Eighteen days into what has been called the “rescue flight” trial and was expected to last a month, the four ex-officials from the ministries of foreign affairs, health and public security received life sentences. Charged for their involvement in bribery-related schemes, fraud and abuses of power that resulted in a multi-million-dollar scandal within Vietnam’s 2020 Covid-19 response, they avoided the death penalty recommended by prosecutors.

Though none of the 54 total defendants convicted in the trial were sentenced to death, 18 were eligible for capital punishment. Among the wide net of defendants were 10 businesspeople and civilians who received suspended sentences.

The verdict appears to confirm a sensational flare in the “blazing furnace” campaign (chiến dịch đốt lò), an anti-corruption purge spearheaded by party leader Trong. It’s the same campaign that led to President Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s abrupt resignation earlier this year – an unorthodox move in Vietnam, where most political redirections are carefully orchestrated. 

This latest trial focused on additional graft allegations from deals made at the height of the country’s pandemic response. Previously, private medical company Viet A Technologies was found guilty of collecting $22 million (about 521 billion VND) in illegal revenue by overcharging for Covid testing kits in collusion with hospital managers and senior officials nationwide. 

“I don’t like disciplining my comrades … but I have to do it. As Uncle Ho said, I have to cut off a wormy tree branch to save the whole tree,” Trong said publicly after sentencing in that trial.

In this newest round, a wave of prominent ex-party members, including former Hanoi Deputy Mayor Chu Xuan Dung and Vietnam’s former ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam, were found guilty of manipulating the organisation of Covid-era repatriation flights. The stipulations of “combo flights” required citizens who were abroad during the pandemic to make a single payment for plane tickets back to Vietnam and subsequent quarantine fees. 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed a total of 772 repatriation flights. To win licensing, air transport providers bribed senior officials to broker 372 combo flights and, presumably, the balance of the 400 other flights.

Hoang Dieu Mo, general director of the An Binh Trading, Tourism and Aviation Services Co., caught wind of this bribery scheme early, according to documents presented by state media.  One of the 10 businesspeople caught up in the trial, she received licensing for 66 of the 372 flights, spending nearly $1.5 million (about 35 billion VND) to bribe eight officials from the five ministries involved in the licensing process.

The collusion between airlines, tourism companies and officials to “rip-off” desperate expatriates, students and foreign workers trying to get back to Vietnam during the pandemic caused major public outrage, said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. Although ticket prices were already exceptionally high, he said, excess demand for the limited seating on repatriation flights resulted in a system of waiting lists.

“Because some people could not be put on the list they had to actually bribe officers in the (Vietnamese) embassies,” said Giang. 

The trial that we are witnessing right now is multifaceted – not only purifying the party or cleaning up bad roots.”

Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute

As the case fueled citizens’ outrage, some experts were left asserting the purge and its sensational coverage by state media reflects an attempt by Trong to either ostracise outliers with forced resignations, summary stripping and public trial, or to simply consolidate the party and its image.

“The anti-corruption campaign has many different goals and the trial that we are witnessing right now is multifaceted – not only purifying the party or cleaning up bad roots that the party has been propagating,” said Giang a day before the sentencing. He saw the anti-corruption purge as an opportunity for party members to take out rivals, taking into account that the next party congress is scheduled in less than three years. 

Bill Hayton, associate fellow with the Asia-Pacific programme at the policy institute Chatham House, concurred. 

“The general secretary is using the campaign to take out his opponents. And I think it’s fair to say that he perceives his opponents as a corrupt class,” said Hayton. “People who are willing to damage the interests of the Communist Party as a whole for their own personal benefit pose a threat to the legitimacy of the Communist Party system because they’re willing to allow individual ambition over party discipline.”

As the public uproar metastasized, the Hanoi People’s Court disclosed during the trial that total bribery money equaled $9.5 million (more than 224 billion VND), of which $2.65 million was given to police officials to avoid prosecution. 

Pham Trung Kien, former secretary to the deputy health minister, was found guilty of accepting 253 bribes totaling $1.8 million during an 11-month period. One of the four convicted officials, he received a life sentence for his involvement in the graft scandal. 

“I did not ask any firm to be granted a certificate for rescue flights. Instead, they contacted me for help,” he pleaded during the hearing.

During the proceedings, prosecutors said 21 officials and civil servants were charged directly for receiving nearly $7 million in bribes from 100 businesses “to solve administrative procedures for repatriation”. 

Thirty-three others faced such charges as enabling bribes, fraud and power abuse, according to the indictment. Some officials such as Dung, who was the most senior in the pool and received 16 years in prison, and Nam, who was sentenced to 30 months, each returned $75,000 to the state as a means to “fix the consequences”, state media reported.

“The system is designed to get people to confess, so that investigators can get people higher up the food chain,” said Hayton.

According to Vietnam’s appellate procedures, the defendants may file an appeal with the immediate superior court within 15 days of the judgement. 

“I think some might choose this option, as their sentences are harsher than proposed,” said Giang.

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Muhyiddin was prime minister for 17 months between 2020 and 2021, at the height of Malaysia’s battle against the coronavirus, and now leads an opposition coalition against Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government.

The 75-year-old Muhyiddin was hit with four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling $51.4 million (232.5 million ringgit) for his political party Bersatu.

The bribes allegedly came from companies that were given preference for projects financed by the Covid fund.

Each charge carries up to 20 years imprisonment on conviction.

Muhyiddin was also slapped with two charges of money laundering involving about $43,000,00 (195 million ringgit) deposited into Bersatu’s account, according to the charge sheets.

Each of those charges could lead to up to 15 years in jail.

At the Sessions Court on Friday, Muhyiddin pleaded not guilty to all charges and requested a trial.

He was freed on bail but ordered to surrender his passport.

The charges came a day after Muhyiddin was questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and later arrested.

