CAMBODIA : moving towards a better future
Savun Neang
CAMBODIA : moving towards a better future
5 June 1999: 10 - 18.30
Venue : Educational Studies
University of Oxford
15 Norham Gardens OX26PY
01865 274 024
Administration: Dominique ATTALA, Tel 01865 270272
Email: rsp...@ermine.ox.ac.uk
Convenor: Didier BERTRAND, Tel 01865 270 276
Email: didier....@qeh.ox.ac.uk
The Refugee Studies Programme would like to thank the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office and Queen Elizabeth House, and Beta Mekong Fund Limited
for their support.
CAMBODIA: Moving Towards a Better Future
5 June 1999, Oxford
10-10.15
Welcome Dr David Turton, Director of Refugee Studies Programme and
Dr Didier Bertrand, EC Research Fellow RSP, and Conference Convenor
10.15-10.30 Venerable Ajhan Sumedo, Amaravati Buddhist Temple, Hemel
Hempstead
10.30-11.30 Plenary SESSION 1 - Lecture room 1
Chair : Peg Levine
- Dr Laura Summers, University of Hull.
Gendered Violence: Reflections on Nationalism and Justice for Cambodian
Women
- Dr Steve Heder, SOAS.
Looking Forward to a Beginning of the End of Impunity: Crime and Culpability
among `Senior Khmer Rouge Leaders' and the Prospects for Bringing them to
Justice.
Discussion
11-35-13.10 simultaneous SESSION 2 & 3
SESSION 2 : ENVIRONMENT and POLITICS - Lecture room 1
Chair: Caroline Hughes
- Dr Kareen Bakker, School of Geography, University of Oxford.
The Politics of Hydropower ; Developing the Mekong
- Patrick Alley, Global Witness.
Timber, Corruption, War & Politics, The Campaign Against the Destruction of
Cambodia's Forests
- Andrew Duncan, University of York
Evaluating the Impact of IMF Conditionality" on the Reconstruction and
Development Process in Post-War Cambodia.
- Dr Philippe Le Billon, School of Geography, University of Oxford.
Politics of plunder?The Cambodian logging industry during the 1990's.
SESSION 3: CULTURE - Lecture room 2
Chair : Glynis Brooks
- Michel Antelme, SOAS.
The Khmer Language: its Current State and Evolution, and Perspectives for
the Future
- Dr Sambath Heng Phalla
Cambodian Refugees in the UK
- David de Channer, film Producer
Serene Smile, VDO
- Dr Didier Bertrand, RSP.
Healing and possession in contemporary Cambodia, VDO
13.10-14.00 Cambodian lunch,
14.00-14.30. Simultaneous presentations
- Dr Peg Levine, Monash University, Lecture room 1
Poster : Assessing detachment patterns and contextual trauma across cultures
(trauma detachment grid)
- David de Channer, Film Producer, Lecture room 2
VDO Serene Life,
- Tep Mona, Social room
Les enfants du sourire Khmer, Cambodian-French NGO, Activities presentation
14.30-15.30 Plenary SESSION 4 - Lecture room 1
Chair : Philippe Le Billon
- Prof Peter Carrey, University of Oxford.
Human Resources and Capacity Building in Cambodia during the Past Decade:
The Experience of the Cambodia Trust'
- Dr David Ashley,
"The nature and causes of land disputes in Cambodia"
Discussion
15.30-17.10 simultaneous SESSION 5 & 6
SESSION 5 : POLITICS - Lecture room 1
Chair : Laura Summers
Brad Adams, London
Honoring Human Rights : from peace to justice.
Hamish A Nixon, University of Oxford
Democratic Peacebuilding in Cambodia: Thinking about "Political Will"
Dr Caroline Hughes, Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad,
Great Expectations ; Cambodian's political Reformers, Perceptions of
Sovereignty and the Grounds for International Intervention.
Moeng Phok
Cambodia and Asean.
