Monday, September 2, 2013

The Price Of Fame

This month, the Marina Bay area is being locked down again for the F-1 night race so that another $150 million can be splurged to make the Singapore skyline "more well known". Quite arguably, the city state is already famous, though not always for good reasons.

Joel Brinkley's recent book, "Cambodia's Curse, The Modern History of a Troubled Land" (Perseus Books Group, 2011) has this mention on page 174:
"...So it was in 2000 when oknya Lao Meng Khin asked to buy the rights to take out the last major forest in  Pursat Province, in south-central Cambodia. They agreed on a price, to be paid directly to Hun Sen.

Another oknya, Ly Yong Phat, is also a wealthy senator, actually bought the right to sell off tons of Cambodian land. Singapore was a veracious purchaser of sand; the city used it as landfill to create more real estate. For years it had bought sand from Indonesia, but sucking it from the bottom of the seabed had caused "very severe environmental damage in many Indonesian islands," the Indonesian Foreign Ministry had said. Indonesia banned sand dredging.

Almost right away, oknya Ly Yong Phat bought the right to begin sucking sand from the bottom of Cambodian rivers and seashores, for sale to Singapore. The Phnom Penh Post reported that sand dredgers were at work inside the Peam Krasp Wildlife Sanctuary, among other places. By the summer of 2010 riverbanks were beginning to collapse, dragging boat piers and outbuildings down into the water."

Eventually, Hun Sen issued a "partial ban" on sand dredging, but loopholes allowed the continued sale of contracts as he pleased.

There is no direct translation for oknya in English. The word has its origins in early Khmer, referring to someone who was a devotee of Siva, the Hindu deity. In modern context, it was roughly defined as one of Prime Minister Hun Sen's wealthy cronies. In 1993, Hun Sen decreed that anyone who donated at least $100,000 for "public works projects" would win the oknya title. Holders of the title did favours for the prime minister, usually taking on building projects that help to enhance his own reputation.

A variety of Cambodians and Cambodia experts agree that fundamental change cannot come until Hun Sen leaves the scene. Installed by the Vietnamese in 1985, he was born in 1952, so he could potentially remain in power into the 2020s or '30s. "In 2013, I will be only 61 years old and still firm," he once proclaimed at a university graduation ceremony, "Even now I have already become the longest ruling prime minister in Asia and made a historical record." The other contender for that title may disagree, having been prime minister from 1965 till 1990, and bestowed other titles like Senior Minister and Minister Mentor to have a tug on the puppet strings for several more years. It's one thing to be famous, it's another to be infamous.

17 comments:

  1. //It's one thing to be famous, it's another to be infamous.//

    Is one thing to tell the world you follow a British parliament governance format, is another thing when the world and its citizens know very well it is ruled by a dynastic structure, modeled after the chinese imperial rule.

    http://v.ifeng.com/news/opinion/201308/01f0e012-4197-4267-99b5-66612ef0a2a9.shtml

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    1. Bullshitistan9/02/2013 10:24 AM

      haha..

      Did you see how UK's Cameron debated and lost in the Commons re Syria military intervention? And comedy capers, in which PAP put forth its PWP to a barely existing Opposition Party, will just be one of the bad jokes of 2013.

      We are far from first world parliament & a properly check-and-balance system. A Westminister PM or a chinese style handpicked Successor? I have a dream that one day I'll no longer have to have a dream.

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    2. SG is a "government-made" country, not 'citizens-made' country.

      That much is clear.

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    3. "I have a dream that one day I'll no longer have to have a dream."

      Good luck with that!

      Best.

