Myanmar is at least 2/3 rural. Health care and Education are the two main legs of a 3 legged stool that support the subsistence life of most rural citizenry as well as the majority of the 1/3 that survive from hand to mouth day in day out.
Until the west realize these most fundamental needs that the west take for granted, of the Myanmar Citizenry, is taken away through relentless sanctions, the white washing of sanctions as ‘western geopolitical related’, ‘political untenable’ ‘only against/affect present leaders merely reflect the validity of “Man Friday Phenomena”!
“Taken together, especially in the context of funding, security and other limitations, I was suggesting that reporting on or from Burma is no easy task.”
There are subjectively objective news/facts out there continually.
A personal investigatory or by proxy visit to the land will EASILY confirm the facts.
Any known bias entity will only give bias point of view.
Worst, any know bias entity that has profited from their bias point of view will continue to do so.
That does explain why New Mandala remain popular and favorite of most concern for SE Asian affairs!
“Unfortunately, though, this has been par for the course. Most international media coverage of Myanmar has returned to the perennial issues of economic sanctions and the role of the National League for Democracy – almost as if the 2010 election never happened.”
This is the most troubling fact, again prove the west perception of Myanmar is nothing more than NLD/Daw Aung San Suu Kyi vs the present ex-SPDC entity (eSe).
“The senior general (Than Shwe) loves sanctions, because the discussion distracts from everything else that is going on,”
A glaring bitter fact that will not have been printed anywhere except here in New Mandala again show how much the west really care for the true plight of Myanmar Citizenry
A disparate opposition cannot win government in Malaysia without:
1. A party that acts as the “backbone” of the coalition, that (a) voters trust, and (b) has a significant Malay base. PKR threatened to be that party but it has not been a good three years for it. Chinese voters in Malay seats will vote for PAS, and Malay voters in Chinese seats will vote for the DAP, if they are confident in the coalition’s leadership. That confidence in PKR was behind the 2008 results.
2. Making reasonable inroads into Johor, Sabah and Sarawak. The electoral system is weighted towards these populous states and there is no evidence that PAS or PKR yet have any real degree of support there.
An election is won in the kampungs, not the cities. The opposition already holds most city seats comfortably. With respect to Mr Haris, building an opposition coalition around notions of “civil liberties” is unlikely to appeal beyond the opposition’s core base of voters.
Well that’s one way of looking at it, but certainly not a view that I would ever advocate. Neoliberalism as an economic theory is a utopian idea that can never be made pure or “unhybridized”, so its not just a matter of “bad apples” souring an ostensibly good idea. That is both a hypothetical and ideological question, and given my view on the nature of capitalism (i.e., a system premised upon exploitation), “neoliberalism with a smiling face” would potentially alleviate some of the issues, but the system itself (and its inherent inequalities) would nonetheless remain.
Wish I could share your enthusiasm and optimism, Dylan. I sure do appreciate the goodwill. And I sincerely hope you’d be able to say I told you so.
Burma won’t come anywhere near Thailand in the record number of military coups but here you might say it’s quality (staying power), not quantity. What’s more it is from now even ‘constitutional’ in Burma for the military to dissolve parliament and take over as they see fit. Definitely a small p under a big M.
Chance would be a fine thing if we have to rely on unintended consequences to lead us to at least a semi-democracy like some of our neighbours. Because in pursuit of legitimacy the d word had to be in the rhetoric and in the structural change gone through with military precision, monks and cyclone notwithstanding, but if you believe they actually meant it (there’s plenty of evidence both before and after that they didn’t) I’m afraid you’ll believe in anything.
While I respect Buddhism for its liberties, it’s only religion. And religion has proven to do little for peace, understanding and compassion between people.
QUOTE:”Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal issued a judgement that overturned the conviction against Pol. Maj. Ngern Thongsuk, despite his absence, that held him criminally responsible for Somchai’s abduction. The Court also removed Angkhana and her family as injured parties from the case, thus removing their right to act on Somchai’s behalf, as admissible evidence could not establish whether Somchai had been killed or incapacitated at the time the motion was granted.”
