Angkor Wat explains a lost love in election

Since 2003, the Cambodian GDP has grown at an average of 7% per year. Life expectancy has risen from 59 to 63 over the same period and more people have access to clean water. But when the official results are announced in a couple of weeks, you will find that the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has lost 22 or 23 of its 90 seats. It has enough to retain a majority, but the opposition party will have won about 56 seats, whilst believing that it actually won more if not most.

For a few days over the election, I was in Siem Reap, and parts of it encapsulates why some people have fallen out of love with the CPP.

Who could say no?

Siem Reap, home to Angkor Wat, has some of the most luxurious hotels I have ever seen and restaurants which would be expensive in London. And like Phnom Penh, you will see large 4x4 Lexus and Range Rovers dominating the roads in amongst people on motos. For a province in which the Tonle Sap floods annually, the trickle down of these riches remain dry; Siem Reap is the second poorest province in Cambodia. It is a place where 2 million internationals come to visit but in which local people leave for Thailand in order to find work.

This juxtaposition of garish wealth and enduring poverty does not go unnoticed. During the election campaign in Phnom Penh, it was noticeable how many expensive cars also had CPP stickers or flags on them. The symbolism of who would benefit from a CPP victory stark. For some, the distaste runs deeper than a gap in wealth, being borne from a sense that Cambodia itself is being sold for others to profit from.

People queueing up to vote in a polling station (a school). You could vote from 7am - 3pm. At 4pm, it started raining - impeccable timing. 

Sokimex is a company ubiquitous because of the number of petrol stations that it has dotted on the highways. It has also managed to secure a 99-year lease on managing, and taking large revenues from, the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park. People find it strange that the building that appears on their flag can be leased to a private company to make huge profits from. 

In my area of work here, education, one statistic stood out for me. Between 2009 and 2012, there was only 1 province of 24 in which primary net enrolment fell (% of children aged 6-11 enrolled in primary school). That province was Siem Reap. When local people look around at all of the wealth, they do not feel that they or pubic services are benefiting. (Plus, they complain about the price of petrol. Clinton's mantra could actually have been "It's the price of petrol, stupid"). 

Just voted and got the ink to prove it. My tuk tuk driver friend was able to wash the ink off quite easily, which caused some to joke that he wasn't actually Khmer (because he hadn't been able to vote). Others found it a more serious issue because of potential double voting, which has been alleged.

When in the Angkor Wat Park, my bicycle got a flat tyre. A tuk tuk driver offered to put my bike and me in his tuk tuk and drive me to the nearest bicycle repair shop, which are not common in an archaeological park. After deflecting his questions about who I thought would win or which leader I liked more, I asked him who he voted for. He told me that before he "loved" the CPP, but now, he voted for the opposition. He was not happy, he wanted change. 

The man was speaking Khmer to me, so he knew the word that he was using, and he deliberately used the word love. The jilted lover that is the CPP now has to decide whether to go it alone or change its ways, and the new mistress (Cambodian National Rescue Party) will have to decide whether to push for a full-blown messy divorce based on a belief that they won the election or be content to wait for five years. 

Make love, not war. Supporters from Funcinpec and Cambodian National Rescue Party shake hands during a parade before the election. Funcinpec used to be a coalition partner of the CPP, has royalist links and lost all of its seats in this year's election. 

I think most are hoping that both sides choose their latter options. 

Lots of love folks

Gordon

Postscript added 31.07.13
My last sentence should have read:
I think some are hoping that both sides choose their latter options, whilst for others, it's not just a case of whether the CNRP accepts a CPP government or not, but whether the people will accept a CPP government or not.

Speaking to some more people today, admittedly in CNRP hotbed country (Phnom Penh), they say that everybody now knows that the CNRP won the election, so if the people have asked for change, change is what should happen. The CNRP has taken the first step to rejecting the CPP's unofficial results by releasing their own provisional results showing they won at least  63 of the 123 seats. Enough to form a government.

The more support shown for the CNRP, the bolder more people are becoming. Weeks ago people would have been frightened of speaking out, but now they feel that they are the ones in the majority and cannot be silenced. When asked about possible violent repercussions if the CNRP demands CPP hands over power, they said that the CNRP must not back down.

A New Year surprise in Siem Reap

I had heard about Pub Street in Siem Reap before seeing it and it evoked hazy memories of alcohol soaked holidays in Gran Canaria and Crete when I was 20. I feared that I when I saw it in its (drunken, pink) flesh, it could be enough to make me ashamed of my own kind.

It isn't subtle and certainly is full of tourists wanting a drink, but it is more a street of restaurants and bars where you can sit and relax than pubs full of ripened Westerners belching lager. But this was in August, and we were going there for Hogmanay (New Year's Eve to non-Scottish readers), so any kind of transformation could occur.

Pub (St)reet, Siem Reap. There is also one on the road next to it with flashing neon arrows pointing the way just in case you were drunk enough not to find it. 

Apart from wealthier people in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodian youth are usually home by 9pm, the family reins proving strong. The importance of the family also means that traditional  celebrations take place at the family home rather than out in the streets. Maybe it is because "International New Year", Khmer New Year is in April, is not a traditional holiday that the celebrations for this holiday weren't traditional either.

We came out of the Old Market at 10pm and to witness a mass of Cambodians standing, dancing and singing in a main street. Occasional waves of cheers and screams rose up over our heads for no obvious reason. Maybe the crescendos were acting like valves releasing the swelling excitement of a public party that Cambodians didn't know how to control.

And this isn't even Pub Street! The view from Blue Pumpkin Cafe

We squirmed into the upstairs of Blue Pumpkin Cafe for ice cream (I had beer) and heard the screams and cheers rising again, prompting us to rush to the window in case they were for Psy performing Gangnam Style live, only to see that nothing had changed. They were just cheering because they wanted to.

And it was this transformation that was astounding. Cambodian behaviour could be stereotyped by rigid rules, family first and no public displays of emotion but here were hundreds of kids aged 16 - 25 whose kindred spirits might be those who danced to Bill Haley and the Comets in the 1950s. Home by 9? These kids were rocking round the clock past midnight.

Check out the 20 sec video that I took: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h91X3kB0hc

Easing through the excitement, we turned the corner into Pub Street to be met by a wall of people and noise. Cambodians were hanging over balconies, standing on pavement-bar tables and jumping up and down to the music. Then we were soaked, proof that young Cambodians knew that some traditions, throwing water during celebrations, were worth keeping.

The Cambodian youngsters in Siem Reap were probably ones who had gone to Siem Reap for the holiday meaning they are wealthier ones and more likely to be exposed to Western ways. Rigid rules are relaxed somewhat when you are not playing in your own town where it can reflect on your family. But this wasn't just a party of wealthy Cambodian tourists, I saw parents with children, very likely from Siem Reap, standing there taking it all in too.


Cambodians had retaken Pub Street, found their own expression of partying and made it a New Year to remember.

From L to R: Khmer guy in hooped polo shirt, Claire (co-author of this wonderful blog), Trish (or Pat, my Mum's cousin who was beginning a cycle ride from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville the next morning at 8am...), Alison (Trish's/Pat's friend - also doing the cycle), Sam (VSO vol and author of Hand-painted signs of Kratie), Gilly (VSO vol, muse for Sam's book), Owen (Sam's brother who was visiting). Gordon took the pic.

Sua s'dey ch'nam tmey (hello new year - what Cambodians say instead of Happy New Year)

Gordon