Silencing the NGO’s in Cambodia
Cambodia is at a fork in the road and which direction it takes will determine its future. When we were there earlier this year the local scuttlebutt among the journalists and ex-pats was a tightening up on human rights and freedom of speech. This contrasts with the current trial of the Khmer Rouge head jailer of the S21 prison which was positioned as a trial to begin the healing of a nation. We have reported on developments in Cambodia many times, and we have expressed openly our concerns for the latest developments. There is no question that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has clamped down on the opposition, used the courts as a means to silence opposition and taken a very aggressive approach toward bearding Thailand. The Administration is widely suspected of corruption. It has also been accused of ignoring the land rights of Cambodians bulldozing their homes to make space for foreign development projects.
The latest development sees the Cambodian government drafting new laws to limit the activities of NGO’s (non government organizations such as aid groups) operating within the country. The statement made by Hun Sen on the matter leaves no doubt as to his motivation in pursuing this legislation and is more bad news for those of us hoping for further liberalization in Cambodia:
“NGOs demand that the government shows transparency, but they can’t show the same to us. We respect the local and international NGOs whose activities serve humanity and help the government of Cambodia…. They will not be threatened by this draft law. But we believe that some NGOs whose activities seem to serve the opposition party will be afraid of it.” – Prime Minister Hun Sen November 2009
Sphere: Related ContentPRIME Minister Hun Sen announced Tuesday that the government has moved ahead with drafting a law to regulate the activities of NGOs, prompting fresh concerns that the proposed legislation will be used to clamp down on the activities of advocacy groups.
At a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the cooperation between NGOs and the government, Hun Sen said the presence of 3,000 NGOs in Cambodia requires new rules to weed out groups engaged in “opposition” politics…
Hun Sen also said that after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, very few NGOs came to Cambodia’s assistance due to an aid embargo among Western nations, but that now there were thousands of groups, some of which used their NGO status as a cloak to “play politics and support the opposition party”.
The premier’s comments echoed statements made at a cabinet meeting in September last year, in which he expressed concerns that NGO funding could come from “terrorist groups”.
Despite Hun Sen’s assurances that the new law will not restrict the scope of NGO activities, some civil society activists are concerned it could conflate advocacy with political affiliation.
NGO law is on the horizon | National news | The Phnom Penh Post – Cambodia’s Newspaper of Record