SESSION 6 : DEVELOPMENT- Lecture room 2
Chair : Kareen Baker
Tim Conway, ODI
Poverty, Aid and Rural Development in Cambodia
Andy Brown, University of London
From Refugee Camps to Settled Villages
Dr Didier Bertrand, University of Oxford
Demobilisation in Cambodia, Psychosocial Issues
Dr Alan de Channer, Film director
Revitalising the Moral and Spiritual fabric of Cambodian Society
17.10-17.30 Tea/coffee break
17.30-18.00 Report from the workshops and discussion, Lecture room 1
18.00-1815 Conclusion Venerable Ajhan SUMEDO , Lecture room 1
10.30-11.30 Plenary SESSION 1 - LECTURE ROOM 1
Gendered Violence: Reflections on Nationalism and Justice for Cambodian
Women
Dr Laura J Summers
Department of Politics & Asian Studies
The University of Hull
Recent debates surrounding the political violence of the 1970s and the
appropriate forms of legal redress have overlooked serious problems of
violence affecting the everyday lives of many Cambodians today. Starting
with a discussion of the postwar 'gun culture' , this paper forcuses on
domestic violence, and on the gendered imagery employed in social
mobilisation for wartime violence assessing each in terms of gender and
sexuality. It is argued that violence figures in the construction of
personal identity among the Khmer, especially among men embracing warrior
forms of masculinity. It is further argued that violence between the sexes
is instrumental, not only for the defence and assertion of gendered
identities but for transforming gender (and national) difference into gender
and national hierarchies. Fantasies about power and personal identity form
a crucial bridge between political violence and sexual violence in Cambodia
(and, arguably, everywhere else). Thus, and while war is associated with
rapine and corps of comfort women, 'power' in peacetime is also, often
represented in 'sexualized' terms with violence resulting, not simply from
aggressiveness or cruelty, but from an inability to control the significant
other's gendered/sexual behaviour. If gender dynamics are further seen to be
constituent elements in the construction of the state, as well as the
family, then strategies for the promotion of gender equality are almost
certainly essential for reducing everyday (racialist and sexist) violence in
Cambodia.
Looking Forward to a Beginning of the End of Impunity: Crime and Culpability
Among "Senior Khmer Rouge Leaders' and the Prospects for Bringing Them
to Justice.
Dr Steve Heder
SOAS
Discussion of the most recent evidence of Democratic Kampuchea-era acts of
genocide and crimes against humanity, its relation to international legal
standards, and latest developments in moves to bring those most culpable to
justice.
11-35-13.10, LECTURE ROOM 1
SESSION 2 : ENVIRONMENT and POLITICS
The politics of hydropower: developing the Mekong
Dr Karen Bakker
School of Geography and Environment,
University of Oxford
With renewed economic interest in the southeast Asian region following the
'peace dividend' of the early 1990s, numerous hydro-development feasibility
studies, and several hydro-development projects, have been initiated in the
Mekong basin. This paper briefly summarises these initiatives, with a focus
on (I) proposed hydro-development in Cambodia; and (ii) potential impacts of
upstream hydro-development projects on Cambodia. Historical background on
hydro-development is briefly presented, and its present-day incarnation
situated within an analysis of the regional geopolitics of resource
exploitation. Through a brief examination of the discursive framing of
hydro-development, this paper uncovers some of the implications of an
emerging regional geopolitical imagination centred on the naturalising
metaphor of the watershed.
Timber, Corruption, War & Politics
The campaign against the destruction of Cambodia's forests
Patrick Alley, Global Wittness
During the 1990s Cambodia suffered severe exploitation of its natural
resources, primarily timber from its rich rainforests. Cambodian political,
military and business élites have privately benefited from the sale of these
state resources to primarily foreign commercial concerns including
transnational logging companies. Timber revenue has funded both sides in the
civil war between the Khmer Rouge and the Phnom Penh government. As a
consequence of deforestation Cambodia has suffered economically, socially
and ecologically, together with numerous logging related human rights
abuses. The campaign to prevent illegal logging and uncontrolled
deforestation, and to bring forest policy reform to Cambodia has seen
various actors come together and, within a four year period (1995-99) the
raising of awareness of the issues and concrete measures to bring them
under control are underway. An independent NGO, Global Witness, with the
covert and overt support of many Cambodians has been instrumental in the
provision and publication of detailed information about the Cambodian
forestry sector and in lobbying multilateral and bilateral donors to link
aid to forestry reform. These donors, notably the World Bank, the IMF and
various western governments have ensured that these issues are at the top of
the international agenda for Cambodia. This paper will attempt to use
Cambodia as a template to illustratehow similar situations across the world
can be similarly addressed.
