Australians mourn King Father’s passing

Australian Ambassador to Cambodia, H.E. Penny Richards

Last Updated on 25 January 2013 

By Penny Richards

Australia Day is an occasion on which we reflect on the events of the past year and look forward to the challenges of the coming year.

Cambodians are currently mourning the death of the King Father, His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk. Prime Minister Gillard visited the Royal Palace on 19 November 2012 to express her condolences to Her Majesty the Queen Mother NorodomMonineath and His Majesty the King NorodomSihamoni upon the death of His Majesty the King Father Norodom Sihanouk.

The King Father was a towering figure in Cambodian history: he oversaw Cambodia’s independence and its development as a modern state.  He played a significant role in global and regional relations. He was integral to the negotiation of the Paris Peace Accords signed in 1991.

The King Father’s death reminds us of the warm historical ties between Australia and Cambodia. Australia’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Gareth Evans, worked closely with the King Father and other Cambodian leaders to draft the Accords.  Australian General John Sanderson led the military component of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), which oversaw the election of a new National Assembly in 1993 and the promulgation of Cambodia’s current constitution.  Since then Australia has assisted Cambodia’s development in many fields.

Cambodia’s role as Chair of ASEAN in 2012 provided the impetus for a higher pace of activity in Australia Cambodia bilateral relations and regional cooperation. Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Bob Carr, visited Cambodia twice, in March and again in July. His visits highlighted the work Australia is doing to support Cambodia’s health sector, especially through our midwifery program, the avoidable blindness initiative and the anti-drug resistant malaria initiative we are progressing through the East Asia Summit.

His visits underlined our cooperation with APSARA and UNESCO to build a sound framework for managing Cambodia’s cultural heritage, in particular growing tourism flows to the Angkor World Heritage Park. Senator Carr also reinforced Australia’s support for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, to which Australia has been the second largest donor, emphasising the importance of judicial independence.

Australia’s Minister for Trade and Competitiveness, Dr Craig Emerson MP, also visited Cambodia twice, in August and again in November. As one of ASEAN’s six free trade agreement partners, Australia has joined negotiations for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which were launched in Phnom Penh in November.

Australia will work with Cambodia and other partners to conclude a comprehensive, high quality agreement which will further deepen regional economic integration and trade liberalisation.

Dr Emerson is also Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Asian Century Policy. Australia’s White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century sets out a blueprint for further deepening Australia’s already strong engagement with Asia, including through business, education and people-to-people links with Cambodia and other Asian countries.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard attended the East Asia Summit Leaders’ Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Hun Sen in November. Australia considers the East Asia Summit to be the premier forum for discussion of political and security issues affecting our region. We were pleased that Leaders were able to engage each other in frank discussions with no issues off the table. Australia will also work closely with other EAS members to take forward practical cooperation in key areas: finance; education; energy and environment; disaster management; and pandemic diseases.

In her public remarks, Prime Minister Gillard acknowledged that Cambodia had made a great deal of progress on human rights since the days of the Khmer Rouge but said that more needed to be done, with a focus on extrajudicial killings, land disputes, electoral reform and freedom of speech.

Looking forward to next year, we will mark the 20th anniversary since the 1993 general election supervised by UNTAC, the military component of which was led by Australian General John Sanderson. In the context of the July 2013 National Assembly elections it will be important for Cambodia to defend and implement the rights enshrined in its 1993 Constitution, including the rights of freedom of assembly, association and speech.

Throughout 2013 Australia will continue to work with Cambodia in many fields: reducing poverty, promoting regional security and fighting transnational crime. We will strengthen our people-to-people links through our scholarship and volunteers program.  I would like to thank all our partners, both Cambodian and international, for your ongoing contribution to and support for those goals.

I would like to wish everyone a happy Australia Day, and a safe and successful 2013.

 

Banker turns English teacher and loves it

Last Updated on 25 January 2013

By Stuart Alan Becker

 

When Ashley Irving worked for the prestigious Rothschild Bank in Sydney, earning a massive salary and enjoying a lot of status in the community, he still wasn’t happy with all the stress that comes naturally with corporate finance.