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  2. This detailed by Guardian piece on the killing of Chut Wutty, the Cambodia activist and environmentalist who was campaigning against illegal land deals, mining deals, timber deals in the area behind Koh Kong, illustrates how incredibly dangerous it is for any Cambodian to object in any way to these kinds of goings-on which are in the same category of defilement as the huge Singapore sand dredging operation off Koh Kong which has caused untold environmental damage to islands, local fishing communities and coastline.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/26/cambodia-police-shoot-dead-antilogging-activist?INTCMP=SRCH

    http://e360.yale.edu/images/digest/shifting_sand_final.pdf

    Singapore and Maldives are facing a big threat: Sinking in the ocean as a result of global warming. That is the bigger picture that one needs to see so why don't we start with stopping the global warming? Instead we reclaim more lands for a push to 6.9m or more, on route to becoming a megapolis which we are supposed to buy the hype that "Density is Destiny" where our population czar wants us to believe. We are digging ourselves very quickly into the bottom of the sea soon.

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  3. Cambodia's curse is Singapore's gains.

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    1. There is a subtle message in this article. Parallel link between Cambodia and Singapore is sand . Hun Sen just to nose Rainsy despite widespread allegations of rigging.Will we see a similar one in 2015/6, with or without allegations? BTW, the defeated Tan Cheng Bock has made comments about the 5 empty boxes ,presumably spares, that was found sitting in a school storeroom for 2 years.

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  4. How much is the entire development of T5 Airport + Port megahub going to cost us? Will part of the funding come from Mindef budget (or addition) and how much will be subsidized by US too since the so-called 'strategic shift' is actually catered not for citizens, but use as Military bridgehead for another US base in the Asia pacific? Why does the government feel they need to 'repackaged' this and lead us to believe this is for the benefits of commerce & citizens?

    Will they come clean on this? Why do we need to find out important matters like this through foreign media, when our MSM are utterly silent.

    http://v.ifeng.com/news/opinion/201308/01acbb03-155e-4573-812e-268c4dcd988f.shtml

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    1. They should fund the infrastructural costs of migration of PLAB and TP Port from the GLS of those vacated massive plots . Then somebody will say it is raiding the reserves. The reserves are solely for Tummysick to punt on the international casino.

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  5. So is our economic expansion at the expense of some other people's sufferings ?

    Just look at our casino levy imposed on us to discourage gambling but for those families of gamblers from neighbouring countries, is it as if we couldn't care less if their families are broken ?

    Isn't that evil by itself ... our leaders ?

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  6. Somehow the red dot is not on the list of most threatened cities from global warming, despite much of the country being barely above sea level. Much of Changi Airport would definitely go under when that newly discovered huge glacial found under greenland melts. The elites' Sentosa Cove might soon become the modern day equivalent of the lost city of Atlantis. But well before that, surely we shud see some of their owners jumping from The Sands when the market realize the true meaning of living by the sea.

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    1. Worry not about the elites. Their speedboats and yatches are berthing just outside their back door. And the ark parked above the Casinos are also waiting for the MIWs. You just have your own plan B & Plan C when all hails come down on you and family.

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  7. the hotel prop mgt really did the right step in selling choice properties at heavily disountes prices

    one of the tangiable benefit???

    F1 ... taxpayers pay for the expenses and a company reap the profit, really "moh tak teng"

    why indonesian so smart???? did peter enjoying these benefits down below now?

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  8. everyday hundred of lorries carrying sand pass thru the causeway into singapore

    some of these drivers sre terror kings swerving into car lanes and causing terrible jams

    why Mahathir and his cronies keeping quiet ... ?

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  9. Along with his cronies, Tyrant Hun Sen has amassed extraordinary wealth selling off the country's assets to the highest bidder. Everything is up for grabs.

    Brinkley has rightly and is hugely critical of him but saves some deserved criticism too for the international donors whether governments or NGOs who continue to fund his regime. And there is also valid critique of the Cambodian peoples’ failure to rise up against Sen’s corrupt government – regularly giving electoral support to Sen and his party.

    When Egypt's Hosni Mubarak started tottering under the demands of protesters, Hun Sen shut down the opposition websites in Cambodia.

    Indeed, a sobering reminder and parallel comparison for those who are still in slumber.

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  10. When own the ball boys, the lines men, the referee...

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    1. We are the spectators. Can we boycott the match? Switch to WWF? What a farce?

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