11-35-13.10, LECTURE ROOM 1
Evaluating the Impact of IMF Conditionality" on the Reconstruction and
Development Process in Post-War Cambodia.
Andrew Duncan, University of York,
Former LWF project director in Cambodia,
The topic of my paper is based on the events leading up to the suspension of
IMF tranches to Cambodia and its impact to the socio-economic situation in
the country. The issues I wanted to raise are two fold - the dangers of
pursuing a single-issue-political platform such as Global Witness i.e how
they influenced the IMF to suspend aid to Cambodia without paying due regard
to the complex local political and socio-economic situation which prevailed
in Cambodiaat the time. Secondly I argue that suspending IMF Aid ironically
had the opposite effect to that which was intended i.e the rate of
logging/deforestation actually intensified as a result. Since the elections
(formation of the new government) and the SG meeting the new CPP lead
government has got serious on logging. In actual fact this supports my
hypothesis as I argued that the pre-existing biparty government
(FUNCINPEC/CPP) whom were both trying to gain political ground through the
KR defections only had the resources of forest to entice the defections and
fund their political aspirations. Moreover I argued the country was
suffering from the EL-Nino drought at the time and many thousands of
villagers had to rely on the forest to survive. Indeed the recent clamp down
on the logging has indeed adversely effected many of the poorest communities
who I worked with in Oral and Phnom Sruoch as they continue to rely on
forestry products for their livelihoods.
Politics of plunder? The Cambodian logging industry during the 1990s
Dr Philippe Le Billon
School of Geography,
University of Oxford
The paper examines the difficult transition of Cambodia from war to peace
and the accompanying economic boom through an analysis of the logging
industry during the 1990s. Based on a clientelist model of polity, the
'politics of plunder' that have characterised the forestry industry are
interpreted as the impact of the 'shadow state'strategies of major political
actors to build their power base and cope with the political challenge that
the UN peace process represented. The resistance to these practices, by both
international actors and domestic local actors is presented. Logging in
Cambodia is thus conceived as a contested process of transforming nature and
incorporating space into productive networks, as part of a broader political
economy of power.
11-35-13.10 LECTURE ROOM 2
SESSION 3: CULTURE
The Khmer Language: its Current State and Evolution, and
Perspectives for the Future
Michel Antelme, Ethnolinguist
PhD student, SOAS
The Khmer Language entered history in the sixth century A.D. and up to the
present day has had the status of a national language, with periods of
shared status with other languages such as Sanskrit - from the sixth to the
14th century - or French - from the late 19th century up to the present day.
As many other languages, to enlarge its vocabulary, it has borrowed scores
of words, this paired with its own lexical creations.
Nowadays, the Khmer language has to adapt to the modern world and if it
wants to survive as a national and official language, must find ways to cope
with the increase of new concepts and new technologies and be able to
integrate them in its corpus. It will be interesting to remind how the Khmer
language tried to sort this out since the 1940s, see the present situation,
and thus define the possible strategies for the future.
Cambodian Community in the United Kingdom
Dr Heng Phalla Sambath,
Electrical Engineer,
Cambodian Refugee in the UK
The Cambodian community in the UK is relatively very small (about 600
persons) and scattered all over the country. A few of us have started off
our life in the early 70's as students or as members of the Cambodian
Embassy Staff, caught out by the political change in Cambodia in 1975.
About 60 of us became refugees then, not by choice but by circumstances. We
have never thought or dreamed of living permanently in the UK, let alone to
be here today - perhaps the fate or karma of what we have done in our past
life. The majority of the community arrived in the early 80's on the basis
of family reunion or as relatives to the early settlers or via the Charity
Organisations from the refugee camps in Thailand; there were also some from
Vietnam. They have all experienced 'the Killing Fields' trauma.
The first generation of the Cambodian children who were born in the UK are
now in their 20's and are just about to settle down and start their
families.
