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

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Box 1: Legitimacy Crisis: Land Grabbing in Commune
Back in the late 1980s, the district authorities assigned the commune authorities to distribute
what was formerly communal land to the villagers to make it private property so that people
could make productive use of it. The responsibility to distribute land within each village was
given to village chiefs. In one of our studied villages, the then chief told the people to wait
while the decision was being made on how to distribute the 25 hectares to 105 families within
this village. While waiting, villagers used the common land for feeding cows.
Secretly there was a plan to share the land among only a small group of village and commune
leader cliques—the above chief, another village chief who replaced him, a former commune
chief (now deputy commune chief), the current commune chief and some others working
for the village and commune then. In the end, a total of eight families received around three
hectares of land each.
As for the villagers, everything was still quiet after years of waiting. However, as enclosures
started to be made, they realised what was going on. In 2004, 86 families got together and
brought the case to district and provincial levels while another 10 or 11 families kept quiet
(since they are closely related to the eight families). The higher authorities were not helpful.
They claimed that it would affect them politically if they acted against the village and
commune authorities. The villagers were told to drop the case.
However, with the advice of a current councillor from the SRP, villagers brought the case
to NGOs and other independent institutions. These were not in a position to help solve this
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pressure authorities to take some action.
Two years passed and villagers had given up hope until they decided to make use of a network
they had with politicians in Phnom Penh. Several of the villagers were blood relatives of two
powerful politicians from the CPP. Following the intervention of these powerful individuals,
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As a result, in 2007, a total of 6.5 of the 25 hectares of land was given back to the villagers
while each of the eight families still had about 1.5 to two hectares. The 6.5 hectares, however,
were bits in different places and were situated furthest from the village roads. People could
not really make any use of it, so they decided to sell it and share the money. Because of the
location and situation of their land, however, they have not been able to sell it. In the back of
their minds, villagers were still disappointed and frustrated with the “resolution” of the case,
but they ended the case (or were told to end it) because they knew there was no more they
could do.
Although the above case involved a number of actors, the villagers directed their hatred mostly
towards the current commune chief. The villagers had voted for him and expected better
treatment. They expressed their disillusionment in terms of the ideal of �������:
The villagers these days are helpless; it is hopeless to talk about the commune. They do
not take care of the people; how can they act as our parents? (Villager B8, commune B,
response to survey, 4/6/2008).
The feelings of being cheated and treated unfairly created enormous hatred and distrust towards
leaders. And although they received some help from the SRP councillor, they did not trust him
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