Friday, April 30, 2010

Gordon Brown fails to make inroads in partisan debate

(Jeff Overs/BBC/PA)

David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown during the final live leaders' election debate, hosted by the BBC in the Great Hall of Birmingham University

Gordon Brown failed to dent his rivals despite using a bruising final leaders’ debate to warn that neither David Cameron nor Nick Clegg could be trusted with the economic recovery.

A snap Populus poll for The Times gave Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg a shared victory on the night, each with 38 per cent. Mr Brown, despite a combative performance in which he faced up to his disastrous gaffe the previous day, trailed in third on 25 per cent from a sample of 1,929 respondents.

The verdict on a debate chiefly devoted to the economy — Mr Brown’s perceived strongest suit — leaves Labour’s campaign in trouble with six days to go before the general election.

Mr Brown went for broke, warning that an incoming Tory government would plunge the country into a prolonged Eighties-style recession.

Click Here To Read More...

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Raising the youth


Photo by: Sovan Philong
Students vie to answer a question at the Prey Srolep school in Prey Veng province in February. In response to a global report on education released on Monday, experts and officials said attempts to bolster primary enrolment may have detracted from progress in other areas.
Photo by: Sovan Philong
Students attend morning class at Prey Srolep school in Prey Veng province in February.
R
EGIONAL experts and government officials on Monday used the launch of a report on the Millennium Development Goal for education to highlight areas where Cambodia has not made much progress, notably adult literacy, which some said had been overshadowed by the effort to bolster enrolment at the primary level.

The 2010 Education For All Report highlights the need to improve access to education for Cambodia’s marginalised populations, especially in the remote northeast, which it identified as one of 20 regions worldwide facing “acute education deprivation”.

Those at the launch on Monday said that although it was important to improve access for people in the remote provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakkiri, there are also large sections of society, such as adults, that are being overlooked nationwide.

Professor Heribert Hinzen, regional director of DVV International, a Germany-based adult education NGO, said it is unlikely that Cambodia will be able to meet the MDG target of cutting illiteracy levels in half by 2015.

“There is a feeling that we will definitely and dramatically fail,” he said, and added that adult literacy is often neglected as government and development partners focus on primary education.

According to the report, adult literacy, as measured between 2000 and 2007, was estimated at 76 percent, and it is projected to increase to 81 percent by 2015.

Abdul Hakeem, education adviser and coordinator for UNESCO in Bangkok, said equitable adult literacy progress had stalled in the last two decades.

“In primary education there is a gender gap, but it is narrowing; but the gender gap in literacy has not changed since 1990,” he said.

Nath Bunroeun, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Education, said informal education programmes had recently been implemented to tackle adult illiteracy in some of the places where it is most widespread.

“In terms of strategy, we provide a functional literacy programme, and we also have a community literacy programme,” he said, and added: “We have implemented this programme in our northern provinces.”

He said that donor assistance for such programmes had declined in the wake of the global financial crisis, and that more action is needed to meet the 2015 deadline.

“We have only five years left. If our partners continue talking for the sake of talking, we will not achieve these goals,” he said. “I think it is quite optimistic to say that Cambodia will achieve education for all by 2015.”

Monday, April 26, 2010

Thai provincial chiefs allowed to use state of emergency to deal with "red shirts"

BANGKOK, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Provincial governors are authorized to impose a state of emergency in their provinces in order to deal with the "red-shirt" rally, Thailand's Interior Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul said Monday.

The governors can impose the emergency decree in their provinces prior to reporting it to the government's Centre for the Resolution of Emergency Situations (CRES) since the permanent secretary of the Interior Ministry is a member of the CRES, the Bangkok Post's website reported.

Chavarat's announcement was made, while the "red-shirts" in the countryside were asked by "red-shirt" core leaders to block police forces from moving to reinforce police in capital Bangkok.

Read More...


===============================


The Thai prime minister has rejected an offer by the anti-government Red Shirt demonstrators to end their protests in return for an early election.

Abhisit Vejjajiva refused to give in to the demands, issued on Friday, to dissolve his parliament and call an election within 30 days.

Talks have now broken down between the two sides, heightening fears of further bloodshed in the country,

The Red Shirts, who support former ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, are currently occupying Bangkok’s commercial district.

(Barbara Walton/EPA)

Thai anti-government Red Shirt protesters face off with Thai riot police at the entrance to Silom district (Picture).

More...

Anti-graft unit seen as unprepared

Friday, 23 April 2010Vong Sokheng and Brooke Lewis

T
HE government’s Anticorruption Unit needs more training before it will be in a position to effectively combat graft, officials said at a ceremony marking the completion of a nine-week training programme Thursday.

The Anticorruption Unit (ACU), which operates under the Council of Ministers and is expected to assume responsibility for the day-to-day investigation of corruption in the public and private sectors, was established in August 2006 but is still in its development phase, said member Sar Sambath.

The long-awaited Anticorruption Law, passed in March, includes provisions that would give the ACU the ability to punish, among other things,
“illicit enrichment”, an unexplained increase in an individual’s wealth. The law is set to come into effect in November.

However, Sar Sambath said Thursday that he did not know precisely how the ACU would operate under the new law.

“We don’t know when we can identify an area for investigation of corruption issues yet, because we need more training for the officials,” he said, and added: “Our priority now is to strengthen education for the officials.”

He said that the ACU would soon launch a campaign to raise awareness of corruption among the general public.

“An education campaign for the public is the worldwide basic to begin fighting corruption,” he said. “We would not be able to crack down on corruption while the public has not yet realised the corrupt activities.”

Kheang Seng, head of the ACU’s law enforcement section, said in a statement issued Thursday that the training programme, which was attended by senior officials and ACU members, was designed to spread information on procedures for conducting financial investigations, the management of complaints and cases, and asset-declaration requirements.

Flynn Fuller, mission director of USAID, which funded the training, said Thursday that he had received reports that it had gone “very well”, but suggested that the ACU was not yet ready to become fully operational.

“It is a good start and has addressed some of the basic needs of the ACU,” he said. “However, it is only a beginning, and there is more needed to develop the capacity of the ACU as an effective anticorruption enforcement agency.”

Sar Sambath said the ACU currently has 56 staff members, and that officials are considering whether it needs to be expanded in light of the passage of the Anticorruption Law.

Blog List