{"id":6177,"date":"2021-01-07T23:15:57","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T23:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=147442"},"modified":"2021-01-07T23:15:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T23:15:57","slug":"cambodia-soliciting-vaccine-donations-populist-corrupt-acting-opposition-chief-sam-rainsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/07\/cambodia-soliciting-vaccine-donations-populist-corrupt-acting-opposition-chief-sam-rainsy\/","title":{"rendered":"Cambodia Soliciting Vaccine Donations \u2018Populist, Corrupt\u2019: Acting Opposition Chief Sam Rainsy"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The acting president of Cambodia\u2019s opposition party, Sam Rainsy, on Thursday slammed the country\u2019s government for soliciting donations to buy coronavirus vaccines as \u201cpopulist\u201d and \u201ccorrupt,\u201d prompting the ruling party to label his comments a form of \u201cincitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement posted to his Facebook account, Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) acting chief Sam Rainsy suggested Prime Minister Hun Sen\u2019s government is \u201clagging behind\u201d other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members in acquiring a sufficient number of vaccines.<\/p>\n

He noted that several other countries have been able to arrange purchases of vaccines that they will provide to their citizens free of charge, while Hun Sen has had to request financial assistance from the public.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, Hun Sen announced that his government had received more than U.S. $56 million from \u201cphilanthropists\u201d to prepare for the purchase of 1 million doses of vaccine that his government will provide to around 500,000 people \u201cfree of charge.\u201d Coronavirus vaccines require two separate injections.<\/p>\n

Government spokesperson Phay Siphan responded to Sam Rainsy\u2019s comments Thursday by saying the acting opposition leader, who has lived in self-imposed exile in France since late 2015, was using the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as a \u201cpretext to provoke the people\u201d of Cambodia through “incitement.”<\/p>\n

He told RFA\u2019s Khmer Service that the Cambodia Communicable Disease Control Department is in the process of deciding which vaccine the country should purchase, adding that Cambodia is \u201cnot in a hurry\u201d to buy one and is waiting to see what the World Health Organization (WHO) will recommend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to wait and see which company\u2019s vaccine the WHO approves so that the Cambodian people are not part of an experiment\u2014that is the last thing we want,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The WHO last week listed the Comirnaty COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for emergency use, making the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine the first to receive emergency validation since the pandemic began a year ago. There are currently more than 50 vaccine candidates in trials.<\/p>\n

Pich Pisey, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, urged the government to act quickly to obtain the Comirnaty vaccine, following its recognition by the WHO.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese vaccines are in high demand around the world, so the government should not delay,\u201d he told RFA.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though Cambodia is at low risk, [the government] must be ready to place vaccine orders and pre-order [a stockpile] in case we have an epidemic so that we can give it to the people\u2014particularly those who are vulnerable, work in the health sector, or work directly on disease prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secretary-General of the Federation of Cambodian Intellectual Students Kien Ponlok called Hun Sen\u2019s approach to ordering vaccines \u201cvague\u201d and urged the government to provide more transparency about the process, including the costs associated with acquiring them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see the government use the money from local and foreign philanthropists transparently\u2014to show to all Cambodians that it is ordering vaccines so that they are aware of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier accusations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ahead of Hun Sen\u2019s announcement, Sam Rainsy published a statement to his Facebook page deriding Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People\u2019s Party (CPP) for collecting tens of millions of dollars in donations from \u201ctycoons and the business elite,\u201d as well as King Norodom Sihamoni, to pay for vaccinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly the credulous believe\u201d that private donations from Cambodia\u2019s elite will be enough to purchase COVID-19 vaccines for more than a tiny percentage of the population, he said at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality it will be the hard-earned tax money of the Cambodian people that funds the solution, but the provision of COVID-19 vaccines will be done in such a way as to present them as a gift of Hun Sen, the CPP, and its meshed network of wealthy benefactors,\u201d he said, referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Sam Rainsy said that Hun Sen had been obliged to announce plans to \u201crepay the generous donors who have been cheated in this affair, including the puppet king,\u201d after the opposition called out his actions. The Facebook post earned him a charge under the country\u2019s L\u00e8se-majest\u00e9 law for insulting the monarch, who he said was helping to cover up shortcomings in Hun Sen\u2019s response to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

CNRP President Kem Sokha was arrested in September 2017 for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. Two months later, the Supreme Court banned the CNRP for its supposed role in the scheme.<\/p>\n

The move to dissolve the CNRP marked the beginning of a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for his ruling Cambodian People\u2019s Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in the country\u2019s July 2018 general election.<\/p>\n

Workers in Thailand<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also, on Thursday, a group of civil society officials called on the Cambodian and Thai governments to care for more than 100 Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand infected with COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Dy Thehoya, program officer at the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, told RFA that the workers are facing a food shortage, as they are unable to earn money while they are sick. He urged the governments to monitor their health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cambodian and Thai governments should guarantee them effective treatment and ensure that they are reinstated [at their jobs] after they recover,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yin Mengly, a coordinator for local rights group Adhoc in Cambodia\u2019s Battambang province, said that although Thai authorities are responsible for COVID-19 cases in Thailand, the Cambodian government should provide support to the workers so that they can recover without having to address other concerns.<\/p>\n

RFA was unable to contact officials at Cambodia\u2019s embassy in Bangkok or Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong for comment Thursday.<\/p>\n

However, government spokesman Phay Siphan told RFA that the workers should contact Cambodian Embassy officials in Thailand if they require urgent assistance. He called on all Cambodian migrant workers to \u201cbe patient\u201d and stay in Thailand for now.<\/p>\n

“[People should stay in Thailand] to get treatment, don\u2019t come to Cambodia because you will be quarantined,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Migrant workers returning<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Thai Ministry of Health recently announced that 108 Cambodian workers had become infected with COVID-19 while working in Thailand since Dec. 19. Thailand\u2019s Department of Disease Control has identified 158 infected Cambodian migrant workers to date.<\/p>\n

Around 6,000 Cambodian migrant workers have returned home from abroad since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in December 2019.<\/p>\n

Twenty Cambodian workers who traveled home from Thailand have been found to be infected with COVID-19, including two announced by Cambodia\u2019s Ministry of Health on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Cambodia has recorded 385 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the outbreak, of which 362 have recovered and 23 are being treated.<\/p>\n

Reported by RFA\u2019s Khmer Service. Translates by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The acting president of Cambodia\u2019s opposition party, Sam Rainsy, on Thursday slammed the country\u2019s government for soliciting donations to buy coronavirus vaccines as \u201cpopulist\u201d and \u201ccorrupt,\u201d prompting the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6178,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177\/revisions\/6178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}