What does KOH PICH mean?

In a recent tragic history of stampede on Koh Pich bridge in Cambodia, that killed over three hundred Cambodians, people start giving a new definition of Koh Pich.  What does Koh Pich mean?

Here is the definition: Koh Pich means killed over hundred people in Cambodia history (kohpich).

Believe it or not?

Our children profit from our actions

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS
November 3, 2010

Our children profit from our actions

By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth

"People power" is not beyond reach in Cambodia. Skeptics misunderstand people power and equate it with bloody rebellion. Khmers are Buddhists -- gentle and placid, who don't rise against a ruthless dictatorship.

The Albert Einstein Institution, committed to the defense of freedom, says: "Nonviolent action (also sometimes referred to as people power, political defiance and nonviolent struggle) is a technique of action for applying power in a conflict by using symbolic protests, non-cooperation and defiance, but not physical violence."

My nine years (1980-1989) in the Khmer resistance against Vietnam's military invasion and occupation took me near death's door many times, but I never believed we could defeat the Hanoi armies that brought the Americans to a negotiations table earlier. But we did believe that an effective Khmer resistance would bring Hanoi to the negotiations table. That, in fact, happened.

Except the Khmer nationalists never prepared themselves for post-1991 Paris Peace Accords.

Adding to the detrimental lack of careful strategic planning with necessary "next steps," they were trapped in denial, blaming, as many simply realigned themselves for political positions.

The game of "svar pa'at bai loeu mo'at po-pe" (monkey smears rice on a goat's mouth) continued until today: The monkey ate the farmer's rice and smeared rice on a goat's mouth so the goat would be blamed for eating the rice; the farmer didn't know better and took out his anger on the goat, forgetting that goats don't eat rice.

Population has power

I stood before my introduction to political science classes for 13 years, driving home the same point every semester, that a government's "right to rule" is based on the people putting it in power.

In a democracy, an election is free, fair and secret. Having given the government the right to rule, the people feel morally responsible to respect it, obey its laws and commands and, as such, they bestow upon it its legitimacy.

Dr. Gene Sharp writes in "From Dictatorship to Democracy," that "Dictators are not in the business of allowing elections that could remove them from their thrones."

Culture, belief

Culture and belief do matter.

A culture that emphasizes obedience, loyalty and order produces citizens different from a culture that promotes creativity, independence and self-respect.

Thus lambs and lions emerge.

The lambs don't disturb the status quo -- societal norms demand resolute obedience and unquestioned loyalty. The lions use creative ways to be independent and free.

President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg address declared that America's representative democracy, a "government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

A government of the people is one that comes from the people themselves, not from the ruling class; officials come from the citizenry. A government of the people that comes from the people operates for the good of the people, not for the good of the ruling class.

A government by the people is one in which the people are the ultimate decision-makers. They send representatives to make their wishes known in decision-making. But representatives can't change the U.S. Constitution, only "we, the people" can.

A government for the people is one that does things for the good of the people; the only purpose of government is to make their lives better. The world's peoples want basically the same thing: Food, clothes, a roof, security, decent health, a level of contentment, an ability to meet their basic needs -- in peace and security.

Dictatorships

Ironically, the population and the society are two necessary sources of dictators' political power. A democracy uses its political structure – the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches, with power to regulate, extract and distribute -- to ensure the people's well-being.

A dictatorship uses its political structure, with the same regulatory, extractive and distributive power, to ensure the people's obedience, submission and cooperation, so dictators can stay in power.

With a culture of self-evident truths, the people fight when their equality and rights are compromised. But, in a culture that espouses leader-follower, superior-inferior, patron-client, master-servant relationships, the people obey, submit and cooperate.

Deny power sources

Dictators' feet are not made of immovable clay. Dictators don't stay powerful always. Likewise, democracy and rights fighters don't have to remain weak forever.

Sharp reasons: If dictators stay in power because they succeed in extracting the people's obedience, submission and cooperation, by denying the dictators their sources of power, they become powerless.

Dictators control state institutions. But institutions are made up of people who steer them. People of high principles and beliefs would find ways to steer the institutions -- including the feared courts and security police -- away from tyranny.

Sure, people are strongly politically and socially conditioned to obey and submit. But why can what is conditioned not be unconditioned? Is there anything unchangeable?

