What Cambodia needs

For the past few years Pol Pot has been a figure in the shadows. Reports of his death last year generated relief and hope that Cambodia could move forward from its blighted and unhappy past. Unfortunately, Pol Pot survived amid the defections and factional fighting that beset the Khmer Rouge.

Now, even when it seems Pol Pot is a spent force, both politically and physically, there is still no sense of closure on the culture of violence pervading Cambodia. Instead of its leaders joining hands to welcome the death throes of the Pol Pot era, we had the spectacle of gunplay between the bodyguards of First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh and Second Prime Minister Hun Sen. More lives were lost and tensions in the capital rose to a level incompatible with economic progress. This is not what Cambodia needs.

Next month, along with Laos and Burma, it joins the Association of South-East Asian Nations. Membership of the expanded ASEAN 10 is Cambodia's best opportunity for the economic takeoff that so many of its neighbors enjoyed in the past two decades. Cambodia's neighbors want to see it succeed and it is crucial that the Phnom Penh leadership makes the most of this chance; Cambodia has the natural resources and the strategic location to be a prosperous, forward-looking community. What is sadly lacking is administrative capability, modern infrastructure such as roads, ports, water, power and telecommunications, and skilled human resources.

Cambodia needs foreign capital that has more than short-term gain and resource exploitation on its mind. It needs help from the international community, including Australia. But most of all, Cambodia needs a culture committed to ending the violence and lawlessness. It needs a brand of leadership that is more interested in raising the living standards of the Cambodian people than in craving the trappings of power.

-- The Australian