Life in the UK, for all of us, was not as easy as it looks. On the one
hand, we would like to preserve our culture, and on the other we would like
to normalise our life, to adapt to and adopt the new society; however, the
two cultures are in sharp contrast to each other. For some, we have
nightmares of what we have come across during the bad time, either through
personal experience or learning about the loss of the parents or brothers
and sisters. We have, however, learned a lot from it, and we are very proud
to say that we have weathered that stormy episode quite well; this made us
even more resilient than we had anticipated.
The Cambodian Society in the United Kingdom (CASUNIK) is the strength of the
community, thanks to the few core active members who always take the
Cambodian interest at heart. The main events, organised by CASUNIK, are the
Cambodian New Year in Mid April and the Pchum Ben ceremony in
September/October (also election date of the Executive Members). Both
events are social and religious (Buddhist). We have also organised the
teaching of the Cambodian mother tongue language and the Khmer classical
dance, which provides appreciable interests to our youth.
Video Film: Serene Smile
David de Channer,
Film Producer,
Made in Khmer language, Serene Smile is based on a contemporary Cambodian
poem and verses from the Buddhist sriptures with English subtitles. It is a
lyric introduction to the Cambodian culture and the aversities it is facing.
Video Film : Healing and possession in contemporary Cambodia,
Dr Didier Bertrand,
RSP, University of Oxford.
This short film describes the activities of a medium who is healer while
possessed by spirits. Most of the social and psychological problems
affecting the society are brought to the shrine while patients are expecting
advice and care from the powerfull spirit who come to help them in a
buddhist like setting.
14.00-14.30. Simultaneous presentations
LECTURE ROOM 1
POSTER Presentation
Assessing 'Detachment' Patterns and Contextual Trauma Across Cultures (The
Trauma Detachment Grid)
Dr Peg LeVine
Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne,
Australia
Most trauma literature focuses on how trauma-provoking events trigger
psychological distress. To date, there is not a method by which clinicians
can assess trauma-provoking contexts. This paper advances a discussion on
'contextual assessment' through use of a Trauma Detachment Grid for use in
differential diagnosis across developed and developing countries. In
addition, this author proposes a "detachment" theory and ways to assess the
destructive methods by which larger social systems disadvantage the
wellbeing of individuals and communities. Through content and process
analyses of cases that presented with trauma histories across four nations
(USA, Australia, Japan and Cambodia), this author identified seven patterns
by which people detach from self, other, time and place: (1) Distress, (2)
Dis-spirit (the term 'dis-spirited' is used in place of depression in order
to account for developing country contexts), (3) Destruct,(4) Deprive, (5)
Defy, (6) Deceive, and (7) Diffuse or Dissociate.1 In addition, ways in
which larger systems (i.e. familial, national, international) participate in
an individual's development of detachment patterns are discussed: (by
distressing, dis-spiriting, destructing, depriving, defying, deceiving,
diffusing). This author proposes a detachment theory as a way of advancing
attachment-based theories to accommodate for culture and contextual trauma.
In this way, patterns or cycles by which people attach and detach in the
face of trauma can be assessed.
LECTURE ROOM 2
VDO Serene Life,
David de Channer, Film Producer
This film was made as a contribution to the restauration of peace and
dignity in Cambodia. It features the Venerable Maha Gossananda, who has been
nominated twice for the Nobel Price.
SOCIAL ROOM
Les enfants du sourire Khmer, Cambodian-French NGO,
Tep Mona
Presentation of the NGO, its activities, the difficulties it is facing and
its hopes for the future.
14.30-15.30 Plenary SESSION 4, LECTURE ROOM 1
Human Resources and Capacity Building in Cambodia during the
Past Decade: The Experience of the Cambodia Trust'
Prof Peter Carey
University of Oxford
This paper will look at the ways in which the Trust and its affiliates -
working in the field of public health (specifically care of amputees) has
built up indigenous structures of education, professionalism and care - and
has adopted the 'centres of excellence' approach - which, rather like the
'tache d'huile' policy of French colonial administrators (Gallieni et al) in
Madagascar in the 1890s - has endeavoured to spread the benefits of good
practice from these centres of excellence to the wider
prosthetic-orthotic/health community.
This is one of the ways in which England developed from being a cessoit of
corruption in Europe in the 18th century to being an effective modern
state - via the pools/reservoirs of high standards which were mirrored in
mini-states within the wider State - eg Customs and Excise viz-a-viz the
wider - highly hit-and-miss fiscal regime.
