Foreign Affairs article on Cambodia
Cambodia has become nation mired in corruption that stiffens growth and tarnishes success as being bought not earned: The other side of U.S. withdrawal from Indochina.
The end of the Vietnam War, devastating Pol Pot regime, and Vietnam intervention has left a country without the human resources necessary to build a country capable of building a self sustaining economy.
The government is populated by former Vietnam straw men and Khmer Rouge officials. Kick backs and skimming are the expected way of conducting all life. Extending to grade school children expected to bribe teachers for good grades or not attending since they cannot afford the bribes. Government officials have established rules to take action against any teacher taking bribes with little result. This system of pay for grades has made any graduate suspect as to their actual abilities.
Land for development can be had for the right price. The agency empowered to establish property rights will create a land deed that allows the new owner to have the legal owners, sometimes entire streets, evicted by force and relocated to become the tenant problem of another persons land. This problem has been address by yet another commission to adjudicate complaints only to have the resolutions lost and left unenforceable.
Ministers and members of the parliament live a lavish existence conspicuously above the means of their state salaries. Lives behind walls and with private golf courses are not unusual. NGO’s have implemented accounting measure to address this type of patronage but the bribes and pilfering continues at a lowered level.
A grass roots organization has petitioned the government for a new anticorruption law but action is not expected. This organization has also created a program to identify corruption only to be used by the government to be show cased as addressing the problem when funding time comes around.
The entire budget of the government is provided by foreign grants and little is expected to change. The situation is so dire Gap could ruin the nation by closing down and leaving. Life is cheapen to a new level when relatives of officials are coddled by police forces when they hit pedestrian and the victims are left to bleed to death at the accident scene . Murder for hire is they other way to make a living while quieting the opposition.
The death of many educated professionals during the Pol Pot regime has left the country unable to produce future leaders that will build a nation with accomplishments rather then hand outs. The lose of Cambodia to a Communist system was honorific and now life under an unregulated capitalist system will have the opportunity to show case its strength as market forces efficiently distribute resources via scarcity.
Cambodia has become nation mired in corruption that stiffens growth and tarnishes success as being bought not earned: The other side of U.S. withdrawal from Indochina.
The end of the Vietnam War, devastating Pol Pot regime, and Vietnam intervention has left a country without the human resources necessary to build a country capable of building a self sustaining economy.
The government is populated by former Vietnam straw men and Khmer Rouge officials. Kick backs and skimming are the expected way of conducting all life. Extending to grade school children expected to bribe teachers for good grades or not attending since they cannot afford the bribes. Government officials have established rules to take action against any teacher taking bribes with little result. This system of pay for grades has made any graduate suspect as to their actual abilities.
Land for development can be had for the right price. The agency empowered to establish property rights will create a land deed that allows the new owner to have the legal owners, sometimes entire streets, evicted by force and relocated to become the tenant problem of another persons land. This problem has been address by yet another commission to adjudicate complaints only to have the resolutions lost and left unenforceable.
Ministers and members of the parliament live a lavish existence conspicuously above the means of their state salaries. Lives behind walls and with private golf courses are not unusual. NGO’s have implemented accounting measure to address this type of patronage but the bribes and pilfering continues at a lowered level.
A grass roots organization has petitioned the government for a new anticorruption law but action is not expected. This organization has also created a program to identify corruption only to be used by the government to be show cased as addressing the problem when funding time comes around.
The entire budget of the government is provided by foreign grants and little is expected to change. The situation is so dire Gap could ruin the nation by closing down and leaving. Life is cheapen to a new level when relatives of officials are coddled by police forces when they hit pedestrian and the victims are left to bleed to death at the accident scene . Murder for hire is they other way to make a living while quieting the opposition.
The death of many educated professionals during the Pol Pot regime has left the country unable to produce future leaders that will build a nation with accomplishments rather then hand outs. The lose of Cambodia to a Communist system was honorific and now life under an unregulated capitalist system will have the opportunity to show case its strength as market forces efficiently distribute resources via scarcity.