Cambodia is well-known to the outside world for its human right violation, crime, corruption and poverty. There are hundreds of local NGOs working on human right protection and promotion of the rule of law. Bingo! they are dealing with one of the pressing issues in Cambodia. They produce good reports for international donors and Western media and convene public forums every month to disseminate and educate people about their civic and political rights and freedom. Every year, they spend hundreds of million USD to support their activities.
In return, they spread the knowledge of democracy to Cambodians, who are hungry for both Western values and lifestyle, and unfriendly behavior of the Cambodian government towards Western values. More and more Khmer rural people are aware of their unspeakable rights and freedom. They are no longer patient with suppression and exploitation by the ruling elites and powerful. Everyday, you can see they protest and gathering in public places to demand justice for illegal eviction and unfair judgement by the corrupt judicial system. Moreover, garment workers are on strike almost everyday both in the capital and provinces to ask for better pay and working condition. More importantly, in the Western media like AFP, AP, CNN or BBC everything about Cambodia is corruption, illegal eviction and poverty. They often quote or refer to reports produced by local and international NGOs or personalities that are not happy with the government actions. It is understandable that usually Cambodian government under Prime Minister Hun Sen is not so friendly with Western media (Sic!)
Do they have anything to do with ECONOMY or BASIC SERVICES? In short, RARELY! Why? Cambodia is a very poor country why economic growth and necessary services are not prioritized by the civic groups? Well, to be honest, I dont know as I never work with any NGOs. However, what I strongly agree is economic development and basic services should be pursued first. When people are better off their children will better education and they will have higher demands from the government for better service delivery and performance from the public officials. What is the effect from hundreds of million USD spent by those NGOs if they turn them into economic development? Why don't we nurture rural Cambodians about entrepreneurship and small business knowledge? How important it is to educate poor family about the importance of health and education! How useful it is to spend some portions of their funds to build roads, schools and health centers for rural Cambodians!
Experiences of East Asia Miracle (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong) and later some new industrialized countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, show that democracy is not the definitive reason behind these economic successes. On the contrary, when countries become more develop there is an emerging class of the society called MIDDLE CLASS who always press their governments for better performance and efficiency in handling public affairs. Poor economic performance or low revenue are no longer an excuse by the government as it is obvious that the countries develop.
