“Little Napoleons” Spell Trouble for CPP Monday, 29 December 2014; News by Khmer Times/T. Mohan PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – If there is a thorough and unbiased analysis of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) loss of 22 seats in the last general election, they may yet discover the reasons for their failure to appeal to the masses as they previously did. Chief could be: disunity among the CPP over the outspoken views of some senior party officials; lack of any new agenda to appeal to the rising middle class; lack of a manifesto that would provide hope to the yearning rural people or the comfort of a livable wage for the hundreds of thousands of garment workers; the high level of perceived impunity; corruption; and the ubiquitous land disputes. The main cause of land disputes was a policy that was noble and laudable in principle and intention, but fundamentally flawed in its execution. The execution process, especially at the grassroots level, saw the CPP losing droves of rural supporters, the party’s traditional power base. Who contributed to the land disputes or abetted it, covertly or overtly? The finger would point at local chiefs – the village, commune and probably the district – as well as some crooked officials at the provincial level. At the village level, politics was put in front of all disputes. Economic land concessions (ELCs) were targeted while village and commune chiefs contributed to this mess. How? They turned a blind eye to the encroachment by newly-arrived villagers onto not only ELCs, but also state land. To date, there are hundreds of such cases. Land continues to be occupied by villagers. Overnight, they can slash and burn up to 1,000 square meters, build shelters, transplant mango or banana trees and claim they have been living on the land for years! Come the dry season – which is now – massive fires are set on vacant land allotted to ELCs, as well as state land and even private property. In one area down south, tens of shelters sprung up in the dead of the night. Plots of land continue to change hands with no titles, but just a letter or “certificate” from village chiefs and the verbal promise that hard titles will be issued in the “near future.” A 3,000 square meter plot can change hands at up to $3,000 without a land title or guaranteed land ownership rights. Some land changes hands at up to $5,000 per hectare under the same conditions. The law on this is clear. Those who occupied state or ELC land after May 2012 will not be allotted land titles. But there is a loophole. Almost none of the ELCs have been issued land titles, a process that would have enabled them to dig boundary trenches and take more stern measures to protect their land rights. Corrupt officials at the provincial level facilitate the encroachment by villagers on state or ELC land. Nobody will take action against them, and even complaint documents can be made to disappear or are thrown into bureaucratic red tape for months, if not years. If the CPP were to recoup their losses – the 22 seats – or hope to maintain the current level of parliamentary seats, the federal government needs to end the reign of these aforementioned “Little Napoleons.” This essentially means tackling the issues from bottom up. But also not forgetting the top, which may also have loose cannons or those who may have become dead wood in the CPP’s attempts at reforms. There are no two ways about this. Action must be taken to win back the trust of rural people as well as the middle income group. This will have the multiplier effect the government needs to show it is serious in reform and in becoming a performance-based government.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 06:55:17 +0000
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