What a slap in the face for Khun Angkhana Neelapaijit – poor woman – who has tirelessly campaigned for justice in this case – ever since her husband’s disappearance.
And now Khun Angkhana Neelapaijit and her family no longer have – depsite overwhelming evidence to the contrary – any real chance of achieving due process in this case any time soon – and successful prosecution of the guilty police officers because of this truly shameful action by the Court Of Appeal.
Pol. Maj. Ngern Thongsuk was never missing. He simply changed his identity and whereabouts to avoid prosecution in this case.
This ruling says a lot about the loyalties of the Court Of Appeal and their true interests in justice being delivered dutifully and honestly to ordinary – decent – and lawabiding Thai citizens who have a sense of justice. Of which Somchai Neelapaichit was – indeed – a shining light.
Exactly , Dylan. You hit it on the nail over the geostrategic importance or the lack thereof vis-a-vis the West and our giant neighbours. Jim Webb, for one, certainly was very keen on and explicit over the need to contain China here.
And yes, Burma seems also keen to pursue its nuclear ambition with the assistance of the DPRK and Russia. Perhaps it’s making an effort to be noticed, if we pursue your logic, in order to demand respectful engagement by going nuclear.
If the Pui Thai party does win the election, I certainly hope the army does step in and nullify it.
The country cannot afford another raping by Thaksin and his Chinese friends.
Like it or not, the military IS the balance that ensures a form of stability.
Without them, the country would indeed be a mess.
“Another interesting point is if the Prua Thai Party wins the new election, how about the roles of the military in Thai politics?”
This election will be a vote about the question of whether Thaksin Shinawatra is wanted in Thailand or not. If the voters say “yes,” will those forces that have since 2006 tried everything to eliminate the “Thaksin system” just keep quiet?
So, neoliberalism, in fact, is a great thing. Only that bad people (who do not at all motivate their actions by the norms of neoliberalism) bring it into disrepute. Thus, the problem is how to replace “neoliberalism” in Cambodia with neoliberalism, just as one would like to replace “Thai-style democracy” with democracy. In other words, get the hybridity out of the system, stress the global in glocalization and in the global-local interface, and let the macro win over the micro…
Overestimate maybe, but exiles, lobbies, and the old guard of the NLD still play a crucial role in decisions in both US and UK foreign policies. Anyone from the State Dept. or FCO working in/on Burma would tell you that.
As I had mentioned, its a boutique issue, so its easy for US politicians to continue to base their core demands around a scenario which is never ever going to occur, and to be unwilling to come to the table before super high demands are met.
I wish I could agree with you and put it all down to business and strategic interests, but my assertion is that Burma is not nearly as strategic to the US and UK and other western nations that impose sanctions as we like to think it is. If it was, trust me, the US would not have the current insanely ineffective sanctions regimen they currently have in place.
It does not care enough about Burma to want to dilute China’s influence in the country. If it it did, there are hundreds of policies it could’ve pursued to try to curb that interest, even while sanctions are in place.