He has denied any wrongdoing and accused Anwar’s ruling coalition of political persecution to discredit him and his party ahead of state elections in July.

MACC launched a probe into the alleged misuse of pandemic funds by Bersatu and froze the party’s bank accounts last month.

Two Bersatu leaders have also been charged with bribery related to the stimulus programme.

Muhyiddin rose to prominence during the tenure of former prime minister Najib Razak, who is now serving a 12-year jail term for corruption linked to the plunder of state investment firm 1MDB.

He fell out with Najib in 2015, when he was sacked after criticising the government over the 1MDB scandal.

Muhyiddin later joined a party set up by former premier Mahathir Mohamad and helped to oust Najib and his party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

Then in a volte-face typical of Malaysia’s turbulent politics, he joined hands with UMNO again to win enough support to become premier.

© Agence France-Presse

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“Corruption has made our world a more dangerous place. As governments have collectively failed to make progress against it, they fuel the current rise in violence and conflict – and endanger people everywhere,” stated TI Chair Delia Ferreira Rubio in a release.

As conflicts and economic crises drag on, Southeast Asia’s stubborn corruption levels have triggered claims of “lots of talk with few results,” according to the index report. Leaders at TI are now urging regional leaders to step up and drive change from their findings.

The extended coup in Myanmar has led to a sharp increase in corruption while Malaysia’s long battle against graft in the wake of the 1MBD scandal in 2015 has produced frustrating results, according to TI in its 2022 index. The watchdog noted that Asia Pacific as a whole “continues to stagnate” on the index, and though some countries made gains in fighting petty corruption, the organisation stated that “grand corruption” has remained mostly unchallenged.

The index rates corruption levels state-by-state by compiling data from businesspeople and country experts to issue a national score from zero to 100, with lower scores indicating greater levels of perceived corruption in the public sector.

Corruption has made our world a more dangerous place.”

Delia Ferreira Rubio, TI Chair

When the ranked countries were lumped into regions, only Western Europe and the EU clocked in above 50, with an aggregate score of 66. Southeast Asia on the whole – including Timor-Leste but not Brunei, for which TI did not provide a listing – scored an average of 39.5. The larger Asia Pacific region came in at 45.

Globally, TI stated that post-pandemic economic recovery has taken precedence over tackling corruption. The organisation expressed concern over cross-border money laundering and illegal financial activity, as well as sustained government control over citizens established during the pandemic. 

The ASEAN states had a mixed showing in the 2022 index, with most featuring either some progress or backsliding. 

On one end, Singapore traditionally leads the region on the TI rankings, with this latest edition being no exception. The organisation rated the city-state with an 83, marking no change from the year the prior.

Myanmar fell on the other side of the spectrum. With a score of 23 on this year’s report after a dramatic drop of five points, the military-led country edged out Cambodia to rank as the most corrupt country in Southeast Asia.

The military’s 2021 coup marked a plunge into corruption for Myanmar, where TI noted digital policing through a “golden firewall” restricts online access to just 1,200 government approved websites. Even as activists who left during the 2021 coup start to make cautious returns, they run the risk of being targeted under “laws they implemented criminalising any actions seen as countering the government”.

Though Myanmar had the steepest fall of any ASEAN state, it’s not the only one to mark a significant decline. Malaysia’s rating of 47 in the latest index came after a one point drop from 2021, amidst a six point fall since 2018.  

As Malaysia welcomed its first ever hung parliament in November 2022, the ghosts of corruption past hung over the fight for political leadership. The 12 year jail sentence of former Prime Minister Najib Razak in August 2022 for his involvement in the 1MDB scandal – considered one of world’s largest exposés of corruption –  inspired some increased transparency. In the wake of 1MDB investigations, some political parties took to declaring candidates’ assets to appear credible to the electorate. 

But in December, the Anti-Corruption Commission opened a new investigation into government projects worth more than $136 billion approved by another former prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, who held office between 2020 and 2021. While Muhyiddin denied any wrongdoing, Malaysia’s ranking in the 2022 TI index has reflected a turbulent year.

On the flip side, some ASEAN states have seen their TI ratings climb even as their governments have grown more authoritarian. Vietnam’s new rating of 39 represents a six-point hike from 2020. The increase comes amidst the socialist state’s ongoing anti-corruption campaign, which has led to the removal of multiple ministers. Just earlier this month, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc abruptly resigned – a startling move in Vietnam – under rumours that he was to be targeted as part of the campaign.

At the same time, Vietnam has increased repression of civil society. Human Rights Watch notes that in 2022 alone, Vietnamese courts convicted at least 35 people for either criticising the state or otherwise engaging in activism. 

Right next door, Cambodia typically ranks every year among the world’s most corrupt countries on the TI index, with the kingdom’s latest score of 24 keeping that track record alive. However, even as the country struggled with numerous high-profile corruption scandals including the unveiling of its sweeping cyberscams industry, the watchdog group believed the situation in Cambodia had improved to the tune of one point over the year prior, and three points over 2020.

The TI report looks ahead to 2023 with a focus on the potential for change, pointing to elections in Cambodia, Thailand and possibly Myanmar as a chance for voters to advocate for themselves. 

“Governments must open up space to include the public in decision-making – from activists and business owners to marginalised communities and young people,” said TI CEO Daniel Eriksson. “In democratic societies, the people can raise their voices to help root out corruption and demand a safer world for us all.”

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The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is generally seen as the global standard-setter for tackling the financial crimes of money laundering and terror financing. In 2019, the group placed Cambodia on its grey list, an undesirable label that brands the country as one of several deemed to have strategic failures in addressing financial crimes.

But the FATF also presented a way out for Cambodia, providing a general action plan that could get the kingdom off the list and back into its good graces. 

On 13 January, the group completed an on-site inspection of the government’s progress on the plan. Officials, policy experts and business leaders alike are now waiting for the decision on Cambodia’s potential delisting – and the image boost that would bring, especially after reputational hits due to the country’s cyberscams industry.

