On April 7, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet offered the people of Phnom Penh a form of poacher philanthropy.
Generously, he said, he has instructed the authorities to set aside 70 hectares near Boeung Tamok—or “Kob Srov”, a former lake well north of the capital, near the Kandal border—for the creation of a public park.
“I have prepared about 70 hectares of land at Kob Srov Road to create a public park for citizens to enjoy, for concerts on weekends, and provide entertainment,” he proclaimed.
Not that he needed to, however, he told “the citizens.” No, no—this was an act of defiance, him standing firm against those damn, money-grubbing land speculators. (Who might they be?)
“I was told,” he said, “that one square meter of land could cost around $1,000, so the entire dedicated area of 70 hectares could yield US$70 million. However, I replied that if they wanted to invest, they should consider another option.”
Where to even begin? First off, this wasn’t Hun Manet’s idea. In 2020, after the government started to dole out most of the land to the well-connected, the plan was to build a 75-hectare park near Boeung Tamok, apparently a scheme thought up by previous prime minister Hun Sen. Noticeably, that’s gone from 75 to 70 hectares, but anyway.
Second: 70 hectares! Is that supposed to be generosity? Something like 2,500 hectares of Boeung Tamok (so around 74%) have now been reclaimed since a 2016 sub-decree refashioned the lake state property, allowing the government to lease or sell the land, according to Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), an NGO.
(STT and media outlets like CamboJA News and Mongabay have done fantastic reporting on this scandal in recent years, so Google them for more background on this case.)
Yet the matter is that, until quite recently, Phnom Penhers had a public space to go to near Boeung Tamok—it was called Boeung Tamok. And there were around 3,000 hectares of it to enjoy. Now, they’ll get access to just 70.
If investors wanted the 70 hectares—or just 3% of the area that has been reclaimed—”they should consider another option,” Hun Manet intoned.
Not that they need 70 hectares; they’ve gotten most of the rest of the lake. And I’m not sure if the land costs Hun Manet has been quoted (“one square meter of land could cost around $1,000”) is correct, yet let’s assume the prime minister isn’t in the business of fake news or using a public speech to drive up prices.
So, if around 2,500 hectares have been reclaimed, can we assume the sell-off of Boeung Tamok is in the ballpark of $2.5 billion?
Who’s benefitting? According to reports, recipients of land parcels include Senator Kok An, Chea Sophamaden, the daughter of CPP bigwig and former land minister Chea Sophara, and military commanders Vong Pisen and Sao Sokha.
Nuth Ton, director of Orkide Villa, reportedly received 67 hectares. Who chairs Orkide Villa again? Oh, yeah, Hun Manet’s sister Hun Mana. And who’s on the board of directors of Orkide’s sprawling business empire? Hun Manet’s wife, Pich Chanmony, and another sister, Hun Maly.
Michael Dickison and Voice of Democracy—the newspaper the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) closed down by the government in 2023—produced this map a few years back:
What about the common folk? For the residents who used to live in or around the lake, it’s been a slow, non-consensual shafting by the state. Hundreds have been evicted, many getting a pittance for their troubles.
A STT report from December lists at least 26 people who have faced criminal prosecution for their protests against the evictions and the lake’s destruction. Two former residents, Sea Sambath and Soun Sao, could be jailed later this month if they cannot pay their fines.
As for the rest of Phnom Penh’s residents, they’ll (possibly) get a small park at least an hour’s drive from the city center, from where they can watch the new ministry buildings and luxury condos go up. So quite bucolic.
No one’s denying that Phnom Penh could do with a new public park—or ten or twenty. But as Seang Mouylay of STT put it this week, “To create a new public park by simply clearing the lake is not necessary.”
In fact, it’s rather unnecessary. As countless people have argued since Hun Manet was still in shorts, if the government kept on destroying Phnom Penh’s lakes, including Boeung Kak and Boeung Tompun and others, there would be irrevocable repercussions for the city.
Those lakes weren’t just decorative—they were flood barriers, natural filters and ecological lungs.
In the annals of CPP roguery, the ruin of Phnom Penh’s great lakes probably wouldn’t make the first hundred pages—these are dense, coffee-table hardbacks, after all.
But it will occupy at least a chapter. And the message is clear: Take from the poor and give to the rich; trickle-down destruction for one, trickle-up profits for the other. But never mind that: be thankful that someone’s at least giving you something at all.
This article was first published on David Hutt’s Cambodia Unfiltered Substack and is republished with kind permission. Become a Cambodia Unfiltered subscriber here.