I wrote before that my refusal to submit to blind obedience landed me in hot political waters. So? A saying goes, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

I don't pretend to have answers to everything; I don't. But people can learn what benefits all; unlearn what's detrimental. We know what those things are. Start, we must. The time to start was yesterday. Cry not for missed opportunities. We won't see the benefit of our actions. Our children and their children will!

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

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People power' is the best hope

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

October 20, 2010

People power' is the best hope

By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth

It was almost three decades ago, but the events remain as vivid as if they happened yesterday.

One early afternoon I was stretched out in a hammock under a trellis, feet away from the red, yellow and white bougainvillea, in front of my thatched hut where staff in the office of planning and analysis of the Khmer People's National Liberation Front gathered to finalize a document for submission to the commander-in-chief. We waited for my director, the chief of the Bureau of Information, Research, and Documentation (BIRD -- what an interesting acronym!) to supply a piece of information to complete our report.

My Walkman -- state of the art at the time -- was on my chest, two earphones plugged into my ears. I sang along with Simon and Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa," as the warm breeze from a small muddy pond touched my face: "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail, Yes I would, if I could, I surely would."

The director came, gave what was expected to officers at work, but I remained in my hammock: "Away, I'd rather sail away, like a swan that's here and gone." He handed me a slice of mango, smiled, sat down on a bench, and asked the meaning of the last words of the song I uttered: "A man gets tied up to the ground, he gives the world its saddest sound, its saddest sound."

We spoke. Then, I took off my shirt, pulled out a toy rubber boat, courtesy of governments friendly to the non-communist resistance to use for "transport" in Cambodia's waterways. I located the boat in the pond, jumped in with my jeans on, and paddled to the middle as astonished young officers looked on. That was my R&R! An elder former colonel in the Khmer Republic army, in his krama, swam to join me and the boat -- not that it was his idea of an R&R, but he saw a snake swimming by.

Someone clicked photos of us in the pond. Precious memories!

Five years earlier, in a mountainous area, a young officer and I arrived at a pond of still water, infested with mosquito larvae. My young friend suspected I wanted to cool off in the water and pleaded that I not do so. Never mind. I kicked off my boots, jumped in with my clothes on. My young friend followed, muttering I was asking for trouble. Trouble it was: A rush to the hospital for nine days of treatment for the deadly falciparum malaria. My young friend was fine.

Nearly 30 years later, I still listen to "El Condor Pasa" -- this time, behind my computer screen as I write in hopes of inspiring and incentivizing men and women into action, especially Khmers who want to throw off the yoke of dictatorship.

I hate autocracy at any level that crushes the imagination, creativity and innovation necessary for man to survive. A few years ago, I wrote in this space that great ideas properly transformed into actions could bring down autocracy. I have not changed my mind since: The brain that took man to the moon and back can help Khmers to free themselves from dictatorship.

For several years I promoted foundational ideas for change -- many wanted change, did nothing, but talked the talk. "Trokieark slap s'dauk,"or" hip joint lies dead," Khmers say. I extracted ideas from political science professor emeritus Gene Sharp's writings for my columns -- ideas which activists in different countries found useful, and which some freedom activists turned "actionists" have applied successfully to bring down dictators.

The bottom line is this: Yes, it is possible to "disintegrate" the dictatorship through nonviolent action!

A Khmer saying I quote often goes: "Curved wood makes wheel, straight wood makes spoke, and crooked and twisted wood makes firewood." It tells Khmers there's a place for everything and every person. I take off my hat in respect to Khmers who engage in different activities against the dictatorship -- even if I have reservations about the wisdom of some activities.

It seems no aspect is ignored in discussing and writing about Premier Hun Sen's government's policies, which have brought tears and suffering to increasing numbers of citizens -- homeless, landless, farmless and victimized by gross abuses of civil rights -- nor about the world's governments, signatories to the Oct. 23 Paris Peace Accords, who are not ignorant of what goes on in Sen's Cambodia, but do nothing to change the status quo.

But the more we discuss and the more we write, the more things remain the same.

