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Hearts and Minds

Monday, January 23, 2012
By Dene Mullen
The Southeast Asia Globe Magazine

Is Cambodia’s political environment encouraging a muted voter generation or are they happily disengaged?

Soung Sophorn speaks with the power and conviction of a seasoned politician, barking into the microphone and occasionally raising an accusatory finger at nobody in particular.

“We have to understand the mindset of the human being,” he bellows. “If you force somebody, the love will last a short time. If you capture their mind, the love will last forever.”

If broadcast in grainy black and white, it would be easy to recast the Sam Rainsy Party’s 25-year-old youth movement leader as a political heavyweight of yesteryear, addressing a rally of thousands who soon rise en masse to roar their approval. As it stands, Soung Sophorn is speaking at a workshop in a conference room at Phnom Penh’s Sunway Hotel.

Nevertheless, his passion is admirable and, with Cambodia’s commune council elections due to take place in June 2012 and the National Assembly elections following in 2013, the timing of a workshop promoting democracy and youth participation in elections could hardly be better.

Two million of the country’s young citizens will reach voting age in 2012 and, according to the organiser of the workshop, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), a political foundation offering civic education, the government “lacks the equipment to issue [new ID cards] in time”.

According to a 2010 study for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) conducted by the BBC World Service Trust (WST), a large proportion of young Cambodians are already not exercising their right to vote: “Of those who were aged from 21 up in the 2007 commune elections, 53% did not go to vote,” it states.

As well as the potential shortfall in new ID cards, there are other documentation concerns helping contribute to a lack of youth participation in elections. According to the KAS: “Voter registration responsibility lies with the commune councils, name lists are drafted manually and very often include spelling mistakes or redundancy of names.”

Soksan Hing, MC for 2nd Convention of HRP National Councils on 30 July 2011

The high instance of migration among Cambodia’s youth is also causing problems. If a voter is raised and registered in, for example, Mondulkiri province, but has moved to Phnom Penh for work, he or she must make the trip back to Mondulkiri in order to vote in elections. “On election day, most schools and companies give a day off to their students or staff to vote. But many of them don’t… Many of them think: ‘Oh, it will cost me so much money, it is not that important,’” said Soksan Hing, 30, Chief of Cabinet and Youth Leader of the Human Rights Party (HRP).

Many young people also face (what they see as) more pressing issues, such as academic achievement, holding down jobs, or, with 43% of the Cambodian population below the poverty line, simply surviving.

“We observed that most students with university-level education still don’t pay much attention to elections, stating that they only have their names registered because of their parents’ encouragement and that they only follow other people,” said Ke Dararoth, a director of the Khmer Youth Association (KYA).

As well as practical obstacles to political engagement, this laissez faire attitude often combines with a lack of understanding of institutions and democratic concepts.

The UNDP-WST study, titled Youth Civic Participation in Cambodia, highlights such problems. “Participation levels are low (8%) when measured in terms of youth voicing their opinions to public officials, either to government officials or NGO staff,” it states.

In addition, the report found that just three-quarters of the young people interviewed had heard of ‘Parliament’ and that two-thirds of these people did not know what parliament does. In addition, only 28% knew the meaning of the word ‘Democracy’, while just 6% read a newspaper or magazine compared to 77% who watch television.

“Our research would suggest that people have limited understandings of what some of the key institutions actually do and what opportunities those institutions offer them as young citizens,” confirmed Colin Spurway, project director of the BBC WST.

“Also, the family, senior people, don’t allow their children to become involved in politics; they tell them to be careful and that it is dangerous,” added Soksan Hing, a sentiment that was echoed by the reaction of a number of young people on the streets of Phnom Penh.

“I don’t want to be involved. I don’t trust politics in Cambodia. They make laws but they don’t follow the principles of the law,” said a 25-year-old university student who asked to be identified only as ‘Reaksmey’ due to fear of reprisals.

“I don’t want to be involved in politics at all. I’m really afraid that it will cause a lot of problems for me,” said Vanny Men, 20, a female student at the National University of Management.

