Interior Minister Sar Kheng chairs a meeting yesterday in Phnom Penh regarding an ongoing nationwide illegal fishing crackdown, Photo Supplied |
Kheng addresses illegal fishing before elections
Phnom Penh Post | 20 April 2017
Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday called on authorities to
ramp up a crackdown on illegal fishing ahead of upcoming commune
elections, prompting one fisheries activist to question whether the
action would continue after it ceased to be politically expedient.
In his remarks, given at a meeting at the Ministry of Interior, Kheng
appeared to link success in the nationwide campaign to victory for the
ruling Cambodian People’s Party at the ballot box in June.
“If the situation to handle fishing crimes is not good, more or less,
it will impact the election; therefore we need to have a mission to
handle the problem,” Kheng said.
“From today until the election period, there are only 47 days . . .
therefore [we] we need to rally” to solve the problem, he added.
Also speaking at yesterday’s meeting, National Police chief Neth
Savoeun said that he was not satisfied with the uneven results of the
crackdown, which started in December. While some areas around the Tonle
Sap showed decreases in illegal fishing, he said, the problem had persisted or increased in others.
Savoeun argued that the push would not prove successful until the
“masterminds” behind illegal fishing in the Tonle Sap are brought to
justice. Meanwhile, officials who are “involved with [the] perpetrators,
they will be punished in compliance with the law”, he added.
Between December 8 and April 17, more than 700 raids
were undertaken against illegal fishermen, though only 30 were sent to
court, according to statistics presented at yesterday’s meeting.
Youk Senglong, the deputy executive director of Fisheries Action
Coalition Team, said that anecdotal evidence suggested the crackdown was
having a positive effect, but questioned whether the Interior
Ministry’s commitment will carry on after the commune elections.
However, he added, it was “better to wait until after the election to
see” if the crackdown continues apace.
The small number of prosecutions, on the other hand, could prove a political liability, Senglong said.
“There is a connection with popularity. [Authorities think] if they
send many people to court, they might mobilise many people not to vote
for the CPP,” he said. However, he said, rather than an aggressive
stance, it would be the lack of concrete action that hurt the ruling
party in the eyes of the law-abiding public.
“The majority of the public don’t commit crimes,” he said.
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