Emotions are high on both sides of the political aisle. As Khmers discuss, petition and whisper their open secret about resistance and dream of the foreign intervention that I don't think will come -- and tend to blame everyone except themselves for their nation's fate -- I think it's more fruitful to explore the potential strength of "people power." Many seem to be coming to agreement that "people power" is the best hope for Cambodia's survival.

Some dubbed me a daydreamer. But hasn't it been dreams that made activists and
actionists?

Recall Winston Churchill: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the
courage to continue that counts."

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him
at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

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You Tho, Kampong Speu

“I have no fear of being arrested. The police are trying to weaken us by intimidation. I know that if I fear them, then I cannot be a leader. So I do not listen to the threats.” Read more ...

Recognize source of state's power

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS
October 13, 2010

Recognize source of state's power,

By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth

I had an uncle who liked to tell us kids, "To be interesting, you must be interested."

Years passed, and through college I began to make connections with things that had seemed incomprehensible before. Many of the thoughts I had been exposed to begin to make sense.

I ignored my father's teaching for years: "Live with cow, sleep like cow; live with parrot, fly like parrot" -- until I learned about the political socialization process that molds man's behavior and his perceptions.

Learning, growing

Growing up can be not so simple. Some in their 50s and 60s are still struggling to grow up. Others have used life's experiences to chart new courses in life. One can learn and grow. It can begin in small things.

Possessed, as my elementary school teacher told us, with one kilo of brain, I adopted my uncle's mantra: Learn and know about the world's simplicities and complexities and its many interdependent things and become interesting and relevant. Add your own capacity to analyze and evaluate and you can change yourself and your surroundings.

But you must have a bedrock belief that change is possible.

'Hyena and chicken'

Thanks to the freedoms we in the United States are guaranteed, we have opportunities to publicly disagree; many lands don't allow it. Disagreement is not a problem; being provocatively disagreeable and quarrelsome is.

Last week, I wrote that there is no "people power" -- a term en vogue – until the people themselves understand -- and believe -- that the power is actually in their hands. I wrote that no power, force or barrier can withstand a people's determined efforts for rights and freedom.

Naturally, I expected anti-theses: A yin comes with a yang, just as day comes after night.

And so one reader from Phnom Penh e-mailed: "Many thanks to you for having reminded people of their unalienable rights and power." Another reader wrote, "Hyena or chicken can't give birth to lion."

But we deal with humans. We know all human minds can be taught.

Power of the minds

Last June, I wrote about the movie "Invictus," about South Africa's black anti-apartheid activist-turned-president, Nelson Mandela, who condemned the white rugby team when he was in jail, then -- after he was released from prison-- successfully turned the white team into a national team for blacks and whites. The team won South Africa the third Rugby World Cup in 1995.

A recently released movie, "Robin Hood," tells the backstory of Robin Longstride, a veteran of the Third Crusade who traveled to 13th century England's Nottingham, where people suffered corruption, crippling taxation and the abuse of a tyrannical sheriff. Longstride became Robin the Hood, led an uprising against the crown and became the symbol of the people's freedom.

His father also led his people against tyranny when Robin was a boy. His father was executed by the royal sword. Hood's father's motto, inscribed on a hidden stone and on the handle of a sword, reads: "Rise and rise again until lambs become lions."

The words mean don't ever give up fighting for the cause of liberty -- persevere, rise and rise again, until lions are born out of docile lambs and liberty is achieved.

In the history of the Khmers, Khmer "lions" emerged and fought valiantly. As with the builders of Angkor, Khmer ingenuity is not unknown.

Nonviolent action

Political science professor emeritus Gene Sharp, holder of Oxford University's doctor of philosophy in political theory, founded the nonprofit Albert Einstein Institution in Boston in 1983 to promote research, policy studies and education on the strategic uses of nonviolent struggle in the face of dictatorship, war, genocide and oppression.

He wrote "From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation" in 1993, providing "guidelines to assist thought and planning" in liberation movements against dictatorship, based on 40 years of research and writing. It was written at the request of the late exiled Burmese democrat U Tin Maung Win, editor of Khit Pyaing (The New Era Journal). It was supposed to be used by the Burmese.

But many freedom fighters in the world found it useful. The book has been translated into 30 languages.

