Asian American Press
March 20, 1998

Phnom Penh's Facelift Hides Uglier Realities

Nine months have passed since rockets, shells and bullets scarred many areas of the city. The looted airport has been put back together, and the most visible signs of battle have been cleaned up. The city boasts some other improvements as well.

Immediately noticeable to anyone who has bumped along the capital's dilapidated roads is the repaving effort that has spruced up major traffic arteries. The prime riverfront area, site of many upscale restaurants and bars, has received a new surfacing. Also, the ring road around Psah Thmei (in English known as the Central Market) has been completely redone. While enjoying the smooth ride around the market, a passenger can appreciate some improvements to the market building itself. A canopy along the entire outer edge has been added. Many other main streets have been repaved, and some side streets paved for the first time.

Another unfamiliar sight are the traffic lights now looming over the capital's major intersections. Where traffic policemen once sweated in the afternoon sun while choking on traffic fumes, red and green now hold sway over the traffic flow. Phnom Penh drivers seem to be adapting quite nicely to the new obstacles. While people routinely glide through the intersections even several seconds after the light turns red, residents have only nice things to say about them. Mr. Sovan, who works for the Ministry of Tourism and moonlights as a moto-dop (motorcycle taxi driver), is enthusiastic about the new lights. "Because people stop when others go through, there are fewer accidents." A business school student gushes that "they are very good to have because we have never had them before."

An equally dramatic change in the face of Phnom Penh is seen in the closing of the city's infamous brothels. The houses and shacks which once hosted pink fluorescent lights and hordes of provocatively dressed young women beckoning passers-by to have sex are now either converted or closed. Ms. Kanya runs a laundry and haircut shop across the street from where the Bo Din brothels used to operate. "They took all the girls away about three months ago," she says. "It's much nicer here now." Even the infamous Street 70, with the three km stretch of wooden shack brothels lining both sides of the road, is a shadow of its former self. Where women once gathered on the patios or lined the sides of the streets in order to (literally) grab customers, now only a few women peek from the inside of the shacks.

In the flower beds newly planted by Independence Monument, in the public works that will make a park out of the whole riverfront area, and in the surprisingly heavy bustle of traffic, moving faster on the newly paved streets and stopping now and then at a new traffic light, Phnom Penh gives every indication of continuing its progress toward the future.

But the surface bustle masks problems underneath. The economy is still reeling from the effects of the July fighting, now exacerbated by the regional economic slump. News of the fighting in July resulted in a prolonged tourism slump that has hit all across the industry. From hotels to guesthouses to restaurants, the tune is the same. "Ever since July, we've had fewer customers," says a waitress in EID, a Thai-run restaurant popular with foreigners. Mr. Lim Chi Hui, owner of the Beauty Inn Hotel explained that for the first few months after the coup, he was losing up to $1,000 a month. "We're now breaking even or making a little bit of money. But we won't have to close down, which is better than a lot of other places that weren't so lucky."

Investment, which stopped to virtually nothing immediately after the coup, is making a slow recovery. Political uncertainty, coupled with the hard times which have hit Malaysia and South Korea, formerly the Kingdom's biggest investors, mean tough going for Cambodia. "Before the crisis, we had roughly seven to ten factories established every month. Now we have one or two," said Van Sou Ieng, president of the Cambodian Garment Manufacturers Association quoted in the Phnom Penh Post.

Loss of tourism, investment and aid has hurt the government as well. Mr. Sovanna, who works for the Ministry of Defense and moonlights as a Khmer teacher, reports that his department has not been paid in three months. Many observers attribute the unofficial "tolls" and an increase in crime to the large numbers of soldiers, police, and other government workers who have been without pay for weeks or months.

With all this budgetary bad news, where is the money to pay for the civic improvements coming from? Phnom Penh First Deputy Governor Chea Sophara, also quoted in the Post, explains that the Cambodian and regional slumps have left local contractors open to creative financing for the civic projects. Contractors have been promised access to future revenues, such as those from advertising on traffic light posts or an excise tax (of dubious legality) on the Central Market stall owners. Whatever cash needed immediately for the improvements has come from what Mr. Sophara and Finance Minster Keat Chhon call "contributions" from the private sector.

And even the brothel closures may not be what they seem. Mr. Kheun, who works at the laundry and haircut place, points to one of the shacks across the street. "The girls are still there. They can't sit outside anymore, but they are still inside."