Introduction to Contemporary Cambodia

Katherine Brickell and Simon Springer

“Cambodia has risen from the ashes, but the embers still smolder”

- David A. Ablin and Marlowe Hood (1987, xv)

Where does one begin? It is no easy task to organize a volume on the contemporary conditions of

any given country and the tumultuous history of Cambodia makes this undertaking all the more

difficult. There is no particular historical line in the sand that defines the “contemporary”

moment, and with all the twists and turns in Cambodian history over the preceding century it is a

real challenge to decide where to pick up the narrative. Cambodia has played host to colonialism,

war, genocide and intensive foreign intervention (Chandler 2008; Kiernan 1996; Osborne 1997).

So many of Cambodia’s important current events and a great deal of the country’s present

conditions find their foundations in the past. Such an acknowledgement presents difficulty in

compiling an edited volume that seeks to stand out from other collections inasmuch as our

commitment is to examining what’s happening in Cambodia now. Yet rather than allowing our

misgivings about time to get the better of us, we will start with the rush of emotions that first

drew us into our love for Cambodia in the first place. What better place to begin than with the

personal, and the desire we both felt to study Cambodia’s people, places and politics upon first

encountering the country and its people? We both came to study Cambodia in the early 2000s,

and accordingly, with the help of our contributors, we want to take stock of the changes in

society that we’ve witnessed since then. Our travels in the country soon after the arrival of the

new millennium elicited profound and paradoxical responses, seemingly mirroring this transitory

stage in the country’s history, which was rife with incongruities. These ambiguities remain, and

in presenting contemporary Cambodia to you here in 2016, we do not assume to have resolved

all of the issues that pulse through the veins of the country’s social, political and cultural

anatomy. Instead, our investigations and those of the included authors are intended as

contemplative and reflective. It is this pensive approach that allows us to appreciate Cambodia

for the complexity that it represents. Such reflection further allows us to remember that it was a

blend of admiration and dismay, sorrow and joy that first captured our imaginations and

compelled us to study Cambodia. These dualisms in our understandings of the country have

remained with us ever since. Cambodia is beautiful, yet haunted – haunted, yet beautiful. There

is both strength and tragedy to be found in contemporary Cambodia, where the contrasts and

contradictions are precisely what make it such a fascinating, frustrating and fulfilling country to

study.

The image on the front cover of this book is perhaps not an obvious choice to represent

contemporary Cambodia, but this was intentional on our part. We spent a long time discussing

what we might like to see on the cover of this volume, each sifting through countless pictures as

we looked for ideas. Books on development contexts often use juxtaposition to highlight the co-

existence of change and continuity as well as the growth in societal inequality – be this a street

vendor carrying her baskets of noodles past a Gucci store, or an aerial shot of a wall separating

slum housing from new modern high-rise condominiums. Instead, rather than opt for this trope,

we felt it more compelling to select an image that might leave the reader with questions such as

‘why that cover’ and ‘what is the story here’? So when we came across the photography of

Thomas Cristofoletti and the wider Ruom Collective (www.ruom.net) we were both captivated

by the way he was able to tell such a powerful and complex story about the fate of many

Cambodians in a single image, and knew we were onto something. The photograph was taken in

a village in Mondulkiri Province in 2014 and shows a Phnong family sitting around the fire

inside a traditional house. For us, as geographers, it speaks to the global and intimate as mutually

constituted entities – it represents the antithesis of what Anderson and Smith (2001, 9) have

critiqued as ‘anemic knowledges predicated on the artificial separation of private and public,

body and citizens, domestic and global.’ Intersections between Cambodia’s integration into the

global economy and peoples’ everyday lives are a key theme woven throughout the handbook.

The machinations of global capital have left a deep scar on the country, as land grabbing, forced

evictions and environmental destruction have ensured the perpetuation of Cambodia’s encounters

with violence (Springer 2009; 2010). Indeed, the political economy context of the village and the

struggles that it is has faced are all too common in the country as seemingly non-political sites

have become key to the operation of sovereign and global power. The people of the village were

tricked into signing over their land to an extractive company who went on to decimate their

sacred forests and replace them with a large-scale rubber plantation. We see the experiences of

the community at the hands of the agro-industry company as an inevitable outcome of the

unfolding of accumulation by dispossession in Cambodia. Still coming to grips with the pain of

its past, contemporary Cambodia is now faced with renewed patterns of violence and the acute

difficulties of weathering the seemingly relentless storm of predatory and extractive capitalism

(Springer 2015). While a picture is worth a thousand words, it can never encompass the whole

story, one that we very briefly tell here. The book cover exemplifies the interface of both the

‘modern’ and the ‘traditional’, and how these lines are increasingly blurred. The fact that this

could have been taken 20 years ago, or indeed 20 years from now is also part of what is so

interesting about it. Not everything is what it seems in Cambodia.

