Reform That Never Is

“First, you need to use a mirror to look at yourself. Second, you have to take a bath to clean your body. Third, you have to scrub your body while bathing if it is plagued by dirty things. Fourth, you have to heal your disease.”

“If this can’t be done by all of you, I can’t wait to die with all of you.”

Hun Sen in an epic six-hour address to his personal interest groups in September 2013

“I will not make that mistake again.”

Hun Sen vowing in 2001 after admitting a loss vast tracts of the country’s forests.

“Corruption and illegal activities in the forestry sector were eliminated with the implementation of rigorous measures and the full support of [the army], the police [and] the authorities.”

Hun Sen declaring to a meeting of Asean environment ministers in Phnom Penh in 2001 that logging in the country had been “eliminated” in the first two years of the CPP’s second term in office.

“If the logging companies do not abide by the order, we will remove their license... If you dare to [disobey the order] and if I do not then remove your forest concession and close your factory, I will cut my own head off.”

Hun Sen at the opening of a road project in Kampot province in December 2001.

“If in two years we cannot succeed in any reforms, I will resign as prime minister... Before I step down as prime minister, I will sack all those who are corrupt.”

Hun Sen pledging in January 1999, in a plea for the return of aid money from foreign donors.

Now, the questions for professionals and intellectuals who are not in any personal interest group are:

1.    How much more benefit of the doubt anyone is entitled to receive?

2.    How much more benefit of the doubt one can give away before being considered not so professional or not so intellectual?

UBA

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