Political Activism on the Ground

Looking gooddddd n' $eksi wet hair and all

Yesterday, I went to visit the Khmer Youth Association's (KYA) office in Pouk District, about 40 minutes outside of Siem Reap city for a meeting with the Siem Reap Province director, Lun Bunthay. I was interested in meeting with KYA in order to get experience with an NGO that is locally founded and run, rather than having a Western director or staff as so many NGOs in Siem Reap do. I sported my newly purchased face mask while going there and coming back, and multiple women on the back of motorbikes next to me kept touching their skin, pointing to me, and saying "Beautiful!" in Khmer due to my white skin. Ironically, I accidentally bought whitening soap the other day too.

I arrived, Lun greeted me, apologizing for how cold it was that day (it was 90 degrees), and offered me a small bottle of water which I graciously accepted even though I clearly had my own water. I had prepared about twelve questions beforehand, mostly about how youth can participate and engage in Cambodian political society, to get the most of the meeting and was very interested to hear what Lun had to say. He had also prepared a print-out for me which was so adorable :-o ! I also really appreciated him for trying to understand my questions, rather than just smile and say something else as often happens here if someone does not understand your English.

Information Board

As I expected, Lun told me how many Cambodian People's Party members and community / commune councils often do not like KYA, but that this is changing. KYA fosters youth to think independently, not for any particular party. KYA also has strict transparency and anti-corruption education and policies. For example, KYA is trying to get hospitals to post their prices instead of relying on patients to bargain for their well-being. KYA also offers a forum to report corruption, although I am not sure what the success rate of this is.

One of the more difficult barriers for youth is that many Cambodians believe that politics and decision making are best left to the older generations; however, this is not fair seeing as these decisions affect the population at large. This part of the Cambodian, and Asian at large, cultural framework that dictates that respecting your elders is one of the most important aspects of society. KYA does not wish to "break" culture per say, but rather it wishes to educate youth to vote and take political action that is rightfully theirs to take. Educated youth can be the agents of social change.

Of course, this is all easier said than done. Through workshops, public outreach, and a network of peer educators (the latter also used for educating villages and towns about water and sanitation!), KYA is trying to garner youth support and awareness. One of the largest challenges is getting young women involved as not only are young women young, but also women (an obvious double whammy). KYA strives to target young women, and realizes how important it is to have gender equality in decision making. One of their future goals is to have more young women in the government in decision-making positions, and even sooner to organize a KYA Women's Rights Day.

What I found super interesting is that ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), although allowing for great travel mobility between the member nations, will in 2015 allow for more worker mobility. This means that educated persons from Singapore or Malaysia (Lun also mentioned Korea and Japan, although these nations are not part of ASEAN I realized about an hour after our meeting so I am a tad confused and looking into it) can come to Cambodia and take upper level jobs because they have the means and education--something that many Cambodians, notably Khmer youth, do not have. This worries Lun because this policy  could potentially further marginalize uneducated Khmer (or even somewhat educated) youth into migrant worker jobs in Thailand (a huge problem already--in fact one of KYA main outreach programs in the western part of Cambodia is educating the massive amount of youth that migrate to Thailand seasonally / for extended periods of time etc. about their rights. 7,800 youth, aged 16-30, go to Thailand annually from Pouk District alone, Lun said).

This was only half way through the storm. And in the right?
Yup, that's your local sewer, folks!

There are also some environmental initiatives KYA does that relate directly to water rights that I am studying with Trailblazer Foundation. As Lun said: "plastic...will be climate change." I was once explained in Bali that a large problem with plastic is that it has replaced banana leaves as a tool to carry / contain items, etc. Banana leaves were thrown in a river when they had served their purpose. And now this happens with plastic bags. Khmer people love plastic bags as well as plastic bottles; however with the bottles, many poor children (and even older women I have seen) collect cans and bottles to earn 100Riel ($0.025) per three. Water and sanitation have everything to do with the environment. In fact, as I witnessed yesterday evening, a big rain can cause the sewage to overflow into people's homes, the road, workplace, etc. Lun was explaining how people have yet to understand their impact on the environment (à la the banana leaf). KYA has a program that installs toilets and also has peer educators in these villages to help explain the toilets and promote their protection from misuse. This is vital as so many organizations install sanitation without properly explaining its function to recipients and without being fully cognizant of the cultural framework and sanitation effects. There are also initiatives to conserve water and grow crops while saving water at the same time.

KYA has a plethora of other initiatives, but I do not want to bore you, dear reader, to tears. On June 20, I am attending a democratic and anti-corruption workshop with Khmer youth which I am SO excited about. I am excited how youth social change and participation can help instigate environmental change and help spread drinking water and sanitation rights around the country. KYA has the potential to hit the root of the problem of water / sanitation access in Cambodia with their good governance policies. 

The Great (illegal) Timber Trade

I just finished reading Joel Brinkley's book Cambodia's Curse: A Modern History of Development for my Independent Study Seminar. Although the writing is honestly a bit elementary (which also on the other hand opens it up to a wider audience), the book does provide a wealth of information. A wealth of information, except that (in my opinion) he fails to organize his chapters well with subject headings or at least string the book chronologically.

