My dear Kacvey,
At the opening of the general debate at the United Nations 75th General Assembly on Tuesday 22 September 2020, the Phnom Penh Post reporter Niem Chheng penned an article: “Hun Sen says developing nations ‘targets of rivalry’”
Your students and you can debate in the online class on various issues which are the subject of the United Nations General Assembly main agenda titled: “The Future We Want, the UN We Need: Reaffirming our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism.”
This letter is intended to introduce some ideas into your discussions on the specific case of Cambodia under the regime of the ex-KR weak strongman.
1. Has the weak strongman forgotten that it was the multilateralism of the United Nations that ended the war among Khmer in which the weak strongman was first a warrior with the genocidal Khmer Rouge and then later a puppet of a foreign force?
2. Has he forgotten that he was part the Supreme National Council (SNC) that was a party tot the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements?
3. Has he forgotten that it is through the United Nations multilateralism implemented by United Nations Transit Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) that he has become what he has been since the completion of the elections in May 1993?
4. Why has he now totally abandoned the multilateralism and espoused instead the unconditional bilateralism with China in every aspect of Cambodia economy, politics, military, human rights and international affairs?
5. Where is he going to find the money to reimburse the $30-to-$40 billions of loans that China have so far made to Cambodia, where as his government not only in complete bankruptcy now but also incapable of paying the $250 millions loan to the US?
6. Why has he signed contracts for Dara Sakor and Ream, prostituted Kg Som with Chinese casinos and thugs, and made long-term concessions of lands, forests, and water to Chinese investors, private or state owned enterprises?
7. Are there projects in Cambodia of the same magnitude in 6. above under Western or non-Chinese financiers and investors?
8. Where have those $30-to-$40 billions gone, since 99% of the country still lives in poverty, unemployment and indebtedness to microfinance, while the 1% wears $millions insane luxury watches, owns private jets, and has residences in the US, UK, France, and Cyprus?
9. In the presence of current virus pandemic that originated in Wuhan, the political and trade conflict between the US and China, the closing of hundreds of garments factories, the withdrawal of special tariffs treatment by the European Union, the return of thousands and thousands of migrant workers from neighboring countries, and the complete paralysis of tourism industry, does he realize that all issues shown in this letter are no longer in his hand, no matter how loud and lonely he and his sycophants claim in local forum? Does he understands he can’t solve those problems anymore because they are way beyond his domestic and personal ability and they will be instead handled over his head? He who created his own quagmire that he can’t extract himself out of it: the law of centrifugal force.
10. The weak strongman is no longer the one that he showed himself to be like in the past; instead he’s now sick, isolated from the people he pretends to govern, but oppress instead, self-prisoner in his 4-wall palace protected by a corps of bodyguards, and no more confidence and trust from his peers inside the corrupt people party.
Kacvey, like everything on earth, autocracy also has an end.
Fasten your seat belt tightly!