Compare for example, with DPRK. Because DPRK has nukes, it is strategic to US global interest. Because of their nukes, DPRK enjoys a very large ‘aid’ program consisting mostly of fuel and food shipments delivered directly to and through the government. Yet US spending on aid in Myanmar (delivered mostly through credible INGOs) is dismal… Burma is not a threat or interesting enough for them…
It is geostrategically immensely important to its neighbours (China, India, ASEAN), but not enough for the US to formulate its policies around getting their business foot in the door…
@ Maung Maung – yes, you’ve got that right. This is one of the key reasons why I disagree with anyone who says there hasn’t been change…. yes, we have yet to see it, but there is huge change in the structure, a lot of room for people to maneuver around, and room for some potentially volatile tension over resources…
The new Chief Minister positions are higher rank than the regional commander. But perhaps as a pre-emptive way to counter tension, some of the Chief Ministers are promoted former Regional Commanders. But the interesting part is that it will be different in each state/division. For example I’m really curious to see how someone like U Nyan Win (former Minister of Foreign Affairs) will handle his new position as Chief Minister of Bago Division… he is after all, a military man, but with his experience of managing quite a senior portfolio, will he reign his kingdom differently? We’ll see…
@ aiontay. I believe you are missing Ko Kyaw Kyaw’s point. Yes, the information and the answers they are providing are not satisfying, and for the most part, are not new information. However, the fact that they are being stated in a parliament and documented in national media (even if it is NLM) is a huge change. This is the start (first baby step) of accountability… previous to now, Ministers did not have to respond to anyone’s questions, and were never quoted under their own names for people to fact check. This is progress, but with a small p. Democracy doesn’t come overnight…
That’s an accurate summary of the challenges facing non-Burmese when they report from Burma. I still feel the foreign media could do a much better job. Everyone’s got an opinion about the place–just look at how many op-ed pieces Burma generates on BurmaNet–but the quantity and the quality of reporting is poor.
As for Burma VJ, thanks for pointing out Christian Caryl’s funny little piece. I hadn’t seen it. Caryl and the filmmakers he lionizes might consider this:
There are two statements in the so-called “disclaimer” at the beginning of Burma VJ: “This film is comprised largely by [sic] material shot by undercover reporters in Burma” and “Some elements of the film have been reconstructed.”
My question to the filmmakers is: Is the first statement truthful? Are you sure that most of the film consists of footage shot by undercover reporters?
My question to reviewers is: If it turns out that 80 percent of the scenes in this self-styled “documentary” are reconstructed, as one of its Thai producers told me, would your opinion of it change in any way?
As noted elsewhere, producer Lise Lense-M├╕ller reneged on a promise to post a version of Burma VJ online to show which scenes were real and which ones were reconstructed. Director Anders ├Шstergaard said somewhere that he “makes no apologies” for the reconstructions. Nobody is asking him to. But why not just come clean, and tell us what they are?
Fearfully dipping my toes into what is a serious sounding academic debate, could it be the difference is in what neoliberalism is meant to mean and what it means in practice? I doubt the preachers like Hayek would have accepted responsibility for all the crooks that have benefited from the application of their theories, but then again if you try to apply theories based on a past imagined golden age of capitalism today you will find these problems of greed.
I’m not a Burma expert by any means, but the country has been isolated from international happenings for such a long time that I can’t see a linkage to neoliberalization there. Again, I’m not suggesting there is a direct relationship between neoliberalization and any given phenomenon, it is always context specific. There is a pattern of marketization in Cambodia that gives resonance to particular incidents of eviction… so we can ask what are the motivations behind forced removals in Phnom Penh or Sihanoukville. Surely someone is making a hell of a lot of money by dispossessing people, otherwise why are they doing it? There could be other reasons, but in the case of Cambodia, the relationship is pretty clear.
I’ve been doing research with a community in Sihanoukville and the reason for their eviction is nothing more than land speculation because they lived in an area close to the beach that was slated for “development”. Most of them lived there for 25 years without being questioned, and then 3 years ago their homes were burned and they were forced off the land at gun point by police and military officials. What kind of “development” is this, and who is it for? The only winner is some fat cat with connections to power who will eventually cash in by selling the land or developing it for tourism purposes. The people meanwhile have received no compensation and a series of unfulfilled promises of being relocated. They have lived the last 3 years in makeshift huts on the side of the road adjacent to where they used to live. Three of them have died (the youngest being a 20 year old woman) from respiratory problems because of the dust from vehicles driving by to go to the nearby beach. I first visited this beach in 2004 and it was effectively empty other than the community fishing there. In 2007 a few little huts were propped up, and I talked to a woman at that time who admitted she was speculating on the land. She said she paid $10,000 and was hoping to sell in a few years for $30,000. In 2010 I went back again and there are now quite a few bungalow hotels and restaurants. So this particular eviction to me has a very clear relationship to neoliberalism.
