Monthly Archives: February 2017

“CAMBODIA VOTES”

24 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by in Book, Culture, Event, Governance, History, Human Rights, Institution, Issue, Justice, Politics, Social

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My dear kacvey,

At the outset, please allow me to quote Koul Panha, Executive Director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia: “This book is long overdue and a welcome addition to the literature on contemporary Cambodian politics and international relations. It is an indispensable reference book for practitioners, theorists, activists and students engaged in elections everywhere.”

The 341-pages book referred to is: CAMBODIA VOTES – Democracy, Authority and International Support for Elections 1993-2013, by Michael Sullivan, published in 2016 by Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, under ISBN No.: 978-87-7694-187-1.

The summary on the back cover page speaks volume:
“Elite power and the evolution of “authoritarian elections” in Cambodia
This detailed study charts the evolution of internationally assisted elections in Cambodia beginning in 1993 with the vote supervised by the United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTAC). Although the UNTAC operation was unprecedented in its size and political scope, the less-than-democratic outcome of the 1993 vote (with Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party losing but remaining in power) began two decades of internationally assisted elections manipulated and controlled by Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People Party (CPP).

“Simultaneously, disparate international actors have been complicit in supporting “authoritarian elections” while at the same time attempting to promote a more democratic transparent accountable process. This apparent paradox has produced a relatively stable political-economic system that serves the interests of a powerful and wealthy ruling elite coalesced around the personality of Hun sen supported by international donors but at the expense of overall positive socio-economic and political change. At the same time, international involvement has also allowed opposition forces to co-exist alongside a repressive state and to compete in elections that still hold out the possibility for change. This was evidenced by the voter backlash against CPP governance during the recent 2013 elections.

“The book is especially timely because the results of the 2013 national elections suggested the CPP’s grip on power might be loosening. Now the crucial 2017 local and 2018 national elections are looming. As such, by analysing the current situation in Cambodia, its origins and possible outcomes, Michael Sullivan offers a key reference work to all those engaged with Cambodia and its future development.”

Michael Sullivan is currently an advisor to the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (COMFREL) in Phnom Penh. He has been living and working in Cambodia full-time since 2007. He worked at the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS) from 2008-13, and served as the Director from 2009. He completed a doctorate in Political Sciences at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2005. As well as elections, he has researched and published on Chinese aid to Cambodia and conservation and development issues.

Enjoy the reading and the reflections upon it! Change is not hopeless.

“A Proper Woman” and “Violence and the Civilising Process in Cambodia”

16 Thursday Feb 2017

Posted by in Book, Politics, Social

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My dear Kacvey,

Here are 2 books that you may recommend to your students:

“A PROPER WOMAN” by THAVRY THON, edited by PETER FORD. The book was self-published by the author in February 2017, under ISBN No: 9781542493628.

A short extract from the back cover page reads:
“From a rural girl to become an independent traveler and writer.”
“This is the true story of a young Cambodian woman who has challenged her country social’s social and cultural norms throughout her life and as a consequence has become an ambassador for female empowerment.”

“VIOLENCE AND THE CIVILISING PROCESS IN CAMBODIA” by RODERIC BROADHURST, THIERRY BOUHOURS and BRIGITTE BOUHOURS. The book was published by Cambridge University Press in November 2015, under ISBN No: 9781107109117.

A short extract from the back cover page reads:
“In 1939, the German sociologist Norbert Elias published his groundbreaking work The Civilising Process, which has come to be regarded as one of the most influential works of sociology today. In this insight new study tracing the history of violence in Cambodia, the authors evaluate the extent to which Elias’s theories can be applied in a non-western context. Drawing from historical and contemporary archival sources, constabulary statistics, victim surveys and newspaper reports, Broadhurst, Bouhours and Bouhours chart trends and forms of violence throughout Cambodia from the mid-nineteenth century through to the present day. Analysing periods of colonisation, anti-colonial wars, independence, civil war, the revolutionary terror of the 1970s and post-conflict development, the authors assess whether violence has decreased and whether such a decline can be attributed to Elias’s civilising process, identifying a series of universal factors that have historically reduced violence.”

“Roderic Broadhurst is Professor of Criminology at the Australian National University.”
“Thierry Bouhours is a visiting research fellow at the Australian National University.”
“Brigitte Bouhours is a visiting scholar at the Regulatory Institutions Network of the Australian National University.”

Enjoy the reading!

The Indifferent Surprise on 11 February 2017

12 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by in Event, Politics

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My dear Kacvey,

Were you caught up in the spiral of news from Paris when you woke up from the night of Friday 10 February 2017 that was filled with natural triple treat: a “penumbral” lunar eclipse during the full “snow” moon, and the flyby of a comet?

The selection of that specific 11 February 2017 to announce the resignation must have been well blessed by the oracle of Mount St. Michel. Brilliant astrological maneuver!