The nature and causes of land disputes in Cambodia
Dr David Ashley,
Recent demonstrations in front of the National Assembly by destitute
peasants, claiming their land has been seized by the authorities or the
army, have drawn the attention to a problem critical to the livelihood of
many ordinary Cambodians. But the problem is hardly new: similar
demonstration and complaints have been going on for years. Indeed, ever
since its creation in 1993, some 80 to 90% of the complaints received by the
commission on Human Rights and reception of the complaints of the National
Assembly (CHRRCNA), have concerned disputes over land and property. This
paper examines what kind of land disputes occur, why they occur, and why
they often prove to be difficult to resolve. It is principally based on
in-depth investigations into 65 land disputes undertaken between March 1996
and September 1997 when the author was head of the CHRRCNA's research
office.
15.30-17.10, LECTURE ROOM 1
SESSION 5 : POLITICS
Honoring Human Rights : from Peace to Justice.
Brad Adams,
How much progress has been made in respect for human rights since 1993?
While there have been some improvements, virtually all are attributable to
the work of Cambodian and international NGOs, the UN, and the
inevitabledemise of the Khmer Rouge. The most important actor -- the
Cambodian government -- has made virtually no improvements in its human
rights record or its approach to human rights. Most efforts at human
rights-related instituion builiding have failed. Extrajudicial killings and
torture remain common, the judiciary is almost completely partisan, and the
Constitution is regularly violated. Is there any hope for improvement?
Democratic Peacebuilding in Cambodia: Thinking about "Political Will"
Hamish A D Nixon,
DPhil Student, Political sciences
St Antony's Oxford.
In the last decade a large number of internationally negotiated and
implemented peace agreements have aimed to end violent internal conflicts
through elections and other forms of democratization. However, the results
of these efforts have varied dramatically. Post-UNTAC Cambodia has
experienced a changing pattern of conflict and co-operation that has
threatened the paths to peace and democracy. Groups and parties operating
within the new political system and outside it have both worked together and
clashed violently. This paper explores a model of "democratic peacebuilding"
in Cambodia that draws from theories of democratization, resource
mobilization, and conflict transformation. Such a model goes beyond
explanations of instability that focus on difficult preconditions, poor
international implementation, or nebulous accounts of inadequate "political
will." It seeks to help explain changing levels of commitment to peace and
democracy by looking more closely at the problems and tensions between
democratization and peacebuilding in the Cambodian context.
Great Expectations: Cambodian Political Reformers'
Perceptions of 'Sovereignty' and the Grounds for International
Dr Caroline Hughes,
Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Scholar, 1998/9,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Based on interviews with human rights activists and demonstrators, and
participant observation of political reform activities, this paper analyses
definitions of sovereignty and conceptions of domestic and international
jurisdiction used by Cambodian reformers working in human rights promotion
and in the political opposition. These definitions are put forward as a
basis for understanding expectations of international intervention among
Cambodian political and rights activists. The paper argues that there is a
mismatch between this group's understanding of 'sovereignty' and the grounds
for international intervention, and the understanding of international
intervenors of the same question. It is argued that interventionist and
'cosmopolitan' rhetoric in the West about intervention in support of human
rights and democracy is taken very seriously in Cambodia, where repeated
legal, semi-legal and illegal interventions have skewed perceptions of
domestic jurisdiction. The international political constraints which prevent
such rhetoric from prompting determined international action in pursuit of
reform in Cambodia are less well understood. This mismatch of understandings
and expectations between Cambodian and international political reformers is
potentially disabling, as it encourages Cambodian reformers to expend
significant efforts attempting to evoke a sympathetic and supportive
international response, in situations where the constraints of international
understandings of 'sovereignty' and the 'exclusive jurisdiction' of states
over their internal affairs, as stipulated in the Charter of the United
Nations, constrain international action. Illustrative examples of cases
where emphasis on international intervention, which proved not to be
forthcoming, significantly constrained national efforts for political reform
are drawn from the 1998 'Democracy Square' movement, and from case studies
of human rights abuse during the era of the 1993-1997 coalition government.