“As the FATF documents demonstrated, Cambodia fulfilled all the Action Plan items as of October 2022,” said Kateryna Boguslavska, project manager at the anti-corruption non-profit Basel Institute of Governance. “If the results [of an inspection] are positive and developments are verified, delisting may happen in the subsequent few sessions – in March or June 2023.”

When FATF senior policy analyst Mei-lin Wang arrived in Phnom Penh earlier this month for the inspection, she sat down with Prime Minister Hun Sen and Interior Minister Sar Kheng over the course of a two-day visit. 

During their meeting, Kheng emphasised Cambodia’s commitment to working with the FATF to fight money laundering and terror financing, pointing to the establishment of legislative processes and law enforcement training that account for the bulk of action plan recommendations. However, the results of the inspection remain uncertain, and with the FATF’s next meeting taking place in March, the fate of the nation’s status could well be determined in the coming months.

But the completion of the FATF action plan in October also coincided with a long-delayed crackdown on the country’s then-bustling cyberscams sector that same month. Rooted mainly in Sihanoukville – the site of earlier runaway investment that had likely factored into the FATF grey listing in 2019 – the scams industry had enjoyed ties to government and business elites who had denied its very existence for more than a year prior.

The FATF has yet to mention the cyberscams industry – itself connected to money laundering – in its assessment of Cambodia’s progress. And while it may still clear the country from the grey list, it’s unclear if the watchdog’s prescribed reforms have touched on the underlying issues that enabled the scams industry to thrive in plain sight. 

“For Cambodia, it is an uneasy choice to make whether to genuinely crackdown on online gambling and other shadowy business activities, as the country witnesses the slowdown of the economy resulting from pandemic and the potential global economic crash,” explained Pisey Pech, executive director at Transparency International Cambodia. “The FATF may have to reassess the situation.”

At the same time, given the importance of foreign investment in the nation’s economy, the delisting could signal a much-needed step toward some improved transparency in the nation’s financial landscape. 

Cambodia’s coastal city of Sihanoukville was transformed from a sleepy beach town to a bustling hive of under-construction casinos, clubs and hotels catering to an influx of foreign nationals starting in 2015. In 2019 – amidst a surge of Chinese investment focused on the city and drawn by a largely unregulated investment climate – the FATF placed Cambodia on its grey list.

“I suspect it was a range of factors that led to this decision,” explained Stephen Higgins, co-founder of the investment and advisory firm Mekong Strategic Capital. “The proliferation in online gambling, what was happening in Sihanoukville more generally, and the fact that it is such a dollarised economy meant it was more exposed to AML risks.”

Under this international pressure, the Cambodian government’s 2020 ban on online and arcade gambling followed its “high-level political commitment” to work with the FATF to combat money laundering and terror financing. 

Along with measures in 2020 to restrict the online gambling industry that had fed Sihaounkville’s casino boom, a special ad-hoc working group was created to implement the watchdog’s recommendations, focusing on facilitating cooperation between government agencies and disseminating information and training. In subsequent FATF statements, establishing this legal framework, the associated training for law enforcement as well as regulatory outreach to the casino and real estate sectors were areas of considerable progress. 

Established at the 1989 G-7 Summit to produce a globally recognised framework to address these financial crimes, the FATF works with similarly aligned regional bodies such as the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) to analyse threats to financial integrity, recommend ways to combat such threats and measure their effects. While the watchdog group doesn’t have the teeth to enforce these recommendations, the stigma around greylisting can have major effects on a nation’s status on the global stage. 

Following the FATF’s 2019 greylisting announcement, Cambodia found itself on the European Union’s own list of 12 “high-risk” countries, released in May 2020. 

“We need to put an end to dirty money infiltrating our financial system,” said executive vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis in a statement from the European Commission. “Today we are further bolstering our defences to fight money laundering and terrorist financing… There should be no weak links in our rules and their implementation.” 

As more international groups align with the FATF’s actions, snowballing damage to a nation’s reputation can lead to direct economic consequences.

Grey listing has a significant negative impact, affecting as much as 7.6% of GDP on a country’s capital flows, according to a 2021 study from the International Monetary Fund. 

Hard numbers on the specific economic impacts of Cambodia’s greylisting are hard to come by, especially considering the relegation coincided with the global economic downturn of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, those within affected industries have felt the sting of the FATF’s international influence. 

For Rithy Sear, founder and chairman of Phnom Penh’s WorldBridge Group, the difference in investor attitudes before and after the greylisting could not be more clear. 

“When people are looking where to invest [in Southeast Asia], they are often looking at Cambodia,” he said. “But then they check and see we are on the grey list, they have to reconsider: ‘Will I go to Cambodia, or will I got to Vietnam or Indonesia?’” 

Rithy holds the status of oknha in Cambodia, an official designation granted by royal decree to those who donate a minimum of $500,000 to the government. He attended last year’s Davos conference in Switzerland with Prime Minister Hun Sen, announcing then that WorldBridge had become the first Cambodian company to gain membership to the World Economic Forum at the level of associate partner.

Rithy said it’s not just the speculative damage of investor hesitancy that has impacted his firm, a conglomerate that focuses on logistics but operates in industries ranging from healthcare to major real estate. Reliant in large part on overseas funding and investment for areas of his business, the FATF’s ongoing attention has hurt his bottom line in more concrete and quantifiable ways. 

“For our logistics business we need international investors, for example, from Hong Kong,” he explained. “Before the greylisting, they gave us very low interest rates on loans but after, they came back with a higher rate. This has impacted our profits, losses and total revenue.”

Rithy said near-monthly meetings of policy disseminations and regulatory training at the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and Ministry of Economy and Finance have been central to government efforts to comply with FATF recommendations. By October 2022, the group judged that Cambodia had addressed the group’s concerns sufficiently to warrant an on-site visit.

