California Rep Meets with SRP Lawmakers

Wednesday, January 05, 2011. Phnom Penh Post. Thomas Miller.

Laura Richardson, a United States Congresswoman representing California, met Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and other government officials during a visit to Cambodia last week, ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said yesterday.

She also met with opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmakers Yim Sovann and Mu Sochua at the US Embassy, Yim Sovann said, where they briefed her on human rights and political challenges, including “threats and intimidation toward members of parliament.”

During the December 28 to January 1 trip, Richardson, whose US constituency includes thousands of Cambodian migrants, also toured the temples of Angkor and viewed US-funded temple preservation efforts, a US Embassy spokesman said.

People Have the Power

The Cost of Free Elections. Economist Video.

During her recent trip to the US, Sochua had the opportunity to speak with The Economist on suing the prime minister and how to balance human rights and tradition. Watch the video here.

Cambodians and Facebook, A Love Story

Thursday, January 6th, 2011 at 3:04 pm. Read the Full Article on VOAnews.

Bun Tharum, Phnom Penh

This week Facebook announced $500 million in investment from Goldman Sachs. This put the value of Facebook at $50 billion, affirming its popularity among many Internet users around the world.

Cambodia is no different, and in the past six months, the number of Facebook users here has skyrocketed.

Cambodians use Facebook to “seek fun, socialize and maintain friendship,” according to data from an online survey by Royal University of Phnom Penh. We now have made Facebook the most visited social networking site in the country.

Leang Chumsoben, a government official in Kampong Chhnang’s provincial administration, has been on Facebook since 2008, using it as a way to stay connected with his sister, a university student in Phnom Penh.

“We can express feelings more openly than before,” he told me in an e-mail. He had recently shared a news article with his 600 Facebook friends reporting on a local newspaper, a new song about “Or Phnom Penh Euy” currently banned by the Ministry of Information.

Leang Chumsoben is far from alone in his Facebooking.

According to new research by RUPP’s department of media and communications, there are nearly 200,000 Cambodian Facebook users. The majority of Cambodians who use the Internet are on Facebook, researchers found in their 2010 Cambodian Communications Review.

In an online survey of 468 Cambodian Facebook users, CCR found that the site “has increasingly become integrated into Cambodian Internet users’ daily experience.” “More than half of the users surveyed used the site at least once a day and another one-third used it several times a week,” the review found.

For organizations, groups and individuals, the site has been used to exchange ideas and mobilize supporters in a number of ways, from branding and businesses to celebrity and politics.

A prominent parliamentarian for the Sam Rainsy Party, Mu Sochua, maintains a Facebook page, where she has 1,450 “friends.” The 56-year-old lawmaker uses the site to spread messages among her supporters more quickly than word of mouth. Four days after the bridge tragedy at Diamond Island in November, 2010, she used Facebook to promote her own blog post “A Nation in Grief – A Nation Transformed.”

“When I was facing the courts in Cambodia, it was the most efficient means and costing
nothing to put out the appeal and the response has been very rewarding,” Mu Sochua responded to my email interview, suggesting that Facebook “is a very powerful political tool when
one has to mobilize thousands or millions to join a cause. Young people contribute to politics in so many different ways and facebook and other forms of social media is changing politics.”

 

Rising Rape Data Call for New Strategies

Rising Rape Data Call for New Strategy  to Stop Sexual Violence

5 January, 2011. Phnom Penh

Letter to the Editor. The Cambodia Daily

Rape Continued to Rise in’ 10, NGOs , Police Say was one of the stories The Cambodia Daily ran on Monday. In the same issue, another story (“Two Arrested for Gang Rape in Poipet City”) revealed the case of a 26 year-old Karaoke singer who was gang raped. The five men savagely took turns one by one to commit the most heinous crimes till the early hours of the morning in this Cambodian border town.

The case is a chilling reminder to us that 2011 is another challenging year in terms of finding solutions to sexual assault. It is clear that the campaign against violence against women must go beyond November-December’s 16 Days Campaign- the global campaign to stop violence against women.

Women, children and the weak members of our society are paying a very high price from the weak rule of law; sexual assault does not only inflict physical damage but the psychological and mental scars continue till justice is found. 

Victims of sexual assault often remain socialized into not believing in their own sense of worth, are trapped into believing that they are the main cause of the problem and are put to shame by the society.

Victims who work in the entertainment industry are often brutalized or made to face further shame by having to prove their innocence because of the low value society places on their profession.

For most victims of sexual assault, the road to justice is blocked from the first step when police report is inaccurate or delayed and evidence of rape is “insufficient”. Victims and their families are coerced into accepting compensation, reconciliation with the rapists and to withdraw their complaint and even to marry their attackers. This practice reinforces the victims’ sense of self-doubt and   the rapists’ sense of power. A legal system that is rotten is forcing people to find their own solution for justice, however detrimental it is to the victims. 

When statistics show that rape and gang rape are on the rise, we need to review our strategies to stop violence against women. We need to use the gender accountability yard stick, demand real legal reforms, monitor the practice of law in the court rooms, and get the issue on the upcoming local and parliamentary election agenda.

Violence against women is not a “soft” issue.

– Mu Sochua, MP Sam Rainsy Party