Borey Keila: The sensitivity and care of the authorities
Sunday, 11 Mar 2012 13:41
At the end of the day, everyone seems to come to reason, especially advocates and Human Rights extremists. Licadho’s Am Samath stated that “we should turn to peaceful measures for negotiations seeking for peaceful resolutions agreeable by all parties and avoiding violence.” The authorities have demonstrated their administrative and legal sensitivity by releasing the arrested Borey Keila protesters, a total of seven of them, 5 on 17 and 2 on 18 February 2012.

It has been a longstanding policy of the Royal Government of Cambodia under the wise leadership of Samdech Techo Hun Sen that the municipality of Phnom Penh had to strike a balance between the interests of the municipality in developing the Capital City of Phnom Penh and those of the people who flocked into the city by necessity after the collapse of genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge. Critics are quick to lambaste any reference to the Khmer Rouge regime as a simple and cheap excuse for every bad thing. Actually, critics think that there is quick fix for everything, which is absolutely not true at all when dealing with human living conditions and human life, especially the life of your own citizens, many of them had their parents and grand-parents fought under the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) banners and some had shed blood and tears under the valiant and victorious leaders of the CPP, namely Samdech Chea Sim, Samdech Heng Samrin and Samdech Hun Sen to liberate themselves and the people from the unthinkable atrocity of the Khmer Rouge Regime. The poorest among the poor had never took possession of big piece of property, but crowded in the midst of other poorest among the poor in narrow, dark, dirty, and generally uninterested places to the eyes of the ordinary people, the investors and developers as well as the authorities or the law for reasons nobody ever understood. They became victims of their own making when development and growth took them by surprise.

The sensitivity and care of the national and municipal authorities are well documented with adequate relocation and compensation program and implementation. The relocation was met harshly and sometimes not so harsh resistances, due partly to a certain brand of advocates of Human Rights and members of opposition party who took advantages of the created conflicts and confrontation between the poor and the authorities for the purpose of advancing not the basic, but the extremely advanced “universal” Human Rights as a tool to demonize the authorities. Borey Keila protests are lessons learned for all parties, for innocent people, for the authorities and for the investors and developers. With the sensitivity and care of the national and municipal authorities innocent people get their fair share, investors and developers get their money worth, the city will grow to be developed to be a shining jewel of Cambodia.

Actually the sensitivity and care of the authorities should not become a free pass for bad people to take a free ride and benefit to the detriment of innocent people and the authorities. There were cases of renters who claimed to be owners then asked for full right compensation. There were also cases of people who received already the compensation which agreed between resident-owners and developers, but kept on protesting. They even created their own irresponsible chant, saying: “worst comes to worst we get money compensation, and at best we get the title.”

Hopefully, Licadho’s Am Samath and all other responsible NGOs would join hands to build a bridge between innocent and law-abiding poor citizens of Phnom Penh and the authorities as a way to seek peaceful resolutions with appropriate contacts, communications, and negotiations if needed.
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