However, the action plan’s emphasis on legislation does not necessarily translate to progress on the ground.

“Generally our assessment revealed that there is a significant gap between the existing legal frameworks and the actual implementation,” said Pisey. “Poor law enforcement remains the biggest challenge to overcome in Cambodia.”

Despite the fulfilment of FATF requirements, evidence of widespread corruption is not hard to find. In 2022, the country dropped from 11th to seventh on the Basel Institute’s money laundering index and on 10 January, just a day before the group’s inspector arrived, the former deputy director of the Finance and Supply Department under the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, was arrested for allegedly embezzling nearly $400,000. 

With the inspection complete, government officials and businesses await the FATF’s decision. While the delisting would be a step in the right direction and undoubtedly boost the nation’s international reputation, Cambodia’s systemic corruption requires solutions beyond what international watchdogs can provide.  

“To effectively tackle money laundering issues, a holistic approach must be deployed,” explained Pisey. “That requires the government to seriously look into reducing corruption at its grand and petty scales including political corruption, nepotism, conflict of interest and the patronage system that protects the criminal networks and undermines rule of law. The question is, ‘Can the authorities afford to do this?’”

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“The method that they used to help the drug addict is that they will electrocute you or beat you,” he said. “The only thing I would like to share about the government rehab centres is it actually was one of the most terrible nightmares that I have ever experienced.” 

T. is one of many in the region who have faced substance abuse issues as Southeast Asia’s drug trade thrives. Last year, a record one billion methamphetamine tablets were seized in the region – more than 35 times higher than two decades prior. And in Vietnam, the number of synthetic drug users, particularly of methamphetamine, is increasing. Between 2016 and 2020 meth usage increased nine-fold.

Those caught using or holding methamphetamine are often sent to government-run rehabs against their will. Detainees can be held between two to four years. 

While drugs inundate the region, there are limited options for support and treatment for those grappling with addiction. Thousands of individuals, including children as young as 12 years old, are held at Vietnam’s compulsory drug-treatment centres. Many are pushed into the centres involuntarily. Once inside, they live behind fenced walls and under close guard for as long as four years. “Labour therapy” and beatings have been reported as common forms of “treatment.” Hundreds have attempted escape.

Compulsory rehabilitation has been condemned by international rights organisations for  over a decade in Vietnam. Government promises to transition towards community-based treatment appear to be stalling and little system-wide change has been implemented.

“Based on our discussions with people inside the country and tracking these issues online, forced labour practices in the name of ‘labour therapy’ continue to be prevalent at many centres,” said Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch.

“It is very likely that increasing use of meth will mean more people are forced into these so-called rehabilitation centres where their rights will be abused.”

Manual labour as a form of “rehab” in Vietnam can be traced to 1995. That year, the National Assembly issued an ordinance which stated “frequent drug abusers…shall be sent to health institutions for treatment, education and manual labour.” As organised crime groups push a flood of drugs throughout the region, many Vietnamese undergo “labour therapy.”   

Vietnam is a key trafficking hub for Southeast Asia’s drug trade, but the product also seeps into the country where synthetic drugs are getting cheaper and more easily available.

The majority of meth in Vietnam comes from a remote mountainous region where northern Thailand, eastern Myanmar and western Laos meet. Known as the Golden Triangle, the locale is notorious as the stronghold of Southeast Asia’s drug economy. As of 2019, the drug trade was worth between $30 and $60 billion yearly in East and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

“Since there has been a surge in the supply of methamphetamine to Vietnam, there has been a significant increase in registered methamphetamine users in the country,” said Inshik Sim, research officer for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). 

“[Organised crime groups] have been able to lower prices of the drug, enhancing affordability and accessibility of the drug to users.”  

T. was first forced into a compulsory drug treatment centre in 1997. He described the nearly two decades he wrestled with addiction as he was shuttled in and out of drug rehab as “hopeless.” Around him, he saw friends die as the state failed to properly treat their sometimes deadly addictions. 

“I have too many friends who died because of drugs, because they couldn’t find a way to change,” he said.

“For all the government centres, they use the method that they try to force the people inside…They put fences, it only stops their behaviour [temporarily]. It’s not the route of how to help them.”

Gloria Lai, the Asia regional director for the International Drug Policy Consortium, said Vietnam stands out regionally as particularly harsh in its treatment of drug users and in the length of time users can be detained. 

“It doesn’t seem that different from a prison. It is basically a form of detention,” Lai said. “Number one is it’s not drug rehab. And number two, it is a violation of someone’s human rights.”

There were 120 compulsory drug-treatment centres in Vietnam as of 2018, according to a January report from UNODC and the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. 

The compulsory rehab facilities held 25,400 people in 2018. Some compulsory centres operated up to four times beyond their capacity in 2019.

It doesn’t seem that different from a prison. It is basically a form of detention”

Gloria Lai, Asia regional director for the International Drug Policy Consortium

A 2011 Human Rights Watch report documented abuse at the centres. Interviewed former detainees did agricultural and construction work, sewed garments and made a variety of products, sometimes for private companies. Detainees’ pay was well-below minimum wage and deductions were taken from their earnings to cover the cost of accommodation, food and water at the centres. After deductions, detainees received between 16,000 and 149,000VND ($0.68 to $6.29) monthly.

Many of the interviewees described work quotas. Refusal to work or failure to meet quotas resulted in beatings. Sometimes, the reason for the beatings was unclear. 

“When I first arrived I was beaten for no reason at all,” Trung Khanh, who was detained in Central Vietnam, told Human Rights Watch. “The staff made me lie down on my stomach and they beat my buttocks with a truncheon. I was also struck with their hands and kicked.”

Twelve United Nations agencies called for the closure of compulsory drug detention centres in 2012. The joint statement cited health and human rights concerns including forced labour, physical and sexual violence, sub-standard living conditions and the denial of healthcare. 