Most people know Cambodia for the Khmer Rouge, and while the genocide that killed

approximately 1.5 million people between 17 April 1975 and 07 January 1979 continues to have

profound reverberations within present day Cambodia (Etcheston 2005), it can hardly be

considered as a contemporary event. Oddly enough, Cambodians themselves experience this

apparent lack of current relevance most acutely. This is at least partially explained by the fact

that over 65 percent of the population is under the age of 30, meaning that they were not yet born

when Pol Pot’s nightmare swallowed their country into darkness. Yet that many Cambodians

remain largely unaware of the sheer profundity of the scars that the Khmer Rouge legacy has left

on their society stems from the fact that until very recently there has been little public discussion

of Pol Pot’s reign. As a peace process was brokered by the United Nations (UN) in the early

1990s – following a decade of Vietnamese occupation that ensured the capital-centric

international community turned their backs on Cambodia – the teaching of the Pol Pot genocide

disappeared from the national curriculum as a compromise for political stability and possible

reconciliation (Dy 2013). This void in national awareness characterized much of the 2000s as

well, where public understanding of the history of the Khmer Rouge was marginalized by

political conflicts. In the aftermath of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia

(UNTAC) from February 1992 to May 1993, a series of strained elections held in 1993, 1998 and

2003 followed (Peou 2007). The first of these almost saw the resumption of war in the country,

as the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), the successor party to the State of Cambodia (SOC) that

ruled under Vietnamese tutelage throughout the 1980s, refused to respect the outcome of the vote.

Strongman Hun Sen forced his way into a coalition government as Second Prime Minister to

serve alongside First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, leader of the National United

Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia (FUNCINPEC), who had

won the election (Gottesman 2003). The uneasy arrangement eventually led to armed

confrontation on the streets of Phnom Penh in July and August 1997, as both sides courted and

accused the other of courting the Khmer Rouge who remained active on the peripheries of the

country. The clash resulted in the ousting of Ranariddh, and from then onwards Hun Sen has

ruled the country, using his political power to steer the country towards a neoliberal path of

greater marketization. Disparities in wealth have once again become pronounced in Cambodia

(Slocomb 2010), as the elite have manipulated the sell-off of public assets and lined their own

pockets from reforms in property relations that have led to widespread landlessness and the

systematic dispossession of the poor (Springer 2015).

It was not until 2007 onwards that young Cambodians were finally being taught about the

genocide, a concession that was made as the foundations for a tribunal were finally established in

a formal agreement between the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) and the UN in 2003

(Tyner 2008). The fragility of an ongoing tribunal has ensured that the reflections on the wider

geopolitics of this atrocity are not discussed. There is no established national dialogue on the

historical role of French Colonialism (1867-1946) in producing vast disparities in wealth that

gave rise to social discontent and thereby radicalized segments of the population (Kiernan 2004).

Nor is there consideration of the genocide before the genocide, when from October 1965 to

August 1973 the United States (US) dropped an unintelligible 2,756,941 tons of bombs on

Cambodia, killing an estimated 600,000 people (Owens and Kiernan 2006). The middle class,

who largely pursues the neoliberal dream of affluence with little regard for anything else, has

scarcely noticed this lack of public debate. Yet a storm has nonetheless been brewing in very

recent years, where a renewed sense of class-consciousness has been emerging in Cambodia

since at least the mid-2000s. Today we see a multi-platform social movement that has grown

largely out of strained labor relations in the garment factory sector to incorporate a vast swath of

Cambodian society. More and more Cambodians are now protesting their working and living

circumstances, eager for a change in the material conditions that determine their lives and an

improvement in the corporeal wellbeing of their compatriots (Brickell 2014). The lead up to the

2013 elections were a genuinely hopeful period, where the electricity of the public showing of

solidarity was infectious among Cambodians who saw a real possibility for regime change in

Cambodia. In the end, those in favor of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) fell just

short of securing an electoral victory, but the narrow margin of the ruling CCP’s win has

changed Hun Sen’s tune. While he still very much sings his own praises with the same

discordant arrogance of any dictator, there is an undeniable sense of anxiety that now

characterizes his public appeals. You can sense the fear in his voice when he looks ahead to the

2018 elections. It is widely believed among the younger generation of Cambodians that the sun is

about to set on Hun Sen’s rule, and that a new day is about to dawn on Cambodian politics. We

share this optimism for Cambodia’s future, but we are not without trepidation. From a policy

perspective there is little difference in the CNRP’s political platform, which like the CPP, is

rooted in neoliberal ideals. It further remains to be seen how such a transfer in power could even

be orchestrated given the deep roots of patronage in Cambodia and the way that it entwines the

military within the ruling party’s grasp.