On vacation at Ayer’s Rock in Australia he met a group of three English teachers from Argentina. They were so happy and fun, he decided to visit them in Argentina and the trip changed his life. He walked away from corporate finance and made his career in the teaching of English.

He absolutely loves it.

Today Irving works as principal at the Australian Center for Education (ACE), a purely English language school and the largest one in Phnom Penh.

“We belong to IDP education based in Melbourne. The main business lines are placing students with universities in most English speaking countries,” Irving said.

Purely an English language school, ACE offers the IELTS test and variations including academic English, general English, English for young learns and programs for kids.

Irving says the communicative method is used.

“We get them talking. To learn language they use the language; the focus on kids is getting them to use language, reading and speaking.”

At ACE, every term is 10 weeks, 45 hour courses and cost about $200 to $230 per term depending on the level.

“We are affordable but not cheap. People who come in are serious. The families spend money and they want something for their money. If it wasn’t working it would not come back.”

One of Irving’s own early teachers had been profoundly influenced by Professor Noam Chomsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his work in linguistics and language acquisition.

“He wore a T-shirt that said Chomsky is My Hero.”

ACE’s general English course is available to ages 16 and up, with levels from beginner to upper intermediate.

“We test reading and grammar and use that to establish their level and place them in appropriate course, and have courses running from 6:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night.”

Even though he’s now the principal and therefore the administrator, Irving loves teaching English and remains passionate about it.

“If you are giving out positive energy, they enjoy it and you get it back tenfold, from people in the room. Some days you go home dancing. The best teachers are nice people, they talk to you, and you put them in front of a class and they light up.”

ACE is located on Street 214 in Kampuchea Krom. They also have a school in Siem Reap. Irving invites anyone to take a placement test for the $5 fee, which students get back when they enroll.

Irving has been here in Cambodia for the last eight months and loves his job.

“My only regret is not doing it 10 years earlier,” he said.

Between the Phnom Penh and Siem Reap schools, ACE has about 8,500 students.

The ages are 8 to adult, and most of the students are ages 17 to 21 and more than 95 per cent Khmer students.

“English is the mandated language of ASEAN, so from the top down English is important. The Khmer s are all keen from the start. We’ve been here 20 years and we’re well known. They come to us for English and once they are there, they are fun to be around.”

When you smile at somebody here, Irving says, they smile back.

“The levels of cynicism are much lower, which is great fun. The teenagers are open and they’ll come and talk to you. It is a privilege, so the need the break down barriers doesn’t exist, because they already assume you’re worth talking to.”

Irving studied applied mathematics at Australia’s La Trobe University and worked for many years for National Mutual Insurance as an actuary, dealing with statistics and probabilities.

Following his term as a corporate banker, his whole life changed when he met the teachers from Argentina.

Returning to Australia after time teaching English in Argentina and Brazil, Irving went to work at Sydney’s Holmes College teaching international students from around the world.

He later became director of study at Access Language Center at Sydney and managed the teaching center for the Adult Migrant English School Service (AMES) in New South Wales.

“To learn a language is just sheer hard work. Work, review, go to class, be prepared to fail, be embarrassed, it’s hard, for a teen or adult, and for somebody working full time it is really hard.”

ACE employs 120 teachers both expats and Khmer.

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To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Alan Becker at stuart.becker@gmail.com

 

 

PM Hun Sen chastises RCFA for unprofessionalism

Last Updated on 25 January 2013

By Vong Sokheng

 

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blasted unnamed senior military officers for breaking RCAF regulations and urged the Ministry of Defence to improve both its training and its level  of professionalism.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Chinese-Cambodian Friendship Infantry Institution — a new facility at Kampong Speu’s Combined Arms Officer School Thlok Tasek — the premier said there were reports that unqualified officers had bribed their way to higher ranks.

“What we are interested in at the moment is irregularities in the promotion of military officers that were not conducted in a good manner,” he told the gathering of about 1,000 newly graduated soldiers.
The soldiers returned recently from a Chinese military academy. At the new facility in Phnom Sruoch district, young soldiers will receive quality training from Chinese advisers to improve their knowledge and skill so  they can replace retiring officers.