Although pressure from international rights groups has had some impact, Robertson of Human Rights Watch, stated large-scale change has not occurred. 

“After our report was published, there was a period of a couple of years that the government apparently slowed down in putting people in compulsory drug-rehabilitation centres,” he said, adding that there are provincial quotas to send individuals into compulsory rehabs. 

“But what we observed is the situation gradually slipped back to the previous, rights-abusing norm.”

Former prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved the Drug Rehabilitation Renovation Plan in 2013. According to the plan,  the number of compulsory rehabilitation centres would be decreased in favour of community-based treatment. 

The plan had some initial success. With international aid, Vietnam adopted methadone maintenance dependence clinics to treat opioid dependence. 

As the number of methadone clinics increased, the number of detainees at compulsory centres went down, according to a 2020 report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. But in 2016, the usage of amphetamines, including meth, surged. 

With the increase of amphetamine dependence, reliance on drug users being sent to compulsory rehabs once again became the norm. 

Reliance on compulsory drug-treatment holds back a health-based approach to drug dependence, the report states. The funding that goes to government-run rehabs could go to community and evidence-based treatment. 

The risk, the report states, is that compulsory centres will become a ‘default solution to the country’s growing amphetamine problem. 

Children are also caught up in the country’s amphetamine crisis. 

Young people between the ages of 12 and 18 are sent into compulsory rehab and like adults, forced to work. In a 2014 report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), nine out 15 former detainees interviewed saw children working in the centres. Some children slept and worked separately from adults, while others were shoulder to shoulder with adult detainees. 

This year, the government adopted an ordinance that went into effect on 24 March, stating that children must be kept in separate sections of the drug rehab centres. 

But Robertson does not believe the law to be strictly enforced. He pointed to an April report in local media that claimed there are not enough facilities to keep children separated from  “common drug rehabilitators.”

According to Dang Minh Hieu of the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, there is not much public information available on the country’s drug rehabs. This makes it difficult to understand how laws are being enforced, the number of individuals at rehabs, and the number of centres in operation.

“There is a difficulty in collecting information on this issue,” Hieu said. “The public information is quite out of date, I can’t say if the number [of centres] has increased or reduced.”

Lai of the International Drug Policy Consortium agreed. 

“It is worse in Vietnam and they are more secretive,” she said.  

Despite a lack of public information on the country’s rehab centres, there are frequent reports of individuals seeking escape. 

Hundreds of detainees have tried to break out of a centre located in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang in recent years

In the most recent report 31 individuals overpowered staff and escaped via the main gate during meal time in February 2020.  

In one of the largest reported break outs, approximately 600 people escaped a rehab in southern Dong Nai in 2016. About 150 of the escapees were apprehended, local media reported.

Some of the harshest punishments at rehab centres are meted out on those who attempt to flee, according to those interviewed for the ILO report. 

Anh Pham spent two years in a Hanoi drug rehab centre. She described witnessing the beating of a friend who was caught trying to escape to ILO. 

“Many staff beat her up, by turn, one after another, using clubs,” Pham told ILO. “They used slippers to slap her face. Then she was hung by both hands from handcuffs on the door, all day, for a month.”

T. has learned to manage his addiction through faith and set up his own Christian rehab in 2015. Unlike at government rehabs, his centre has no fences and those seeking help are treated with the dignity that  is often missing at government centres and in society more broadly.

“At the government centres, the way they are helping drug addicts totally fails,” he said. “Drug addicts can’t find a way to go back to society because people judge them. No one cares, a lot of people even think when you become a drug addict you don’t even deserve to survive.”

Additional reporting by Hao Thao Nguyen

*Name has been withheld to protect the source’s identity.

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“The next thing I remember was the truck suddenly slowing down… then, gradually, it veered off the road,” she said. “And then we fell into a ditch. Then I remember that I was hit by a heavy weight.”

Sandwiched beneath a dozen other passengers, Vy’s hamstring snapped from the crush of people falling on her in the ditch, their weight causing blood clots in her chest, abdomen and ribs.

What should have been an ordinary commute for the 25-year-old, like the more than 200,000 garment factory workers in Cambodia who AIP Foundation says rely on collective transport vehicles, ended with injuries that may have life-changing effects for her.

Road accidents involving garment worker transportation remains a big problem in the Kingdom. There were 2,206 garment workers who became casualties of accidents in 2020, equivalent to 183 per month. Thirty died and 467 sustained serious injuries, as in the case of Vy, according to a September 2021 study by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS).

Large numbers of workers – as many as 60 at a time – are transported to garment factories by often old and poorly maintained flatbed trucks that are illegally home-modified by drivers and mechanics to fit more people. 

As long as action on accidents remains slow, we can sadly only expect rates of injury to increase”

Sabina Lawreniuk, University of Nottingham research fellow

Despite numerous attempts by the Cambodian government and NGOs to find a solution, the roads seem to be getting less safe for commuting workers. Figures released by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), when compared with the CPS study, show that crashes increased by about 30% between 2018 and 2020, a rise of nearly 500.

While accidents fell in 2019, the number of victims increased by 7%.

Sabina Lawreniuk, a University of Nottingham research fellow who studies Cambodian garment factory conditions, said the increase in crashes and casualties was unsurprising given the exponential rate of garment industry worker increases, meaning more of them are commuting via the flatbeds. 

“The numbers of workers in the garment industry continues to rise to meet the demands of the sector’s growing output,” she said. “There are now nearly a million workers across the formal and informal parts of the garment industry, and as long as action on accidents remains slow, we can sadly only expect rates of injury to increase.”

As pent-up demand in the garment manufacturing sector translates to more activity after the Covid-19 pandemic, industry NGOs, union leaders and workers themselves fear more injuries, and even deaths, will occur without timely and large-scale intervention.

The one thing Vy vividly recalls is that her accident happened on a road with no other cars. In an attempt to stop, the truck slowed suddenly but started veering steeply to the left before falling into a ditch. She suspects the vehicle was “worn out.”

