Politics around the lake

Angry accusations of corruption marred voting day around Phnom Penh's central lake, which the ruling party intends to sell off to a shadowy developer, writes Allister Hayman.

When Hul Thol arrived to cast his vote at the Phnom Penh Railway station polling booth, a fracas broke out. A woman in the voting booth shouted at Thol, the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) candidate for Boeng Kak's Srah Chak commune, and told him he shouldn't be there. Taken aback, Thol explained he had come to fulfill his legal right to vote. Then, an SRP official with Thol identified the woman as a village chief, and said she shouldn't be there.

A loud argument ensued. When the woman spied a Post's photographer she grabbed angrily at the camera. She was then forced away from the polling station.

Later, the Post learned the woman was a district chief [Me Krom] of Village 4 in the Boeng Kak area, and by law she was required to be 100 meters from the polling station.

A NICFEC observer explained the problem.

"Village chief [Me Phum] is what we call them in the provinces," the observer said. "But in the city there are village chiefs and group chiefs [Me Krom]. So they just say they didn't know the law applied to them."

The incident was a minor flash point in the contested battle for Srah Chak commune.

On February 6, City Hall signed over a 130-hectare block of the Boeng Kak area to a private company. The little known developer Shukaku Inc paid $79 million for the 99-year leasehold - a mere $0.60 per square meter - an unstipulated portion of which is to be used to compensate the 4,250 families affected by the deal. Both City Hall and Cambodian People's Party (CPP) Senator and business tycoon Lao Meng Khin, the director of Shukaku Inc, have refused to comment on the development.

Rights groups and NGOs have declared the deal illegal and say it will lead to the largest displacement of people in Cambodia since the privatization of land in 1989.

Many of the families affected by the development reside in the Srah Chak commune and have lived there for more than 10 years.

Srah Chak represents in a microcosm one of the most critical issues effecting the Kingdom: land disputes. The partisan platforms the major parties have adopted to address this ongoing issue played themselves out in Boeng Kak in the lead up to the election. Promises were made, accusations were laid, and at times the politics was dirty.


Before the election Prime Minister Hun Sen, of the ruling CPP, declared war on land grabbers and spoke at length about the injustice of officials seizing land from communities. This followed earlier comments by the Prime Minister about the possibility of a farmers' revolution in Cambodia if land disputes continued to inflame tensions.

Hun Sen never referred to Boeng Kak, but many voters interviewed on election day alluded to the Prime Minister's rhetoric and expressed hopes he would intervene.

By election day's end the CPP had held sway in Srah Chak commune. But the voting was close. Preliminary results showed CPP received 5,752 votes to SRP's 4,665. Incumbent CPP commune chief Chhay Thirith retained his position, with the CPP holding the position of deputy commune chief. The second deputy position went to SRP. The commune council was split between six CPP and five SRP councilors.

According to election observers and voters interviewed on the day, Hul Thol's infraction with the group chief at the railway station was just one incident among many of village officials interfering in the vote.

At the polls at Wat Neakavan Kindergarten, Vong Socheat, 52, is outspoken about neutrality of the vote.

"There has been injustice today," she said. "I have seen village chiefs standing near the polling booths telling the villagers how to vote - and family members of the village chiefs as well."

Socheat said the village chiefs pressured the voters.

"They say if you don't vote CPP you will not get help in the village. You will not get good service. They say if there are fires you won't get help," she said.

Koul Panha, director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, a local election watch dog, said the mere presence of village officials - who are predominantly CPP - compromised the vote.

"It can affect the feeling of the voter even though the voter knows that the ballot is secret," he said. "In this election my observers saw many cases of village chiefs or commune chiefs standing in or near the polling booths."

Panha said election monitors often didn't know who the village chiefs were, and had to rely on voters or other officials to point them out.

Thol said he was disappointed with the election results and said he would file a complaint with the Commune Election Committee (CEC) about the interference of village officials. He said he was concerned about the low turnout of voters - about 60 percent - which he said may have been due to vote buying and harassment. Thol said the election campaign had been fought unfairly and cited "obstruction" by the ruling party.

"When I went to a village there were CPP at the beginning of the road and at the end of the road," he said. "The commune chief is CPP and the officials are CPP and wherever we went to campaign there were always CPP officials there."

When contacted by the Post to comment on his victory, Thirith said he was "too busy."

Both parties had campaigned vociferously on the lake development issue.

Hul Thol, supported by SRP lawmakers Ho Vann and Son Chhay, had on two separate occasions led groups of villagers to City Hall to demand a meeting with Governor Kep Chuktema to discuss the deal. Chuktema refused.

During the campaign Thol promised to "tear up the contract" and renegotiate the deal.

"The municipality must negotiate and work with the people step by step on this development," he said March 30.

In turn, Thirith accused SRP of politicizing the development to gain political capital and said the SRP were trying to frighten lakeside residents. Thirith said he had lodged a complaint with the CEC against SRP for sparking "chaos" in the election campaign.

Thirith maintained that the contract signed by the municipality was in accordance with Hun Sen's stated policy of "development within the place," which means the removal of residents to housing within the development area, rather than relocation to the suburbs.

Thirith declared that there was "no problem" with the deal and the people affected would be moved to an apartment complex similar to that built for the residents of the Borei Keila development.

Many of the Srah Chak voters interviewed on election day, said the Boeng Kak development was a pivotal campaign issue, but opinion was divided on which party to trust.

At the railway station polls, Pil Mareth, 55, who has lived in the Boeng Kak area since 1979, summed up the split.

"CPP just said to us that it is no real problem," she said. "They say if we vote for them they will 'develop within the place' and we will get fair compensation. But the SRP say the Borei Keila plan is a trick. They say they will take the land and sell it at market price and we will be left out in the suburbs like the people from Tonle Bassac."

Mareth would not be drawn on which party she voted for, but said she hoped Hun Sen would intervene in the land dispute.

A 56-year-old woman, who did not want to be named, said she was worried about the development but had faith in the law.

"If we worry it is just the same as if we don't worry," she said. "And according to the land law, if we have lived on our land for more than five years we have title to the land."

She said in voting she was more concerned with continuity than change and said only CPP could improve life in the commune.

"In my house I know where my toilet is, where my bed is, where all my things are," she said. "But if I step into my neighbor's house it is strange. I don't know anything. So I'm afraid of other parties getting the position of commune chief."

At the polls at the International Dubai Mosque, voters were more open to change.

Cheang Pong, 39, has lived in a house on stilts in the middle of Boeng Kak since 1980. He is part of a small lake community of about 40 who farm the trokun that grows abundantly in the lake. His family and the rest of his community do not have land titles and are likely to lose everything under the lease deal.

"If they want to develop the lake area they must give fair compensation," he said. "CPP will just use armed forces to take the people away, but SRP said they would intervene and help the people get a fair deal."

When asked if he thought the voting had been fair he hesitated. "I think there's been about 70 percent justice," he said.

This article first appeared in the Phnom Penh Post