Calling for stricter regulation and enforcement of laws already in place, the premier also suggested the Defence Ministry “conduct a study into the establishment of sub-decrees and Prakases about the training of RCAF to keep them in order and effective.”

“Some senior military officials have not respected the law on the statute of RCAF and general procedure,” Hun Sen said.

His suggestion was given concurrent to a National Assembly debate that took place yesterday over a long-dormant draft law to create an oversight body called the Supreme Council of National Defence.
The council would be given the right to monitor the military and take disciplinary action against officers.

It would also be responsible, more generally, for safeguarding the nation’s territorial integrity and would have the power to evaluate whether to declare a state of emergency.
In the law that passed yesterday – with 85 of 97 lawmakers present voting in its favour – King Norodom Sihamoni would serve as head and Hun Sen as deputy president.
The members of the council – enshrined in the constitution two decades ago – are the minister of Defence, minister of Interior, head of the Council of Ministers, minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance minister, and general-commander of RCAF.

That composition drew the ire of opposition lawmakers, who said during yesterday’s debate they were concerned over the heavy presence of the ruling party on the council.
“We think that the members and deputy president would all be from the CPP, therefore it would not guarantee for the neutrality,” said lawmaker and Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann. “I would request for amendment of the composition and will provide to the power for the King to elect the members.”

Such criticisms, however, did little to sway the vote.
Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, who is also a lawmaker and would be among the members once the law goes into affect, defended the structure during the five-hour debate.
“The law did not name the members, just the title, therefore if another political party comes to take the power in the government, they would sit in this composition,” he argued.

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To contact the reporter on this story: Vong Sokheng at sokheng.vong@phnompenhpost.com

My Academic Publication at the University of Science, Malaysia (USM)

Dear friends,

It is my pleasure to share my brief impression regarding to academic papers during my PhD journey at Malaysia. Honestly, when I worked at Cambodia, I didn't know what are academic publication and research paper. Fortunately, I have received USM fellowship award to study at USM, and I was trained by many experts how to write academic papers for publishing in Journals and Book Chapters. Therefore, I have to increase my capacity building to publish in high impact factor journals such as ISI and Scopus.

First step, I must publish in low quality journals (without impact factors) like Peer Reviews Journals (Open Access Journals) and Indexed Journals (Google Scholar, Ulrich's Periodical Directory, Open J-Gate, EBSCOhost, Gale's Academic Databases, AMICUS, Canadiana, Library and Archives Canada, Lockss, PKP Open Archives Havester, and ProQuest).  

I need to cope with various academic publication environment. Next step, I will publish in Scopus and ISI journals only. During one year of my doctorate studies, I have published 5 articles (4 published and 1 under review process). If you want to read them, please access at following links:

1. Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com.my/citations?hl=en&user=I70xug4AAAAJ

2. Academia Edu: http://usm.academia.edu/SamRany

3. ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sam_Rany/?ev=hdr_xprf

Have a nice day!

All best wishes,

Sam Rany

Government Tells Unions to Agree on Minimum Wage Demands

 By Phok Dorn and Colin Meyn - January 23, 2013

The government on Monday re­quested that manufacturers look at raising the minimum wage for garment workers, but only after divided trade unions agree on what that wage should be.



At the moment, union leaders are demanding that the current $61 per month minimum wage be raised to between $93 and $150, a 52 percent and 145 percent hike, respectively.

“After discussions, those present at the meeting agree in principle to discuss raising the minimum wage for workers,” the Ministry of Labor said in a statement after a meeting between manufacturers and unions on the issue.

“The meeting requested all un­ions meet and raise a joint re­quest for the minimum wage to be discussed with the employers to reach a resolution,” the statement says, adding that union leaders should submit their request to the government before the next meeting at the ministry on February 26.

Yesterday’s meeting followed a speech from Prime Minister Hun Sen on Decem­ber 12 in which he called on manufacturers to up sal­aries in Cambo­dia’s garment factories in order to keep workers in the country.
The last time the minimum wage was increased was in July 2010, when it was raised from $50 to $61.
Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Asso­cia­tion of Cambodia, said prior to Monday’s meeting that demands from many of the unions were “unrealistic.”