There are a few solitary sentences of the book that I find particularly problematic (for example on page 5 when Brinkley states that modern Cambodia has not changed since the Middle Ages), but besides this, Brinkley has researched and knows Cambodia well. Because of his vast experience in Cambodia, Brinkley has a tendency to over-assume and make blanket statement about numerous aspects of Cambodian society and government. Although I am no expert on Cambodian history and cannot directly refute any of his statements, his language is rather dogmatic.

The overwhelming majority of the book covers Cambodian history after independence from France in 1953, with only a few references to the ancient Khmer Empire and French influence on Cambodia. Much of the book covers the U.N. Occupation of Cambodia (and its failure to do anything substantial except help with the first free elections in 1993, according to Brinkley) in the early 90s and the corruption that is embedded in the government and how this adversely affects the people. The picture that Brinkley paints of Cambodia is, as I assumed before reading, very grim. His chapters go in circles describing the awful corruption that occurs within the government, and how unfortunately, NGOs and aid organizations (from grassroots to the World Bank) actually indirectly encourage this corruption rather than hinder it (which is debatable). Corruption, he describes, is an inherent feature of the Cambodian government today and functions like a hierarchical patronage system, similar to that during the Khmer Empire.

Cambodian Rosewood, taken from a website of a man who
says that it is endangered due to "general clearing of the land"
and not the small amount of exports. I beg to differ.

One offshoot about corruption that greatly intrigued me was Cambodia's illegal logging. Cambodian wood is absolutely stunning with unique coloration, and needless to say: much nicer than anything at IKEA. Deforestation continues to be a massive problem, and in top of this, the government is extremely tangled in a net of corruption so that NGOs, government aid, loans, etc. cannot even help the problem. The Cambodian government even reports faulty statistics on how much of the Cambodian forests are left. The International Monetary Fund found that only 1.7-3.4% of Cambodia still had primary growth (200 year old+) forests, but the Cambodia Forest Ministry stated there was 59%--a huge difference (the actual number is likely somewhere in-between, closer to the IMF's estimation) (Brinkley 292). As for forest cover, the U.N. reported that today Cambodia's land is 57% forested (in 2010), although this estimate likely includes tree plantations. In 1990, the number was 73%. The World Bank tried to funnel money to the save the forests, only to have their money squandered through systematic governmental corruption.

Illegal logging on a mass scale in Cambodia has its roots during the Khmer Rouge. During the Khmer Rouge's reign, which officially started in 1975, a lot of their funding came from illegal logging and wood exports to China and Thailand. China was actually a supporter of the Khmer Rouge, and essentially funded Pol Pot's luxury jungle villa. In fact, illegal logging supported the Khmer Rouge until it officially left Cambodia in 1993. That's right: contrary to popular belief, the Khmer Rouge was still an active force in Cambodia until mid-1996 when Prime Minister Hun Sen offered them amnesty, and then basically inactive when Pol Pot died in April 1998.

The remnants of what was once a tree.

Still in 1995 after U.N. occupation, Cambodian military was illegally exporting teak, rosewood, and mahogany-like lumber to Thailand, raking in about $20 million a month (99, 157). One haul of illegal timber meant for Vietnam alone cost $13 million (270). Brinkley describes how military forces will come in the middle of the night to set aside land for logging. He depicts one incident in 2004 in which 800 villagers camped in a forest to prevent it from being clear cut, only to have a hand grenade thrown at them in the middle of the night (no one was killed) (176). In December 2002, 150 Cambodians protested outside of the Forestry and Wildlife Ministry against the deforestation and loss of livelihood--only to be attacked by the police leaving seven wounded and one dead. A lot of the loggers will donate money to supporting governmental public works, and therefore gain free reign to the forests. Acquiring this status only takes $100,000. The Cambodian government has authorized 3-4 million cubic meters of illegal logging, with the international NGO Global Witness stating that Hun Sen's 4,000 men bodyguard unit "serves as a nationwide timber trafficking service." In fact, Global Witness was denounced by Hun Sen who threatened to terminate the workers' visas and sue the NGO (177).

Most recently, NPR released a story about Chinese growth and the impact this has on Cambodian logging. Because Thailand, a country with similar wood, has placed and enforced strict regulations about their wood leaving the country, Cambodia faces extra pressure to supply the Chinese market. Moreover, China is one of the biggest foreign aid donors to Cambodia. But when it comes to illegal logging: in a country with one of the lowest GDPs in the world, who wouldn't try and make money any way possible? And with stories about journalists who uncover the illegal logging being killed, who is going to tell? And with NGOs who report the problem being threatened to leave, what can we do?

[Shameless self promotion: Check out what I wrote about deforestation in Alaska last semester!]

Works Cited:

Brinkley, J. (2011). Cambodia's Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land. New York, New York: PublicAffairs.