The politics of gifts: Tradition and regimentation in contemporary Cambodia

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 37, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 469-489

  Hughes, Caroline ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL TRADITION; POLITICS; POPULISM;

ASIA; CAMBODIA; EURASIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 33748449128     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463406000749     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. Other parties aside from the CPP engage in the practice of gift-giving, in ways that vary to a greater or lesser extent from the CPP model. However, the CPP is the self-proclaimed 'superpower' of gift-giving, and no other party approaches the scale of its munificence or has used the tactic with the same degree of success. Consequently, analysis of the activities of other parties in this respect is beyond the scope of this article.
2. The impact on the poor of government policies towards land and forests is discussed in Caroline Hughes and Tim Conway, Towards pro-poor political change in Cambodia: The policy process (London: Overseas Development Institute, 2003).
3. On 'invented traditions', see Eric Hobsbawm, 'Introduction', in The invention of tradition, ed. Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 1-14.
4. See, for example, Human Rights Watch, 'Don't bite the hand that feeds you: Coercion, threats and vote-buying in Cambodia's national elections', Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, July 2003, http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/cambodia/elections.htm, accessed 8 Nov. 2005.
5. Serge Thion, 'The Cambodian idea of revolution', in Watching Cambodia: Ten paths to enter the Cambodian tangle, ed. Thion (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1993), p. 84.
6. David Chandler, A history of Cambodia, 2nd edn (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 1993), p. 106. Chandler's account corresponds with accounts elsewhere in Southeast Asia
7. see Lucien Hanks, 'Merit and power in the Thai social order', American Anthropologist, 64 (1962): 1247-61
8. and James C. Scott, The moral economy of the peasant (London: Yale University Press, 1976).
9. Fabienne Luco points out that much of what is considered 'tradition' in Cambodia today only dates back to the Sihanouk years of the 1950s and 1960s; Luco, Between a tiger and a crocodile. Management of local conflicts in Cambodia, an anthropological approach to traditional and new practices (Phnom Penh: UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme, 2002), p. 29.
10. The 'manipulation' comment is in Thion, 'Cambodian idea of revolution', p. 90.
11. This has been measured by election monitors monitoring media coverage of government and parties around elections; see, for example, Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia, 'Final report of the media monitoring for the period from January 4th to February 8th 2002' (Phnom Penh, 2002).
12. The details of Hun Sen's programme given here are taken from his website, www.cnv.org.kh, accessed 9 Aug. 2004.
13. Sihanouk's reinvention of ideas of Khmer kingship, and his harnessing of these to a policy of populism and a drive to modernization, are discussed in Milton Osborne, Politics and power in Cambodia: The Sihanouk years (Camberwell: Longman, 1973)
14. John Girling, Cambodia and the Sihanouk myths (Singapore: ISEAS Occasional Paper, 1971)
15. and Michael Leifer, 'The Cambodian opposition', Asian Survey, 2, 2 (1962): 11-5. In the discussion below, 'Sihanoukism' refers to rosy and nostalgic contemporary accounts of Sihanouk's ideology, rather than any historical reality.
16. The use of memories of Jayavarman VII as a symbol of rightfully exercised power is widespread in modern Cambodia; the opposition Khmer Nation Party attempted to adopt his head as its logo, but subsequently use of his pictures for political purposes was banned by the Royal Government.
17. Cabinet of Hun Sen, 'Selected adlib address at the inauguration of achievements in the pagoda of Chum Kreal in the Kompot District, Kompot Province', 12 June 2003, translation available online at www.cnv.org.kh, accessed March 2004.
18. I take as my reference point here Benedict Anderson's 'The idea of power in Javanese culture', in Anderson, Language and power: Exploring political cultures in Indonesia (London: Cornell University Press, 1990), pp. 17-77.
19. Wilfred Burchett, Norodom Sihanou: My war with the CIA (New York: Pantheon, 1972), pp. 186-7.
20. Cabinet of Hun Sen, 'Selected adlib address at the inauguration of the District Office and the Road 73 in the District of Dambe, Kompong Cham Province', 17 June 2003, www.cnv.org.kh, accessed March 2004.
21. Autobiographical accounts of such journeys through war-torn Cambodia and the lucky escape of the protagonist through his own efforts and the help of villagers are quite common in contemporary Cambodia, and were particularly evident following the fighting of July 1997. Sam Rainsy gave a similar account of his own travails as opposition leader in election speeches in the 1998 election, while Nhek Bunchhay's autobiography, telling of his various flights to the border to launch resistance movements, is organized in much the same way; Nhek Bunchhay, Somnang muey knong muey poan krueh tnak/A luck [sic] in a thousand dangers (Phnom Dangraek, n.p., 1998).
22. Cabinet of Hun Sen, 'Selected adlib address' (17 June 2003).
23. See the definition offered by Scott, Moral economy, pp. 124-5.
