It’s been a couple of days since I left Battambang, drove to Kampong Cham, and am back in Phnom Penh now. You can hear the campaigning trucks all over the country, in the cities, on the major national roads etc (yeah, those insanely loud speaker phones that kill your ear drums and destroy the pleasure of sound in general). It’s hot. Provincial elections will be commencing June 3rd (?), so just under two weeks to go.
Besides what you read in the newspaper about Sam Rainsy Party members complaining about having difficulties from the local authorities and their constant struggle for fair campaigning, the opposition party is facing much more basic problems other than the higher influential spheres getting in the way. Theres a desperate lack of funding, this includes the basic necessities such as fuel for the motorbikes, truck rental, audio equipment, posters, food and everything in between. A small portion of rice with some veggies/beef is the only thing energizing hundreds of party members and supporters that spend countless of hours in the excruciating heat, elderly on the verge of fainting.
All these heartbreaking efforts for change are being immensely challenged by a great number of factors: the populations deeply routed fear of change, the authorities questionable (least to say) restraining, financial issues and much more. However, there’s also a very powerful drive led by many courageous men and females that are determined to reach their goal and seemingly nothing can stop them.
Much more footage in the works, videos and such are en route. Stay tuned.
PS. Thanks to Micky Wiswedel for lending me the tilt-shift. Word up!
Six AM breakfast in Phnom Penh followed by a 4 hour drive up North to Battambang lands us in Koh Kroloh district of the province. The more off-road our journey gets the closer we get to the village, where landless people are having their sesame crops destroyed by what is being recalled as “the others”.
The land we stand on used to be a forest occupied by the Khmer Rouge, before integrating with the Royal Government Forces in 1997, and is now being seized by army chiefs. Despite the fact that the land is state owned, meaning that it is available for social concessions- for landless people, high ranking officials as well as private parties secretly want to keep this land as private. The issue has been brought up by landless farmers who have came from neighbouring districts in hope of harvesting state land as a mean for their livelihoods. The government on the provincial level has refused to come in and take control of the situation, leaving actions taken on this land highly questionable and evidently harmful for the landless farmers who have been residing the area for a number of years now.
After meeting with the farmers and investigating the damaged fields, Sochua, her team and the victims were brought to the local police station to personally discuss land issues with the authorities.
