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Cambodia politics: Cautious optimism on Cambodia's corruption problem
Endemic corruption remains one of Cambodia's biggest challenges, as highlighted recently by a report from Transparency International (TI). As TI and many other international watchdogs have noted, corruption remains a way of life in Cambodia, with all levels of society expecting to encounter and perhaps take advantage of graft. The country ranked 160th out of 177 countries in TI's 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index. Despite the widespread cultural acceptance of corruption, Cambodia's donors, which have played an important role in its post-conflict development, have pushed for reforms. Progress on the issue, albeit slow, provides some cause for cautious optimism.
Indeed, the government has enacted some credible measures, passing anti-corruption legislation in 2010 and establishing the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) soon afterwards. Yet Cambodia's ratings on TI's corruption gauge and other competitiveness rankings have shown little improvement thus far. A resurgent political opposition in the form of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) has raised hopes of a more forceful approach to tackling corruption. Any such action is likely to threaten the ruling Cambodian People's Party's (CPP) control of Cambodian politics, either by forcing them to push through real reform or by allowing the political space for a new set of leaders to fight corruption.
Like many countries in the region, Cambodia was historically ruled through a quasi-feudal system of political patronage. This hierarchical structure has persisted due to a combination of factors, including poverty and uncertainty stemming from the country's involvement in the Indochina conflict, the disastrous misrule of the Democratic Kampuchea regime (the "Khmer Rouge") and the subsequent civil war. Reticence in addressing this ingrained political paternalism has had significant consequences. For...