Meeting in a lovely street cafe we chatted for a long time with Steve who is passionatly involved with Social Justice issue in Cambodia. Steve also was involved in setting up Justees, which we visted earlier in the week. Now Steve has focused his work in helping Khemar people stand up for their own rights. A large part of his work includes bridge building between non human rights groups and Christian projects. Helping both groups of passionate people work together on tackling social inequaility in Cambodia and helping linking protests with project work for the benefit of local people.
According to the Corruption Index Cambodia's government gets a score of 2.1. This puts it just a little bit better the Libya, Venzula, Iraq and Haiti and more corrupt then Laos, Nigeria, Russia and Syria. Much worse then neighbouring Vietnam and Thailand. It is also sadly true that many of the people involved in the leadership of the Khemar Rouge are still in government positions. Corruption may be called endemic in Cambodia. With extra bribes or "fees" being asked for by everyone from policemen to teachers who refuse to teach a child teh whole curriculum unless they get paid extra "fees". Sadly many government workers are badly paid (with some months not getting paid at all) so charging bribes can be the only way they can support themselves and family. We heard one almost comic story of a foreign couple driving a car being pulled over. The police fully inspected the car and all their papers, looking for any even minor fault they could charge a bribe for. They found nothing. Eventually the police just admitted to the foreign workers. "we're thirsty can you buy us a coke?"
Christians for social justice have a central theme of non-violent protest. Steve runs workshops helping local people to explore non-violent protesting. The workshops explores the roots of violence and how people respond has a huge impact. A simple summary could be "If you respond with Rocks they respond with bullets". But Non-violent protesting results in less violence and better responses. You stand up for what is right not by doing something wrong. If you want to read about a local lead campaign against a rainforest land grab click here Prey-Lang-Its-Our-Forest-Too.
It was great to learn about this project doing great work linking together various groups all interested in social justice in Cambodia, focusing on non-violent methods and equipping local people to lead the way.
According to the Corruption Index Cambodia's government gets a score of 2.1. This puts it just a little bit better the Libya, Venzula, Iraq and Haiti and more corrupt then Laos, Nigeria, Russia and Syria. Much worse then neighbouring Vietnam and Thailand. It is also sadly true that many of the people involved in the leadership of the Khemar Rouge are still in government positions. Corruption may be called endemic in Cambodia. With extra bribes or "fees" being asked for by everyone from policemen to teachers who refuse to teach a child teh whole curriculum unless they get paid extra "fees". Sadly many government workers are badly paid (with some months not getting paid at all) so charging bribes can be the only way they can support themselves and family. We heard one almost comic story of a foreign couple driving a car being pulled over. The police fully inspected the car and all their papers, looking for any even minor fault they could charge a bribe for. They found nothing. Eventually the police just admitted to the foreign workers. "we're thirsty can you buy us a coke?"
The darker side of this corruption is currently publicly played out by land-grabs. These are times when individuals or companies with money/influence will claim a bit of land (by paying off the right people in government) regardless of who is currently living on the land (usually the poorest in the community). The land grabbers will the forceably evict the people and destroy their homes to make way for a new development, hotel, office block or residential complex. The corrupt developers are very cleaver and will often pay off the community leaders with large cash sums or new cars. This makes it harder for people to organise themselves. Also playing on the old divide and conquer tactic some developers will give a little compensation to some of the displaced people and none to others. Stirring up resentment and again making it harder for people to get organised. All over Cambodia people are having their homes and livelihoods ripped away from them. Steve works with local Cambodians to help them organise and protest to stand up against this corruption. One cause, Christians for social justice, is currently involved with is Freethe15.wordpress.com. This campaign looks to help a group of Khemar protesters "arrested while demonstrating peacefully on the sands that now cover what used to be Village 1 in Boeung Kak. Two days later, they were brought to court, and charged" These peaceful protesters have received on average of 2.5 years and they were denied proper legal treatment. Please visit the website to learn more about this terrible injustice.
Christians for social justice have a central theme of non-violent protest. Steve runs workshops helping local people to explore non-violent protesting. The workshops explores the roots of violence and how people respond has a huge impact. A simple summary could be "If you respond with Rocks they respond with bullets". But Non-violent protesting results in less violence and better responses. You stand up for what is right not by doing something wrong. If you want to read about a local lead campaign against a rainforest land grab click here Prey-Lang-Its-Our-Forest-Too.
It was great to learn about this project doing great work linking together various groups all interested in social justice in Cambodia, focusing on non-violent methods and equipping local people to lead the way.
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