In terms of what you describe in the forestry sector, this sounds to me like ‘neoliberalism with Cambodian characteristics’, which is a mutated, hybridized, and thoroughly contingent process that merges with existing political economic practices. Again, I’m not arguing for an overarching version of neoliberalism. Even American neoliberalism under Reagan or British neoliberalism under Thatcher are particular versions of neoliberalism, not paradigmatic cases. The Cambodian “neoliberal order” as I have called it, is an order because it has its own particular logic or rationality. The point is, contemporary political economic patterns in Cambodia are not simply ‘local’. There are a myriad of ‘global’ processes at play that influence and impact upon the existing circumstances in the country, the most prominent being, I argue, neoliberalism. In other words, take a political economy perspective that tries to account for the relationship between the ‘micro’ and the ‘macro’. So in terms of my emphasis, I see a disadvantage in focusing exclusively on the external or internal processes to the exclusion of the other. Of course one doesn’t ‘need’ neoliberalism to account for both, but given that Cambodian elites are plugged into globally circulating economic imperatives through relationships with donors, ASEAN, and other business networks, to me it is important to consider the influence this has in Cambodia, which you are quite correct to say in some instances is very overt, and in other instances might be quite limited. That speaks to how neoliberalism actually articulates in the country.
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Sanctioning Burma’s prospects
Ko Min Aung Naing
Myanmar is at least 2/3 rural. Health care and Education are the two main legs of a 3 legged stool that support the subsistence life of most rural citizenry as well as the majority of the 1/3 that survive from hand to mouth day in day out.
Until the west realize these most fundamental needs that the west take for granted, of the Myanmar Citizenry, is taken away through relentless sanctions, the white washing of sanctions as ‘western geopolitical related’, ‘political untenable’ ‘only against/affect present leaders merely reflect the validity of “Man Friday Phenomena”!
Burma VJ and “docudrama”
Nich
“Taken together, especially in the context of funding, security and other limitations, I was suggesting that reporting on or from Burma is no easy task.”
There are subjectively objective news/facts out there continually.
A personal investigatory or by proxy visit to the land will EASILY confirm the facts.
Any known bias entity will only give bias point of view.
Worst, any know bias entity that has profited from their bias point of view will continue to do so.
That does explain why New Mandala remain popular and favorite of most concern for SE Asian affairs!
Burma’s parliamentary system explained
Thank you Ko Kyaw Kyaw.
“Unfortunately, though, this has been par for the course. Most international media coverage of Myanmar has returned to the perennial issues of economic sanctions and the role of the National League for Democracy – almost as if the 2010 election never happened.”
This is the most troubling fact, again prove the west perception of Myanmar is nothing more than NLD/Daw Aung San Suu Kyi vs the present ex-SPDC entity (eSe).
“The senior general (Than Shwe) loves sanctions, because the discussion distracts from everything else that is going on,”
A glaring bitter fact that will not have been printed anywhere except here in New Mandala again show how much the west really care for the true plight of Myanmar Citizenry
How to beat Barisan Nasional?
A disparate opposition cannot win government in Malaysia without:
1. A party that acts as the “backbone” of the coalition, that (a) voters trust, and (b) has a significant Malay base. PKR threatened to be that party but it has not been a good three years for it. Chinese voters in Malay seats will vote for PAS, and Malay voters in Chinese seats will vote for the DAP, if they are confident in the coalition’s leadership. That confidence in PKR was behind the 2008 results.
2. Making reasonable inroads into Johor, Sabah and Sarawak. The electoral system is weighted towards these populous states and there is no evidence that PAS or PKR yet have any real degree of support there.
An election is won in the kampungs, not the cities. The opposition already holds most city seats comfortably. With respect to Mr Haris, building an opposition coalition around notions of “civil liberties” is unlikely to appeal beyond the opposition’s core base of voters.