Industry NGOs and union leaders point to a lethal combination of driver overwork and decrepit trucks. A majority of all flatbed trucks on the road are more than 15 years old, with the CPS study revealing 96% of more than 500 trucks they surveyed fell into this category. 

These trucks are currently outlawed for the transport of people, though a new traffic law is reportedly being discussed by the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training to legalise their use when modified, the CPS study noted.

Neak Heng, president of the Association of Transportation Workers and Informal Employment, a union representing Cambodia’s truck drivers, spoke of a reluctance among drivers to change their vehicles that boils down to slimming profit margins and supply and demand.

“Buses and regular vehicles are considered expensive for drivers [operating such businesses]. In some cases, the cost of fuel alone is more than even the cost of the trucks when added up,” he said. 

I don’t dare to dream of who will take care of my family if something happens to me”

Hom Vicheka, garment factory worker

Working long hours, truck drivers, like the workers they ferry, also are victims of a vicious low wage cycle, said Arron Goldman, acting deputy programme manager of the NGO Better Factories Cambodia. 

“The reality on the ground is that the drivers have often earned less than the garment worker after receiving their fee from the workers” for gruelling journeys that often take up to two hours each way, he said.

Pav Sina, leader of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW), which has negotiated for worker safety, said transport has been a focal point of the union’s fights alongside wage stagnation, the latter being a barrier to workers becoming motivated to use safer forms of transport. 

Through the National Council of Minimum Wages, his union is one of several that have called for a minimum wage increase for garment workers to $204 a month. The increase is $12 more than the $194 they were offered as of January, itself a $2 increase from 2021’s minimum wage.

The $2 increase has largely been decried as a real-term wage loss after accounting for inflation. Accordingly, workers are often forced to take the cheapest form of transport available to them: commuting on a flatbed truck costs an average of $12 monthly, exceeding the $7 transport allowance that factories are legally required to provide.

In the face of wage stagnation, Sina said the union has pivoted its strategy to requesting factories supply standardised, safe vehicles. “Many times, I have insisted: our message for employers and the government is to find a mechanism to provide standard and safe workers’ transport vehicles.” 

Hom Vicheka is one of the luckier ones. A garment factory worker who previously commuted on flatbed trucks but now travels by bus, she said the price of her travel has increased by $8 per month. But the peace of mind has been worth the added cost.

“I don’t dare to dream of who will take care of my family if something happens to me,” she said.

Because she lives close to a paved road, Vicheka acknowledged it’s possible for her to ride her bicycle to the nearest bus stop. But many other factory workers, who live in villages with unpaved dirt roads, don’t have that luxury.

“Obviously, it would be easy to say the solution is [to use] buses,” Goldman said. “But these buses can’t go the last kilometre down to a provincial town because the roads are of a lesser quality. So that’s not the answer either, even though it would be nice and easy to do.”

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for these large scale problems, some of which have been culturally ingrained over several decades and generations of workers, he said. “Two to three hundred thousand workers go to and from the factory each day, just on these trucks. Trying to change several hundred thousand people’s behaviour is a hard task.”

The situation had gotten so bad that big clothing brands expressed concern about the alarming number of deaths on the road long before workers stepped foot in the factories, Goldman said.

Approached by the companies, Better Factories launched a Transportation Working Group in 2016 to educate drivers and workers about road safety, focusing on topics such as the importance of wearing helmets while riding motorbikes or switching to vehicles other than flatbed trucks.

In December, labour minister Ith Sam Heng acknowledged the dangers of flatbed trucks and called for them to be changed to vans with seats “to ensure worker safety and well-being” in an interview with Khmer Times. But progress on such policies has been criticised by union leaders as opaque. 

Beyond personal safety education, Asian Injury Prevention Foundation Country Manager Kim Pagna said there is much more the government can do, particularly to create sorely needed infrastructure which “will allow alternative and safer transport to become an option for workers.”

“Roads and money are the most obvious solutions to this country-wide problem,” he said, suggesting a targeted improvement of roads leading to factories.

Whether road safety and organisational intervention or education, Lawreniuk said that ultimately the onus of ensuring garment workers’ safety lies as much with the brands themselves as with garment manufacturers and the government. However, she noted factories, brands and retailers still “typically see problems that occur outside the factory as beyond their sphere of responsibility.” 

Requests to the Garment Manufacturers’ Association of Cambodia for comment on its members’ transport safety practices went unanswered. 

The organisation has previously campaigned for the government to delay crackdowns on oversized trucks that are too large for the Kingdom’s two-lane roads, claiming in 2018 that such actions “posed a new threat to the garment… sectors, which are facing an increasingly competitive global market,” The Phnom Penh Post reported.

Years of wrangling by NGOs and activists since the creation of Cambodia’s garment industry led to transport accidents being classified as workplace incidents in 2008 and therefore eligible for NSSF insurance payouts under the country’s labour law. Vy was paid her full wages while she recovered from her injuries.

“U.K., U.S. and EU brands and retailers have proven stubbornly unwilling to pay unit prices for goods that allow workers a fair and decent living wage,” Lawreniuk said. “Until brands and retailers agree to pay more for products – and we’re talking only pennies here – workers’ bodies will continue to bear the costs of that quest for maximising profit.”

Vy returned to work in mid-March after a little more than a month of recovery, but expressed anxiety that the blood clots she sustained will return and has been taking medication to keep them at bay. She continues to take standing trucks to work owing to a lack of alternatives in her village, just under two hours away from the capital. 

She also worries about her ability to work overtime, which has often been a prerequisite by demanding factory managers for workers keeping their jobs, as the labour rights organisation Solidarity Center noted in its 2019 “Alternative Report on Labour Rights and Gender.”

For Vicheka, now a bus-riding worker, stories of accidents such as the one Vy suffered reinforce her desire to see faster implementation of the laws on commuter transport standardisation. 

