CNRP’s assets scrutinised
National Police ordered to analyse banned opposition members’ finances
ANATIONAL Police action plan has set as a priority the collection of financial information on 118 senior exCambodia National Rescue Party members, with an Interior Ministry official saying asset seizures were a possibility if party officials continued their purported “colour revolution” overseas.
The 118 senior CNRP members were banned from the political arena for five years, after the Supreme Court in November dissolved the opposition party – the only viable competitor to the long-ruling Cambodian People’s Party – for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the government. Little evidence was offered to substantiate the claim, and the dissolution has prompted many to question the legitimacy of this year’s planned national elections.
The ruling party, however, has kept up the “colour revolution” drumbeat even following the dissolution, and a National Police progress report for December – obtained yesterday – contains a paragraph instructing officials to investigate “the 118” through the “analysis and evaluation” of their finances.
“Keep concentrating on national security by paying attention to information gathering, analysis and evaluation of the financial resources of those who have negative targets for the nation and government,” reads the instruction, which is
program has faced in its first year highlight the enormity of the task in an education system with little infrastruct ure, few resources and a v i r t ual l y nonexist e nt a r t s program.
The program now runs four after-school art clubs in photography, drawing, dancing and singing out of its offices on Preah Sisowath High School’s campus, drawing roughly 80 students a week.
Rith has also persuaded the high school’s few art teachers to hold one-hour classes on Saturday that are attended by roughly 100 students. “Students never miss the Saturday classes,” he said.
The program has also held workshops, film screenings and other performances every month.
On Friday, the basketball court was indeed transformed BosswithaThief’sHeart into a stage for a theatrical adaptation of Boss with a Thief ’s Heart, a book taught in the Cambodian school curriculum about the unethical boss of a transportation company who manipulates his employee into causing a car crash to tarnish a r i val’s reputation. Though the employee agrees to do the deed for money, he’s dismayed when it leads to the deaths of three people.
“The show does not tell who is right and who is wrong,” said 12-year-old Visasak Thunni, a seventh grader at the school who said the performance was her first time seeing a play. “I learned that we should not just do the thing that is easy, but do the thing that is morally correct.”
Soung Sopheak, director of t h e p e r f o r ma n c e g r o u p Khmer Arts Action, said that it was the first time he had screened the performance in public with students.
“I’m very happy and excited about it,” he said.
However, even Sopheak said he is doubtful that educators can encourage young Cambodians to get involved in the arts due to lack of interest and the widespread perception that careers in the arts earn no money.
Rith, however, remains optimistic about the “ultimate” dream – to fully incorporate arts education into public school.
It is a goal already shared by the Ministry of Education, which in 2015 proposed a new national curriculum that, among other things, redefined art as a separate subject and directed grades one through nine to incorporate one hour of it per week.
Unfortunately, the revamped textbooks for grades one through six are not expected to be completed until 2021, according to Rith. In addition, the country is also facing a shortage of arts teachers – one that may not be fixed for another decade, he estimated.
That’s why Rith said he hopes CLA’s pilot program can jumpstart that process ahead of the ministry’s schedule.
“We need the arts if we want to produce complete humans and good citizens,” Rith said. “I don’t want to wait another five years.”
We need the arts if we want to produce complete humans and good citizens. I don’t want to wait another five years