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Pardoned Prince Ranariddh Appointed Head of King's Supreme Council
Ranariddh (L), Hun Sen (C) and Sihamoni (R) during the latter's crowning
11 Dec 08
By Sakkada Moneaksekar Khmer
Translated from Khmer by Anonymous
After the recent fourth parliamentary elections were held, that is, after the two political parties that paid only lip service as royalist were handed the most shameful defeats at the polls on 27 July 2008, a number of royalties have walked out of the political scene in order to hide their shame and disgust.
Among the royal family members who had announced their departure from politics and who were so shamefaced and humiliated that they no longer dare to re-enter the political scene are Prince Norodom Sirivuddh and Princess Norodom Vajjara. And recently, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, former president of the FUNCINPEC [National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, and Peaceful Cambodia] Party, also publicly announced his decision to quit politics, preferring to devote his time helping to handle the affairs of his half-brother, King Norodom Sihamoni.
Prince Ranariddh was sentenced in absentia by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to spend 18 months in prison as of the day he is arrested and to pay $150,000 to the FUNCINPEC Party through its Secretary-General Nhoek Bun-chhai. Finding himself in an impasse before, Prince Ranariddh then resorted to a political solution. After the 27 July elections Prince Ranariddh announced his refusal to form any political alliance with the Sam Rainsy Party under whatever circumstances. Prince Ranariddh, then head of the Norodom Ranariddh Party [NRP] fleeing into exile in Malaysia to dodge the court's arrest warrant, voiced his recognition of the polls' results and even urged the Cambodian People's Party [CPP] with Hun Sen as its vice president and prime minister candidate to form a coalition government with the two-seated FUNCINPEC Party as soon as possible to avoid the same political deadlock as in the 2003 third general elections.
Sources among the NRP officials said that after being granted royal pardon Prince Ranariddh immediately announced his divorce from politics and offered to assist the king in handling his affairs. His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni then appointed the prince to the post of chairman of the Supreme Council of the King without waiting for any recommendation from Prime Minister Hun Sen. The sources said the king just signed a royal decree appointing Prince Ranariddh by himself last weekend.
According to the same source, Prince Ranariddh is asking the minister of the royal palace [Kong Sam-ol] to officially appoint dozens of his aides so that they would have their own offices and positions inside the Royal Cabinet. These aides, it was said, are the same men from the sycophant entourage of the prince when he still was NRP president.
Observers said that although Prince Ranariddh used to announce that he would abandon or end his political career he some times appears to still bear great influence over the NRP, keeping it at his beck and call. Moreover, although the NRP has already been handed to Chhim Siek-leng to lead as its provisional president, Chhim Siek-leng is just a nominal party president. All the important leadership decisions, it is observed, is made by Yu Hokkri, secretary-general of the NRP and MP for Kampong Cham constituency. It is also said that Yu Hokkiri is running the NRP together with Sau Rani, another confidant of Prince Ranariddh and MP for Prey Veng constituency of the current fourth National Assembly.The same source further disclosed that after Prince Ranariddh announced his retreat from politics and became very cozy with Hun Sen and other CPP officials, the prince immediately asked for the inclusion of a number of NRP officials, his closest underlings, into the corps of government advisers and advisers of various national authorities. Those peeved for failing to get the advisory jobs left the NRP and defected to the CPP. Some of them were then appointed undersecretaries or secretaries of state while others were made government advisers.
This fourth government is completely led and controlled by the CPP although the FUNCINPEC Party with its two seats has been made its partner in the coalition government and the NRP its partner in the National Assembly. These two satellite parties have not received any important posts in either the government or the National Assembly, not even as members of the National Assembly's specialized commissions. It is only after they submitted applications through the offices of National Assembly Speaker Heng Samrin that the MPs from the FUNCINPEC Party and NRP were included among the members of the House's specialized commissions and were given a bigger salary than the MPs without any posts in the nine specialized commissions of the National Assembly.
Vietnam Communists suspend official over Japan bribe case [-Can't Hun Sen imitate his Vietnamese bosses?]
Dec 12, 2008
DPA
Hanoi - The Vietnamese Communist Party has suspended an official accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a Japanese company while in charge of Ho Chi Minh City's largest infrastructure project, a party official said Friday.
The accused official, Huynh Ngoc Si, had already been relieved in late November from his government posts as director of Ho Chi Minh City's East-West Highway Project and deputy director of the city's Department of Transportation.