“How many more people must get injured or die before something [tangible] happens,” she wondered.

This article is produced as part of a grant from the Solidarity Center, made possible with funding from USAID, to support the publication of stories about issues impacting workers in Cambodia. Find out more here. 

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The 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, released 25 January by Berlin-based Transparency International, evaluates 180 countries and territories on a scale of 0 (very corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Cambodia earned 23 points, the worst among its ASEAN neighbours, while Singapore landed in fourth place worldwide with 85 points.

The drastic difference, analysts say, comes down to Singapore’s high salaries for officials, independent courts willing to rule against the government and the expectation of punishment for transgressions – factors standing in contrast to what many critics call Cambodia’s “culture of impunity.”

“If you have very strong incentives not to be corrupt, and very strong regulations, and very strict monitoring, certainly it can work wonders,” said Krisztina Kis-Katos, a University of Göttingen professor of international economic policy. “And if you have badly paid officials and a culture that accepts that it’s necessary to top-off salaries, then you get a much larger acceptance of certain types of monetary exchange.”

Transparency International researches and advocates against corruption worldwide, with chapters in 112 countries. Since 1995, its annual CPI has drawn from up to 13 different surveys of local and international businesspeople and experts to produce the rankings.

To be included, a country must be represented in at least three data sources capturing perceptions of corruption over the past two years. Transparency International standardises the results of the sources and averages them to produce a country’s overall score.

If you have very strong incentives not to be corrupt…and very strict monitoring, certainly it can work wonders”

Krisztina Kis-Katos, professor of international economic policy, University of Göttingen

The results have become a crucial benchmark for academics and policymakers when publicised annually by local chapters. In Phnom Penh, Transparency International Cambodia executive director Pech Pisey spoke at the sprawling Raffles Hotel Le Royal to an audience of NGO workers, journalists and ministry representatives.

A two-point increase in Cambodia’s score was “a little bit encouraging” in light of efforts to protect public health and decrease petty corruption. But the country’s public institutions and governance remain fundamentally compromised, Pisey said.

“We want to see more of an increase,” he said. “If we can improve the rule of law and human rights situation, we might have a better score.”

Cambodia’s score has remained between 20 and 22 for the last ten years, trailing the worldwide average of 43 and consistently putting the Kingdom behind other ASEAN countries.

Government spokesperson Phay Siphan​ called Transparency International “pathetic” and said he did not accept its findings, Cambodianness reported.

A majority of the country’s improvement in the past year can be chalked up to two particular surveys from the World Economic Forum and the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy. In each of the surveys, respondents reported a slight decrease in their perceptions of unscrupulous dealings.

But human rights experts say deep-seated corruption in sectors ranging from the judiciary to education mean little has changed in the country where prime minister Hun Sen has held power for more than 35 years, particularly when Covid-19 lockdowns have hampered people’s ability to speak out through public gatherings.

“For me, it has become a cancer,” said Chak Sopheap, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. “Cancer is a chronic disease – it’s hard to treat and cure.”

Nop Vy, the Cambodian Journalists Alliance executive director, pointed to the decline of independent media since 2017, when the Supreme Court dissolved the country’s opposition party and press crackdowns left longstanding English-language newspapers lifeless.

Some journalists have felt pressure to take bribes from officials, he said, while investigating corruption has become increasingly dangerous.

Cambodia has touted its efforts to tackle corruption through the establishment of Hun Sen’s Anti-Corruption Unit in 2010. But human rights groups and international watchdogs say paltry enforcement and a lack of political will has led anti-corruption efforts to become another arm to persecute critics or take bribes.

When a Cambodian university student reported mass cheating on an exam two years ago, the Ministry of Justice charged him with incitement, slander and defamation, creating a chilling effect on future whistleblowing, Transparency International reported. 

Another recent incident involved an Anti-Corruption Unit staff member accused of demanding payments in exchange for university degrees.

“The main issue, I believe, is not the lack of legislation but how the current legislation is being implemented and how the judiciary is contributing, or not, to the fight against corruption,” said Claudia de la Fuente, deputy representative for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia. 

“If people start coming out and reporting incidents of corruption and end up in prison, that will dissuade others from providing similar reports,” De la Fuente said.

Despite the dismal portrait painted by this year’s rankings, Cambodia is not unique. Since 2012, more than 80% of ranked countries have made little to no progress in improving their scores, according to Transparency International. Two-thirds of countries continue to score below 50.

Yet the perception of endemic corruption across Southeast Asia is “a real concern” in attracting new investors, said Gil Gonzales, executive director of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council. 

While some companies factor bribes into their cost of doing business, others shy away from environments they view as unpredictable and costly, Gonzales said.

“If you can’t trust someone, how do you think about getting married?,” Gonzales said. “It’s a very basic requirement of engaging and investing – trust and confidence.”

The notable counterexample is Singapore, where the public sector has built a squeaky-clean reputation partly upon competitive salaries and a culture of enforcement, experts say.

A diplomat was sentenced to 15 months in jail in 2014 after pleading guilty to inflating the price of pineapple tarts and wine intended as gifts for dignitaries. That kind of government response sends a strong message to those in similar positions, said Edmund Malesky, a political economy professor at Duke University who specialises in Southeast Asia.

If you can’t trust someone, how do you think about getting married?”

Gil Gonzales, executive director, ASEAN Business Advisory Council

“That’s a big deal,” Malesky said. “It cost him a lot of money, because it cost him that big annual salary. Corruption is punished relatively heavily.”

Transparency International spokesperson Shubham Kaushik cautioned that the city-state’s tight control on corruption is “without regard for human rights and civil liberties.”

“[Singapore] continues to fall far behind on human rights such as freedom of expression and association, which means that any anti-corruption success is tied to the political will of the ruling elite and can be easily reversed,” Kaushik said.

