Robbing the poor to become richer and richer and the underlying mentality
Jomreang wrote in
http://www.myp1t.com/public/forum/posts/id_535/page_2/post_reply/quote_4950/
Heavy traffic of tourism in Siem Riep have boosted the local economy enormously of course, but the ones who benifit from this economy are not the poor khmer people in the area. They have been chased off their home and their lands by the rich. Their cannot place food stands to make sales for daily living where they used to. Their food stands have been replaced by fancy restaurants owned by the rich and the powerful. While a few top national leaders benefit from renting Angkorwat to foreigners, a few top local leaders benefit from the development of new hotels, restaurants, and resorts surrounding Angkorwat sites after chasing away the poor from their lands.
The Cambodian government and its supporters boast about the country’s economic growth but, unlike Jomreang, make no mention of the underside of this growth.
Looting the country’s resources
On the 16th anniversary of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, Simon Taylor wrote
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_taylor/2007/10/the_price_of_peace.html
On paper, Cambodia's natural resources and state assets - the land, forests, minerals and heritage sites - were the basis for kickstarting the post-conflict economy. The revenue generated should have gone towards poverty alleviation and rebuilding infrastructure. Instead, systematic and institutionalised corruption has deprived the entire population of the revenue that could have come from these public goods.
(a) the forests
A cursory glance at today's Cambodian business sector reveals the country's forests, land, mining, ports, national buildings and casinos to be predominantly controlled by a handful of government-affiliated tycoons or family members of senior political figures. Information about deals is not made available to the Cambodian people to whom the state's resources belong. Similarly, consultation with local populations dependent upon forests or land is often non-existent. For many Cambodians, the first they know is the sound of a chainsaw revving or a bulldozer arriving to flatten their crops.
Cambodia's forests are a case in point. In the 1990s they were described by the World Bank as the country's "most developmentally important resource". Today they are largely degraded, having been sold off over the years by the political elite to private companies or individuals intent on logging as much as possible to turn a quick buck. Most of the vast wealth generated has not reached the national coffers: instead it appears to have been siphoned off into the private bank accounts of the loggers and their political patrons.
For evidence of all of the above, please click
http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library.php?campaign_id=67&filter=reports_documents&ml_lang=en
(b) the heritage sites and other natural resources
Since 2003, Sokha Beach in Kompong Som has been a private beach and off-limits to outsiders. It was ceded as a concession to Sokimex owned by Sok Kong, a personal friend of Hun Sen’s. Without any tendering process, Sokimex has also been awarded the ticket concession to Angkor. Likewise, the Bokor mountain site and the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh, all without any tendering process.
The Hun Sen-Sok Kong dealings are the most well-known and “in your face” non-transparent examples of the process I labeled as “Robbing the poor to become richer and richer”. Most are not so well-known.
© the land grabs
Hun Sen pretends to complain about these but the fact is that his own relatives and cronies are the worst offenders.
Since land prices are skyrocketing, the pace of land grabbing has accelerated.
The way the rich and powerful people in Cambodia conduct their political and business affairs is consistent with the way they behave toward common people.
Sure, politicians will touch flesh and speak the voters’ language (ref. Hun Sen), especially at election time but, their minds, poor people are sub-humans, dumb and dirty.
The thinking is “Their virginal daughters are good for deflowering, the prettiest ones make excellent trophy mistresses, the famous entertainers are notches on one's belt like the latest model SUVs but any son of ours is better dead than marrying one of these Kdam Sre. What a thought! Can you imagine anything so ridiculous”. Never mind the fact that most of these Angkareaks have exactly the same background as the poor people they despise.
Class consciousness has been pervasive throughout Cambodian society for a long time but, nowadays, the level of meanness, stinginess and disdain toward the poor has reached heights that made the noblesse oblige mentality of pre-1975 Cambodia look enlightened.
The condescending attitude toward waiters, waitresses, people who don’t dress well, people who arrive on motorbikes
http://khmer.cc/community/t.c?b=13&t=5641
or off motor taxis is only the tip of the iceberg.
Given the mentality I described in the previous paragraphs, is it any wonder that there is no hesitation or shame in grabbing everything for oneself and who cares about everybody else and especially people who are subhuman anyway?
I look forward to read more.