In Spring 2000, the International Republican Institute tapped retired U.S. Army Col. Robert Helvey, who has past experience in Burma, to conduct a workshop in Budapest, Hungary, on the nature and potential of nonviolent struggle. Some 20 young Serbs attended. Copies of Sharp's best-known book, "The Politics of Nonviolent Action," were distributed.

These young Serbs later led the Otpor (Resistance) movement's nonviolent struggle that brought down Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

Sharp's Concepts

Political power is derived from the "subjects of the state." The state uses specific institutions (police, courts, regulatory bodies) to extract subjects' obedience, based on sanctions (jail, fines) and rewards (titles, wealth, fame).

Since any power structure is based on the subjects' obedience to the orders of the ruler(s), if subjects do not obey, then leaders have no power. If subjects recognize they are the source of the state's power, they can refuse to obey and their leader(s) will be left without power.

So says Sharp. And so say many who have understood and acted on his theses.

Khmers can learn from that, like the young Serbs did.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him
at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

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People must know they have power

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

October 6, 2010

People must know they have power By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth

The Khmer blog KI-Media recently has been publishing in sections Gene Sharp's "From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation," by the Albert Einstein Institution, that provides significant guidelines to "assist thought and planning" in the fight against dictatorship.

Sharp hopes his study on "how a dictatorship can be disintegrated" would be useful "wherever people live under domination and desire to be free."

Sharp presupposes people who live under a dictatorship can distinguish between a dictatorship and a democracy, and there are those with a "desire to be free."

Enormous work and effort are required from fractious democrats and rights activists who fight powerful ruling tyrants. In Cambodia, deeply rooted old habits and thoughts stand opposite imaginative, creative and innovative thinking.

Some 70 percent of the people polled said Cambodia under autocracy is headed in
"the right direction." Khmer and foreign partisans of political "stability" ignore civil rights violations, while opponents of autocracy speak of "people power."

Yet power doesn't exist until the people understand it is actually in their hands; until democrats and rights activists help them to believe the truth that no power, force or barrier can withstand their determined efforts for rights and freedom.

More than ever, Cambodians need democrats and rights activists to lead them. Through enlightened and efficient leadership, the citizens become aware of the parameters of oppression and develop the confidence that will bring down any dictator.

'Pigs don't fly'

Some readers complain that I write a lot about better thinking but don't tell them what and how it will help defeat Cambodia's autocracy and keep Khmers Khmer. In some ways, the complaint itself is evidence of a lack of analytical thought.

I don't normally read comments posted by anonymous bloggers, whose expletives, racial slurs or demonization of opponents affirm the bloggers' true values, but every now and then I peruse them.

Some people blog to relieve their frustration and unhappiness -- which is useful to detect the symptoms of a disease, if not the disease itself.

A blogger took offense at my remarks that all minds can be taught, and responded with "pigs don't fly" -- i.e., some minds simply cannot improve, just like a horse refuses to drink even if led to the water. There can't be change without a belief that it is possible. Are some unredeemable intellectually?

Pigs don't fly. We know that. But human minds do develop and grow. We know that, too.

Pol Pot decided that a people so "stupid" as to refuse his ways and thoughts must be destroyed and re-educated through forced labor and "tbaung chawb" (hoe blade) to strike the necks of those with "incorrect" thinking. There is no gain to keep them, no loss to eliminate them, the Khmer Rouge said. Thus, Pol Pot killed the nation.

When I was a child, my father often reminded me that if I didn't use my brain to read and reflect, the brain's lack of exercise would kill me, just as if I denied my stomach food, the stomach would contract and shrink and I would die.

Peasants, businessmen, the elite and those of royal heritage are human, each with "one kilo of brain" that can think. Royals may know much about the throne, but peasants know much about the rice that feeds the royals.

Pigs won't fly. But the human brain has taken man to the moon and back.

True stories

I had just passed my doctoral comprehensive examinations and defended my dissertation proposal at the University of Michigan when Cambodia's republican regime tapped me to take a post at the Khmer Republic Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Long Boret, the foreign minister, who examined a political bulletin I edited in Ann Arbor, called me to join his delegation to the United Nations, observed my work, and I agreed to serve the republican embassy under Ambassador Um Sim. Both Boret and Sim gave me enough room to apply my creativity, innovation and analytical thinking in my work. They saw some tangible change. Both were interested in results and not gossip and backbiting.

