Company
Deeply traumatized by a long period of war, including four years of one of the worst genocidal regimes in contemporary history, Cambodian society is still chasing its ghosts. The last twenty years have been marked by the trials of the main Khmer Rouge leaders, which seem to have been completed recently. But the government's unwillingness to bring these war criminals to justice (it took considerable international pressure to set up an organization to oversee these trials in 1999) and the disturbing presence of former Khmer Rouge at high levels of government for many years have fuelled the division of society. Most of Pol Pot's butchers have now been brought to justice, and most have died of old age. Of course, the trials have been very controversial, pointing to their slow pace and the small number of defendants, leaving many Khmer Rouge free. Many amnesties have been granted in a spirit of "national reconciliation". But drawing a line under the past, without forgetting it, was undoubtedly necessary. In any case, the wounds are still fresh, and it will take decades for the scars to fade.
A country with a homogeneous population, more than 90% of which is ethnic Khmer, Cambodia has developed over the centuries a true national feeling, which has helped it to maintain a high level of social cohesion despite the tragic events it has suffered. This cohesion is however tested by the ravages of corruption at all levels, which widens the differences between an increasingly wealthy elite that does not hesitate to show off its possessions, and the vast majority of villagers who have almost nothing to live on
Policy
Cambodia is a kingdom, whose current ruler is King Norodom Sihamoni. Much less beloved by his subjects than his father King Norodom Sihanouk, the father of the country's independence and its leader for many years, his power is only symbolic. The de facto leader is Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power continuously since 1998 (having also held the post between 1995 and 1993). The kingdom is officially a democracy, but Hun Sen has long locked up access to power with the help of an elite that enriches itself in the process. In the 2018 parliamentary elections, the prime minister won by dissolving the main opposition party and throwing some of its activists in jail. Press freedom is almost non-existent, and Hun Sen even has an elite brigade of 2,000 men entirely under his command and independent of the regular army. He heads a clan whose fortune is estimated at between $500 million and $1 billion. The distribution of concessions to numerous large groups, notably Chinese, squandering the country's natural resources to the highest bidder, allows him to remain at the head of the country while feeding his personal fortune. Inspired by the Chinese political model - one-party dictatorship and ultra-liberal economy - Hun Sen has not hesitated to muzzle the opposition by regularly arresting his main opponents. Today, the Cambodian People's Party is effectively a single party. In every village, small town or district of Phnom Penh, you will see his party's offices everywhere, but never those of his opponents. This political climate has brought Hun Sen closer to Beijing: the Chinese government is increasing its investments in Cambodia and has become the Prime Minister's preferred interlocutor. Opponents and activists denounce this economic "colonization" by China.
Economy
Far from the golden age of the Khmer empire, the small kingdom of Cambodia is struggling to recover from years of colonization, followed by decades of war. The Khmer Rouge regime dismantled the economy, reduced industry to nothing, and systematically eliminated its elites. Since the turn of the century, economic growth has been strong, but the country was starting from a very low base. In 2018, Cambodia was still the 111th largest economy in the world, relative to GDP, out of 198 countries. The country is a member of the World Trade Organization, which in theory obliges it to adopt a relatively strict competition and investment framework. But small-scale trade is still governed by an ancestral system for which the framework does not apply. The vagaries of the climate force many peasants to migrate to the cities to find work in factories, often in conditions akin to forced labor.
Fishing and agriculture account for 70% of the employment of the Cambodian population. The main crops, such as rice and soybeans, are primarily used to feed the population. The country is also a major producer of rubber from the rubber tree, which is used for export. Fishing, which employs nearly 3 million people, is an important sector for Cambodia, which is the4th
largest exporter of freshwater fish in the world. The country's many rivers, as well as the Tonle Sap Lake, whose waters flood during the rainy season and are full of fish, are the sources of this natural wealth, unfortunately threatened by global warming and the government's environmental policies. The exploitation of the forests, the first natural resource, is also a blow to this endangered environment. The kingdom also lives from the textile industry, first industry of the country. Finally, thanks to the temples of Angkor, tourism became, before the pandemic of covid, the second source of income of the country after agriculture. But the influx of tourists, poorly controlled, has created many problems and is still a source of debate.Finally, Cambodia is still largely dependent on foreign powers. In 2011, international aid still represented 60% of the state budget. Many development projects are initiated by Europe, Japan, China, or South Korea. On the other hand, entire sectors of the economy are increasingly controlled by foreign conglomerates, particularly Chinese.