In addition to this indoctrinated fear, Spurway pointed out a general belief that young people aren’t ready. “There is often an impression that in principle young people should be involved,” he said. “People will generally say youth are the future, they are the pillars of our society and those sorts of things, but when the moment comes when a young person says: ‘This is my opportunity to participate – can I?’ they tell us older peoples’ responses will usually be: ‘Not yet.’”

Yos Phanita, 40, a member of the central youth working group of Cambodia’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) told the Southeast Asia Globe: “We believe [young people] are very important in carrying on the responsibilities from the older generation to the next generation… We try to engage them in social activities like traffic-awareness programmes and social work – helping the environment and keeping the city clean.”

He was also quite open when it was put to him that it is difficult for a member of the CPP to have their voice heard until they are at least 40 years of age.

“I think it is more or less reflective of reality, but it does have its explanation in a cultural basis rather than a political basis,” said Yos Phanita. “The cultural basis is that Southeast Asia has a philosophy that you have to respect your elders. They are generally wiser, more experienced, they have been through their life and are more prudent in dealing with issues.

“I always believe that passing on responsibility is the same analogy as taking over ownership of a company. If your father built the company, his concern will be whether his son will be able to take over. He has no problem giving it to his son… but it is up to the son to make sure he has his father’s confidence to take on that responsibility.”

Ke Dararoth sees this attitude as a barrier to the development of young people as future political leaders, stating that opportunities for young people to run for public office and other activities related to democracy are “still limited”.

“When young people get involved in politics, they often remain passive supporters rather than active decision-makers, even though close to 70% of the Cambodian population is between 14 and 30 years old,” he added.

Yet Yos Phanita insists that the CPP sees young people as the future of the party, once they have become “well connected to their ancestors or their predecessors”.

“The past were involved in a physical struggle, but the future will require more intelligence to keep up with globalisation… So being able to combine physical strength, physical adaptability and intelligent adaptability is our great hope for the next leader of the youth in the CPP,” he said.

Ke Dararoth, however, wonders how such a process can be expected to begin given the current prohibition on political discussions and meetings in schools: “The government does not allow them, because schools are seen as a neutral area where politics has no place.”

Despite the generally bleak outlook, attempts are being made to reconcile young people with a political system of which many are either openly scared or blissfully unaware.

The KAS notes that the government has adopted a national youth policy “to increase youth capacity and the development of youth”, while the KYA has been running several specific youth engagement projects, as well as organising a general assembly every three years to elect its own president “to ensure that young people fully understand and can practice their participation in elections”.

Meanwhile, the HRP has dedicated youth wings and runs free educational training centres throughout the country. According to Soksan Hing, the HRP also works with organisations such as the International Republican Institute, the UNDP, [Konrad Adenauer Stiftung], and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. As a result, the party has sent young Cambodians to programmes both domestically and overseas, where they can study political systems, join multiparty debates, receive ‘future leader training’ and join the UNDP’s young political [adviser] council.

Many organisations and some political parties have also started sending SMS text messages to young people, reminding them to register to vote, let them know how to go about doing so and, ultimately, to go out to vote when the time comes.

Colin Spurway also feels the fear many refer to when discussing young people and politics is mainly based around party politics, as opposed to civic participation.

“When people are pushed and asked: ‘When you refer to politics being dangerous, do you mean decisions like should this village repair the road or build a new school?’ people will say: ‘Oh no, that’s not the politics I mean.’”

As such, and in accordance with its findings from the joint study with the UNDP, on Sunday January 15, the BBC WST will begin broadcasting a new multiplatform media show called Loy9. It will start with a 45-minute TV programme at 8pm on CTN. The opening 13 minutes will be a drama focusing on a young woman and her friends in a village finding different ways to express their voice. This is directly followed by a magazine show and then, the following day, a radio phone-in show at midday. There will also be a website, Facebook pages that encourage interaction with characters from the drama and links to other useful sites and resources.

Each week, all of these media platforms will deal with the same aspect of civic participation, before the TV show introduces a new one the following Sunday.

