柬埔寨：在腐败泥潭中寻找腾飞希望

    反腐败国际性非政府组织——透明国际(Transparency International)近日刚刚发布的2013年柬埔寨报告显示，高达65%的柬埔寨人自称在过去12个月里曾向司法人员行贿。向警察行贿的比例也达到了65%，向公用事业人员行贿的有62%，向登记许可机构人员行贿的有62%，向土地服务机构人员行贿的有57%，向教育机构人员行贿的有30%，向医疗服务人员行贿的有38%。

    索安打消了那些希望有重大变革的期望，宣称“司法系统不是一夜间就能改变的”，但他对于司法机构的确拥有直接控制。被昵称为“保护人之王”的索安是柬埔寨内阁办公厅最高长官，主管石油、橡胶和伐木公司的审批、合同和投资事宜；负责仲裁土地争议；执掌旅游主管部门。批评人士称，少数得宠者进行权钱交易，经济资源外逃。

    现年61岁的Prak Sakhorn住在一个小村庄，她的家庭依赖微薄的收入生活。和许多柬埔寨人一样，他们用食物换取服装和其他必需品。联合国世界卫生组织(The United Nations World Health Organization)公布的Prak Sakhorn和其他柬埔寨女性的平均寿命为66岁，在全球处于垫底的水平。这项统计数据无疑令人悲哀。但她的孙女面临的统计数据也一样黯淡：世界卫生组织称，柬埔寨儿童的营养状况是全世界最差的，20世纪80年代以来一直接近垫底。

    柬埔寨90%的贫穷植根于农村地区，农民勉强维持生计。遭到污染的水源和卫生设施缺乏导致水传播疾病蔓延。柬埔寨全国范围内只有不到半数的家庭能接入清洁水，只有1/3拥有抽水马桶。但即便是在最偏远的地区，再小的村庄也设有洪森执政党——柬埔寨人民党(Cambodian Peoples' Party, CPP)的支部。柬埔寨人民党机构的豪华建筑与一旁的泥地草棚和简陋的高脚屋形成了鲜明的对比。

    拥挤的城市中，法国殖民时期遗留下来的建筑年久失修，与冷战时期东方建筑师们热衷的共产主义风格大厦毗邻而居。为了保证24小时生产，很多工厂为员工提供的茅草板屋宿舍人满为患。柬埔寨在持续大兴土木的过程中也建造了一些售价百万美元的豪华住房，出售给那些与柬埔寨人民党有着千丝万缕联系的有钱人。

    每次政府卖地都会导致成千上万的人们被迫搬迁，总人数迄今已接近50万人。投资者们铲平房屋，建造新楼、开挖资源和种植橡胶树。世界银行旗下的国际金融公司(The World Bank's International Finance Corporation)和德国的德意志银行是这些交易中的最大投资者。

    支持者们希望利用柬埔寨相比中国较低的制造成本来抗衡中国在柬埔寨和东盟的大规模资本投资之势。美国进出口银行(U.S. Export-Import Bank)和海外私人投资公司(Overseas Private Investment Corporation)等企业纷纷要求政府推进，但美国国务院的反应相对审慎。

    A staggering 65% of Cambodians reported paying a bribe to the judiciary over the last 12 months, according to Transparency International's Global corruption barometer, which just issued its 2013 report on Cambodia. An equal number of Cambodians surveyed said they paid a bribe to the police, 62% to a utility, 62% to registry and permit services, 57% to the Land Services, 30% to education institutions, and 38% to medical services.

    Though Sok An disabuses those hoping for dramatic change, claiming "the judicial system is not something you can change overnight," he has direct control over the organization. Nicknamed "the King of Patronage," he heads the Council of Ministers and oversees permits, contracts, and investments in the nation's oil, rubber, and logging enterprises; he arbitrates land disputes; and he leads the tourism authority. Critics say the favored few are on the take, while economic wherewithal escapes much of the country.

    Sixty-one year old Prak Sakhorn lives in a small village, where her family earns a meager living, and, like so many Cambodians, they barter food for clothing and other essentials. She shares a discouraging statistic with Cambodian women: The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) puts their average life span at 66 years, among the lowest in the world. Her granddaughter's outlook is equally sobering: WHO says Cambodian children's nutritional status is among the world's poorest, and near bottom since the 1980s.

    Ninety percent of Cambodia's poverty is rooted in rural areas, where locals survive as subsistence farmers. Polluted water and minimal sanitation translate into widespread water-born diseases. Countrywide, fewer than half of Cambodian households have access to clean water, and only a third have toilets. Yet even in remote reaches, the smallest villages are punctuated with an outpost of Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian Peoples' Party (CPP). The CPP constructions are lavish, compared to the neighboring mud floor lean-tos and simple stilted huts.

    In the congested cities, decaying vestiges of French Colonialism abut communist-style housing blocks favored by the Cold War era's eastern architects. To ensure 24-hour production, many factories have workers' quarters, over-crowded board structures with thatched roofs. An ongoing building boom has made luxury housing available to rich Cambodians at million-dollar prices, affordable to those with CPP ties.

    Government land sales have displaced thousands of people at a time -- approaching half a million, to date -- as investors level homes and break ground for new construction, resource prospecting, and rubber plantations. The World Bank's International Finance Corporation and Germany's Deutsche Bank are among the top investors in those deals.

    Proponents want to tap into Cambodia's lower cost alternative to producing in China, to counter China's major capital outlays in Cambodia and in ASEAN. Despite corporate pressure for the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to stake a sizable claim, the State Department response has been measured.