On Thursday, Si was suspended from his Communist Party posts as well.
Si is accused of taking 820,000 dollars in kickbacks between 2003 and 2006 from the Japanese firm Pacific Consultants International (PCI). The case has already put several Japanese executives in jail.
'Si was not shocked, but calm, when I announced the decision' to suspend him, said Ho Hoang Son, head of the Party's supervisory committee for the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transportation.
'If he is found guilty, we will expel him from the party,' Son said. 'But if he is innocent, we will consider resuming his posts.'
On November 12, four PCI officials accused of bribing Si pleaded guilty in Tokyo district court to violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, which bans Japanese citizens from bribing foreign government officials.
The case led to public anger in Japan, but until recently Vietnam said it lacked evidence to investigate Si.
Last week, at an annual meeting of foreign aid donors to Vietnam, Japan announced it was halting all new official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam until authorities investigated the case thoroughly. Japan provided Vietnam with over 200 million dollars in ODA in 2007.
On Tuesday, Vietnamese police announced they were opening an investigation into the PCI case.
Vietnamese media have noted legal discrepancies which could prove an obstacle to prosecution. Vietnam may find it difficult to summon the four convicted Japanese executives as witnesses in the case because the two countries have not signed an extradition treaty.
Students send worldwide message
December 12nd 2008
Martine Chenier, Colonel By
EastOttawa.ca (Canada)
Colonel By’s Amnesty International group has raised the bar in hopes of raising awareness, support and funds for global issues. On Dec. 10, the program is joining many other Amnesty groups across the country to celebrate Human Rights Day in the Write for Rights campaign.
The members will join together to collect signatures to help persuade the Canadian government to aid other countries, and some times our own, in the resolution of world issues.
There will be letters available to protest the forced evictions in Cambodia after officials are threatening to force approximately 150 families from their homes and the land in the centre of the city of Phnom Penh, more commonly known as Group 78, and move them in Andong. Most of those are underprivileged street vendors, teachers and junior civil servants. There are also others demanding justice and the safety of a human rights defender and her family in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to support Iranians protesting for the equality of women, to name a few.
The group took over the school’s atrium at lunch hour with all the required information and supplies in order to help the cause.
“We’re going to have tables where people can either sign a pre-written letter or write their own letter, as well as an information table, and a bake sale,” states one of Colonel By’s Amnesty International programs leaders, Amar Nijhawan. “The letters will be sent to the appropriate government representatives, depending on the letter-writing case we choose.”
Amnesty International will also be holding a few other events in order to inform Colonel By’s students about the issues around the world.
“We have also talked about having a buy-in with guest speakers and a documentary in late March,” continues Amar about the future goals of the program.
Singaporean group introduces "floating" toilets in Cambodia
13 December 2008
By Channel NewsAsia's IndoChina correspondent Anasuya Sanyal (S'pore)
CAMBODIA: In rural Cambodia, only 16 per cent of residents have a proper toilet -- the lowest rate in Southeast Asia.
However, one Singaporean group is working to change that.
On Cambodia's great lake, Tonle Sap, water stretches for miles in every direction.
But getting clean drinking water and proper sanitation is another story entirely.
Homes here are floating platforms and must move seasonally, and outhouses are simply a wooden plank over the open water.
Water and sanitation issues are of crucial importance to people who are on Tonle Sap, where safe drinking water comes at a price and toilet facilities are rudimentary.
People have no choice but to contaminate the very same water they use for drinking and washing.
Singaporean non-governmental organisation Lien Aid aims to make a difference in this community of about 10,000 people.
They are introducing the concept of "floating" toilets which are affordable, locally-made, and therefore sustainable.
"It is actually a simple system… We're going to use locally available buckets where they can collect the faeces. We are going to use some locally available agent to dry the faeces, that is, using ashes and other local material," said the CEO of Lien Aid, Sahari Ani.
One key to the project is that locals will have to source and build their own toilets, to ensure that all parts of the community are involved.
"The toilet that we introduce to the community -- they are very happy to get that one and they try to find their own resources to contribute to the project," said the director of the Department of Rural Health Care, Ministry of Rural Development, Chea Samnang.
A young couple, who has two children with another on the way, says they are happy to have a simple and hygienic toilet.
They worry that people's lifelong habits will be difficult to change.