“Young people respond better to examples of real life that they feel they can replicate,” explained Spurway. “Therefore our approach has been to use media to create a fun and entertaining space that will supply this kind of information: what the key civic institutions are and what they actually do; or key information like what documents you need to vote; or role models that people can replicate.”

With a resource as precious as the future of the country in its hands, the BBC WST is hoping to introduce young Cambodians to decision-making in a way they are comfortable with and that they understand. Spurway is clear that the organisation is not looking to run before it can walk, particularly with two elections on the horizon.

“I think it would be realistic to think that citizens would participate best if they knew what the National Assembly is and what a commune council does,” he said. “I don’t expect them to be able to give a lecture on the subject, I wouldn’t even expect a paragraph, but if we could get the majority of young Cambodians to know in a sentence or two what these institutions are then I think that could be regarded a considerable success.”

Young Politicians To Study in Philippines

By Ly Moryvan, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
25 March 2010

Please click here to listen the audio program (MP3)

Five young Cambodian politicians from four political parties were selected for a two-year political study program, where they will mix with colleagues from 12 other Asian countries in the Philippines.

Among them was Hing Soksan (picture), of the Human Rights Party, who spoke to VOA Khmer about his upcoming trip to Manila.

“I hope that I can use this knowledge for my party’s interest, the Human Rights Party, and to strengthen it in order to ensure that this political party will be a part of the government in responding to the interest of the public,” he said.

Hing Soksan will be joined in the “Training Program for Young Political Leaders of Asia” by Ngim Nheng, of the Sam Rainsy Party, Chea Se, of Funcinpec, Pen Sangha, of the Nationalist Party, formerly the Norodom Ranariddh Party, and Chea Botta, of the Nationalist Party.

The five students all passed a political test in Cambodia conducted by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Organization. Nominees had to be under 40 years old, have political experience, college degrees, and communication skills. They had to be willing to implement a political project devised during the program.

Participants of the program, co-sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Ateneo de Manila University, come from Australia, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.

Hing Soksan said he expects to learn more from other young politicians from different parties and countries in Asia.

Youth Leadership Challenge

Source: International Republican Institute

In 2006, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC) developed and produced the Youth Leadership Challenge (YLC), an innovative reality television show that combines entertainment with valuable learning opportunities for the youth of Cambodia. Contestants – ages 18 to30 – have been recognized as future civil society and political leaders, and have demonstrated a sincere desire to participate in the future of their country.

Now in its fourth season, the show engages Cambodians age 30 and younger – who currently represent 70 percent of the population – through television entertainment, the most popular medium in the country. Prior to each season 16 participants – eight young men and eight young women – are chosen for the competition. Applicants are chosen based on their leadership skills, confidence and knowledge of democratic principles.

In each episode participants are randomly divided into two teams that compete in civil society-themed challenge. The challenges provide an opportunity for contestants to participate in leadership activities, such as fundraising for orphanages, collecting signatures for a petition drive and public speaking. The contestants also showcase different civic society building activities and community activism that encourages those who follow the show to participate in their communities.

Prior to each challenge, contestants receive training from experts on the skills they will need to complete. For example, to prepare for the mock court episode young Cambodian lawyers and judges coached the teams on court procedures and how to build and research a court case; for an episode where each team created a television commercial encouraging Cambodians to vote a television producer trained the contestants on how to create effective television commercials.

At the end of each show, the two teams are judged by the United Nations Development Fund for Women’s Goodwill Ambassador Chea Samnang, and the Center for Social Development Executive Director Theary C. Seng on their planning, implementation and performance of the task. The losing team then selects two members that they think should leave their team and the two are then asked to “go home,” as the show’s catch-phrase goes.

Between episodes, contestants chose a volunteer activity that gives back to the community. Activities have included: purchasing computers for an impoverished school in a rural area, books for elementary schools and orphanages, toys for children at the Phnom Penh school for the deaf and blind, and a monetary donation to a local nongovernmental organization that provides vocational training to homeless children. During season two’s final episode all of the season’s contestants come together to donate sponsorship money and toys to a Cambodian orphanage. In one of the episodes in season four contestants cooked dinner for a local orphanage where the show took place. Due to the popularity of the show many local businesses donate financial resources for these activities.

