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Why do the rich nations keep funneling millions of dollars every
year to a corrupt country like Cambodia? Each summer, at around
this time, for more than a decade, international donors have
pledged huge sums to prop up the impoverished Southeast Asian
nation.
The donors unveil a goody bag of financial aid contingent on the
country tackling endemic problems like corruption, human-rights
violations and environmental degradation. And each year, like
ritual, longtime Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen dutifully pledges
to clean up the government's act. Alas, also like ritual, little
or nothing happens. Yet somehow the entire ceremony repeats itself
year after year.
On Wednesday, June 20, foreign donors — a collection of
foreign governments, multinational banks and various U.N. agencies
— promised to funnel $689 million of aid to Cambodia, a 15%
increase from last year and an amount roughly equivalent to half
the nation's annual budget. This year, they did issue statements
chastising the Hun Sen government for failing to adequately battle
widespread graft. Cambodia ranks No. 151 out of 163 nations
surveyed in Transparency International's 2006 government
corruption index. Addressing donor representatives gathered in the
Cambodian capital Phnom Penh this month, Hun Sen promised that
long-delayed anti-corruption legislation would be passed "as soon
as possible." The statement was a virtual carbon copy of what he
had pledged last year.
Foreign aid has long been employed as a political tool, with
varying levels of success. Rich economies get to feel good about
sharing their wealth with the less fortunate. At the same time,
Western nations dole out cash to poorer economies in hopes of
encouraging budding democratization efforts. But if anything,
Cambodia has continued to backslide. A Hun Sen-backed coup in 1997
removed Co-Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Opposition
party members are regularly harassed. And a July 2006 deadline
imposed by Hun Sen himself for introducing a draft of
anti-corruption legislation passed with no evidence of any such
document.
The country's economy has grown (more than 10% last year, due
in part to tourism and the textile industry). But wealth appears to
be concentrated in the hands of the few. Earlier this month, the
international watchdog organization Global Witness released the
findings of a three-year investigation that accuses a network of
Hun Sen's relatives and friends of having made tens of millions of
dollars from illegal logging. (Several of those implicated by
Global Witness have denied the allegations, and the watchdog's
report itself has been banned from domestic distribution by the
Cambodian government.) In the report, Global Witness castigates the
international donor community for facilitating what it labels a
deeply corrupt Cambodian ruling class: "Donor support has failed to
produce reforms that would make the government more accountable to
its citizens. Instead, the government is successfully exploiting
international aid as a source of political legitimacy."
The trouble is that Cambodia does not have to depend only on
Western donors to help it patch together its economy and
government. There is China. Unlike other foreign governments, China
puts few strings on its aid, and its generosity in doling out funds
for the Cambodian government now rivals Western munificence. Last
year, Hun Sen publicly praised Cambodia's "most trustworthy
friend" China for its pledge of $600 million in aid and loans; this
month, the Cambodian Prime Minister went on to thank the Communist
giant for giving money without "order[ing] us to do this or that"
— presumably in contrast to pesky requests for reform from
other international benefactors. "China has changed the game," says
Sok Hach, director of the independent Economic Institute of
Cambodia. "Their attitude toward aid has decreased the leverage of
the rest of the world."
Further diluting international influence is the potential of oil
and gas revenues to transform Cambodia's still largely agrarian
economy. Two years ago, Chevron announced the discovery of offshore
oil reserves in Cambodia. If natural-resources dollars do start
flowing in 2010, as some expect, the country may for the first time
enjoy a major revenue source that could help it stand on its own
feet. Yet, in countries like Nigeria, oil money has only served to
enrich a tiny minority while leaving the rest of the country
impoverished. And the alternate source of income may only make it
more difficult for Western efforts to tie aid to improved Cambodian
governance.
Nevertheless, some human-rights groups blame the donor community
for their consistent unwillingness to pull aid when their pleas for
reform aren't met. "The donors' list of conditions hardly changes
over time, and the government simply ignores them year after year,"
says Brad Adams, Asia director of New York-based Human Rights
Watch. "Hun Sen continues to run circles around the donors, making
the same empty promises every year and laughing all the way to the
bank."
Source: TIME
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