In his last words to me before the collapse of the republican government, Long Boret told me to prepare to join him in Phnom Penh. Boret was executed by Pol Pot's men on April 17, 1975.

The situation was different after I joined the Khmer People's National Liberation Front in the field in 1980. With a degree of freedom to think and act as a member of the front's executive committee, I applied my creativity, innovation and analytical thinking. Objective observers could affirm some positive change.

But those qualities also gained me enemies, even within our ranks. My problems mounted. But that is a story for another day, if ever I have the desire to share my perspective.

Better thinking

I subscribe to Edmund Burke's philosophy that traditions link the dead, the living and those to be born. But I distinguish those traditions that are barriers to surviving in an advancing world -- like blind obedience and unquestionable loyalty -- and those that uphold a people's culture and integrity -- like taking off shoes when entering home or clasping hands to say thank you.

It's anyone's prerogative to prefer one regime over another. But I think it's not good thinking to hate a monarchy or a republic. Professor Thomas Szasz once said, "A system is not stupid, the people in it are."

A.    Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

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You can change, if you desire to

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS, September 29, 2010

You can change, if you desire to
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth

As I contemplated the topic for my column this week, the one I am about to write did not occur to me. But the quantity of e-mail from Khmer readers and some important questions in the Khmer blog, KI-Media, obliges this column.

I didn't think that my personal story would open a torrent of mail about readers' own life experiences, but that is what happened. There are painful stories about life under Pol Pot. And a story about a schoolboy made to stand still at a school flag pole with a stone on his shoulder for an entire class period in the 1950s because he "played with girls" reminds me that the authoritarian mentality has its roots in small actions.

I am sorry some Cambodian readers feel the need to write their comments anonymously. Stand up for what you think and say. Pol Pot is dead, and change will bring down a dictator like Hun Sen. Even so, some of the questions in the week's mail deserve answers.

Answering questions

An anonymous blogger commented that as readers and the writer don't know one another, "we tend to assume. ... Eventually, those assumptions become a reality." So, he was happy to read my life story.

Under Pol Pot, he had no schooling, but he could "carry the young rice on my head and care for water buffaloes." Two years in a refugee camp brought no schooling either. It was not until 1982 that he started school in the United States.

Now "I am able to communicate well in English," he wrote. He thanked me for my life story as it has helped him understand more about Khmers educated abroad pre-1975. He lamented how "older Khmers (around 30 years old)" -- hey, dude, 30 is young! -- insisted they already know what they needed to know; thus, "the conversation would end." He thanked all educators who helped shape his and other lives. He signed his name as "kaun Khmer" (a Khmer child).

Another anonymous writer asked me what he has been asking himself, and would like my thought. I wrote in this space before that I don't ever forget the land, the home, the village, the school, the friends. But all those are only memories today, for they all have changed, and are no longer what I remember. I am sure some childhood friends may not care for my thinking now, any more than I for theirs.

There's no place like home, of course. Sure, I miss all that I was familiar with. But those things of memory are not the same anymore, I don't miss what I don't know.

Do I want to go back to live in Cambodia? Sure. But having become who and what I am today, I cannot live where rights and free expression are curbed, creativity, innovation, criticality are seen suspiciously as treacherous. Cambodia's sky is not hospitable to my ways -- not now.

More than one reader asked if I regret not going into medicine or engineering. I still have no stomach to put a needle into someone's flesh, I can't stand blood and I still thank God for the calculator to help me balance my bank book.

One reader asked if I would recommend political science. Well, any field of study is good; but every human should have some knowledge of politics. I used to tell beginning students of politics: "From the cradle to the grave, we live our lives in the midst of politics." Politics is not just for politicians or government officials; it's for everyone. What you don't know can hurt you.

How do I help?

A former politics student of mine, who followed up with graduate studies on the mainland, emailed me after reading my column: She and her family are returning to Guam from the West Coast. She's applying to teach political science at the University of Guam. She was in the top 3 percent of students I had taught. UOG would be wise to hire her.

A former colleague in the resistance wrote to say he's undertaking a doctoral program at a university in Phnom Penh. Bravo! He asked for some guidance. I am glad to help.

And a young political activist in the U.S. who said he "read(s) every article" I write, wanted me to help. I wished I can stretch my day to more than 24 hours; but I already like what he has been doing.