In the final episode of each season the two final contestants compete in a final challenge live on air and the Cambodian public votes on the winner using SMS technology.

Soksan Hing was YLC’s first winner and paved the way for the leadership development training in Washington, DC. Soksan has pledged most of his life to educating youth on human rights and anti-corruption, using different activities to encourage youth to participate in his forums including sporting activities. Since the show Soksan has taken leadership positions in different local nongovernmental organizations and worked to help energize youth to participate in Cambodia’s 2008 parliamentary elections.

Norin Tauch survived eight rounds of competition and succeeded in beating out 15 candidates to win the title of “best youth” for season two. Norin earned a degree in law from the Royal University of Law and Economics and is working as an Assistant Operations Executive for Casino Lava Management.

Lalune Sreang became the first female to win YLC, during the final competition of season three. She received more than 3,000 text message votes from television viewers. Lalune is pursuing a degree in environmental studies at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Upon winning she said, “I think it is a very good program that provides a great opportunity for young Cambodian people to exhibit their talents and abilities. I now feel more confident in making decisions and facing challenges. Also, I learned how to improve my weaknesses and have the courage to face difficulties.”

Each season’s winner receives a two week trip to the United States to develop leadership skills. The trip exposes the winner to leadership development, message development, public opinion polling, international media, youth organizations, fundraising, international organizations, the American political system, technology, and business development. Winners have met with local, state, and federal elected officials, campaign organizations, media representatives, Youth Service America, Youth for Tomorrow, the United States Agency for International Development, the U.S. State Department, National Endowment for Democracy, National Democratic Institute, and the Hudson Institute.

The Youth Leadership Challenge has steadily grown in popularity and is now aired during prime time on Cambodia’s most popular television station, the Cambodian Television Network, with highlights broadcast on a weekly news program and replays of the show are in syndication. In addition, millions of television viewers have learned about civil society, community service and democratic concepts through the show.

Group Works to Improve Literacy

Students' activities were happy with reading and playing puzzle in new library opened by Young Generation for Development

By Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
14 November 2007
Please click here to listen Nuch Sarita reports in Khmer

A new group has started up a rural literacy program it hopes will help alleviate poverty in Cambodia.

The group, Young Generation for Development, has 16 members and will undertake a three-month project in Kampong Cham province, funded by the US Embassy in Phnom Penh and the International Republican Institute.

Director Hing Soksan said in an interview with VOA Khmer that the reading would help children improve critical thinking, cleverness, broad knowledge and dignity.

The children will be role models for their community and Cambodian society, Hing Soksan said.

"The Young Generation for Development wishes all students' parents or guardians to be a part of the students' learning, so that they can encourage their children to like and love reading and learn to avoid illiteracy," Hing Soksan said.

The group's project coordinator Heng Socheata called on all parents to send their children to school.

"We want to promote the awareness of the importance of reading among children and their parents and to make children's parents aware of their role in pushing their children to read as much as possible," she said.

Student Democracy Advocate Visits US

Mr. Hing Soksan was interviewed in VOA studio during the trip to USA

Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
27 September 2007
Please click here to listen Nuch Sarita reports in Khmer

Hing Soksan, an officer of the Students' Movement for Democracy, began a two-week visit to Washington last week, where he met US government leaders and attended leadership development training.

Hing Soksan was sponsored on his trip by the International Republican Institute, a US-based group that promotes democracy abroad.

He met with Anthony O'Donnell, a Maryland state legislator, as well as members of pro-democracy groups and State Department officials.

American youths are strong and independent and willing to take the government and their president to task, Hing Soksan said. This is different from the youth in Cambodia, who depend on the government, he said.

"Young adults in the US like to develop their independence, confidence and responsibilities," he said. "They have the courage to speak out on their views and directly identify problems. Young American adults especially have creative ideas where they continue to improve and refine on them. They make themselves valuable."

