Crossing the border from Thailand into Cambodia is reminiscent of landing on a strange new planet. My crew however, is a Bohemian rabble of backpackers, and there to welcome us on landing are an intimidating bunch of government officials wielding AK47s and a bureau de change charging 25% commission. Despite reservations, I am here primarily to visit and interview people from non government organizations (NGOs) across the country and explore issues affecting people in one of the worlds poorest countries.Unlike Thailand which for good or bad has successfully embraced globalisation and the tourist industry, Cambodia has only recently emerged from a dark and tragic history. On the face of things, war, genocide and political instability are in the past, but a few observations five minutes across the boarder suggest that things here are still far from well.
I anticipate that travelling 200km to Siem Reap will take around two and a half hours. As the bus pulls away, we pass a number of makeshift stalls selling just about anything the vendor can get his or her hands on, nuts and bolts, wicker baskets, Beta Max video recorders, deep fried spiders, I do mean anything. Next we pass a huge casino strategically placed for Thailand’s Mavericks who cross the border to escape their own country’s anti-gambling laws. Next to me is Karl, a weather beaten Swede who wears a sweat stained bandana and smells of stale tobacco. I explain to him that I plan to fit in a few hours sight seeing that afternoon. He just laughs and with that we hit the first of many crater sized pot- holes.
It takes ten tedious hours to reach Siem Reap, over some of which Karl explains why this road remains covered in pot- holes and bombed out bridges despite being one of the main tourist routes. Apparently certain people are profiting rather well by not having it renovated and with hindsight a two-hour flight at around $100 does become appealing. And so I am introduced to the type of corruption that makes a Mafia convention look like a few Italian granddads meeting for a pizza and a chat about old times.
One week on, I find myself strangely at home on my new planet. I’m speeding around the capital Phnom Penh on the back of a moped. My driver speaks little English beyond “You want to shoot big guns?” and a number of catch-phrases from Only Fools and Horses. In a style reminiscent of charades I manage to explain that I’m not too bothered about blowing up a cow and that I would like to go to the Khmer newspaper offices. I have arranged an interview with Sophal Leng Stagg, a survivor from the Khmer Rouge era who now runs an NGO called the South East Asian Children’s Mercy Fund (SACMF).
Sophal fled Cambodia in 1979 and now lives in Florida. SACMF work to improve educational opportunities for underprivileged children in Cambodia. This week she is running a training programme in five of Phnom Penh’s poorest schools to educate teachers on more westernised methods of teaching.
A chaotic journey through dusty streets and unruly traffic finds me at the gates of the newspaper’s head office. Just leaving is a black, Toyota Land Cruiser with tinted windows, accompanied by four motorcycle escorts. My driver seems a little uneasy and pulls up a few metres from the main entrance. “I wait here,” he says, “you go inside now”.
Once inside the office grounds a young Khmer man skips away to find Sophal. He is gone some ten minutes before she finally emerges. I know that she has spent most of her life in America but never the less it surprises me when such a Cambodian looking woman speaks in a thick American accent. “I’m so sorry to keep you; we had an unexpected visitor. Let’s go inside out of the sun”.
Apparently Sophal’s agenda has aroused suspicion among the Cambodian authorities. It transpires that the Land Cruiser I saw contained the education minister and that his escorts were armed guards. “Such a waste of my time” she sighs, “they want to know exactly what it is that we’re teaching over here, checking that nothing can incite opposition. I just want these kids to learn how to read and write! If the government can’t look after the poor people then somebody else has to”.
By now we are sat alone on a small conference room. I am confused, surely The Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) and prime minister Hun Sen, rule through democracy? Surely Sophal’s intention to train teachers and improve education for poor children can be of no threat? I came here to find out more about SACMF and the problems facing children in Cambodia but the interview has turned in the direction of something more sinister. Sophal’s tone when discussing politics conveys a sense of danger. She lowers her voice to a whisper, like ‘they’ could be listening and ready to drag her away if she says too much. Finding out more may not be as straightforward as I would like. I divert the conversation in an attempt to make her feel more at ease.
I ask what Sophal believes is Cambodia’s biggest problem. “It boils down to the poverty” she says. “How can a parent afford to send their kid to school it they don’t have the money to feed them first? And how can this country fully recover without educated people? First you’ve got to feed them, then educate them, without those two things you can’t change anything.”
Sophal is right, 40% of Cambodia’s population live below the poverty line and as such looking for rubbish to recycle on the local dump site, usually takes priority over going to school. In an environment where survival cannot be taken for granted, education becomes an expensive luxury. I learn about a lady who SACMF have recently been giving support to. She looks after her five young grandchildren, alone in a village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. The children’s parents were both victims of AIDS. “I asked the woman, ‘what one thing do you really need?’” says Sophal. “She told me, a fence around her hut and the few vegetables that she was trying to grow outside it. This way she would feel more secure and animals would stop trampling her crops.” To be self sufficient in feeding her family meant more to the woman than anything else, and to some extent this could be provided by something as simple as a fence. The story demonstrates the priorities of a vast majority of Cambodians.
So I wondered, where is the international aid going? Why are there so many beautiful villas and hotels scattered around this otherwise poverty stricken city? And why, in a county where you are considered lucky to own a moped, do you come across the odd four wheel drive vehicle worth over $50,000? Having talked for half an hour about Sophal’s organisation, the tension left behind by the minister of education’s visit seems to have subsided. Never the less, I approached these questions with caution.
“It all boils down to greed” she says with conviction. “By the time the money gets to the poor people, it’s almost gone”. Cambodia has had its share of international aid but Sophal goes as far as to suggest that up to 70% of this money goes no further than the pockets of corrupt government officials. As a small NGO and a non-profit organisation, SACMF are in a strong position to give directly to the Cambodian people, but even Sophal is obliged to keep certain officials on-side.
“Anything we ship into the country from America, for example medicines or school equipment, is subject to a lot of taxation” she says. “However, I have an agreement with certain people, and if I let them take the credit and get positive publicity, that tax might just be lightened or perhaps overlooked altogether.” I can’t believe what I am hearing. It seems that either way the CPP come out on top, whether they line their own pockets with aid money or take credit other peoples work to make it look as if they are committed to Cambodia’s development.
At present the CPP control two thirds of the seats in the National Assembly needed to form a government. Sophals tells me how she fears that the lack of a strong opposition is gradually turning Cambodia back into a totalitarian society.
Her fears carry added weight in light of the fact that as recently as December 2005, opposition leader Sam Rainsy was sentenced to 18 months in jail and fined $14,000 for alleging that Prime Minister Hun Sen was behind a grenade attack on opposition protesters in 1997. Rainsy fled to Paris from where he told the Phnom Penh post “the verdict came from politicians in the ruling party who want to get rid of the opposition”.
I leave the newspaper with a strong sense of admiration for Sophal’s dedication to helping Cambodia’s poor, even if it means playing somewhat into the hands of such a corrupt system. I realise the value of organisations like SACMF who show unprecedented commitment towards dragging Cambodia out of poverty and educating its people so that they may one day stand on their own two feet. Unfortunately another part of me fears that it is this type of political bullying which continues to hinder the country’s development and make Hun Sen’s leadership increasingly authoritarian. If this is a strange planet, then surely its prime minister would take on the role of Star Wars character Jabba the Hut, wallowing in greed while his citizens are enslaved in a vicious cycle of poverty and no education.
www.mattwenhammedia.co.uk
www.cambodiamercyfund.org
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