The straw man critique of neoliberalism in Cambodia
Srithanonchai…
Well that’s one way of looking at it, but certainly not a view that I would ever advocate. Neoliberalism as an economic theory is a utopian idea that can never be made pure or “unhybridized”, so its not just a matter of “bad apples” souring an ostensibly good idea. That is both a hypothetical and ideological question, and given my view on the nature of capitalism (i.e., a system premised upon exploitation), “neoliberalism with a smiling face” would potentially alleviate some of the issues, but the system itself (and its inherent inequalities) would nonetheless remain.
Burma’s parliamentary system explained
Wish I could share your enthusiasm and optimism, Dylan. I sure do appreciate the goodwill. And I sincerely hope you’d be able to say I told you so.
Burma won’t come anywhere near Thailand in the record number of military coups but here you might say it’s quality (staying power), not quantity. What’s more it is from now even ‘constitutional’ in Burma for the military to dissolve parliament and take over as they see fit. Definitely a small p under a big M.
Chance would be a fine thing if we have to rely on unintended consequences to lead us to at least a semi-democracy like some of our neighbours. Because in pursuit of legitimacy the d word had to be in the rhetoric and in the structural change gone through with military precision, monks and cyclone notwithstanding, but if you believe they actually meant it (there’s plenty of evidence both before and after that they didn’t) I’m afraid you’ll believe in anything.
Understanding conflict and violence in Thai Society
Luecha Na Malai –
While I respect Buddhism for its liberties, it’s only religion. And religion has proven to do little for peace, understanding and compassion between people.
I am afraid it’s a bit more complex…
Somchai Neelapaichit missing for seven years
QUOTE:”Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal issued a judgement that overturned the conviction against Pol. Maj. Ngern Thongsuk, despite his absence, that held him criminally responsible for Somchai’s abduction. The Court also removed Angkhana and her family as injured parties from the case, thus removing their right to act on Somchai’s behalf, as admissible evidence could not establish whether Somchai had been killed or incapacitated at the time the motion was granted.”
What a slap in the face for Khun Angkhana Neelapaijit – poor woman – who has tirelessly campaigned for justice in this case – ever since her husband’s disappearance.
And now Khun Angkhana Neelapaijit and her family no longer have – depsite overwhelming evidence to the contrary – any real chance of achieving due process in this case any time soon – and successful prosecution of the guilty police officers because of this truly shameful action by the Court Of Appeal.
Pol. Maj. Ngern Thongsuk was never missing. He simply changed his identity and whereabouts to avoid prosecution in this case.
This ruling says a lot about the loyalties of the Court Of Appeal and their true interests in justice being delivered dutifully and honestly to ordinary – decent – and lawabiding Thai citizens who have a sense of justice. Of which Somchai Neelapaichit was – indeed – a shining light.
Sanctioning Burma’s prospects
Exactly , Dylan. You hit it on the nail over the geostrategic importance or the lack thereof vis-a-vis the West and our giant neighbours. Jim Webb, for one, certainly was very keen on and explicit over the need to contain China here.
And yes, Burma seems also keen to pursue its nuclear ambition with the assistance of the DPRK and Russia. Perhaps it’s making an effort to be noticed, if we pursue your logic, in order to demand respectful engagement by going nuclear.
Is an election the answer for Thailand?
Re: Srithanonchai – 12
If the Pui Thai party does win the election, I certainly hope the army does step in and nullify it.
The country cannot afford another raping by Thaksin and his Chinese friends.
Like it or not, the military IS the balance that ensures a form of stability.
Without them, the country would indeed be a mess.
Is an election the answer for Thailand?
“Another interesting point is if the Prua Thai Party wins the new election, how about the roles of the military in Thai politics?”
This election will be a vote about the question of whether Thaksin Shinawatra is wanted in Thailand or not. If the voters say “yes,” will those forces that have since 2006 tried everything to eliminate the “Thaksin system” just keep quiet?
The straw man critique of neoliberalism in Cambodia
So, neoliberalism, in fact, is a great thing. Only that bad people (who do not at all motivate their actions by the norms of neoliberalism) bring it into disrepute. Thus, the problem is how to replace “neoliberalism” in Cambodia with neoliberalism, just as one would like to replace “Thai-style democracy” with democracy. In other words, get the hybridity out of the system, stress the global in glocalization and in the global-local interface, and let the macro win over the micro…
Will Thailand’s elections be fair?
c32
“What about MP buying? Thats even worse in my opinion.”
