Visiting Cambodian opposition leader hails Vietnam as model
HANOI - Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy, a longtime nationalist critic of neighbouring Vietnam, Tuesday hailed
it as a role model on his first ever visit to the communist state.
Setting aside his longstanding attacks on Vietnamese "landgrabbing" and illegal immigration, Rainsy said
Cambodia had "a lot to learn" from its larger neighbour despite their history of animosity.
"Vietnam is only seven times more populous than Cambodia but has attracted 20 times more investment than
Cambodia," he told AFP on the third day of a week-long visit, during which he plans a string of trips to
factories in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Rainsy said he found it depressing that, even though Vietnam still remained nominally a communist state years
after Cambodia abandoned communism, it was economically far more successful.
"Vietnam has a consistent master plan for the reforms that they want to implement but in Cambodia reforms are
conducted in pieces without any consistency," he complained.
"We put the cart before the oxen. We don't have a land law yet and we grant forest concessions, farming
concessions, mining concessions.
"In Vietnam, there are no landless farmers, but in Cambodia 20 percent of farmers are landless."
The Western-educated former finance minister said he had tired of meeting nothing but ridicule at home for his
consistent advocacy of Western-style reforms for Cambodia's "mafia-style" economy.
"So I will persuade them to adopt an approach adopted by a communist society that is moving towards a
market economy," he quipped.
Rainsy said he had received a warm welcome from Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Manh Cam and Foreign
Minister Nguyen Dy Nien during talks on Monday despite the many anti-Hanoi demonstrations he had led in
the past.
He insisted that he had not glossed over his differences with his Vietnamese hosts on the two countries'
long-running border dispute or the status of the large Vietnamese minority in Cambodia.
"We mentioned the problem of borders, the problem of migration. I still maintain and I did in front of
Vietnamese leaders that these problems still exist."
Rainsy criticised Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, a longtime Hanoi ally, for failing to resolve the disputes
by a December 2000 deadline which the two sides set two years ago.
"If the approach isn't working, maybe we should try another approach," he said.
"A poor country like Cambodia should consolidate all her efforts and energies to alleviate poverty ... instead of
diverting energy to cope with tension with neighbouring countries."
Rainsy said he had a planned audience with Cambodia's King Sihanouk Monday in which he would report on
his visit.
"I have one regret, that I did not visit Vietnam sooner," he said, adding that his only previous visit was to the
former capitalist south 40 years ago when he was still a child.
Agence France Presse - June 26, 2001.
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