The Poverty Trap II I continue my reflections on the Poverty Trap with reference to Cambodia and share my personal experiences. I want to show the contrast between the time past when the country was under Pol Pot and the present. In the seventies Cambodia was drawn into the Indochina conflict. The countries began with their struggle for national independence from their colonial masters. They chose to follow the Marxist line. They succeeded at great cost and won the war against the mighty capitalistic empires of France and the United States. They envisioned the building of a new people and a new society. Some of us in the Christian movement understood their fight for independence. During the conflict the global Christian community were offering some relief services of food and medicine for the victims of war. In rehabilitating their communities we provided resources for the re-opening of their hospitals, schools, farms and factories. They were in desperate need to re-build their war-torn countries. The continued systems of domination of the Western powers were still in place. The irony is that it is also from some of the enlightened people from the same countries who dominate them that the resources for assistance were made available for their recovery after the war. They won their war of independence but they have to engage in nation building. The rise of China gave them some hope but the resources among themselves were too limited to effect the change required. Pol Pot who literally drove the city dwellers out of Phnom Penh to the countryside was for the purpose of changing their mind-set and developing the rural sector. It was a form of cleansing from imperialism, consumerism and individualism. In 1979 when the regime was overthrown, a colleague and I representing the relief and rehabilitation programme of Christian churches were granted the first visas to enter the city. It was emptied of people except for their officials and the military. People were still kept outside. Basic infrastructure was not restored for their return to their former homes. A handful of women who spoke English were discovered to work as interpreters to relate to foreign aid agencies. Ms Dany who studied in the Regional English Language Centre was assigned to us and we instantly became friends. She later was responsible for the development of women's work and represented her country in Hanoi. In 2000 she came to Singapore as the wife of the Ambassador of Cambodia. Miss Vuthy went to Thailand for Christian theological training and returned to her country to minister to her people. This only shows how important it is to develop local leadership. Fast forward to the present. Cambodia since the past decade or two began to attract foreign capital. Labour was plentiful and cheap and urbanization and industrialization developed at a fast pace. The new society that was envisaged soon became the resurfacing of the old society with new colonial masters within and without. The same evacuation of the city-dwellers started though less extensively than it was in the past. They have to give way to the new rich and powerful local elites and foreigners. When I met recently some of my Indochina friends whom we have collaborated with during their war of independence, I queried them about the new society that they have toiled and fought and spilled blood for. They smiled but was embarrassed. They themselves have become like those that they fought against before. It is a vision that has evaporated in these days of globalization and economic development. What do we do in such a situation NOW We can help those displaced city dwellers who are scratching the barren land in order to survive. But there will be a steady stream of these people. How do we manage the stream. We need to help them to get better compensation for their homes which are demolished for high rise office buildings service apartments and factories. We need to help them to scratch a living in the barren rural areas. We need to provide them with resources to build a new future in the countryside. Our piecemeal efforts must be changed to concerted ones and taking a comprehensive and sustainable development approach for the rural community. We need to support those who are committed to develop new leadership in the nation. One of the promising assistance that I know is the work of the Turkish community who are being influenced by Fetullah Gulen. This Muslim spiritual leader has concentrated on education for leadership in the 21st Century. They have opened educational institutions in many countries both in the developed and developing world. They are committed not to promote the Islamic faith like in our mission schools but to provide the highest quality of education that they know in our multi-religious world. Their three-pronged goals are quality education in the arts and sciences, character formation with appreciation of universal spiritual values, and promotion of inter-racial and inter-faith harmony in our pluralistic world. Their teachers are dedicated and passionate in selfless service and lead by example to fulfill these noble goals of education. They shared their lives with the people they serve. A little over ten years ago they responded and entered Cambodia. They began by starting a secondary school followed a few years later with a primary one and two years ago the Zaman University. I was privileged to attend the opening of the first local University in the country by the Minister of Education They have in a short space time gained credibility and was able to enroll children of parents who are leaders in business, industry and government. The Rector of the University, Dr Erkan Polatdemir, was a scholarship student in NUS and secured his Ph.D. in Physics. He taught at Republic Polytechnic and resigned with great financial cost to serve in Cambodia. The Turkish people who are part of the Gulen movement are providing support in a count;ry where there is a minute minority of Muslims. In our discussion we were exploring how crucial it is for the students in their educational institutions to inculcate new values, to clarify the new vision, to engage in working together for a new Cambodian society. Students need to be exposed to the issues of poverty and immersed in the life of the poor rural community so that they can be sensitized to the suffering of their own people and later lead them to new future. I do not cease to admire these Turkish people who have been inspired to engage in significant service in addressing the issue of poverty and touching the lives of people without regard to race or religion. They are singularly committed to develop through education leaders imbued with a sense of purpose for the common good and inflamed with the desire to shape a caring and compassionate human communities. They are demonstrating in different parts of the world the key to overcome poverty and the way to live in harmony with one another.

THE POVERTY TRAP --Yap Kim Hao-- I was invited to a luncheon and fireside chat jointly organized by the NUS Greater Good Series and Asia Refuge Projects. Dr Yang Saing Koma who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his rural development work in Cambodia and Professor Kua Ee Heok of NUS spoke on the topic “The Poverty Trap: Challenge of the Mind”. Asia Refuge Projects has invited Ambassador Chan Heng Chee as the Guest-of-Honour. This was also attended by NGOs from Cambodia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. I was reminded of my involvement on behalf of the Christian churches in the world on the work of relief and rehabilitation in 1979 immediately after the conclusion of the war and Phnom Penh was re-opened for the people to return home where they were forcefully evacuated by the Pol Pot regime. The task of rebuilding the country was soon extended to development work. The new government that came into power then continues to the present which is a period of thirty-two years. Hun Sen was the Defense Minister. After meeting the whole Cabinet it was made known to us that he will emerge to lead and in 1985 became the Prime Minister till today. He is the longest serving Prime Minister in the world. Dr Koma who is actively engaged in agriculture and rural development in his own country now would have been confronted with the many of the same challenges then. In the fireside chat he shared his concern of the mind-set of his people in the development of the country. His call is to respect the thinking of the people and aid agencies should not impose their ways upon them. It was expected that the people will develop a new vision of their own future different from the Pol Pot regime. Recently the country has entered a new phase of urbanization and industrialization with a new form of expelling the urban poor to the countryside without adequate compensation and infrastructure to exist as a viable rural community. Foreign companies have invaded the country to grasp economic gains. It is not only the addressing of the mind-set of the poor especially those in the rural society but also those who hold economic and political power. Are they aware of why people are poor or how they have been made poor. What is the common mind-set of the citizens as they carve a future for their country? We cannot deal with economic growth without engaging in social and political advancements for the common welfare of the whole country. The poverty trap is not in terms of money but also that of social and political values. What is the vision of our global community of nations? What is the mind-set of the people within our own countries and how do we sustain one another in this inter-connecting world? This is the challenge we face for our common survival on planetary earth.