Contemporary Cambodia is without question a complex entity that is not easily partitioned into

discrete or units for academic inquiry. There are multiple connections to be drawn across the

whole of Cambodian society, where associations can be made between what are even seemingly

the most disparate phenomena. Nonetheless, for the purposes of making our understandings of

Cambodia decipherable and relatable to others we have had to rise to the challenge of organizing

our thoughts. We have accordingly organized the discussion into five major sections: 1) Political

and Economic Tensions; 2) Rural Developments; 3) Urban Conflicts; 4) Social Processes; 5)

Cultural Currents. Clearly this particular ordering is contestable, and we’re quite certain that

there will be readers who would have preferred that the chapters were organized in an alternative

way and perhaps even that different thematic sections were chosen. We are happy to concede to

these critiques. To each their own, and so our answer is to encourage you to read the collected

chapters in this volume in a way that makes sense to you. While we have tried to draw together

themes within the particular sections, there is no hard and fast rule stating that this book must be

read cover to cover in the order that it is presented here. Individual readers may benefit

tremendously from jumping between chapters according to their particular interests and we

welcome this kind of approach.

Political and Economic Tensions

Following this general introduction we first focus our attention towards examining Political and

Economic Tensions, where we set the stage for understanding many of the major recent

developments that have shaped the political economy of contemporary Cambodia. A chapter

called “The Contemporary Geopolitics of Cambodia: Alignments in Regional and Global

Contexts” by Sok Udom Deth, Kairat Moldashev and Serkan Bulut is our starting point, where

the authors trace the key geopolitical trends that have shaped the country’s position in the world.

While they offer a brief historical overview that reaches back to the 18th century and covers the

twists and turns that came with French colonization, independence and the war in Vietnam, their

primary concern is for more recent events, such as the accession into ASEAN in 1999 and the

WTO in 2004 as examples of deepening integration into regional and global forms of capitalism.

In particular, they discuss the implications of China’s rising influence and the implications

Cambodia faces with the purported US pivot back towards Southeast Asia. Next up is Catherine

Morris with “Justice Inverted: Law and Human Rights in Cambodia”, where she examines the

watchword “peacebuilding” in the Cambodian context and how this sets the parameters of justice

in the country. The term has been used to emphasize that peace must extend beyond intervention

and towards governance structures and legal institutions, yet there is still ample room for critique.

Using a critical lens, Morris discusses the results of more than two decades of liberal legal

development as peacebuilding in Cambodia, highlighting how this has impacted upon the

constitution, human rights, the judiciary, the legal profession and civil society organizations.

Continuing this critical understanding of legal processes in Cambodia, Rachel Hughes and Maria

Elander follow with their chapter “Justice and the Past: the Khmer Rouge Tribunal”. Here they

introduce us to Cambodia’s ongoing Khmer Rouge Tribunal, formally known as the

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). They lay out the formal legal

character, mandate and functioning of the ECCC as a UN-supported effort that seeks to bring

both Cambodian and international law to bear upon the alleged crimes of Khmer Rouge. The

chapter explores the political tensions of the tribunal’s negotiation, progress, setbacks and

reparations between the years 1997 to 2014, framing the tribunal as a socio-political event with

multiple national and international influences and repercussions.

Changing gears a little, Louise Coventry follows with “Civil society in Cambodia: Challenges

and Contestations”, a chapter that argues mainstream understandings of civil society have low

relevance and applicability to Cambodia. For Coventry, Cambodian civil society is embedded in

a complex political and unique socio-historical context. Her chapter examines the relationship

between Cambodia’s civil society and (neo)patrimonializm, the sponsorship of non-government

organisations (NGOs) by international aid organizations and the concurrent emergence of NGOs

as a proxy for broader civil society. Since current initiatives to strengthen civil society in

Cambodia are generally donor driven and poorly conceived, she contends that the future of a

progressive and independent Cambodian civil society is not assured. Part of the threat to civil

society is the role of capitalism, which Maryann Bylander assesses in terms of the way

microfinance has entered into the Cambodian fray. With a chapter called “Micro-saturated: The

Promises and Pitfalls of Microcredit as a Development Solution”, she outlines the growth and

saturation of microfinance over the past two decades. While unpacking the meanings and uses of

microcredit among borrowers, Bylander’s particular emphasis is on the disconnection between

the idea of microfinance as a development solution and the lived realities of what microfinance

means and does in the Cambodian context. Her findings challenge the primary goals and stated

expectations of microcredit, and suggest that we need to seriously reconsider microcredit as a

development strategy in the Cambodian context. Journalist Sebastian Strangio follows with “The

Media in Cambodia”, where he explores the distinct character of the Cambodian press in

Southeast Asia. While there are few formal restrictions, pre-publication censorship is typically

rare and few journalists are jailed, there is still reason for concern. In particular the ruling CCP

party controls the bulk of the Cambodian media and insofar as Khmer language media is

concerned the flow of information remains tightly controlled. He concludes that the government

remains intolerant of dissent, worrying that recent developments like the drafting of a recent

Cybercrimes Law will have dire effects on the future of the Cambodian media. The closing

chapter in this section is called “Tourism in Cambodia: Opportunities and Challenges” by

Richard Sharpley and Peter McGrath. The authors outline how tourism has become a significant

part of the Cambodian economy – the third largest sector after agriculture and textiles. Providing

a critical appraisal of the relationship between tourism and development, the chapter highlights

how despite the apparent success of the sector in Cambodia, it has, on the main part, failed to

translate into local economic growth and development for those who are in need of it most.

Rural Developments

In the next section we shift our attention towards Rural Developments. While we recognize that

there is a false dichotomy between the rural and the urban, we nonetheless felt that this would be

a useful analytical frame given that Cambodia is still primarily an agricultural society, where the

bulk of the population continues to live in rural areas. This section begins with a chapter called

“Exploring Rural Livelihoods through the Lens of Coastal Fishers” by Melissa Marschke, where

she recalls that Cambodians remain dependant on natural resources, with fish in particular being

a vital means for Cambodians. Factors such as stock declines and climate variation threaten the

future of the fishing industry in the country, placing significant pressure on rural peoples.

Marschke acknowledges rural livelihoods as dynamic, complex and, often times, unpredictable

since household goals, interests, resources and means are constantly being reassessed in light of

such ongoing change. She pays particular attention to the agriculture and fisheries sector,

changes in land use and key human development indicators to give us a holistic picture of rural

life in Cambodia before grounding her analysis in one resource-dependent fishing village where

she has tracked the stresses that people have experienced over a sixteen-year period (1998–2014).

Young Sokphea follows with “Practices and Challenges Towards Sustainability”, where he

defines the practice and challenges of sustainability in rural development in Cambodia. The

chapter argues that sustainability in contemporary development practice remains complex and

challenging, as development practitioners and government agencies perceive different meanings.

The result is that the current sustainability practices have had a limited impact in rural areas

given the imbalance between the social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability. In

the next chapter on “The Imperative of Good Water Governance in Cambodia”, Joakim Öjendal

and Ros Bandeth also talk to the challenges of sustainability despite ample water resources in the

country. These range from the environmental harm and social injustices of dam building; the

threat to the Tonle Sap; to the inequality of water supply and use between rural and urban areas.

The authors identify how vital matters of water governance are stymied by the common

disregard of local community livelihoods and rights. Concomitant precarity in ordinary peoples’

lives is also furthered by a patronage culture that hinders much needed collaboration across

ministries, agencies and departments. Jonathan Padwe’s chapter entitled “Cambodia’s

Highlanders: Land, Livelihoods and the Politics of Indigeneity” also highlights the significance

of patron-client relationships which have generated large off-budget surpluses through the state

terrorialization of forested land and the granting of concessions to extractive industries and

enterprises involved in the large-scale production of agricultural commodities. Padwe goes on to

document the asset stripping of indigenous highlanders and the deepening land crisis they face

from logging concessionaires, illegal loggers and the construction of large-scale infrastructure

including hydroelectric dams. In the succeeding chapter “Under Pressure: Environmental Risk

and Contemporary Resilience Strategies in Rural Cambodia”, Laurie Parsons provides the reader

with an in-depth account of the disproportionate environmental risk that marginalized rural

communities encounter and try to mitigate, often through migration to urban areas. Parsons

shows how there is a triple disadvantage at work that has the potential to become a cycle – the

poorest are less able to absorb or mitigate climate shocks; they struggle to plan or save for the

incidence of their family’s labor movement; and as a result suffer a greater risk of migrating

unsuccessfully. Evidence of deepening inequality in Cambodia is also found in the next chapter

by Jean-Christophe Diepart and Laura Schoenberger entitled “Concessions in Cambodia:

Governing Profits, Extending State Power and Enclosing Resources from the Colonial Era to the

Present”. The reader is provided with a plotted history of enclosure in Cambodia from large

forest enclosures brought about by colonial rule to Economic Land Concession policies of the

present day regime. Echoed in the chapters that precede it, the authors detail how the

reconstruction of patronage networks have concentrated power for Hun Sen and the CPP through

a “progressive concentralization and control of power” via land. The final chapter in this section

comes from Robin Biddulph and Shaun Williams, and is uniquely titled “From Chicken Wing

Receipts to Students in Military Uniforms: Land Titling and Property in Post-Conflict

Cambodia”. Building on the land tenure focus of Diepart and Schoenberger’s chapter, the

authors argue that although Cambodia was officially communist during the 1980s, the political

leadership of the time fostered market relations both by turning a blind eye to private economic

activity and then in 1989 by introducing new legislation and attempting a mass land titling

campaign. A lack of administrative capacity caused this initiative to fail, but now, over fifteen

years later, having passed a new land law and recruited international technical and financial

assistance, a second programme of mass titling is underway. Unpacking the ins and outs of this

technical process, Biddulph and Williams weave a tale of political intrigue, greed and social

discord, arguing that Cambodia’s Machiavellian, neo-patrimonial system has facilitated elite

accumulation. The attempts of international development assistance to pretend that this is merely

about surveying and titling is consequently a disingenuous and dangerous refusal to see the forest

for the trees, threatening the future of Cambodian society.

Urban Conflicts

Despite the fact that the rural frame that continues to exemplify the lived experience of most

Cambodians, urbanization has been a major force of change in the country in recent years. This

shifting dynamic of how Cambodians live and experience politics, culture and economics has

resulted in numerous tensions that are worthy of our sustained attention, which we offer in the

third section on Urban Conflicts. Tom Percival begins this section with “Urban Megaprojects

and City Planning in Phnom Penh”. In this chapter he offers an overview of Phnom Penh’s

development, planning and governance from the early 1990s to the present day with a particular

focus on the production and implications of urban megaprojects. Percival discusses the growing

integration of Phnom Penh into global and regional economic systems and how these networks

of capital drive megaprojects. Dennis Arnold and Dae-oup Chang follow with a chapter called

‘Labor Rights and Trade Unions in Cambodia’. The nascent trade union movement in Cambodia

has been centered on the garment industry and the authors argue that the attention that has been

paid to factory-level work conditions has yielded mixed results. Industrial relations remain

highly conflictual and are regularly violent in Cambodia, particularly as the state and employers

exert influence over many workers’ organizations. While there is undoubtedly reason for concern,

it is argued here that workers and their organizations are beginning to show signs of

strengthening social and political economic rights in Cambodia. The following chapter from

Sabina Lawreniuk is titled “The Ties that Bind: Rural-Urban Linkages in the Cambodian

Migration System”, which affords readers with an understanding of the ways in which migratory

populations, particularly garment factory workers, are in constant flux according to the

dynamically structured household-based livelihood system that has emerged in contemporary

Cambodia. In a context where impermanent peripheral migrant enclaves are a common feature of

the urban frame, this chapter elucidates the rural-urban linkages that have emerged in the country

as an outcome of labor demands and their implications for those involved. Next up is Gabriel

Fauveaud’s “Real Estate Productions, Practices, and Strategies in Contemporary Phnom Penh:

An Overview of Social, Economic and Political Issues”, which draws our attention towards the

ways in which Phnom Penh has been undergoing significant changes in its built environment.

Satellite cities, condominiums, gated communities, new economic centers and great shopping

malls have become features of the contemporary urban landscape in Cambodia, which has

resulted in the reorganization of real estate activity. Fauveaud argues that as this urban

metamorphosis unfolds, urban planning remains deficient, while land grabbing, forced evictions

and socio-economic marginalization are rife. He demonstrates how private investments and the

financial profitability have supplanted inclusivity and by considering the economic, social,

cultural, symbolic and spatial dimensions of the emergent “real estate” production in Phnom

Penh, the chapter provides us with significant insight into the changing character of urban life in

Cambodia.

Building on a similar theme, Jessie Connell and Mark Grimsditch offer an appraisal of “Forced

relocation in Cambodia”. They provide us with a working definition of forced relocation and

argue that relocations have been increasing across Cambodia owing to major infrastructure,

hydropower, urban beautification and private development projects. As Cambodians experience

the secondary impacts of these developments, it often becomes untenable for them to continue

living in their communities of origin. Weak tenure security arrangements exacerbate the

vulnerability of many Cambodians and this chapter overviews the main tensions and debates

involved in forced relocations by situating these within the broader global discussion around “the

right to the city”. The following chapter from Simon Springer, entitled “Homelessness in

Cambodia: The Terror of Gentrification” examines the plight of homeless peoples in Phnom

Penh as a consequence of their enmeshment these broader patterns of urban governance.

Springer argues that the ongoing pattern of violence utilized by municipal authorities against

homeless peoples is part of a gentrifying process that has been euphemized as “beautification”.

Of particular concern is how city officials have begun actively promoting the criminalization of

the urban homeless and poor through arbitrary arrests and illegal detention, holding them in “re-

education” or “rehabilitation” centers. These sites play host to the systemic abuse of

marginalized peoples who are unwanted on the streets of the capital city as they are deemed to

present a negative image for Phnom Penh. Giorgio Talocci and Camillo Boano’s chapter,

“Phnom Penh’s Relocation Sites and the Obliteration of Politics” focuses on the alternative to

homelessness in the aftermath of forced evictions. This chapter reviews Phnom Penh’s relocation

sites, highlighting the fundamental advocacy role that certain nongovernmental organizations

(NGOs) have played. The authors unpack the struggles in two particular relocation sites near

Phnom Penh, Borei Santepheap II and Andong, which demonstrate a tendency of de-

politicization within the urban realm. Analyzing the discourses and actions of those involved and

drawing on the recently approved National Housing Policy in particular, they reflect on the

future role of relocation sites in Phnom Penh’s urban development. The final chapter in this

section is called “Street vending in Phnom Penh: Flourishing but Invisible”, where Kyoko

Kusakabe shifts gears slightly by introducing us to the situation of public markets in Cambodia.

Her concern is for street vending in particular, which has been a core occupation to support

middle-class families, as formal employment opportunities are few. The chapter familiarizes us

with various types of street vendors from professional vendors to survival vendors and describes

how street vending influences intra-household gender relations, defines relations with authorities

and shapes individual identities. Kusakabe concludes by offering some notes on support for

street vendors in securing their rights to place.

Social Processes

The fourth section of the handbook entitled Social Processes is intended as an introduction to the

changing landscapes of social relations and structures in Cambodia. The first chapter by William

Brehm is entitled “The Contemporary Landscape of Education in Cambodia: Hybrid Spaces of

the ‘Public’ and ‘Private’”. Brehm shows how the host of inadequacies in Cambodia’s public

schooling system – namely limited teaching time, crowded classrooms and low teacher salaries –

is causing households to seek out private alternatives including tutoring and enrolment at NGO-

sponsored schools. Brehm even reports of “forced private tutoring” in which a teacher

encourages students to take extra classes by threatening lower grades. Behaviours such as these,

Brehm argues, cause and exacerbate socio-economic inequality as many families cannot afford

private education or unofficial payments. These public sector realities, which are faced on a daily

basis, are also covered in the following chapter, “Health: Medical Cosmologies and Medical

Inequities” by Jan Ovesen and Ing-Britt Trankell. Here the authors explain how growing

numbers of Cambodians use unlicensed private clinics due to the necessity of unofficial

payments in public health centres and hospitals. The chapter also traces “geographically

determined health inequalities” including the concentration of quality medical treatment in urban

areas in comparison to their rural counterparts. They note a range of reasons for this, including

donor priorities and the placing of NGO health projects in places attractive to foreign and

national personnel. Carrying forward the theme of health, in the next chapter Katherine Brickell

presents her overview of “Violence Against Women and Girls in Cambodia”. Positioning

violence against women and girls (VAWG) as one of Cambodia’s most systematic and

widespread human rights abuses, the chapter examines its multiplicity of types, including

domestic and sexual violence. The chapter also affords space for the discussion of two forms of

VAWG which she argues are commonly overlooked, first, acid attacks and second, political

violence against female activists. Brickell provides a critique of policy responses to this range of

gendered violences and highlights potential reasons for the glaring gap between the rhetoric and

practice of human rights in the country.

Following on from Brickell’s chapter which foregrounds the lives of Cambodian women, the

next chapter “Gendered Politics of Power in Contemporary Cambodia” considers a range of

subject positions which women hold in Cambodia today. From female members of parliament,

NGO workers, women activists, to mothers-in-laws, Mona Lilja and Mikael Baaz impress upon

the reader the significance of everyday political practices and statuses of both “ordinary” and

“elite” women who are, intentionally or otherwise, challenging the stereotype of the apolitical

woman in traditional discourses on the “proper” Khmer woman. In the next chapter by Heidi

Hoefinger, Pisey Ly and Srun Srorn entitled “Sex Politics and Moral Panics: LGBT

Communities, Sex/Entertainment Workers and Sexually-Active Youth in Cambodia”, the authors

speak to both discrimination and resistance. In respect to the former, the authors explain the

prejudice faced by sex and entertainment workers who are subject to violence, rape, police

brutality and bribery. They go on to give details on the 2008 Law on the Suppression of Human

Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, which initially led to the closure of urban brothels and the

pushing of women onto the streets where they become vulnerable to police removal (see also

Springer’s chapter on the omnipresence of “sweeps”). Linking back to the discussion of gender

norms in in Lilja and Baaz’s chapter, Hoefinger, Ly and Srorn also detail anti-trafficking NGO

work to “rehabilitate” women by sending them to work in more “dignified” garment factories

(under what the authors cast as exploitative conditions). Turning to the latter theme of resistance,

the chapter simultaneously paints a more hopeful picture of community activism efforts in the

area of LGBT rights. Noting the significance of Facebook and Twitter as organizing platforms,

their chapter, in addition to those that precede it, underscores the impact of the Internet and

smartphone technology for the mobilization of a more progressive politics in contemporary

Cambodia. Next, akin to the chapter by Mona Lilja and Mikael Baaz, which brings to the fore the

diversity of subject positions which Cambodian women occupy, the chapter by Melina

Czymoniewicz-Klippel illuminates the divergent experiences and life outcomes of different

cohorts of youth. In her chapter “Children, Childhood and Youth in Contemporary Cambodia”,

she distinguishes between privileged and disadvantaged young people who will, in their own

ways, come to shape the future of Cambodia. On the one hand Czymoniewicz-Klippel

foregrounds the new cohort of higher status youth who enjoy an extended period of youth-cum-

“emerging adulthood”. Many can be found engaging in a sub-culture of wealth through the

consumption of alcohol and drugs at local nightclubs where the next generation of strategic

patron-client relationships are (re)made. On the other hand, she tells a story of the lives of lower

socioeconomic status children who, by contrast, often have shortened childhoods given the need

to take on full adult responsibilities to support their families. Developing this focus on the

survival and life cycle of households, the subsequent chapter in the Social Processes section is

written by demographer Patrick Heuveline. It provides an overview of living arrangements in

contemporary Cambodia from childhood to marriage. In his chapter entitled “Households and

Family Processes” the author emphasizes the flexibility of living arrangements in Cambodia,

with one exception – living alone – which remains a rarity. Another pattern of particular note is

that adult mortality rather than divorce or migration is the major cause of children being

separated from their parents. This observation has much in common with the conclusion reached

by Ovesen and Trankell’s in their chapter on health, namely that patterns of mortality have

remained largely unchanged despite the country’s economic development. This is especially the

case in rural areas of the country, illuminating once more, enduring rural-urban inequalities,

which are identified throughout the handbook. The final chapter in the section is entitled by

“Digital Technologies in Contemporary Cambodia”. In it, Jayson Richardson reviews the state of

Cambodia’s technology infrastructure, educational initiatives, and e-government efforts. Having

explored recent trends in these areas, Richardson turns to the impact of the online environment

for political developments in country with questions of freedom of expression and the visibility

of citizens’ voices taking centre stage. As such, his chapter, like many others we feature, sit

across multiple section themes of the handbook.

Cultural Currents

In the fifth and final section of the handbook, Cultural Currents, contributors not only

consolidate a range of themes highlighted in preceding chapters, but also expand its scope

towards contentious questions of Khmer tradition, authenticity and identity in the 21st Century.

In the first chapter “Ethnic Identities in Cambodia”, Alvin Lim provisions us with a historical

overview of the Khmer ethnic majority and its Cham, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai ethnic

minorities. Against a so-called “idealized model of the ‘authentic’ Khmer”, he raises a host of

markedly visible trends including escalating hostility and exclusion of the ethnic Vietnamese

community and the rise of Okhna as the latest expression of patron-client relationships between

the Chinese business elite and the Khmer political leadership. Next up is the chapter “Violence

and Memorialization in Cambodia” by Savina Sirik and James Tyner which attends to the legacy

politics of the Khmer Rouge period. In it, the authors allude to the social injustice that comes

from what they see as the historical erasure of Cambodia’s victims of the Khmer Rouge – that by

concentrating memorialization almost entirely on the official sites of Tuol Sleng and Choeung

Ek, the vast number of “unmarked site” of violence across Cambodia exist only in the memories

of those who survived rather than the national and international consciousness. In the following

chapter, Alexandra Kent moves the reader to consider the religious history of Cambodia with a

particular emphasis on its post-genocidal manifestations. In her chapter, “A Shifting Universe –

Religion and Moral Order in Cambodia”, the anthropologist includes, for example, how monks

have become increasingly vocal in protesting election irregularities and forced evictions (both

issues covered in a multitude of earlier chapters). As she writes, “after a period of quiescence and

timidity in Cambodia’s recovering sangha, the country is now seeing a young, internet savvy,

post-war generation come of age and there are signs that the government’s mixture of protection,

patronage and menace may no longer be working to control either monks or the laity”. Courtney

Work’s chapter entitled “The Persistent Presence of Cambodian Spirits: Contemporary

Knowledge Production in Cambodia” goes on to explain how struggles for forest and land-use

rights are also shaped by the summoning of spirits. These are spirits that still, more broadly,

influence community life in Cambodia. On the topic of living heritage, Jo Gillespie turns to

“Natural and Cultural Heritage in Cambodia”. From the monuments of Angkor, the Tonle Sap, to

the Cardamom Mountains, Gillespie’s chapter demonstrates the dynamic and often tempestuous

relationship between the articulation of Khmer national identity, heritage conservation and

development imperatives. Linking to this, and an earlier chapter by Sharpley and McGrath on

tourism, the following chapter is titled “Destination Cambodia: A Volunteer Tourism Boom” by

Tess Guiney. In it, Guiney questions the harm of volunteer tourism organized through NGOs on

account of a lack of training, reinforcement of Western superiority and the fostering of

dependency. This is especially the case for orphanage tourism, which has been met with

sustained criticism for its damage to children and its potential for exploitation. The chapter

encompasses however, a concern for positive impacts of the trend towards volunteerism in

Cambodia, including the (re)building of physical infrastructure and the possibility for fostering

mutually beneficial relationships.

In the penultimate chapter of the book, Joanna Wolfarth presents “Addressing the Contemporary:

Recent Trends and Debates in Cambodian Visual Art”. Amongst other things, Wolfarth

documents the work of contemporary Khmer artists in exploring questions of social justice and

gender inequalities. She discusses the artwork of Khvay Samnang, for example, on violent urban

development in Phnom Penh, notably Boeung Kak Lake. As our cover image of the book tries to

capture, photo-journalism is playing a significant role in bringing social injustices to light

nationally and internationally. The chapter also speaks to motivations of “Khmerness” and

authenticity woven through the visual art world in Cambodia. According to Wolfarth, the French

colonial period promoted the idea that Cambodians should learn traditional forms of decorative

arts – largely based on the copying of authentic and traditional art forms. Foreign scholars, she

argues, have often been “blinded to the idea that present-day Cambodians were capable of

producing original art work”. Tourists too often expect a certain “Khmerness” to be represented

either in relation to the Angkorian temples or to the genocide. The integration of Cambodian art

into the global art market has brought some changes – while the art speaks for and to Cambodia,

the choice of mediums used by contemporary artists speaks both to local and global audiences. In

contrast to Wolfarth’s chapter which evidences a growing cultural hybridity of the visual arts,

Catherine Grant’s chapter on “Finding new ground: Maintaining and Transforming Traditional

Music” emphasizes governmental efforts towards safeguarding “authentic” traditions from the

pre-war era. This political energy, she argues, is driven by a concern for the “contamination” and

“corruption” of Cambodian traditional genres. Yet as Grant suggests in the context of cultural

endangerment, “attempting to preserve an ‘unchanging’ or ‘authentic’ tradition in a fast-

changing contemporary world is not always the most promising avenue for sustainability”.

Together then, the final chapters by Wolfarth and Grant bring to the fore the ongoing politics of

revitalizing artistic practices and traditional cultural expressions in contemporary Cambodia.

Conclusion

We want to conclude this introductory chapter by returning to the image that graces the front of

this edited volume. It is often said that one should not judge a book by its cover. Fair enough. We

only hope that the collection we have compiled can live up to the potential that is represented by

the image on its cover. The family’s gravitational pull around the fire speaks to warmth,

cohesion and resilience in the face of relentless accumulative practices of global capitalism

which have led to land grabbing in their village. The spirit of resolve in the face of incredible

adversity is contemporary Cambodia to us. Yet the metaphor ‘fire’ also evokes for us other, less

positive, associations that can be found in the following pages. Domestic violence, often referred

to by Cambodians as ‘fire in the house’, remains one of the most enduring problems in

contemporary Cambodian society, but it is a phenomenon that is deeply connected to the

multitude of other forms of violence that are intimately woven into its agonizing history (Brickell

2008, 2015). Much like the equivocal symbolism associated with fire, Cambodia is a place of

paradoxes, of contradictions, of inconsistencies, ambiguities and incongruities that fuel our

passion for the county and its people.

Cognizant with the girl’s contemplative gaze into the fire, it is to the growing demographic of

young people to whom the opportunities and burdens of contemporary Cambodia will ultimately

fall. Along with Cambodia’s other sons and daughters, what she does through the passage of

time will shape the course of her country’s future. But nothing is assured. Will Cambodia be

once more consumed in the darkness of an apocalypse wrought by inequality, or will there be a

dawn of something new, where an innovative and viable egalitarian ethic is inaugurated? While

we can never forget the past, in response to the epigraph that opens this chapter, we maintain that

the embers that continue to smolder in contemporary Cambodian society don’t have to represent

the blazes of turmoil. Instead they could serve as a metaphor for the desire that animates social

change, and perhaps even the source of ignition that we saw in the run up to the 2013 election.

Of course it would be foolish to try and confine the “tragedy of Cambodian history” to its past

(Chandler 1993), and this volume will make very clear that calamity and misfortune continue

into the present. Yet the real question for Cambodia is whether its future will be one where the

embers of strife continue to sear the soul of its people and Reahu is allowed to swallow the sun,

or one where Cambodians will collectively rise from the ashes of a traumatic past and embrace

the epithet of Hanuman as Sankata Mochana, the destroyer of demons.

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