Fully agree. Reported to have been Bt40m a head to create Abhisit’s consortium – oh, sorry – coalition.
And, yes – I’m aware that others have done the same.
Will Thailand’s elections be fair?
There is a lot of talk about vote buying here.
What about MP buying? Thats even worse in my opinion.
Sanctioning Burma’s prospects
Overestimate maybe, but exiles, lobbies, and the old guard of the NLD still play a crucial role in decisions in both US and UK foreign policies. Anyone from the State Dept. or FCO working in/on Burma would tell you that.
As I had mentioned, its a boutique issue, so its easy for US politicians to continue to base their core demands around a scenario which is never ever going to occur, and to be unwilling to come to the table before super high demands are met.
I wish I could agree with you and put it all down to business and strategic interests, but my assertion is that Burma is not nearly as strategic to the US and UK and other western nations that impose sanctions as we like to think it is. If it was, trust me, the US would not have the current insanely ineffective sanctions regimen they currently have in place.
It does not care enough about Burma to want to dilute China’s influence in the country. If it it did, there are hundreds of policies it could’ve pursued to try to curb that interest, even while sanctions are in place.
Compare for example, with DPRK. Because DPRK has nukes, it is strategic to US global interest. Because of their nukes, DPRK enjoys a very large ‘aid’ program consisting mostly of fuel and food shipments delivered directly to and through the government. Yet US spending on aid in Myanmar (delivered mostly through credible INGOs) is dismal… Burma is not a threat or interesting enough for them…
It is geostrategically immensely important to its neighbours (China, India, ASEAN), but not enough for the US to formulate its policies around getting their business foot in the door…
Burma’s parliamentary system explained
@ Maung Maung – yes, you’ve got that right. This is one of the key reasons why I disagree with anyone who says there hasn’t been change…. yes, we have yet to see it, but there is huge change in the structure, a lot of room for people to maneuver around, and room for some potentially volatile tension over resources…
The new Chief Minister positions are higher rank than the regional commander. But perhaps as a pre-emptive way to counter tension, some of the Chief Ministers are promoted former Regional Commanders. But the interesting part is that it will be different in each state/division. For example I’m really curious to see how someone like U Nyan Win (former Minister of Foreign Affairs) will handle his new position as Chief Minister of Bago Division… he is after all, a military man, but with his experience of managing quite a senior portfolio, will he reign his kingdom differently? We’ll see…
@ aiontay. I believe you are missing Ko Kyaw Kyaw’s point. Yes, the information and the answers they are providing are not satisfying, and for the most part, are not new information. However, the fact that they are being stated in a parliament and documented in national media (even if it is NLM) is a huge change. This is the start (first baby step) of accountability… previous to now, Ministers did not have to respond to anyone’s questions, and were never quoted under their own names for people to fact check. This is progress, but with a small p. Democracy doesn’t come overnight…
Burma VJ and “docudrama”
Hi Nich,
That’s an accurate summary of the challenges facing non-Burmese when they report from Burma. I still feel the foreign media could do a much better job. Everyone’s got an opinion about the place–just look at how many op-ed pieces Burma generates on BurmaNet–but the quantity and the quality of reporting is poor.
As for Burma VJ, thanks for pointing out Christian Caryl’s funny little piece. I hadn’t seen it. Caryl and the filmmakers he lionizes might consider this:
There are two statements in the so-called “disclaimer” at the beginning of Burma VJ: “This film is comprised largely by [sic] material shot by undercover reporters in Burma” and “Some elements of the film have been reconstructed.”
My question to the filmmakers is: Is the first statement truthful? Are you sure that most of the film consists of footage shot by undercover reporters?
My question to reviewers is: If it turns out that 80 percent of the scenes in this self-styled “documentary” are reconstructed, as one of its Thai producers told me, would your opinion of it change in any way?