US youths are more able to attract political attention on issues, he said, whereas Cambodians seek out politicians for favors.

The Khmer Rouge tribunal was necessary in Cambodia, he said, where the youth remain under-educated over the regime and its policies.

TWO WEEKS TRIP TO USA

The YLC Champion’s reward is two weeks trip to USA. After gaining YLC Winner Agreement and Invitation Letter and on behalf of the YLC winner, Mr. Soksan Hing participated in the Leadership Development Training and Short Internship from Sep 16-30, 2007 conducted by IRI in Washington D.C where he saw some people who are the representatives from both governmental and civil society unit. Please click here to listen to VOA interview.

The objective of the training includes: learning how international non-government organizations and non-profit organizations work, understanding the American political process, how national and state level legislation is created and observing free and independent press covering of political events and other benefits and stipend.

After coming back to Cambodia, Mr. Soksan was invited to US embassy to present his activities in the USA. Here are narrative report and power point presentation.

Actually, the occasion was precious one because the program allowed Mr. Soksan to cultivate his leadership skills and gained experience in areas that were specifically catered to his particular professional and educational interests especially he met and conferred with U.S professional counterparts and visited some significant organizations. View my thank you letter.

Young Generation For Development "YGD"

Mr. Soksan HING spoke to students and their parents

Young Generation for Development (YGD) is a newly-established group whose members were former contestants of the reality show, Youth Leadership Challenge, co-organized by Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC) and TV5. Read and Listen VOA interview by Mr. Soksan HING and Ms. Socheata HENG.

YGD was created on May 16, 2007 and there are 16 members. With an intent to help improve the Cambodian society and to work with young people to drive them to actively participate in social activities as well as to avoid using drugs, to study hard, to be best youth and to enjoy life with safety and healthiness, especially we would like to make the children liking and loving the reading and learning to avoid illiteracy. Please view the YGD's in Brief--Khmer and English.

Therefore, we have decided to work cooperatively together in order to achieve our group’s goal. One of the Cambodia Millenium Development Goals (CMDGs) is to ensure all chidren complete primary schooling by 2010 and nine-year basic schooling by 2015. Although the country has made progress in increasing access to basic education in recent years, there is a long way to go to reach the targets set under the CMDGs.

In order to ensure the increase in admission rate and decrease in the drop out of school, a number of factors need to be considered such as free admission, motivation for teachers to teach and sufficient facilities/equipment. Although the free admission has been practiced, there is still a lack of motivation for teachers due to low salary.

Moreover, with limited facilities, especially for students, there is still difficulty for them to study. With the intention of training children to like reading and to get access to studying materials, our team has decided to launch a project of bringing books for libraries of some schools in various provinces along with half-day forums to broadcast the bad impact of illiteracy.

In the occasion of bringing books to open the libraries at some primary schools, YGD will conduct the half-day forum. We will invite students’ parents to participate in, so that they can become the part of students’ learning, i.e. to know the benefits of reading and to push their children to read books more often either at home or at school especially, to make the students liking and loving the reading and learning to avoid illiteracy.

In the meantime, the YGD members conducted a role-play (short drama) about the advantages of reading because the reading would help children to improve their critical thinking, cleverness, broad knowledge and dignity especially they will be regarded as role-modal children in their community as well as society. After finishing the role-play we also called on all parents or guardians of students to send their children to school as a phrase said that “sending children to school means saving property for children.

YGD Source of Fund: After establishing the working group (YGD) already on June 2007, we primarily started our project by raising fund and asking books and other materials and stationeries from NGOs, bookshops, businesspeople, seller, elder students and other charitable people. Recently we just get fund from International Republican Institute in Cambodia and other charitable people especially from Mr. Gregory F. Lawless, first secretary of U.S embassy to Cambodia. View YGD's project proposal.

Until now we conducted ten forums and opened nine libraries at various rural-primary-schools in the following provinces:

1. 5 libraries for Kompong Cham province
2. 2 libraries for Pursat province
3. 2 libraries for Prey Veng province
4. 1 library for Takeo province

Please view the minutes to learn more YGD activities: Khmer [1] [2] [3] [4] [5], English and click here to see pictures.