“We can’t expect 50 to 60 to 70 percent [increase in the minimum wage]. The Royal Government an­nounced a 20 percent salary in­crease [for civil servants], so I would presume that that would be a good starting point,” he said.

Jill Tucker, chief technical adviser for the International Labor Organiza­tion’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambo­dia program, said that the ILO would mediate discussions between the various trade unions—which represent some 300,000 workers.

Sam Aun, president of the CPP-aligned Cambodia Labor Union Federation, said that $93 would be a fair figure, while Ath Thorn, president of the nonaligned Coalition of Cambodia Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, said that he would stand behind raising the minimum wage to $150.

“I think that workers can live on a minimum wage of $93 per month because they also get their bonus, rent, and transport allowances and add overtime to their salary,” said Mr. Aun. But Mr. Thorn warned that if the wage hike was too modest, workers would likely continue to protest.

'Hostage' standoff at Acleda bank branch ends with five arrests

Last Updated on 24 January 2013

By Kim Yuthana, Sam Rith and Chhay Channyda

 

 

 A suspected hostage situation that began Tuesday night was no more than an elaborately staged attempted heist of an Acleda Bank branch, police discovered late last night after apprehending the so-called kidnappers following a 30-hour standoff.

Five men allegedly involved – including the acting branch manager and three other employees – were arrested by police yesterday in Kampong Cham province.

According to provincial police chief Chhay Kimson, the alleged bank robbers had fabricated the hostage situation – with two suspects, one with a gun, masquerading as meth addicts – as a bizarre ruse after plans to rob the small bank branch in Stung Trang district’s Beak Anlung village took a turn for the worse when police caught wind of a situation at the bank.

“Really, there were no hostages,” Kimson said late last night. “All of them are perpetrators. It is really an internal plan. We confiscated their K-54 [pistol].”

Until nearly midnight last night, police believed that two men had taken control of the bank at around 6pm Tuesday evening, taking three employees hostage, and initiating a standoff that lasted through Tuesday night and well into the next.

During the protracted negotiations, the supposed hostage-takers first demanded crystal meth, then that police loosen the ring of some 200 security personnel encircling the bank, and finally, two motorbikes for making good their escape.

After getting the motorbikes at about 10pm, police said, three men were seen fleeing into the darkness of a nearby rubber plantation, where they ditched the bikes, scattered and were later apprehended by security forces.

Upon arresting the three men – and questioning acting branch manager Sim Kimthath, who had been brought in as a person of interest, and branch employee Mat Ly, who had “escaped” the bank early Wednesday morning claiming to have been held hostage – police finally ascertained the truth of the matter, said Kimson.

Ly, he said, cracked under questioning, admitting that an injury where he had been struck in the face had actually been staged to lend his story authenticity.

Kimthath admitted to planning the heist to pay down a sizeable debt, said an unnamed provincial police officer.

The confessions, Kimson said, confirmed inklings of suspicion that the men were in cahoots that had been raised earlier when he overheard a voice – ostensibly a hostage’s – say from within the room where the men were holed up, “Don’t tie me too tight”.

One other suspect was Nou Tola, also known as Gem, 28, a soldier stationed at a border checkpoint in Preah Vihear province, and the only one of yesterday’s five alleged  bank robbers who was not employed by Acleda, said another unnamed officer. The final two suspects’ identities could not be ascertained as of press time.

Throughout the entire day, police and Acleda Bank representatives were convinced that two meth-addled men, one armed, were holding two bank employees hostage, refusing food, declining an offer to leave with the bank’s 57 million riel (about $14,250) in exchange for the hostages, and repeatedly demanding that crystal meth be delivered to them.

In the end, even the number of people inside the bank turned out to be untrue, said Kimson.  After Ly’s so-called “escape”, he said, there were only three men left inside.

Over the course of the day, police acquiesced to the suspected captors’ demands, first providing methamphetamines to the men inside around mid-afternoon, then sending for more to be delivered from Phnom Penh by Ministry of Interior police forces.

When roughly 25 black-clad anti-terrorism police showed up around 4pm, a Post reporter inside the bank overheard one of the suspects say: “If they shoot at us, we shoot back”.