As noted elsewhere, producer Lise Lense-M├╕ller reneged on a promise to post a version of Burma VJ online to show which scenes were real and which ones were reconstructed. Director Anders ├Шstergaard said somewhere that he “makes no apologies” for the reconstructions. Nobody is asking him to. But why not just come clean, and tell us what they are?
Best, Andrew
The straw man critique of neoliberalism in Cambodia
LesAbbey…
“could it be the difference is in what neoliberalism is meant to mean and what it means in practice?”
Yep, this is exactly right.
The straw man critique of neoliberalism in Cambodia
Fearfully dipping my toes into what is a serious sounding academic debate, could it be the difference is in what neoliberalism is meant to mean and what it means in practice? I doubt the preachers like Hayek would have accepted responsibility for all the crooks that have benefited from the application of their theories, but then again if you try to apply theories based on a past imagined golden age of capitalism today you will find these problems of greed.
The straw man critique of neoliberalism in Cambodia
Hi Keith…
I’m not a Burma expert by any means, but the country has been isolated from international happenings for such a long time that I can’t see a linkage to neoliberalization there. Again, I’m not suggesting there is a direct relationship between neoliberalization and any given phenomenon, it is always context specific. There is a pattern of marketization in Cambodia that gives resonance to particular incidents of eviction… so we can ask what are the motivations behind forced removals in Phnom Penh or Sihanoukville. Surely someone is making a hell of a lot of money by dispossessing people, otherwise why are they doing it? There could be other reasons, but in the case of Cambodia, the relationship is pretty clear.
I’ve been doing research with a community in Sihanoukville and the reason for their eviction is nothing more than land speculation because they lived in an area close to the beach that was slated for “development”. Most of them lived there for 25 years without being questioned, and then 3 years ago their homes were burned and they were forced off the land at gun point by police and military officials. What kind of “development” is this, and who is it for? The only winner is some fat cat with connections to power who will eventually cash in by selling the land or developing it for tourism purposes. The people meanwhile have received no compensation and a series of unfulfilled promises of being relocated. They have lived the last 3 years in makeshift huts on the side of the road adjacent to where they used to live. Three of them have died (the youngest being a 20 year old woman) from respiratory problems because of the dust from vehicles driving by to go to the nearby beach. I first visited this beach in 2004 and it was effectively empty other than the community fishing there. In 2007 a few little huts were propped up, and I talked to a woman at that time who admitted she was speculating on the land. She said she paid $10,000 and was hoping to sell in a few years for $30,000. In 2010 I went back again and there are now quite a few bungalow hotels and restaurants. So this particular eviction to me has a very clear relationship to neoliberalism.
In terms of what you describe in the forestry sector, this sounds to me like ‘neoliberalism with Cambodian characteristics’, which is a mutated, hybridized, and thoroughly contingent process that merges with existing political economic practices. Again, I’m not arguing for an overarching version of neoliberalism. Even American neoliberalism under Reagan or British neoliberalism under Thatcher are particular versions of neoliberalism, not paradigmatic cases. The Cambodian “neoliberal order” as I have called it, is an order because it has its own particular logic or rationality. The point is, contemporary political economic patterns in Cambodia are not simply ‘local’. There are a myriad of ‘global’ processes at play that influence and impact upon the existing circumstances in the country, the most prominent being, I argue, neoliberalism. In other words, take a political economy perspective that tries to account for the relationship between the ‘micro’ and the ‘macro’. So in terms of my emphasis, I see a disadvantage in focusing exclusively on the external or internal processes to the exclusion of the other. Of course one doesn’t ‘need’ neoliberalism to account for both, but given that Cambodian elites are plugged into globally circulating economic imperatives through relationships with donors, ASEAN, and other business networks, to me it is important to consider the influence this has in Cambodia, which you are quite correct to say in some instances is very overt, and in other instances might be quite limited. That speaks to how neoliberalism actually articulates in the country.
Andrew…
Exactly.