It seems to be so as the resignation of the self-exiled president of the opposition party has been widely carried by local media as “Breaking News”: The Cambodia Daily and The Phnom Penh Post, and other international outlets, such as: Reuters, UPI, BBC News, The Daily Mail and The Bangkok Post. Although the gist of the issue is “the resignation” per se, nothing else has been known or reported concomitantly.

The City of Tonlé Buon Mouk must be abuzz with speculation, comment, analysis, opinion, critic, condemnation and elation from every Tom, Dick and Harry who congregated around a bowl of kuy tiev for breakfast, or in general headquarters of political parties, big or small.

Kacvey, please open your eyes and ears at the gate of the opposition headquarters – before it would be expropriated by the autocrat! – when the permanent committee members and the steering committee directors meet on Sunday to “discuss” the agenda item: resignation of Lôk Prâthéan.

Let the river flow its current and carry the alluvial deposits according to the law of nature and hope they can settle their “problem” in the best way they envisage.

But Kacvey, when you return to your political sciences class on Monday, you will certainly face a barrage of questions from your students who will try to understand the process and its future implications on the political landscape leading to the June 2017 commune elections. So, get ready for hypothetical questions such as:

      • Was the decision to resign a personal one? With or without consultation with or agreement from his spouse who is also a deputy at the national assembly?
      • Was his deputy consulted? If not, why? Do you recall the secret agreement that he made with the autocrat in July 2014 that took his deputy by surprise?
      • Why a president of a party could just walk away from his position and responsibility in such a casual and irresponsible manner? The ship is not capsizing but the captain already abandons it?
      • Why resigning now, more than a year after Korea and self-exile, and 4 months before the commune elections?
      • What has happened to the famous spirit of “2 bodies, 1 soul” born in Manila?
      • What was the rationale of running a political party without direct human touch and from a distance of about 10.000 kms via telephone, Skype, video-conference or Facebook?
      • Have the illusions on the national elections committee and the opposition television – 2 keystone elements in the secret agreement between himself and the autocrat – turned into disillusions in the same manner as the so-called culture of dialog?
      • Was he in fear of the threat that the ruling autocracy would abolish or ban his party from the elections? Did he believe that the threat at the national assembly is real, and not a political bluff?
      • Why did he put the party to scramble to find a proper remedy for a long illness that finally breaks out?
      • What would happen if party members-at-large refuse to accept the resignation or if the party could not come up with a new presidency accepted by both wings of the party?
      • Would it be possible that the party has no one of national stature and clean aura to step forward to fill up the empty shoes, because the party was created by “personality or personalities” and run on top-down style?
      • What happened to those discourses on BBC HARDTALK on 22 September 2016 or on France TV5 on 8 February 2017, for example?
      • How would U.S. Congressmen Allen Lowenthal and Steve Chabot now feel for their letter of 9 February 2017?

Of course you don’t have any answer to those questions, but it’s free to hope that the opposition party will issue some form of communiqué or press release after the meetings of the permanent committee and the steering committee. That would make your teaching job a little bit easier on Monday.

By the way, please also remember how Freud described the super-ego and its relationship to the father figure and Oedipus complex: “The super-ego retains the character of the father, while the more powerful the Oedipus complex was and the more rapidly it succumbed to repression, the stricter will be the domination of the super-ego over the ego later on – in the form of conscience or perhaps of an unconscious sense of guilt.”

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Update:

12 February 2017
– Reuters: Cambodia opposition names acting leader after shock resignation
– Bangkok Post: Cambodian opposition names acting chief after Sam Rainsy resigns
– The New York Times: Top Opposition Leader in Cambodia Resigns as Election Nears
– Asia Times: Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy steps aside

13 February 2017
– Southeast Asia Globe: With Sam Rainsy gone, what’s next for Cambodia’s opposition?
– Nikkei Asian Review: Cambodia’s Sam Rainsy throws politics into disarray

16 February 2017
– The Economist: One down, 54 to go – The leader of Cambodia’s opposition resigns

19 February 2017
– South China Morning Post: COULD SAM RAINSY’S RESIGNATION HELP END HUN SEN’S REIGN IN CAMBODIA?

Timon

06 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by in Culture, History, Social, Stories

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My dear Kacvey,

According to Diogenes Laertius, Timon (c. 320-230 B.C.), a Greek philosopher of “The Sporadic” school of thoughts, was constantly of the habit of quoting, to those who would admit the evidence of the senses when confirmed by the judgment of the mind, the line: “Birds of a feather flock together.”

A footnote by the translator explained of two notorious thieves, Attagas the Thessalian and Numenius the Corinthian; or the birds partridge and woodcock may be meant, not any of Mr. Partridge and Mr. Woodcock.