Remember Martin Luther King's words: "If you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl, but by all means, keep moving." He also said, "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be."

All can be taught

I do believe Khmers have the same capacity to learn and grow as any other. I subscribe to Tim Hurson's "Think Better (your company's future depends on it ... and so does yours)" that posits: "Every brain, regardless of its intelligence quotient ... or creative quotient, ... can be taught to think better: to understand more clearly, think more creatively, and plan more effectively."

If I can do it -- and have done it -- so can any Khmer. But one has to want to do it.

In the end, it is better thinking, or quality thinking, that will help defeat autocracy in Cambodia and keep Khmers Khmer.

The place to begin is with you.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangment@yahoo.com.

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Joint Media Statement: Intimidation and Legal Threats Against Union Workers and Leaders Must Cease

Threats of arrest against union leaders and labour rights activists - KHM 001 / 0910 / OBS 110

Threats of arrest against union leaders and labour rights activists - KHM 001 / 0910 / OBS 110: "The Observatory has been informed that a number of union leaders and labour rights activists are at risk of judicial harassment and under the threat of arrest warrants for organising a strike to demand the increase of the minimum wage for workers in the garment sector. The individuals at risk include Mr. Ath Thorn, President of the Cambodian labour Confederation (CLC), Ms. Morn Nhim, President of the Cambodian National Confederation (CNC) and Mr. Tola Moeun, Head of the Labour Rights (...)

-


/
Human Rights Defenders,
Urgent Appeals"

Cambodian garment workers injured in police clash: unions

Saturday ,Sep 18,2010, Posted at: 19:11(GMT+7)

Cambodian garment workers injured in police clash: unions

PHNOM PENH, Sept 18, 2010 (AFP) - Five Cambodian garment workers were injured in a clash with police on Saturday, unions said, as tension between staff and bosses continued despite the end of mass strikes.

Violence erupted when police tried to break up a rally of about 3,000 factory employees who had gathered to protest a ban on 26 activists from returning to work after last week's huge stoppage, Ath Thun told AFP.

"The military police sent to crack down on the strike injured five strikers and the clash lasted for half an hour," the president of the Cambodian Labour Confederation said.

The incident in Kandal province, south of Phnom Penh, follows a decision to call off a large-scale strike across the country's key garment industry after the government stepped in and arranged talks with manufacturers.

Unions said the four-day stoppage that ended Thursday attracted up to 210,000 people demanding better pay, although the Garment Manufacturers' Association in Cambodia (GMAC) had a more modest estimate of 30,000.

Ath Thun accused some factories of refusing to let certain staff return to work because of their involvement in organising strike action.

Kong Athit, vice-president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Unions, said that the Kandal factory was acting against the government's intervention.

"What the factory does is wrong because the Minister of Social Affairs has called for a discussion soon and we all should go back to work normally and wait for the meeting," he added.

Cambodia's garment industry -- which produces items for renowned brands including Gap, Benetton, Adidas and Puma -- is a key source of foreign income for the country and employs about 345,000 workers.

The mass strike from Monday to Thursday followed a deal between the government and industry that set the minimum wage for garment and footwear staff at 61 dollars a month.

Unions say the salary is not enough to cover food, housing and travel expenses, and want a base salary of 93 dollars.

Analysis and Sharing Ideas on Licadho staff, Mr. Leang Sokhoeuen

By The Hoya, a young graduated Cambodian politician
6 September, 2010

Dear all,

Mr. Leang Sokhoeuen, a staff from Licadho, must be released immediately because the provincial court of Takeo convicted him improperly. Furthermore, the court didn’t use justice process to judge. In contrast, the court is always used as a tool for bad people to get rid of someone who is considered as their enemy.

No independent court, no access to justice! The court system is needed to proceed by political motivated manner instead of judiciary process to be implemented.

As for my opinion, in the name of the former student, a graduated young politician of political science, I would like to share some ideas and analyze on this issue as the following:

-         Court doesn’t have enough evidence of conviction.

-         Mr. Leang Sokhouen is the Khmer Krom who is always the focused person that bad people in the government considered as their enemy.

-         Cambodian government, the bad people normally uses machinery to create climate of fear to human right activist by making unjust law for the purpose finishing off other side.