The Apprentice Goes to Civics Class

Judges and contestants gather in the boardroom to decide who will be"going home" at the end of each episode of Youth Leadership Challenge. More picture slideshow...

A reality TV show brings U.S.-style democracy to Cambodia.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
By Suzy Khimm
The Slate Magazine

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—With her button-down blouse, plastic-frame glasses, and impeccable résumé—youth delegate to the United Nations, research assistant on rural economic development—Heng Socheata seems like an unlikely maverick.

"I didn't tell my friends to watch the show," the 21-year-old accounting student said. "If I won, it'd be OK. But if I failed, it'd be kind of embarrassing."

Socheata is among the young stars of a new reality TV show that quietly subverted the political orthodoxy of Cambodia's heavily censored broadcast networks—seven public and private stations all under the thumb of the ruling party. Part Apprentice spinoff and part civics class, the Youth Leadership Challenge replaces Donald Trump's aspiring moguls with 16 citizen-heroes who race around the capital collecting signatures for a neighborhood clean-up petition, producing a social-advocacy video, and soliciting donations for an orphanage.

In the show's inaugural season, which concluded last week, contestants were quick to adopt the true spirit of the genre: Reduced to tears one moment, they gave on-air confessionals the next. There have, for sure, been a few cross-cultural adjustments. Trump's trademark "You're fired!" was deemed too harsh for the Cambodians, two of whom were instead told to "Go home" each week. The prize for the last do-gooder standing was a trip to America, still the promised land for Cambodia's young and ambitious.

The program was the brainchild of the International Republican Institute, a USAID-funded and U.S. Republican Party-linked group that collaborated with the Youth Council of Cambodia to produce the show. IRI, along with its sister organization, the National Democratic Institute, was founded during the Reagan administration to aid U.S. efforts to promote—in some critics' parlance, "export"—democracy abroad, with offices now in Iraq, Haiti, and more than 40 other geo-strategic hot spots. Both groups still recall the spirit of the Cold War years, focusing on political-party development, civic mobilization, and election monitoring to promote "the nuts and bolts of democracy," according to Jerome Cheung, NDI's resident country director in Cambodia.

Of course, that the United States once bombed Cambodia in the name of such ideals isn't lost on this new wave of political missionaries. But Cambodia, unlike Vietnam, was forced to recover from Year Zero and the mass murder of nearly 2 million citizens. By 1992, when the U.N. occupation began, many Cambodians were ready to let in the phalanx of Western donors and aid groups at its door and begin the country's fitful transition to democracy.

Under the guise of its competitive theatrics, the Youth Leadership Challenge makes an indirect but unmistakable challenge to a government that continues to censor broadcasts of unfavorable news items, miniskirted entertainers, and portions of congressional hearings that seem threatening to the ruling party. In one high-profile crackdown, the IRI-backed Cambodian Center for Human Rights hosted a public forum that led to the arrest of CCHR director Kem Sokha and four colleagues on charges of defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen in late 2005, provoking an international outcry.

Barely a year later, the Youth Leadership Challenge featured a free-flowing debate about the national law prohibiting adultery, a bill mandating military conscription, and sex education in public schools. Between the frenzied yelps of the timekeeper, the contestants expounded, rebutted, and, occasionally, grabbed the microphone away from one another. "I don't know how we're supposed to argue against what we believe in," Socheata admitted in a fit of offstage nerves, moments before making the case for why women shouldn't be allowed to hold high political office.

According to local media trainer Moeun Chhean Nariddh, the program's unscripted antics have helped usher in "one of the most serious and political programs in Cambodia. … All networks are either censored or self-censored, as everything is controlled by or affiliated with the ruling party."

Local observers are still wondering how the kids have gotten away with it. For years, IRI had been commonly perceived as supporting the opposition Sam Rainsy Party—an allegation bolstered in 1997 when an IRI staffer was wounded in a grenade attack on an opposition rally he was attending, as well as by Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's long-standing calls for "regime change" in Cambodia. (Cynthia Bunton, IRI's Asia director, maintains that the organization has always been nonpartisan.)