But they hope the affordable toilets will catch on with the lake's residents, just like other modern conveniences that have done so.
And it is testimonies like theirs that makes this project look set to be flush with success.
[ASEAN Charter:] Silence raises questions of relevance
Saturday December 13, 2008
ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT
Bangkok Post
ASEAN CHARTER
The postponement of the 14th Asean summit, earlier scheduled for next week (Dec 15-17) in Thailand, raises questions about the relevance of the Asean charter to the current political, economic and security challenges the region faces.
The Asean foreign ministers therefore have to convene a special meeting on Monday to discuss the re-scheduling of the summit and other relevant matters, to shore up the waning confidence in this regional organisation and to celebrate the much-awaited charter at the Jakarta-based secretariat.
Within the region, there have been doubts that the Asean charter, to be spearheaded under the Thai chairmanship, would succeed in "revitalising a people-centred community and reinforcing human development and security for all the peoples of the region".
Even more doubtful is the prospect of the new organs envisaged by the charter, in particular the Asean human rights bodies - expected to be completed by the end of the Thai chairmanship next year. Critics fear that without substantive changes to the way Asean has been operating, the new organs would end up as decorative pieces put in the charter just to lure domestic and international attention.
Asean's relative silence towards the political bickering and airport siege in Thailand that spilled over to the point they could qualify as violations of human rights - apart from the fact that they caused the Asean summit to be postponed - indicates that the core policy of "non-interference" and "constructive engagement" is likely to be the order of the day.
Sunai Phasuk, coordinator of Human Rights Watch in Thailand, said Asean's silence on Thailand's case adds to the impression that the regional body is ineffective in dealing with human rights violations. Burma also would be a case in point.
"It is just a contradictory signal. Asean said the new Asean human rights mechanism will promote and protect the rights of the Asean peoples, but their bulwark non-interference principle certainly goes against the nature of these two human rights aspects, to begin with," said Mr Sunai.
Without any strong reaction from Asean, the grouping is seen as condoning such anti-democratic trends as the week-long takeover of Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports in Bangkok by protesters going under the banner of the People's Alliance for Democracy.
"Thailand and Burma are adequate test cases for the toothless Asean. The governments of Asean have preached what they cannot offer. But they need to show to the world that this region also has some effective mechanisms like what Africa has," he said.
Chulalongkorn University associate professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak shared a similar view. The Thai example and how Asean responded to it can be a precedent for countries like Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, as well as Asean dialogue partners including China, to cite for a future slide along an undemocratic path.
"What happened in Thailand has also affected the spirit of Asean, its efforts in creating a rule of law within the region. China considers our case a lesson. And it may be justified if it chooses to withhold a democratisation process for fear of political turbulence," said Mr Thitinan.
Other regional human rights bodies such as the Asia Human Rights Commission have also called for greater global attention to the political tension in Thailand, which has gone on for several months without any discernible reaction from domestic human rights bodies.
"Having vacillated on the 2006 coup, the international community cannot afford to let things go on without some meaningful intervention this time. If Thailand slips further backwards it will be to the detriment not only of its own but the entire region's. At a time that repressive anti-democratic forces are either making a comeback or strengthening their positions almost everywhere, Thailand cannot afford to be lost," the Hong Kong-based AHRC stated.
Members of the Asean civil society consider the charter a state-centric tool, being written by government officials without genuine, broad consultations with civic groups. The charter provides no institutionalised mechanisms, such as the NGO Consultative Status to the UN, in which a civil society can contribute to or comment on the decision-making process.
Pokpong Lawansiri, from Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia), said that to Asean leaders, the civil society's role is to be informed about decisions that are made, not to play any role in their making.
He added, however, that the regional body should take note that there has been increasing interest among civil society groups in seeing the association become more relevant and capable of handling issues that concern the peoples of the member countries - migrant workers and human trafficking, among others.
Pairoj Polphet, president of the Union of Civil Liberties, said the new government of Thailand must put the organisation of the Asean summit at the top of its priority list.
"As chairman of Asean under the new context of the charter, our ability to host the summit as soon as possible is a key message to not only the regional bloc but the international community that our political stability has been recovered."
Mr Pairoj added that civil society would not go against Asean cooperation projects but would like to have a say in regional affairs as they would affect people's lifestyles and well-being.
It is now in the hands of Asean officials and governments whether to shape the Asean human rights body (whose official name has yet to be created) to the high expectations people have of it.
