A broken system...

Hun Sen is Cambodia's Prime Minister. He is the longest standing head of state in the world and is known for his denial of free elections and promotion of human-rights violations.

Yesterday I watched Air Force One leave Cambodia with a brilliant sunset as its backdrop. I could not help but think about how that plane is so much different than the planes that flew over Cambodia three decades ago. This one represented a fair government, free elections and a desire to govern fairly. It seemed fitting that the plane was flying away from a country that would not want any of those things in the first place.  

In the late 1960's and early 1970's U.S. President Richard Nixon initiated a "secret" bombing campaign along the Vietnam - Cambodia boarder. Though official death rates are unknown, it is estimated that the United States killed between 30,000 - 100,000 Cambodian farmers as innocent as they were poor. While the U.S. bombs dropped throughout Cambodia, the young Khmer Rouge soldiers were using the violence to feed the flames of their cause. A revolution was born from anger and outrage and the Khmer Rouge grew into a violent and radical militia that would overthrow the Cambodian leadership, close off the country to the outside world and murder most of the educated class.

Much of the genocide can be blamed on American policy but little of Cambodia's current state can be blamed on anyone else besides the current leadership.

There is no genocide in history that has debilitated like the one that happened in Cambodia. Now, thirty years after the genocide, Cambodia is far less developed than it was in the 1950's and 60's - far less. Imagine making that statement about the United States. Cambodia operates under poor leadership, protracted corruption and an unresponsive government.
 
On Monday and Tuesday I took my students to a relocation community outside of Phnom Penh. In January 2012 nearly 1,000 people were forced from their homes in the city and forced to the province. They were given nothing but a blue tarp, a week's worth of rice and some poorly functioning shallow wells. It became a notorious community that bred disease, hopelessness and depression. The organization we worked with is in the process of building homes for each of the families that were displaced. They are providing hope and dignity to people who deserve it and their work is unquestionably just. However, I was struck by the thought that, in much of Cambodia, it is the NGO's who are doing the work of the government.

This village was a small example of the bleak situation that so many Cambodians face. They are under a leadership that expects NGO's and missionaries to take care of the people while they take their cut of the aid money flowing into the nation. This is an ugly situation that is exacerbated by a Prime Minister who refuses to allow free elections and discourages education in fear that education for Cambodians would mean forcing the government to be more transparent.

There is a cycle of brokenness that is so complex and entrenched that it is hard to explain in words. Corruption that leads to poverty, poverty that leads to violence and violence that leads to despair. Phnom Penh may have paved roads, a flourishing restaurant scene and growing middle class but much of the nation is suffering under a government that refuses to act responsibly.

The genocide that I mentioned at the start was just the beginning of the nation's suffering. There has been little evidence that the government is willing to help its people and little indication that they care what the outside world thinks. This week, U.S. President Barack Obama must have felt the same frustration we felt when he met with Cambodian leadership. They refused to allow media into the meetings, ignored Obama's speech about fair elections and justified their own human-rights abuses by comparing their actions to abuses happening in Burma.

Before the arrival of the President and other foreign dignitaries. Roads were closed, protesters were imprisoned, beggars and street-children were gathered and locked away and the city streets were polished to perfection. It was a perfect microcosm of this nation. Beautiful on the outside but full of corrosion behind the scenes.

I am blessed to have a U.S. seal on my Passport but even more blessed knowing the truth that we serve the least of these because they deserve that dignity.

For More Reading:

Hun Sen, Cambodia's Prime Minister

Obama's time in Cambodia

Forced Evictions