can The Straits Times/Asia News Networks answer as to where the government is standing in that scheme of poor and rich? It is totally absurd to imply that the government does not owe even 1 percent of the land and forest covered areas in the country. This point proves that the information gathered by The Straits Times/Asia News Networks to write this article was mainly fabricated, erroneous and misleading.
The new generation of Cambodian leaders, after the victory over the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime has embarked on the “nation-building” of its own, naturally with some financial assistance and expertise from the international community and friends. It is understood why Prime Minister Hun Sen is very proud of his wise leadership. This is a model of a “nation-building starting from nothing with bleeding hands.”
11 March 2013
Professor Pen Ngoeun
Advisor,
University of Puthisastra, Phnom Penh Cambodia