Photo: Billboard depicting the official symbol of the Cambodian Coalition of Civil Society Organizations Against Corruption's 1 Million Signatures Campaign; Photo Credit: Flickr user chrislang
On May 30, Cambodian nongovernmental organizations including Pact Cambodia and members of the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations Against Corruption joined together to put on the “Clean Hands Concert,” an event that was geared towards raising awareness of the country’s grave corruption problem. Roughly 50,000 people attended the event, an enormous turnout for such an event. The concert took place on the 1 year anniversary of the 1 Million Signatures Campaign, a movement that was geared towards garnering support and political will for the passage of an anticorruption law. In the opening speech, U.S. Ambassador Carol Rodley claimed that corruption was a major impediment to economic growth in the country. She argued that corruption costs Cambodia up to $500 million per year in lost revenue. In response, the Cambodian government vehemently denied these claims. Hor Nambora, the Cambodian ambassador to the United Kingdom, stated that Rodley had joined forces with such anticorruption agencies as Global Witness, “which continually engages in virulent and malicious campaigns against the Royal Government of Cambodia.”
Both the concert’s high turn-out and the government’s harsh rhetorical response to the concert speak volumes about the immense magnitude of Cambodia’s corruption problem. The 2006 Countries at the Crossroads Report on Cambodia echoes Ambassador Rodley’s recent claim, noting that roughly 10% of Cambodia’s GDP is lost to corruption. The report explains that the possibilities for graft are endless in the country’s “cumbersome, politicized, and unregulated” bureaucracy. In addition, it notes that corruption permeates all of Cambodia’s institutions, especially the judiciary. Over the past few years, the scourge of corruption has continued unchecked. In a recent report, Global Witness argues that Cambodia is run by a kleptocratic elite that clandestinely and corruptly allocates rights to oil, gas, and mineral exploitation. Unsurprisingly, Transparency International also ranked Cambodia a dismal 166th out of 180 countries in its 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index. Furthermore, in Transparency’s 2009 Corruption Barometer, fully 47% of Cambodian respondents reported paying a bribe in the last 12 months.
Despite the clearly negative consequences created by the problem, the administration of Prime Minister Hun Sen has been extremely recalcitrant on the issue of anticorruption measures. Sen, a former Khmer Rouge and key leader of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) who became Prime Minister after staging a coup in 1997, has not succeeded in passing any notable anticorruption legislation. The long-awaited Anticorruption Law, which was first drafted in 1994, has remained in the hands of the Council of Ministers since 2006. Although the Coalition against Corruption presented the government with a petition signed by more than 1 million citizens requesting the enforcement of the anticorruption law, little further progress has been made on the matter. While several Cambodian parties responded to the group’s request, the ruling CPP remained entirely silent. As a result, there are still no functioning independent anticorruption bodies. In addition, even if this law is eventually passed, it presently falls short of international standards.
While an effective response to Cambodian corruption lags, several developments have at least served to bring increased domestic and international attention to the issue. The signature campaign and the concert underscore the strength of the country’s anticorruption civil society movement, along with the high level of domestic support for anticorruption measures. In addition, a high-profile judicial corruption case has increased international awareness of the pervasive corruption plaguing the country’s judicial system. The UN is currently investigating charges that Cambodian personnel employed by the UN-backed Khmer Rouge Tribunal, were forced to pay kickbacks in order to obtain and retain their positions. While this case certainly made the problem more apparent to international actors, it also highlighted the immensely graft-ridden nature of Cambodian government and society.
Unfortunately, instead of acknowledging the problem and working with both the domestic and international civil society movement to combat corruption, the Cambodian government has assumed the defensive. Since the Clean Hands Concert, the government has frequently claimed that anticorruption organizations are united in a struggle to undermine the Cambodian government with false and disparaging remarks. On June 6, popular comedian Chy Koy characterized anticorruption NGOs as “money hungry fabricators of non-existent corruption” when he appeared on the CPP-owned television station. This NGO-related conspiracy theory is one of many contrived by the Cambodian government of late. Nevertheless, the mere fact that the government allows these NGOs to operate relatively freely, and in this case to organize a high-profile concert aimed at chiding the government for its inaction on corruption, provides some evidence that the environment in Cambodia is not entirely repressive.
Unfortunately, however, the government's tolerance for civil society and criticism seems to be waning. In September of 2008, Sen exclaimed that "Cambodia has been a heaven for NGOs for too long...the NGOs are out of control...". At the same time,he called for the revival of a restrictive NGO law. In addition, the government's verbal attacks on anti-corruption NGOs are being carried out alongside agreater campaign against government criticism. For example, the government has used criminal defamation laws to intimidate and imprison activists, union leaders, and journalists alike. In this inauspicious climate, it seems unlikely that the Cambodia will engage in a dialogue with the government-critical anticorruption movement. The fight against graft officially remains a high-priority government issue for the 2008-2013 mandate. Nevertheless, the government’s past reluctance and present state of denial seem to spell further delays, and even setbacks, in the effort to rid Cambodia of this governance scourge.