Negotiations between the anti-terrorism police and the men broke down around 5:30pm, and at the request of both the assailants and Acleda representatives, police withdrew further from the premises, giving the men some breathing room, said Acleda Executive Vice President Prom Visoth.

“Our staffers have been detained in a room where we keep the money, but only a small amount of money,” he said at the time. “Police can’t do anything. The robbers want only drugs. They didn’t want money, but the police have no drugs for them.”

Visoth added that he had offered to let the suspects take the 57 million riel when they made their escape, but they declined.

Before learning that the branch had fallen victim to an inside job, Visoth called the incident a lesson for Acleda about the importance of security, saying that while most Acleda banks have armed police, the especially small Beak Anlung branch did not.

“In general, our banks have armed forces that we request from the national police providing us security, but at this office there is no police or security,” he said, noting that the branch handled little money, and sent what little it did handle to a district branch every night.

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To contact the reporters on this story: Kim Yuthana at yuthana.kim@phnompenhpost.com, Sam Rith at newsroom@phnompenhpost.com
and Chhay Channyda at channyda.chhay@phnompenhpost.com

Freedom of information law dealt blow

Last Updated on 24 January 2013

By Meas Sokchea

 

 Discussion of a long-awaited freedom of information law was shot down by the National Assembly yesterday, with ruling party officials claiming the draft version violated the constitution.
Drafts floated by the Sam Rainsy Party had been repeatedly rejected by the National Assembly, though legal experts had been pushing for such legislation for years. Monitors had pointed out frequently that without public access to information, corruption will remain rampant.
Yesterday, CPP lawmaker Chheang Vun, who is president of the Commission on Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Information and Media said the draft proposed by the SRP was not suitable for debate.

“The draft law [as it stands] contrasts to the constitution and abuses sovereignty of King’s institution,” Vun said, declining to elaborate on the problems.
The SRP maintained the draft had no such failings, and SRP spokesman Yim Sovann accused the ruling party of stonewalling a law that could prove damning for corrupt officials.

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Cambodia's 'worst year’ for land disputes

Last Updated on 24 January 2013
By May Titthara and Shane Worrell

More than 200 people were arrested while defending their land in 2012 – a year human rights groups described yesterday as Cambodia’s “worst” for land disputes.

Of the 201 people arrested – a figure that more than doubled the 2011 total – 29 were imprisoned, mostly on charges of destroying property, faking documents and encroaching on private property, said Chan Soveth, deputy head of the land rights department at rights group Adhoc.

“Two thousand twelve was the worst year for residents being arrested as they tried to save their homes,” he said, adding that disputes themselves had also soared.

The comments came as heads of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, the Housing Rights Task Force, Adhoc and the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee called on the government to take measures to end forced evictions and resolve land disputes.

A joint statement released by the organisations said more than 700,000 people had been affected by land grabbing and forced displacement since 2000, including 51,000 in 2011.
“In Phnom Penh, at least 145,000, or approximately 10 per cent of the city’s population have been evicted since 2000,” the statement said, adding that 40,000 had been under immediate threat of eviction at the end of 2011.

Sia Phearum, secretariat director of the Housing Rights Task Force, said forced evictions had decreased in 2012, but the fact 611 families had fled from disputes last year suggested conflict hadn’t.
“We’ve noticed that actual evictions decrease in the lead-up to elections,” he said.

Recommendations put forward by those involved in yesterday’s press conference included that the government end forced evictions, demarcate state and private land, release imprisoned Boeung Kak lake mother Yorm Bopha, make the economic land concession (ELC) review process transparent and prioritise systematic land registration for poor communities.

Soveth said more than 1,000 people involved in disputes had been arrested since 2007, many as a result of the government cracking down on protests against ELCs.

“Often the court sentences these people without properly investigating.”
Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum, said it was essential that disputes were resolved and villagers’ rights protected.

“Currently, landlessness is estimated at between 20 and 25 per cent of the total population.”
Phay Siphan, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the government was doing a lot to help residents with land issues, including deploying students to demarcate land and issue land titles.
“This is a historic strategy, one that is very important for Cambodia,” he said.

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To contact the reporter on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com
Shane Worrell at shane.worrell@phnompenhpost.com