-         In this case, it can’t be considered as defamation and disinformation because it didn’t show characteristics of being national traitor or tarnishing an image of Cambodia, in contrast it is the most useful for Cambodia.

-         Cambodian government, the CPP always gets extremely fear of the truth and they are trying their best to hide the fact; furthermore, they usually pretext to accuse and put the fault the other side.

-         Cambodian government doesn’t respect freedom of expression in the name of democratic country.

-         No respect of principle of democracy.

In conclusion, Mr. Leang Sokhouen must be released immediately and government also must change the so-called stance for the sake of Cambodian profits and court system must be independent to provide justice for all.

Remember: No independence for court system, no access to justice in society.

EU To Look Into Sugar Deals, Land Disputes

EU To Look Into Sugar Deals, Land Disputes: "
Representatives of the rights group Licadho met with European Union officials on Friday, following reports this week that the EU's preferential trade polices were linked to agricultural land evictions.

Officials from Licadho and the EU confirmed the closed-door meeting on Friday but declined to elaborate.

However, the meeting follows a week of increased media scrutiny questioning whether the EU's trade deals are being taken advantage of by companies behind the forced evictions of thousands of people.

The EU's Cambodian charge d'affaires, Rafael Dochao-Moreno, said at an EU-sponsored human rights forum on Wednesday the EU would look into whether its Anything But Arms program, which provides tariff exemptions for goods exported from less-developed countries, was linked to illegal evictions.

“This is something we are analyzing now,” the Cambodia Daily quoted him saying.

The Cambodia Daily also reported last week that the sugar plantation operations of Cambodian People's Party Senator Ly Yong Phat were fueling land disputes while cashing in on the EU trade deal.

Villagers in the provinces of Koh Kong and Kampong Speu have alleged that sugar plantations operated by Ly Yong Phat have pushed them off their land. Major protests have ensued, leading to violence and arrests.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Hun Sen wrote a letter to opposition party lawmakers defending the Kampong Speu concession, given by the Ministry of Agriculture, an act which Dochao-Moreno was quoted as saying had prompted the EU investigation.

Ly Yong Phat told VOA Khmer on Friday that his sugar plantations did not have deals with Europe.

The Cambodia Daily, however, reported that Ly Yong Phat operated sugar contracts through a joint venture with Thai company Khon Kaen Sugar, which in turn sells it to a British industrial food company.

“Before the EU has agreements with companies in Cambodia, they should investigate whether those companies are involved in human rights abuses, before they take the goods for import into Europe,” Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said.
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KC GECIN takes stubborn stand abusing Freedom of Association

Original News by BWI,  2/9/2010

KC GECIN Enterprise is continuously defying the right of Freedom of Association and steps up challenging the industrial relation mechanism of Cambodia.

The union members who belong to Building and Wood Workers Federation of Cambodia- BWTUC, an affiliate of BWI, has launched a strike last month to protest the KC GECIN management’s unfair labour practice by illegally dismissing the employment contract of workers who attended a legitimate labour seminar and later on the leaders and activists of the union. 

On the third week of the strike, based on the Cambodian Labour law the industrial dispute was referred to the Labour Arbitration Council – the respectable tripartite dispute mechanism in the absence of industrial courts. 

Based on the industrial relations laws, the LAC has issued an order enjoining workers on strike and who were not fired by company to return to work and the company must accept them with pre-conditions. While those illegally dismissed workers will have to cease from further industrial actions until the decision of the LAC is promulgated.

Yet, the company defied the order and refused to accept those workers who joined the strike but were not yet illegally dismissed and even ordered to security personnel to harass them by shooing them away from the company premises. This is almost tantamount to another act of illegal dismissal. The company is behaving as if it is above the Cambodian Constitution and labour laws.

The BWTUC is calling upon the BWI and other kindred organisations to continue supporting the online campaign demanding the KC GECIN to reinstate all dismissed and striking workers without pre-conditions; recognise the union and participate in good faith in the collective bargaining negotiation as primary step to restore the normalcy in the company’s labour relations. 

Also, demanding the company to take part in the hearing of the LAC with the provision of accepting as binding its ruling over the case.

Read similar news in Khmer, please click here or use this link: http://chiatkhemara.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post_03.html