After the civil war ended, social order and security are more critical to common people’s living, not only the poor but also the rich and the powerful. By the time, living in society is full of mental and physical peace that is what we all really need. On the contrary, people is living in the country with the fear, threat, intimidation and scare of robbery, kidnapping, drug usage, human trafficking… etc.

Recently, in the speech of Hun Sen from Svay Rieng province broadcasting on private TV, He warned senior governmental officials- district governors, provincial governors, police chiefs and military police chiefs- to take tough action against young gangsters occurring in some provinces and cities. At the mean time, prime minister threatened to replace some officials-who fail to crack down on gangsters- with gangsters.

In order to take effective measure to eliminate gangsters who are attacking each other with samurai swords, knives, arms at the wedding and dance party or at entertainment places such as Karaoke, Beer Garden… etc. The government has to find out the root of the core problem rather than threatening to fire officials on duty. In order to reduce mob, the government have to protect drug trafficking, football betting places, casino and so on. The last few weeks, the district polices in Phnom Penh raided the branch of Hong Eng internet café – where is the place to provide internet service to bet football, but their operation was unsuccessful. It was because of intervention from high ranking government officials. And then they ordered police to bring back all computers and equipments and prepared them in order in the same places. Was that the mistake of low ranking official? Who dare to demote the powerful officials? Who is responsible for crime happening in society? Who will become the victim? That was bad example. Only innocent and powerless citizens were threatened and arrested.

Who are the gang leaders? The rich and the powerful children are responsible for creating gangster groups such as in public school, and public places throughout country. When they committed crimes or arguments, ordinary police could not be able to arrest or touch them. If perpetrators were apprehend or jailed, they will be released shortly after intervention from their family, except the poor and powerless were put behind bar. So, the implementation of judiciary system is injustice and unfair for the ordinary citizens. What I raised does not mean that all the rich and powerful are bad, but some.

Mak Sarth, Coordinator of he Youth Council of Cambodian, was quoted by the Cambodia Daily, saying that prison and re-education are not the answers; instead the government should focus on giving Cambodia’s young people options for the future such as vocational training and jobs. He added the youth don’t want to be gangsters if they have employment. “It is the government’s failure because the authorities cannot decrease the amount of gangsters.”

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