Leadership in Local Politics of Cambodia: A Study of ... - CDRI

Chapter 3:
KHMER TERMS FOR ‘LEADERSHIP’
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In models of representative democracy, leadership is regarded as implying representation,
responsibility and responsiveness, and as something that functions both formally and informally.
For democracy to function, people need to understand who their leader-representatives are and
what they are there for. However, In Cambodia’s hybrid political system, characterised by
hierarchies of loyalty and obligation, rather than shifting constituencies of interest as envisaged
in the liberal model, leadership might have different connotations. With the informal context
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the word, and even if there were, it would not make sense to use it alone since it would not be
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for our study, we used different terms and tried to cover different contexts as agreed in many
survey team discussions. Ledgerwood and Vijghen (2002) provided a model that helped us
understand the different domains in which leaders may be situated, through their categorisation
of the six domains or sources of power: administrative, political and economic, religious,
spiritual, knowledge and development assistance.
In our survey we asked:
1. Who are the local authorities in the village? commune?
2. Who else besides these is active in this village? commune?
3. Are there any women leaders in this village? commune?
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5. Who represents the people in raising problems to higher authorities?
6. Who do villagers listen to the most in this village? commune?
7. Who is effective in mobilising people and resources in this village? commune?
8. Has anyone from outside of the village/commune helped or been active?
9. Are there any wats in this village? commune? Who organises religious ceremonies?
10. Are there any NGOs or community-based organisations (CBOs) in this village? commune?
Has anyone from these institutions been helpful and effective?
In order to explain how these questions were translated into Khmer, it is necessary to describe
some of the different Khmer terms for “leader”.
Terms
���������� GaCJaFr (authority). The term is used for formal leaders in both the village and
the commune. People mostly refer to village chiefs and commune chiefs and councils as
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having formal power and authority. Our survey suggested that these leaders have become
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decentralisation. This word is used in more formal settings and implies distance between
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