Letter from Duncan

The zone around Siem Reap and Angkor Wat is largely gov-erned by a regional authority: the Apsara Authority and until recently it has taken a fairly hands-off approach to such issues as building permits. Where in the UK, USA or here in my little country - New Zealand - it might take weeks or even months to get permission to build a house or even make additions, in Siem Reap we‟ve experienced no such hassle. The school went up with scarcely any intervention, and so did the library and the SOC buildings.

But this year the Apsara authority has been flexing its muscle. One of its mandates is to ensure that the traditional character of the region is being preserved and this causes real difficulties for locals. If you want to build a new rural house, then in theory it has be traditional in style—made of native hardwoods and con-structed on stilts. Of course there‟s another law which says you are not allow to fell traditional hardwood timbers, and the pen-alty for getting caught is extremely steep. You are fined, your timber is confiscated and if its on a truck, then the truck is con-fiscated as well. So herein lies the riddle: how do the people of Siem Reap region make progress?

This year Savong encountered the problem three times. The first was during the construction of the medical centre when the authority delayed the work unexpectedly. Four weeks ago dur-ing the rainy season, Savong decided to put in a few concrete slabs as raised paving so the kids could avoid getting muddy. Again the authority came in and halted progress: this time de-manding that all concrete and bricks be removed or else these would be confiscated. It took a meeting between Savong, the Authority and the local police to come to a suitable agreement. Most recently, plans to build the fence for the new chicken run have had to be modified. Fences are usually started with a base layer of bricks to stop sand and soil erosion—but not this time: the Authority has deemed that the fence have no brickwork.

While Savong finds these things frustrating, I‟m glad at these times that he‟s there to navi-gate the problems and find solutions. This is where overseas-run NGOs can sometimes run into real grief—tangling with a changing bureaucratic landscape.
There are other difficulties in the neighbourhood from time to time, and these are not bureaucratic. Last week a small group of unemployed boys—they‟re referred to as gangsters—were har-assing students as they spilled out into the night-time after class. One evening a fight broke out, with these boys attacking some of the students.
The teachers were quickly onto the scene, Sopheak phoning the police who have an office just a few hundred metres away. They broke up the fight and at three of the gangsters was later apprehended.

Now here comes the tricky part. What would you do? On Savong‟s say-so the police offered to send the gangsters to jail for a year. (Justice, such as it is, is swift in Cambodia.) It would be Savong‟s decision the police said.
I spoke to Savong about this decision and he wasn‟t sure what to do—to offer some kind of restorative solution or to take a hard line. He told me: “Whatever I do, it must be seen by my students to be the right thing.” So on that basis he went to dis-cuss the options with the students who were affected.

In the end Savong met up with the gangsters and their families at the police station and in light of their ages (around 20, 21) Savong gave the offenders a second chance even while the po-liceman (whom I‟ve met—a genial man) played “bad cop” and urged jail. The meeting had its effect, and we frankly doubt if the gangsters will be trouble again. Again, Savong was adept at navigating the local system.