15.30-17.10, LECTURE ROOM 1
Cambodia and ASEAN
Moeng Phok ,
Cambodian Civil Engineer,
Refugee in the UK
Notwithstanding the recent financial crisis, ASEAN is today the most
important and successful economic grouping in Southeast Asia. It becomes a
significant free trade zone since 1993. Its serious dialogue partners
include the major developed industrialised countries and the principal
economic, financial and commercial organisations in the World . It stands as
an "equal partner" with the European Union, the North American Free Trade
Area (NAFTA) and Japan - amongst others.
Beyond the objectives for economic co-operation on which ASEAN was mooted,
the organisation has also acquired over the years a major political and
strategic dimension and status in the Southeast Asia and Pacific Basin
Regions.
In this paper, the author provides a brief overview of the development of
ASEAN with particular emphasis on the role it played in the resolution of
the Cambodian Crisis since 1979, culminating in the adoption of Cambodia as
a full member of the Organisation in December 1998, thus putting an end to
the country's "regional isolation" and fulfilling the dream of "ASEAN-10".
The influence of the Chinese, political and economic, is also discussed
briefly.
Since its inception in 1992, the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS) which
includes Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Yunnan Province of
PRC, has taken great strides in promoting subregional cooperation in the
Mekong Basin, largely due to the efforts of the Asian Development Bank .
The author examines also the current status of all priority infrastructure
(roads, railways, ports, energy, telecommunications) subregional projects
within the GMS major economic corridors. Examples drawn include the
Bangkok- Phnom Penh - Ho Chi Minh City - Wung Tau Road Project; the
Thailand - Laos - Vietnam East-West Corridor Project; the Chiang
Rai -Kunming Road Development Project (via Laos and Myanmar); etc..
With a politically stable ASEAN-10, it is suggested that the Greater Mekong
Subregion, which comprises the four newest and poorest members of ASEAN
together with the relatively under-developed Yunnan Province of PRC, will be
a dynamic economic zone in SE Asia attractive to major international public
and private funding. Indirectly, the GMS will play a significant
contribution to the physical reconstruction and rehabilitation of Cambodia
in the years to come. It is concluded that through membership of ASEAN and
its active participation within the GMS, Cambodia will benefit fully from
subregional stability and economic prosperity, and gradually emerge as an
"equal partner" in the Sub Region.
15.30-17.10, LECTURE ROOM 2
SESSION 6 : DEVELOPMENT
Poverty, Aid and rural development in Cambodia
Tim Conway
OID
The presentation will discuss efforts to understand and address the problem
of rural poverty in Cambodia. This will start with an overview, looking at
the main factors that explain poverty and the recent efforts at the national
level, led by the World Bank, to define and measure poverty in income terms.
This exercise is seen as a useful step forward and essential to the
long-term monitoring of national performance in reducing poverty. At the
local level, however, income poverty is of little value in identifying the
poor and their problems. Using examples drawn from two villages which I know
in some detail, I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of wealth
rankings as a means to identify the poor and understand poverty processes.
Observations from these villages (and the surrounding District) also suggest
strengths and weaknesses of different project-level approaches to poverty
reduction. These findings, together with a review of national trends,
provide the basis for provisional conclusions about what has and has not
been achieved in Cambodian development since 1993, with suggestions as to
how aid (from multilaterals, bilaterals and NGOs) could be made more
effective in reducing rural poverty.
From Refugee Camp to Settled Village?
Andy Brown,
University of Edimburg
The presentation will briefly consider the options available within the
repatriation process by which over 360,000 refugess returned to Cambodia
from the Thai-Cambodian border camps. An overview of the constraints
particular to the returnees will complete the introduction. A specific
target group in Siem Reap Province and an intervention on the part of an
International NGO to provide for their assistance will then serve to
illustrate a process aimed at the integration of settlements into
established agricultural communities. The discussion will highlight the need
for; participation in the project cycle, co-operation with government
departments, and the need for long-term commitments on the part of
development agencies when working with returnees.
Demobilisation in Cambodia Psycho-social issues
Dr Didier Bertrand, Research Fellow,
Refugee Studies Programme, University of Oxford
To organise demobilisation in a country such as Cambodia, where so many
tensions are still going on, is a sensitive but necessary task.
Demobilisation is a very important operation in order to bring civil peace
back to Cambodia society and one of the priority now after the elections.