Other top-ranked counties have historically included Denmark, Finland and New Zealand, which each received the highest score of 88 this year. Somalia, Syria and South Sudan were ranked at the bottom with scores of 13 and 11.

The corruption index has received criticism over the years, namely for its basis on a small group of experts and the inherent challenge of reducing nationwide corruption to a single number. Survey respondents may not be fully honest given their authoritarian environments or the pressure to give more socially acceptable answers than what they actually experience, Malesky said.

Transparency International said audits by the European Commission Joint Research Centre found its approach to be “conceptually and statistically coherent” and noted there is “no perfect way to measure corruption.”

“Expert surveys are a good first step to get a sense of how prevalent corruption is in a country and by combining 13 different sources we ensure that the CPI is more reliable than any of the individual sources taken separately,” Kaushik added.

Criticisms aside, analysts say the most useful takeaway for Southeast Asian countries is perhaps the most obvious: The region’s reputation for corruption has barely improved in the past decade.

Cambodia’s Sopheap of CCHR compared necessary institutional changes to cleaning a house.

“You need to clean it from the top down to the bottom,” she said. “If you only eliminate small-scale corruption, large-scale corruption still remains.”

This article is a part of an ongoing partnership with Transparency International Cambodia meant to accentuate issues along with practical solutions concerning good governance and anti-corruption in Cambodia. Learn more about the partnership here.

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Najib now plans a final appeal to Malaysia’s top court and will remain free on bail until that challenge concludes.

The 68-year-old was found guilty on all counts last year in the first of several trials he is facing related to the looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad sovereign wealth fund. 

Najib and his cronies were accused of stealing billions of dollars from the investment vehicle and spending it on everything from high-end real estate to pricey art.

His first trial related to the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($9.9 million) from a former 1MDB unit to his bank accounts.

He challenged last year’s High Court ruling at the Court of Appeal, but judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil Wednesday upheld Najib’s conviction on all seven charges he faced.

The judge condemned Najib’s actions as a “national embarrassment”, and said he had “knowledge of the 42 million ringgit (sent) into his account and dishonestly misappropriated it”.

Najib was convicted of abuse of power, money-laundering and criminal breach of trust over the transfer. As well as the jail term, he was fined almost $50 million. 

Judge Karim also rejected Najib’s defence that he believed the money was a donation from Saudi royalty, saying there was “no evidence” for the claim.

He agreed to a request for Najib to remain free on bail while he lodges his last appeal.

Najib and his lawyers were not at the court in administrative capital Putrajaya for the ruling and followed the proceedings online, after a member of the legal team tested positive for Covid-19. 

– Final challenge –

Anger at the plunder played a large part in the shock loss of Najib’s long-ruling coalition at elections in 2018, and he was arrested and hit with dozens of charges following his defeat.

He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

His lawyers had sought to delay Wednesday’s ruling over the Covid case in Najib’s legal team, and by seeking to introduce new evidence at the 11th hour as part of the appeal.

But the court rejected both moves. 

The former prime minister’s final appeal to Malaysia’s top court will likely take months.

If Najib — who remains an MP — loses that challenge, he will be jailed and barred from holding political office. 

Despite his graft conviction, he remains popular and influential, and has been mounting a political comeback in recent months.

The blue-blooded politician, whose father and uncle were both prime ministers, projects himself as a man of the people and has 4.6 million followers on Facebook, where he frequently comments on the news and criticises rivals.

He campaigned at local polls last month in the bellwether state of Malacca, helping his party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), to a landslide victory.

The amounts involved in Najib’s first case are small compared with those in his second and most significant 1MDB-linked trial, which centres on allegations he illicitly obtained more than $500 million.

© Agence France-Presse

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Fifty-nine people were detained in southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City, accused of luring players through social media to place bets online, according to the city police’s official newspaper.

The gambling ring is reportedly the biggest ever uncovered by Vietnamese police.

State media said players were instructed to buy a cryptocurrency wallet and convert their money into one of two digital currencies, Ethereum or USDT — also known as Tether — before placing bets on Swiftonline.live and Nagaclubs.com.

To entice new players, the detainees posted pictures on social networks showing off their fancy cars, expensive houses and extravagant parties.

To sway the more cautious, scammers also offered players insurance packages, with the promise of a refund if they did not win after six games.

However, during periods when there were a large number of players, the ring leaders crashed the websites in order to steal money from the digital wallets and avoid detection by police.

Officers confiscated 55 laptops and desktops, 39 mobile phones and seven luxury cars from the gang in Ho Chi Minh City.

State media said the gang had also established large-scale gambling networks in many other provinces and cities across the country. 

Vietnam’s communist government has started loosening its grip on domestic gambling, allowing Vietnamese to bet in casinos and opening up some sports betting.

But online gambling and private card rooms remain banned.

Still, despite regular crackdowns on illegal gambling, rings run by both locals and foreigners continue to flourish.

Last year police uncovered a massive online card ring with revenues estimated at $2.6 billion.

© Agence France-Presse

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The 55.6 million meth tablets and 1.5 tonnes of crystal meth seized late Wednesday is a record for a single seizure in the region, UN Office of Drugs and Crime regional representative Jeremy Douglas said.

“It is three times the meth tablets that Laos seized all last year, and close to a third of the crystal meth,” Douglas told AFP.

Laos has in recent years been a gateway for drug traffickers moving meth shipments out of Myanmar’s troubled Shan state. The trend has noticeably accelerated in recent months, exacerbated by February’s coup and economic collapse in Myanmar.

Authorities arrested the driver of a Beer Lao truck in Bokeo province, northern Laos, which is part of the so-called Golden Triangle — a notorious drug smuggling zone at the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.

Lao Brewery issued a statement denying any involvement.

“We are deeply disappointed that our crates have been abused as a cover for illegal activities,” the brewery said, adding that the truck in question was not registered with the company.

© Agence France-Presse

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