PHNOM PENH, July 17: Democratic freedoms and human rights are getting eroded in Cambodia, despite a rosy economic picture promoted by the government, a leading human rights group said today.
At the same time, the country's power and wealth "is increasingly being consolidated into the hands of a small elite, who use their position to expand and solidify their personal privilege, usually at the expense of the poor and dispossessed," the Cambodian human rights group, Licadho, said in a report today.
Cambodia is being threatened by “a growing risk of political, social and economic instability, fueled by the discontent of those who find themselves abused and dispossessed by the state,” it said. The present situation “is that of a wobbly kneed democracy reverting to an increasingly authoritarian state,” it added.
Licadho, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, was founded in 1992 as an independent group to promote respect for civil and political rights.
Repeated calls to the government went unanswered.
However, when Mr Yash Ghai, the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy for human rights in Cambodia, made similar charges in March, they were angrily rejected by Prime Minister Mr Hun Sen.
Cambodia is actually a “heaven” for non-governmental groups to do their work, Mr Hun Sen, the country’s unquestioned strongman, said last month.
The Licadho report said the economic growth rate of 13 per cent ~ that the government claimed to have achieved for 2005 ~ was a “facade” hiding a wider range of problems faced by the people.
Posted by proutist-universal on July 18, 2006 5:19 AM
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |