Pseng-Pseng
Stay Put
“A
country needs effective institutions because it wants to promote justice, rule
of law, sustainable growth and development, continuity and smooth transition,
all of which are difficult to achieve when the country depends largely on
certain individuals.”
Cambodian Economic Association President Heng Dyna, 25 March
2014
“It [running former Waterworks] was something
like a family affair, something like a group affair, where the leader of the
institution had his followers, a group working for the profit of the group.”
Former Phnom Penh
Water Supply Authority Director-General Ek Sonn Chan, 28 October 2009
The Cambodian Economic Association
president is absolutely correct about the reason why a country needs effective
institutions. Nonetheless, the question is: does the CPP want effective
institutions so that the country can have those niceties for all?
Heng Dyna is right again
that the country that depends on certain individuals will find it difficult to
achieve those niceties. It is indeed almost impossible, especially when
building effective institutions in effect means a transfer of power from
individuals to institutions, or a curb of individual power.
Thus, what kind of
administration does Cambodia have? Or more to the point, has there really been a
shift of power from individuals to institutions? Or, has the country been
building institutions that are strong enough to hold any individual responsible
for their actions?
In fact, it has. It is
not as hard as the search for MH370 to discover the Phnom Penh Water Supply
Authority (PPWSA) that has transformed from a family or personal interest group
affair to the one that serves all well. It has won so many accolades.
Nonetheless, the credit
for the success story belongs to political power and will of Funcinpec – not
the CPP. The PPWSA reform began in September 1993 with a full backing of the
then Phnom Penh governor Chhim Siek Leng, a close confidant of the First Prime Minister
of Funcinpec, who was a behind-the-scene promoter and protector of the process.
Fresh from the 1993 election upset, many CPP powerbrokers at the time thought
the victor was invincible, and were prepared to go along with whatever
victorious Funcinpec could come up. That was how and why the then PPWSA
director general could withstand all types of resistance and violent threats to
the reform and himself personally.
If the CPP were
genuinely keen on building strong institutions for the country, why would they
not replicate the PPWSA reform that many acknowledge as a success story? They
took a full control of the country after winning the 1997 street fight against
Funcinpec; nothing has stood between them and whatever they want to do. If
there were any serious attempt of institution building, the process and
outcomes would be paraded with pride.
The reality is that there
has not been any reform beyond gimmick since the PPWSA. If anything, there has
been a concerted effort to consolidate individual powers. Commerce Minister Sun
Chanthol prides himself on submitting his ministry restructure direct to the
CPP prime minister for approval, by-passing the usual Council of Ministers
channel; he says it is to relieve the Council’s workload. Cham Prasith takes
his family and personal interest group with him to the Ministry of Industry and
Handicraft after decades of considerable harvest at the Ministry of Commerce.
In the Foreign Affairs turf, Hor Nam Hong, his three sons, and his personal
interest group have turned nepotism and family power into an art form and cash.
It is hence very likely that the PPWSA success story will remain a one-off
wonder for some time yet.
For the CPP prime
minister who must protect his personal interests and those of his personal
interest groups, he would need strong institutions like a bullet in his head. He
needs all to stay put for the sake of his stability. The last thing Hun Sen
wants is his zealous and somewhat misguided supporters walking off the lever to
build what they believe to be effective institutions for Cambodia.
Ung
Bun Ang
04iv14
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