Cam News Book

With the White Building nearly razed, there are few remaining structures in central Phnom Penh attesting to the city’s past as a showcase for the sinuous forms of New Khmer Architecture. The man who was a leading force in developing that style, Vann Molyvann, is now 90, and has seen the city he once shaped turn into a landscape of hastily erected shopping centers and condominiums. Urban development today is largely driven by real estate demand rather than a carefully planned vision. In recent years, the ailing architect, who oversaw urban planning in the 1960s as well as designing the iconic Independence Monument and Olympic Stadium, has withdrawn from the debate. As his daughter Delphine Vann said on Sunday, “He feels that he did what he could.” Born in 1926, Mr. Molyvann was from a generation of Cambodians who studied in France and, upon their return, were enlisted by Prince Norodom Sihanouk to pour their newfound expertise into the tough work of building a newly independent...

Amidst a recent wave of  Cambodia Daily -related social media reminiscing, a video was posted showing the Daily staff holding an emergency meeting to discuss government threats to shut the paper down. That video was not shot in the last few weeks, however; it was shot in 1995. I was the editor of the paper in those days, and I led that meeting. But after all these years, my memory of the situation – what led to the threat, and how the situation was resolved – was far from clear. So, after being asked about it several times over the past few weeks, I decided to go back through old issues of  The Cambodia Daily  to refresh my memory. First I looked through every front page from the period when the threat took place, but found nothing about it. Then, I looked through every page of local coverage from that period, and still found nothing. As far as I can tell, in 1995 the Cambodia Daily didn’t publish a single prominent article about  The Cambodia Daily  potent...

After hundreds of armed police raided Kem Sokha’s home in the predawn hours on Sunday morning and arrested the opposition leader for alleged treason over a years-old speech, Prime Minister Hun Sen wasted little time warning the only party with a chance of beating his long-ruling CPP in July’s general election of its potential dissolution. “If the party appears to protect the individual, the party has to be dissolved,” the premier told a packed auditorium of garment workers only hours later at a pre-scheduled event in Phnom Penh, according to government mouthpiece Fresh News. CNRP President Kem Sokha is seen handcuffed and escorted away from his house by police officers shortly after midnight on Sunday morning in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kok district. (Fresh News) Mr. Hun Sen has the laws to do it. Earlier this year the CPP rammed through Parliament a package of legislative amendments giving the government and courts sweeping new powers to dissolve its political rivals for breaking an...