Op-ed day 7: The Basics Lose in the Government’s Gambling in Cambodia --by Dave

The 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge genocide arguably left Cambodia a country reeling like a person who fell hard, only to awaken years later with no family for support, no ability to eat or speak for itself, nowhere to live, and having been taught next to nothing – a clean slate in the worst way for a country that could otherwise know the relative prosperity of its Asian neighbors. Against those odds, some positive changes have occurred thanks to billions in aid and the arduous work of multilaterals, NGO’s, and INGO’s.   For that very reason, it is tough to see a naked, filthy child sitting feet away from the edge of the treacherous main road packed with tourist buses headed to Siem Reap.  I am one of those tourists, and I just can’t get the image out of my head.

That child is joined by 33% of Cambodians who are under the age of 15[1], and nearly 50% of the entire population is also under the age of 20[2].  The good news is that reasonable growth and urbanization rates can benefit the flood of young Cambodians looking for work in urban areas, fostering education and the growth of technical sector skills owned by Cambodians themselves.  More broadly, the Cambodian government appears to embrace the CMDG framework and is currently on target to achieve at least 3 of the 9 goals by 2015[3].

What troubles me, however, are the CMDG’s not on target to be met, like under-five and maternal mortality rates. The CPP-owned government spends only $119 per capita on health, half the amount Vietnam allocates and a third of what Thailand spends[4]. Infant mortality in Cambodia is also more than 300%[5] higher than its neighbors.  Access to clean water is still a major problem, and the risk of malaria, dengue, diarrhea and other diseases remains very high[6]. 

These are basic problems that could have been resolved years ago were it not for a thinly veiled authoritarian regime meticulously ridding itself of NGO’s interested in helping Cambodian people in Cambodia.  What’s more, the problems of childhood survival say nothing of the human rights, gender equality, and freedom of expression issues, among so many others, awaiting 5 million young Cambodians trying to find that future.  Thanks to the Khmer Rouge, progress towards a productive civil society was wiped away in 1975, and it has been an uphill battle ever since in a country forced to start from scratch as if it had no memory at all.  Cambodia is now riding a wave of relative prosperity and growth, but at what cost?  When a third of the population is at risk in order to make that growth happen, it’s a fragile house of cards.

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[1] 2011 World Population Sheet, Population Reference Bureau
[2] Cambodia country context summary, www.un.org.kh, retrieved November 27, 2011.
[3] Ibid, End Poverty by 2015.
[4] Countries per Global Health Observatory reporting 2009, World Health Organization, www.who.int, retrieved November 27, 2011.
[5] Ibid 1. 
[6] The World Factbook, www.cia.gov, retrieved November 27, 2011