Over the years, however, the ruling Cambodian People's Party has only continued to consolidate power, bolstered by Hun Sen's strong-arm tactics and an expanding grass-roots base. Many believe the SRP has lost its critical bark since its eponymous leader's return from self-imposed exile in France last year. The CPP accepted IRI's offer of political training for the first time in its history last fall, and IRI has been able to explore alternative means of cultivating a more open society in Cambodia.

"You have a hole in the boat, and water is coming through that hole," explained Thun Saray, director of Adhoc, a leading rights organization. "You have to plug the hole without making the boat turn over."

Certainly, the reality show's contestants hardly come off as radicals; they're the good kids, overachievers chosen from nearly 200 candidates. But the program has capitalized on their youth and ambition by leaning on another infamous U.S. export: American cultural mystique.

In a country where 70 percent of the population is under 30, Cambodians have an overwhelmingly positive opinion of the United States, as IRI's own 2004 poll confirmed. Bunton emphasized that the show's organizers "tried to tweak [the program] to be relevant to Cambodians." But the competition's big prize is hardly an afterthought. "That's why everyone wanted to be on the show—to go to the U.S.," said contestant Sorn Sarath, 24, who had already posted a photo of the U.S. ambassador on the wall of his volunteer-staffed NGO, the Student Movement for Democracy. The first Youth Leadership Challenge winner, Hing Soksan, 26, is another SMD staffer who introduced himself in an interview as an orphan and a future NGO officer. Unable to find a suitable job in Cambodia, Soksan hopes to use his trip to the United States "to learn from American leaders … and make Cambodia have more freedom than it has now."

At the same time, the contestants are hardly guileless consumers of everything Amerik. For them, the show's most outrageous task wasn't canvassing pool halls or handing out condoms on Valentine's Day, it was being criticized on camera. In a culture where "losing face" remains cause for shame, the judges dissected the contestants' leadership flaws—then had them turn on one another.

"In Cambodian culture, we don't say these things directly. We have to save face," said Socheata. "I've learned how to go after people directly. You have to be very good at seeing the weak points of other people, and you have to go back after them."

For one of the judges, that unrestrained public criticism lies at the heart of the show's edifying mission. "It's part of American culture—the competition of ideas," said Theary Seng, the Cambodian-American director of the Center for Social Development. "In a market economy, everything goes through a refining process, and the best idea or product will surface."

Trump couldn't have said it better himself.

THE ROAD GO TOWARD FUTURE

After becoming the champion of the Youth Leadership Challenge (YLC), Soksan HING was invited by TV5 to be a guest speaker in a new program, Road Go Toward Future, produced to interview some people who succeeded what she or he has done in their daily lives.

Soksan was asked many questions related to personal life since he was a child till becoming first place winner of the YLC. "I'm orphan, my father died in 1982 and mother died in 2000", Soksan said. "I always fight and struggle with all challenges in order to make my life even meaningful, especially to finish my study."

"It's incredible that I could be the Champion because the Show was a new one and very challengs with high capable contestants. Especially, the only one candidate who would be selected to be champion to visit the USA in order to participate in the Leadership Development Training", Soksan said. Please click the below clips:

CHAMPION OF YOUTH LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE

Youth Leadership Challenge (YLC) was an educational program to promote leadership among young people, and the TV show was produced to encourage youth audience to become more responsible, act responsibly, generate initiatives, and involve in and improve their community service through working with local authority. More detail please read in Khmer and English [1] [2] [3].

YLC was co-organized by Youth Council of Cambodia and TV5 and supported fund by United States Agency for International Development via International Republican Institute. On March 03, 2007 was the date of episode of YLC competition, HING Soksan was only one candidate who won the prize at the end of the YLC and was interviewed by local and international medias, one of them The Slate, famous magazine of USA, published as well. The prize for YLC champion (first-place winner) was an oversea study visit for two weeks to the United States in order to get leadership development training and short internship.