Demobilisation should be a grass roots based development programme with
strategies to address the social and mental health needs of the former
soldiers. Some rituals and ceremonies would support the beginning of a new
life addressing people representation of the life cycles. More emphasis
should be put on psycho social issues and we need to have more deep
evaluation and analysis of the problems, and the potential solutions. The
objectives that are interdependent encompass social, psychological,
economical, security and political dimensions.
It is important to consider the demobilised in a positive way only as a
pioneers for the development of the society, soldiers of development so they
should still be mobilised but for other goals replacing gun by tools.Once
evaluated what are the soldiers skills and ideas about their future, the
main goal of a demobilisation programme would be to use them or to
remobilize them in a more profitable way for them and for all the society.
15.30-17.10, LECTURE ROOM 2
Revitalizing the moral and spiritual fabric of Cambodian society
By Alan G. De R Channer BSc PhD
Director of The Serene Smile and The Serene Life, Two films in the Khmer
language
At first it seems paradoxical that a people whose national religion places
great value on loving kindness, selflessness and serenity can succumb to
the most extreme forms of violence and exploitation. This apparent
contradiction beckons the question upon which this paper focuses, namely
whether Buddhism in Cambodia today has any relevance to the social needs of
the country.
The role of Buddhism in the lives of agrarian Khmer communities and amongst
the political elite before 1975 is outlined briefly. The extent to which
Cambodians inspired by Buddhist practice have had an impact on the fabric of
society during the last decade is then evaluated. Examples drawn upon
include manifestations of social engagement by the Buddhist Sangha, the role
of the newly-flourishing NGO sector managed by Cambodian lay-people and the
interest in Buddhist practice generated by non-Cambodians sympathetic to the
teaching of the Buddha.
It is concluded that Buddhist practice must be revitalised if a just, humane
and distinctively Cambodian society is to develop. It is also suggested
that the encounter between Cambodian Buddhists and Westerners sympathetic to
their tradition will help Cambodian Buddhism both to rediscover itself and
also to evolve and respond to the great human and social needs of the
country.
Last news ; 2 more papers from Cambodian academics
Dr Khin Sok, Lecturer INALCO, Paris, Education system future prospects
B.H.S Khemro, London
Pattern of Squatting in Phnom Penh: An evaluation of the socio-economic
characteristics of squatters and their
reasons for squatting.
There is a dominant theoretical perception that squatter settlements in
cities of most developing countries result from the mass migration of the
poor, rural population to urban areas where they mostly end up squatting.
Many observers believe most squatters to be new, rural to urban migrants who
fail to earn enough to support themselves - especially within urban legal or
formal housing markets. Such a belief also often prompts government
authorities to take firm action against squatter settlers. The action is
often forceful and cruel, like squatter demolition and eviction, and can
even extend to governments restricting movement from rural to urban areas
through their migration policies.
The aim of this study is to test the above conceptual views through an
examination of squatter settlements in Phnom Penh city. It is based on the
two hypotheses that the main reason for squatting is for reasons other than
searching for cheaper accommodation; and secondly that most squatters are
not poor, new, rural to urban migrants. In other words, there is no
relationship between squatting and the status of squatters' migration and
level of wealth.
Unlike the dominant theoretical views mentioned earlier, the findings of
this study shows that in the case of squatter settlements in Phnom Penh city
most squatters are long-term and not necessarily the poorest residents
compared to slum dwellers and even the rest of the urban population. Thus,
new rural-Phnom Penh migrants are not the main cause of the existence and
growth of the city's squatter settlements. It further shows that most
squatters are only the indirect squatters (rented tenants and buyers), which
implies that squatter landlords invade the land for mere commercial purposes
rather than in a search for cheaper accommodation.
The study therefore suggests that the widely criticised government policies
of demolition and eviction hardly touch the problems and only have effect on
the indirect squatters. The direct squatters or land invaders, however,
enjoy almost immunity of prosecution by land owners and the government and
even if there is squatter evacuation programme, they do not suffer from such
legal action since they have already made enough profits from selling and
renting properties to the second squatter settlers (or indirect squatters).
--
The Voice Of Cambodia Radio International's website
http://www.vocri.org