24. Recent research suggests that the gap between the tnak loeu and the realm of the village is seen by villagers as vast, and that they do not expect to have influence on happenings beyond the village; see Robin Biddulph, 'Civil society and local governance: Learning from Seila experience' (Kuala Lumpur: UNOPS, 2001), pp. 12-13
25. Malin Hasselskog, Krong Chanthou and Chim Charya, 'Local governance in transition: Villagers' perceptions and Seila's impact' (Phnom Penh: UNDP, 2000). 'Seila' ('foundation stone') is a programme for channelling donor funds through local government for community-based development projects.
26. John Marston has suggested that in the Cambodian context, at least beyond the state, patron-client relations should be redefined to take into account the fact that reciprocity is a less prominent feature of hierarchical relations than the negotiation of dependence, which may or may not feature some aspect of exchange; Marston, 'Cambodia 1991-94: Hierarchy, neutrality and etiquettes of discourse' (Ph.D diss., University of Washington, 1997), pp. 69-71. This reformulation accords with the lack of emphasis upon vote-winning, which might be expected if gift-giving was merely an exchange transaction - in effect, dressed-up vote-buying. Part of Hun Sen's image of power is that he portrays himself not as reliant upon the support of villagers, but rather as hovering above them in a manifestation of innate superiority; the intervention of local authorities is required to mobilize support. Nevertheless, the relation between Hun Sen and the villagers he patronizes differs from the 'etiquette' of patron-clientism described by Marston in that it is one of forced, rather than negotiated, dependence.
27. Hun Sen's rhetoric of 'effectiveness' in the period of political tension and military confrontation between FUNCINPEC and CPP from 1996 to 1998 is discussed in detail in Caroline Hughes, '"Dare to say, dare to do": The strongman in business in 1990s Cambodia', Asian Perspective, 24, 2 (2000): 121-51.
28. 'Workshop discusses reasons why FUNCINPEC lost', Reasmei Kampuchea Daily, 7 Aug. 2003.
29. K. S., 'Cambodian People's Party in Sihanoukville explains the story of the accusations of stealing at the Pali school in Wat Mony Sal Preksaa', Kampuchea Thmey Daily.
30. Edwards, 'Tyranny of proximity', in this issue.
31. The author was stopped at a checkpoint on National Route 3 following the elections in 2003, as police and military were deployed to prevent demonstrators from converging on the capital.
32. 'H. E. Hun Sen goes to inspect bridges and roads in the countryside', Koh Santepheap Daily, 20-21 July 2003.
33. The Asia Foundation, Democracy in Cambodia-2003 (Phnom Penh: Asia Foundation, 2003), p. 49.
34. See Hughes, '"Dare to say, dare to do"'.
35. See, for example, Thomas Hammarburg, The situation of human rights in Cambodia: Report of the Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia, UN Document E/CN.4/1998/95, 20 Feb. 1998, p. 12, available online at http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?m=107
36. Human Rights Watch, Cambodia: Fair elections not possible (Washington: Human Rights Watch, July 1998), p. 13.
37. Reports of this ballot were given by a number of informants in 1998
38. Hun Sen's remark is quoted in 'Hun Sen: The "worms" that must die', Phnom Penh Post, 1-14 Dec. 1995.
39. Fieldnotes, May to July 1998. The comment on donations is from Oum Mean, chief of Secretariat, Central Committee Cabinet, Cambodian People's Party, personal interview, Phnom Penh, 22 May 1998.
40. Group interview, trainees at an NGO workshop on leadership for members of Village Forestry Committees, Tumreang Commune, Kompong Thom, 2003.
41. Kate Frieson, 'The Cambodian elections of 1993: A case of power to the people?', in The politics of elections in Southeast Asia, ed. Robert H. Taylor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 240-1.
42. Thomas Hammarberg, 'Monitoring of election-related intimidation and violence, Report August 19 - Sept. 23 1998', Phnom Penh, 23 Sept. 1998, p. 5.
43. Sam Rainsy Members of Parliament, 'The rule of terror', press release, 18 Jan. 2002 (armed robbery)
44. and 'A state of anarchy', press release, 14 Jan. 2002 (Oddar Meanchey); accessed online at www.samrainsyparty.org.
45. Human Rights Watch, 'Don't bite the hand'.
46. Fieldnotes, Aug. 1998.
47. Chea Sophara, personal interview, Phnom Penh, Aug. 2001.
48. Both quotations are from Samakki Village residents, personal interviews, July 2001.
49. Judy Ledgerwood and John Vijghen note also that under normal circumstances concerns about the distribution of gifts are more likely to be focused upon the possibility of establishing oneself as a member of the relevant khsae than on criticism of the partisanship in distribution itself; Ledgerwood and Vijghen, 'Decision-making in rural Khmer villages', in Cambodia emerges from the past: Eight essays, ed. Ledgerwood (De Kalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Southeast Asia Program, 2002), p. 128. However, my field interviews with squatters and villagers in Tumreang showed that the latter were also concerned about the sheer inadequacy of the gifts themselves, and emphasized that their cooperation was due to a combination of threat and a lack of options.
50. NGO worker, Tumreang Commune, personal interview, Mar. 2003.
51. Resident, Samakki Village, personal interview, July 2001.
52. Forestry Network activist, personal interview, Phnom Penh, Mar. 2003.
53. Ibid.